‘We have seen the enemy’ is a likely summary of this Haaretz article on a report of the state of Israel by the Reut Institute, a think tank. “Enemy” in this context refers to anyone involved in peace activism inside or outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Not surprisingly, Israel has recently begun a intensive campaign of arresting Palestinian peace activists and raiding offices of Palestinian organizations such as the venerable International Solidarity Movement, which has offices all over the world and on many US college campuses.
According to Reut,
“Israel is facing a global campaign of delegitimization, according to a report by the Reut Institute, made available to the cabinet on Thursday. The Tel Aviv-based security and socioeconomic think tank called on ministers to treat the matter as a strategic threat.
The report cites anti-Israel demonstrations on campuses, protests when Israeli athletes compete abroad, moves in Europe to boycott Israeli products, and threats of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders visiting London.
Reut says the campaign is the work of a worldwide network of private individuals and organizations. They have no hierarchy or overall commander, but work together based on a joint ideology – portraying Israel as a pariah state and denying its right to exist.”
While you would expect a think tank to repeat old propaganda, the “existential threat” meme that Israel politicians have been pumping since Iran announced its nuclear plans, the real enemy is us, individual bloggers sitting behind computers.
After reading the report, Philip Weiss of Mondoweiss, put it this way, Toronto, London, Berkeley just became Israel’s ‘axis of evil.’
As usual, Israel is pointing the finger in exactly the wrong direction. No one is deligitimizing Israel except Israel itself. No has turned Israel into a pariah state except Israel itself.
The only real existential threat to Israel is Israel.
The “existential threat” meme is in my mind nothing more than a propaganda theme intended to create a scare concerning Iran nuclear ambitions. I have to believe that a lot of Israelis have bought into it, but not many others, considering Israel’s military capability.
For this iteration you are probably right, but as I am sure you know, the existential threat meme has been a standard part of the Zionist/Israeli hasbara arsenal since at least the late pre-state period. They haul it out on a regular basis and apply to whatever is their “existential threat du jour”.
I really meant it when I said the only existential threat to Israel is Israel itself. Israel will, as a result of its own narcissistic, sociopathic, violent behaviour ultimately bring about its own demise. That demise may be violent and deadly, but I hope not. My hope is that this demise will consist of a reasonably non-cataclysmic change from a violent, aggressive, dangerous ethnocracy to a peaceful, truly democratic, pluralistic state. Unfortunately, at the rate it is going, Israel looks headed for a violent end. I hope enough Israelis will see the cliff soon enough to turn the lemmings away from it before they get too close to the edge.
You’re probably more knowledgeable than me concerning the history of existential threats toward Israel.
I agree with you that if Israel doesn’t change….except that it has changed. It has moved toward the right and it is unlikely to revert to its alleged democratic principles soon. It is an ethnocracy, a Jim Crow styled democracy which is no democracy at all.
Well, there have never been any real existential external threats against Israel, but Israelis have used the meme of the existential threat as an excuse for their aggressions and abuses since the pre-state period. It has historically been one of their favourite propaganda ploys. They used it in 1948, 1956, for sure in 1967, and so on.
They have also cited what some call the “demographic time bomb” as an existential threat, which I suppose it is if you think about it since it will be difficult for Israel to survive as a Jewish state for very long once the Palestinian citizens gain critical mass, and Jews can no longer keep them “in their place”.
True, Israel has moved more to the right, but it has not changed its fundamental nature. It was conceived as an ethnocracy, and has always been, as you say, a “Jim Crow” style “democracy”. As it has moved to the right it has just become more honest about what it really is.
” just become more honest about what it really is.”
I suppose this evaluation sums it up, really. But there is some hesitancy. Ehud Barak, on addressing the Herzilya Conference, cautioned that Israel has a choice: peace with the Palestinians or Apartheid. So even war criminals can have insight, even after pulling the Camp David farce in 2000 and then engineering the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians last year.
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/big-story-the-jewish-lobby-in-britain.html
Thanks. I wrote a diary a few weeks ago titled “The Israel Lobby goes to Europe.” It is not just Britain.
seen this?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-agents-go-on-pr-offensive-1905138.html
Thanks. I’ve seen other similar articles, though not this one.