….about Israel’s peace efforts and intentions for the Palestinians.
When I read these stories from Israeli sources the other day, Rights group: 69 cases of Palestinian olive trees destroyed, but no prosecutions, and this one, New Demolition Orders Issued Against 60 Palestinian Houses, Apartments and other Civilian Facilities in the West Bank, I was reminded of an old diary. Each case among these 69 refers to an olive orchard destroyed by Jewish settlers in the West Bank under the protection of IDF occupation forces. Both of these reports told me that as far as Israel’s occupation and attempts to colonize more and more of the West Bank is concerned, nothing has changed, and that would include Netanyahu’s latest offer to freeze settlements in the West Bank (not at all in East Jerusalem) for 10 months.
It’s just Israel’s latest illusion of peace making.
The older diary featured commentary by Lawrence of Cyberia (diane), a peace activist with deep intellectual understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It consists of a response to an earlier comment of mine (Booman Tribune) made before the presidential election in August, 2008.
The Comment:
The Israelis have been so creative about their ultimate plan to annex the West Bank that nobody is noticing. Using the “slow” mode, they have apparently succeeded in finding a politically acceptable way to engage in “transfer,” just what the early Zionists predicted. Moyse Dayan knew it would work when he advised: “just make them miserable and they will leave on their own.” Then we had Sharon who came along as the Minister of Agriculture under Labor no less, and initiated the “dunam by dunam” strategy to take it all, a bit at a time.
You really have to hand it to the Israelis for being this creative. And to be able to handle the propaganda the way they do. Of course, it takes a lot of money to keep Americans duped and I suspect that it will take a lot more and a lot more politicians in the pocket.
McCain for certain, but Obama? We will learn shortly.
Lawrence of Cyberia’s Response:
I agree that Israeli propaganda about its desire for peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians has been very good, especially when you realize they have basically been openly working on the bantustan approach since 1967. If you look at the maps that Israel has proposed under its various plans for the West Bank, it’s apparent they’re the same plan – to annex Jerusalem, the borders, the water and arable land, while denying citizenship to the Palestinians by enclosing them in “sovereign” reservations – and essentially, even the same map! E.g.,
The Allon Plan of 1967;
Oslo 2 of 1995;
The Netanyahu Plan of 1998/9;
Barak’s Generous Offer of 2000;
The Sharon Plan of 2003 (scroll down to map);
The BBC “Olmert’s Borders” map of 2006;
The UN’s “facts on the ground map” of 2007….And they have at times been quite open about their insincerity in entering negotiations only to win time to create facts on the ground e.g. Yitzhak Shamir talking about his purpose in negotiating when he was PM: “I would have carried on autonomy talks for ten years and meanwhile we would have reached a half million people in Judea and Samaria.” And IDF Gen Yehoshafat Harkabi’s (former head of IDF Intelligence) explanation in Maariv (2 November 1973) about Israeli negotiating strategy:
“We must define our position and lay down basic principles for a settlement. Our demands should be moderate and balanced, and appear to be reasonable. But in fact they must involve such conditions as to ensure that the enemy rejects them. Then we should manoeuvre and allow him to define his own position, and reject a settlement on the basis of a compromise position. We should then publish his demands as embodying unreasonable extremism”.
So, it’s certainly good propaganda to convince people that you are working in good faith when you clearly aren’t, but at the end of the day, where has it got them? They’ve inflicted terrible suffering on the Palestinians, but their strategic situation is worse than it has ever been. The propaganda has only really worked in the US, and it’s not even working that well over here any more. And all the propaganda in the world doesn’t change the fact that Israel will never make the Palestinians accept the terms of the Allon-type plans – no matter how long it keeps banging its head against the same wall – and until it comes to terms with the Palestinians, Israel will never know normality. I mean these crappy plans have been generously offered since 1967, but instead of settling for them, or giving up and emigrating en masse, the Palestinian population has once again reached parity with the Israeli Jewish population, and is increasingly reaching the conclusion: “OK we understand you cannot get out of the territories and allow us our independence there, so we will all live together in one state”. And that’s really not what Israel was counting on.
As for Obama … personally, I expect little but would like to be surprised. I think Palestine will not become independent because an American President finally sees the light, but because the U.S. – which has been Israel’s enabler in evading a negotiated settlement – is rapidly losing its ability to prevent unwelcome outcomes in the Middle East. There are too many other influential players in the world who suffer from absence of a mid-East settlement, and whose domestic politics are not log-jammed by the need to pander to lobbyists. It would be nice if the U.S. President would get on board and help bring the I/P conflict to a soft landing – because that would be a US interest too – but even if we can’t help, we are losing our ability to stand in the way.
The era of the “world’s only superpower” turned out to very short. Less of a new American century, more of an American decade. The strategy of putting all your money on the U.S. ability to pull one’s ass out of the fire gets less attractive by the day (see, eg Georgia).
This is it short and sweet. It is called “reality.” It is still applicable today, Obama’s Cairo speech notwithstanding.
