Bradley Burston is somewhat vituperative in today’s Haaretz:
When the Messiah comes, the Occupation will end.
But before it does, a global social network led by the Republican Jewish Coalition, Fox News, The Zionist Organization of America and Daniel Pipes, will launch a campaign aimed at exposing the Messiah as a Muslim.
When the Messiah is crucified, the army will deny that he was even present at the time.
I don’t even know if you can publish stuff like that in American newspapers. I’m pretty sure you can’t even consider publishing stuff like this:
When the Messiah comes, he will be questioned by a junior officer of the Shin Bet, and by an official of the Interior Ministry, who got his job through his cousin, who is an inspector of ritual dietary observance at a cookie bakery and who got his job through his sister’s father-in-law, third assistant to the deputy chair of the Shas party branch in Ramla.
When the Messiah comes, no one will know.
Which is to say that Israel’s press remains freer than ours when it comes to being critical of Israel. But, also, it is to say that something stinks in Tel Aviv.
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Always love to read Haaretz newspaper, it does give some hope not all is lost in Israel. As I commented in your story Odds & Ends …
A source at Yisrael Beiteinu said yesterday that “the party will insist that Kirshenbaum head the committee and not Danon.”
Is Yisrael Beiteinu the party of Russian immigrants Bill Clinton spoke about? Rapists get jail time … not if your name is Moshe Katsav and you are a former president of the democratic Jewish state.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
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PRICELESS!! This article written in Haaretz.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
The complaint today is “delegitimization.” Maybe that refers to people who claim that Israel is not the only democracy in the Middle East; there really are none.
Freedom of expression in Israel is a hollow pretension, someone wrote. Israel is sliding down a slippery slope. A country that imprisons its Jonathan Pollaks will end up with jails filled with ‘opponents of the regime.’
And who wrote that? Uri Avnery, the founder of Gush Shalom, one the first peace activist groups in Israel. If there is one thing you can say about Uri is that at least he tried. He failed, of course, as over the years of his activism Israel became more and more right wing, in degree that Apartheid became inevitable (it is here), and the repression that goes along with it emerged.
Wasn’t South Africa a democracy during its Apartheid era?
I love Gush Shalom. I always forward their PDF presentation to people who don’t have their facts correct:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf
Some Palestinians and Palestinian-Americans call Avnery a “soft” Zionist due to his view on the right of return, which is negative. Avnery is still a Zionist, but has always supported two states side by side.
However, today it is not going in that direction, and since the death of Rabin, right wing Likud policy has taken over, and even under Labor, the colonization has continued to where there is no longer room for a Palestinian state. Bantustans inside of Israel, yes, a state, no.
And since two states is now hopeless, the fight is in the hands of the BDS Movement, ala the fight against South African Apartheid in the 1980s.
Well Richard Silverstein calls himself a Zionist doesn’t he?
I don’t know.
Phillip Weiss of Mondoweiss is an antiZionist. But he is not against Israel, but rather is against its right wing racist politics.
Yes, Richard says he is a Zionist, and maybe he is. He claims to believe that Israel can be a true democracy that provides full equality and identical treatment for all its citizens and still remain a Jewish state. Of course a state that defines itself as Jewish and whose state symbols are all Jewish is by definition not a state that provides full equality and identical treatment to all its citizens unless all its citizens are Jewish. Defining a state as Jewish (or Arab, or Christian, or Muslim, or fillinyourfavoritereligionraceorethnicity) automatically by definition creates a superior class of citizens and inferior classes of citizens. I have pointed that out to Richard publicly and privately numerous times, and he has never argued the point with me.
If Phil is OK with Israel as a Jewish state, then he is a Zionist whether he knows it or not.
Viva BDS!
I’m confused about the meaning of Zionism. When I was once young it referred (in the uS at least) to people who wanted a Greater Israel—expulsion and/or complete domination/destruction of the Palestinians. Very inspiring people. Now it seems to be used also as a simple expression of support for Israel. So if someone is antiZionist does it mean they are antiIsrael or just in favor of the countries of Palestine and Israel or totally proIsrael and completely ready to destroy the Palestinians—you know, like the charming Golda Meir who was venerated in the US as a Middle Eastern goddess but who was really a European one in disguise: Palestinians don’t exist or something similar. The Palestinians need now to declare statehood. The US will crush them, as always. There is absolutely no hope that the US will ever truly commit itself to a Palestinian state. The policy of Congress is hateful.
