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The national election in Israel is underway, America’s strong ally to bring peace to the Middle East demonstrates what democracy means to their world.
(Haaretz) – The Yisrael Beiteinu youths gather for a final consultation as dozens of elderly party supporters slowly make their way into the white tent where the movement’s conference is being held, behind the Plaza Hotel in Upper Nazareth.
The youths, ages 16-18, many of them good friends from school, had stood for a long time before the event began at the intersection near the hotel, waving Israeli flags and shouting “Death to the Arabs” and “No loyalty, no citizenship” at passing cars.
(Haaretz commentary) – Benjamin Netanyahu thinks he can get Israelis real security without having to make the compromises that a thick peace calls for. That is not respect, that is plain old hubris. It is the same type of arrogance that caused him to blunder historic opportunities in the past, and by the sound of his rhetoric, nothing has changed. Given the dire and time-sensitive situation in the region, Israel and the world can ill-afford to take another chance on this man.
Supreme Court overturns ban on Arab parties from national elections
“Conventional wisdom has it that Israeli Jewish voters are more likely to vote for candidates with a reputation of taking a tough stance vis-a-vis the Palestinians. In both the popular and political lexicon, this translates into spilling Palestinian blood, destroying Palestinian homes and further narrowing Palestinian horizons,” writes Khaled Amayreh in the English language Al-Ahram Weekly.
THE RIGHT OF ISRAELI ARABS TO REMAIN IN THEIR LAND
“Aside from reiterating the slogan about the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, it is also necessary to demand the right of ‘Israeli Arabs’ to remain on their land,” Majid al Sheikh wrote in Al Hayat last week. He was referring to the slogans of Yisrael Beiteinu MK Avigdor Lieberman, and furthermore asserted that Livni’s stance toward Israel’s Arabs is no different: Like Lieberman, she wants a Jewish state, that is – to bring about the emigration of Israeli Arabs to the Palestinian state. “The dream of [a population] transfer has been and remains the Zionist dream,” Sheikh wrote. “It changes in intensity (from candidate to candidate), but not in its essence. Livni’s center or Barak’s center is no different from Netanyahu’s.” It seems that in Sheikh’s opinion, not “only Lieberman understands Arabic” (as his electoral slogan says), but so do Livni, Barak and Netanyahu.
Ironic the the most extreme candidate is a Lieberman.
some observation:
months ago I read a projection that anti-Semitism will be on the rise in 2009…
then there’s this actual poll.
Ha’aretz –
Poll: 31% of Europeans blame Jews for global financial crisis
But Israelis are working from within to destroy their society and the state itself…returning to the policies of tyranny and death from which they ran.
The threat is not Iran or Arabs.
We’ve seen the enemy and it’s us.
Netanyahu, as he declares victory, he unashamedly embraces the right wing. Netanyahu is now out of the closet.
Netanyahu: Right wing, led by Likud, won a clear victory
It’s ironic the open embrace of fascism and racism.
you’d think use of descriptives as “homeland” would recoil, remind of Herr Fuher’s “fatherland.”
Memo to Israeli Ashkenazi Jews:
Embrace Lieberman and you’ve announced your demise…that after 60 years your foundations have decayed, the end is near.
if you heed not the Torah and mistreat your minorities and the strangers within your gates, in the end the same shall be extended to you. No place to hide.
No, this is us we’re the chosen ones.
Wake up. That 31% will soon become 60%.
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h/t to WTF Over
(Haaretz) – Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman was a member of Kahane’s Kach party in his youth: This campaign’s dark horse was and is a Kahanist. The differences between Kach and Yisrael Beiteinu are minuscule, not fundamental and certainly not a matter of morality. The differences are in tactical nuances: Lieberman calls for a fascist “test of loyalty” as a condition for granting citizenship to Israel’s Arabs, while Kahane called for the unconditional annulment of their citizenship. One racist (Lieberman) calls for their transfer to the Palestinian state, the other (Kahane) called for their deportation.
Lieberman’s party won 15 seats in the Knesset, more seats than Barak’s Labour party!
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Well, at least they won’t be transported, only transferred.
Israeli youth are apparently not taught history very well, least of Jewish history in the 20th century.
Doesn’t anyone remember when Germany in the 1930s wanted to be “pure Aryan state?” Didn’t they have a right to be a “German and democratic state” without Jews and Gypsies and other minorities corrupting it?
It is so surprising to see people like Lieberman and Netanyahu supported by substantial portions of the Israeli population. The German or Nazi German appeal was to ethnocentricity and was based on racial supremacy. Is that really what we are also seeing from Israeli youth today?
This comparison could draw charges of anti-Semitism, but I just don’t know a better one. Perhaps the South African Afrikaaner government vies for second place.
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Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has received a number of threatening e-mail’s calling Arabs “subhuman,” who should be “nuked,” calling for our death.
≈ Cross-posted from shergald’s diary —
Hampshire College divests from Israeli occupation ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."