If you take away the water, the arable land and the means to exist basically what you leave the Palestinians in is a giant concentration camp dependent on external aid which is regulated by the policing body which both surrounds it and created it.
Im not sure Aparthied or Bantustan is the right description. Call what the Palestinians get by what it is.
Apartheid, in my opinion, seems the approximate term as well as bantustan because the undesired population, the Palestinians, are crowded into a number of surrounded enclaves, as they are today, where it is totally dependent on the state. The way in and out is the checkpoint. As in the preCamp David days, the Palestinians could provide Israel with a cheap source of labor as Blacks did in South Africa. They do now in the territories where they are employed in of all things building settlement housing. But people have to eat.
So I think Jimmy Carter probably got it right in his book, and so too, Desmond Tutu. Tutu in fact has been noted to claim that Israeli Apartheid was worse than the South African variety.
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In the words of Andrei S. Markovits, paraphrasing an American automobile commercial: “Right-wing anti-Semitism was your father’s anti-Semitism. It is obsolete.” It is the perilous language of the left that has gained a strong foothold across all of Europe. It’s the left’s disturbing discourse that echoes through the mainstream, swaying a susceptible audience.
The left hides conveniently behind the cloak of “new anti-Semitism,” that, not being new at all, vilifies the State of Israel and not the Jewish people in a wider sense, thus maintaining the European self delusion of not being anti-Semitic. On top of that, it is comme il faut to define Israel as an occupational force because the land has been bestowed on the Jews, and the question about who actually holds the rights to it is so delicate and tangled that it is easiest to uphold that view. In their version of recent history, the Holy Land was taken from the Palestinians and given to the Jews, who accepted it. Like knowingly buying stolen goods. That the history goes much further back, and is in no way simple, seems to be of less interest. For instance, when Western European media report from the Middle Eastern witches’ cauldron, timelines begin at 1948, not 1917, 1010, or 1047 BCE for that matter.
Reporting from a distorted truth
In common parlance, Israel is still demonized, Nazified; it is the harbinger of all evil, racism, colonialism, imperialism and ethnic genocide. This is evident through practically the entire European media, in news reports, op-eds, editorials, cartoons – and the anti-Israel approach of the media is becoming far more distinct with the emergence of an Arabic media ocean of hostile messages dished up as journalism, religious spin, and children’s TV shows.
Add to that selective reporting even from journalistic powerhouses, notably the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, El País, El Mundo, Le Monde, and you will be excused for cursing the child-mutilating Jewish pariah.
I prefer the comparison with South Africa and Anti-apartheid, the whole world loathed Presidents de Klerk and Botha and the regime for oppression and murder of the people of African origin. Once the white minority rule seized, South Africa became a member nation of the world community … Mandela and World Cup 2010.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
At one point, the so-called “new anti-Semitism” was a prominent theme among right wing GIYUS-sent Zionists on Daily Kos, who collectively attempted to silence left wing bloggers who dare support diaries criticizing Israel. Eventually, Kos bent to their wishes and banned at least three dozen left wing people who dare diary or blog on the side of Palestinians, including Palestinians and Palestinian-Americans.
It was as if AIPAC had targeted the blog. There was also a period when Israel itself became concerned with the truth-telling about the IP conflict found on left wing blogs. In fact, Livni invited the proprietors of several blogs to Israel to see what was happening in places like Sderot, but of course they were not permitted into the West Bank or Gaza.
Criticism of the facist state of Israel isnt anti-semitism when pointin gout its colonial desires, its treatement of peopel other than their own etc.
However, in th eUS the strength of certain pro-Zionist groups is such that they can ably define what anti-semitism is and have it accepted by mainstream America however, insanley ludicrous the definiton is. The Kos bannings are a good example of this in practice. Somewhere along the line peole forgot how to think for themselves where it comes to Israle and just blindly accept what they are fed. It should be pointed out though that they are being fed it from every direction on a daily basis and that is a powerful propaganda tool and one I am sure even Goebbels would have been amazed at.
When former Congressman Harold Ford now chairman of the DLC challenged Kos on a Sunday morning talk show, I knew that AIPAC had gotten to him: Ford said Daily Kos was “insulting to Jewish Americans.” Imagine saying such a thing on national TV. That had to refer to the proPalestinian/antiIsrael slant of many IP diaries posted on Daily Kos in spite of their human rights intent. The fact that Daily Kos is a left wing blog that supports the election of Democrats did not phase Ford. I don’t recall Kos’ literal response but it was apologetic.
As for today, most of the proPalestinian/antiIsrael diaries posted on Daily Kos follow the political situation, although some expose the details of the military occupation and colonization that continues.
Well, that’s the DLC for you. Republican Lite is passe and Ford is riding a dead horse, as the Clintons did during the last presidential election.
They are taking over, one olive tree at a time.
By this day in 2011, no Palestinian olive trees will be standing. They are being cut down in revenge by Israeli fascists.