Technically Zionism actually ended when it achieved its goal of a Jewish state. It seems that in reality it simply transformed into support for the Jewish State, and I guess in that respect there is a continuum of Zionism that ranges from Greater Israel At Any Price uber “right wing” Zionism to a sort of “can’t we all get along in a Jewish state” left wing Zionism.
The United States never has been, is not, and never will be an “honest broker” as far as Israel is concerned, and it is completely useless in any role at all concerning Palestinians and Israel.
No. In the past Zionism referred exclusively to people who sought a Greater Israel. Full stop. Now the term has come to have multiple meanings. Who cares what Israel thinks about who is an ‘honest broker’ or not. Is it itself so ‘honest’ that it can judge the honesty of others? No. The US supports, favors, encourages Israel in all its activities against Palestinians despite protestations to the contrary. Isn’t it time that the US is given the pudding-test where the proof can be found? You can extend this to the entire foreign policy. The US power clique stands behind Israel no matter what it does and is happy about what it does and would go so far as to turn a blind eye to the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel proper and even the West Bank. I’m sure of it. The hypocrisy can be finessed eternally—at least until the Messias turns up.
I am sorry, you are factually incorrect. The original European Zionism as envisioned by Theodor Herzl focused on the establishment of a Jewish state, period. In the beginning Zionists considered several possible locations before settling on Palestine. The locations considered included areas of Africa and South America.
Among the early Zionists there were conflicting points of view as to what should be the nature and extent of the Zionist project. Even in 1948 there were arguments among Zionists as to what should constitute the Jewish State geographically, politically, socially, and demographically.
Zionism has never referred exclusively to people who sought a greater Israel.
You don’t need to be sorry, whatever that might mean. It seems condescending Yes, in that sense I am absolutely and totally, factually incorrect. But I know the history you talk about and am only giving a history lesson in so ar as my personal experience is concerned. In the fifties and sixties and later in the US I think Zionist referred to those who sought a Greater Israel. The term was not in fashion and quite rejected. In the past decade or so the meaning has shifted and it has become acceptable. This means that the ultimate goal of the Zionists has been generally accepted: Greater Israel. Maybe this appraisal is also incorrect and is based only on my limited experience amongst US Jews who rejected Greater Israel—what they referred to as Zionism. My experience of Israelis is estremely limited and superficial. Anyway, it is becoming everyday a daily fact and will be the final outcome. The only problem is, of course, what happens to the Palestinians in and outside Israel. It’s about time it becomes clear that this is what’s going on and nothing else despite the meanings of words—facts on the ground = LAND.
Quentin, I apologize if anything I wrote appeared condescending. That was neither my attitude nor my intent.
It may be that in your experience and among your associates a Zionist was considered someone who sought “Greater Israel”. In my studies, my experience, and among my associates that has not been the case. The term Zionist covers Jewish nationalists along a continuum with the “Greater Israel” crowd at one end.
“When the Messiah comes, no one will know…”
Absolutely!
Even as a radical right-winger, it is almost certain that the messiah will come from humble backgrounds…
That’s the way God works…
I thought the Messiah already showed up like 2000 years ago. When he show up again things are supposed to be rather ugly.
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10)
Paging the Messiah! Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Depends on your POV – most Christians would say Yes, most Jews would say No, most atheists would say Of course not, and most agnostics would shrug. You’ll find each of those points of view on the left and on the right…
“The greatest danger looming over Israel’s existence today is that it will become a country where it is bad to live, a country whose racist face will repel the Jews of the world“
That is already happening. More and more Jews are rejecting Israel either actively or, by simply not being interested, passively.
“a country where the phrase “the only democracy in the Middle East” will make people laugh.“
I already is making people laugh. In fact, I have been surprised to find how many ordinary Americans are starting to find that phrase pretty hilarious.
“The real danger is not that Pollak and his partners will express their views in stormy protests, but that they will stop demonstrating altogether and look for another place in this world where the term freedom of expression is not a hollow pretension.“
In the last decade or so emigration from Israel has been at an all-time high. I am personally acquainted with a number of young Jewish Israelis who are planning to emigrate. Interestingly not all of them are what you would consider “left wing”.