My posts on Israel – Palestine tend to focus either on what I believe is a ludicrous demand on the part of Israel that it be recognized as a “Jewish State” or on the oppression of Palestinians.
But I never considered the possible connection between the Jewish State demand and the oppression.
In a piece last weekend in Ha’aretz, One wretched Jewish state, Gideon Levy makes the case for such a connection:
The youths of the Jewish state are attacking Palestinians in the streets of Jerusalem, just like gentile youths used to attack Jews in the streets of Europe. The Israelis of the Jewish state are rampaging on social networks, displaying hatred and a lust for revenge, unprecedented in its diabolic scope. Some unknown people from the Jewish state, purely based on his ethnicity. These are the children of the nationalistic and racist generation – Netanyahu’s offspring.
For five years now, they have been hearing nothing but incitement, scaremongering and supremacy over Arabs from this generation’s true instructor, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Not one humane word, no commiseration or equal treatment.
They grew up with the provocative demand for recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state,” and they drew the inevitable conclusions. Even before any delineation of what a “Jewish state” means – will it be a state that dons tefillin (phylacteries), kisses mezuzot (doorpost fixtures with prayer scrolls), sanctifies charms, closes down on the Sabbath and keeps strict kashrut laws? – the penny has dropped for the masses.
The mob was the first to internalize its true significance: a Jewish state is one in which there is room only for Jews. The fate of Africans is to be sent to the Holot detention center in the Negev, while that of Palestinians is to suffer from pogroms. That’s how it works in a Jewish state: only this way can it be Jewish.
As Levy points out, Israel’s leaders have not really delineated what a “Jewish State” means. Does it even matter? Regardless of the specifics, the underlying message is that Jews count more than others. And that’s all the incitement that a bunch of teens and young adults with raging hormones need.
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It would be very difficult to declare Israel a Jewish State since a significant number of Israeli citizens (and members of the Israeli Kineset) are Muslim Arabs. In fact, Muslim Arabs are the fastest growing segment of Israel’s citizen population.
An interesting side note in all of this: These Muslim Arabs who are Israeli citizens are not Palestinian and they have no more interest in turning Israeli into a Palestinian homeland than the Jews do. The ranks of the Israeli Army are already being filled with Muslim Arabs who are protecting their homeland. Confusing, no?
Crackerhead, you have a ton of time on your hands. If you’ve not done so already, read Goliath, by Max Blumenthal, and The Battle for Justice in Palestine, by Ali Abunimah. Doing so might help you interpret what you read in the American press through a somewhat different lens.
I have read them.
“Goliath” is also known as the “I hate Israel Handbook” and was written by a man who freely advocates for the destruction of Israel. His Chapter titles are rather childish references to Concentration Camps and Krystal Nacht. Even leftists, who hold no love for Israel, sometimes feel he went over the top in his vitriol.
“The Battle for Justice in Palestine” was written by a virulent young Palestinian here in the United States who spends his time generating funding and sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Both are imminently readable books. Both are also hard left propaganda. I hope you have not limited yourself to this sort of information on the subject because if you have you have formed your opinions on biased and stilted information.
I believe, at some point, Israel will be destroyed. But Israel will not go down quietly. It will wreak devastation on the Middle East. But even then it will not bring peace. The Arabs and Persians will turn on themselves. My hope is that we stay out of it, but I doubt we will.
If I were you, I wouldn’t hope too hard that Israel is destroyed too soon.
I’ve read the criticism of both books. I haven’t seen anything that takes on the facts Blumenthal presents or the analysis that Abunimah presents. When you see crticism, like yours, that goes after the character of an author, rather than the content, and goes after trifling things like chapter titles, you can bet that the content is pretty solid.
If you recall, President Carter was attacked for his book on the subject. And he admitted to getting a few things wrong. But what was lost on all those who didn’t read the book was that he got a whole lot of things right.
I do agree with you that Israel is in the process of commtiing suicide.
The problem is that an analysis of either book is difficult because they write mostly in anecdotal evidence, and anecdotes are to refute. I am sure there is some truth in what they say but it is very hard to track down hard evidence to support it. Additionally, one has to be careful in not agreeing with Palestinians and their perspective, both here and abroad. They do not couch naysayers and have been known to harass, hurt and even kill those who speak out against them. And lastly, political blogs are the appropriate place to analyze books. As you once told me, too much band width is used up for something of little interest to most posters.
You say Israel is committing suicide, I say she is being killed. Either way, her passing will be cataclysmic. The Palestinians still won’t get their homeland, but they will have outlived their usefulness to the other Arab Nations. The Arab world will have to figure out what to do with the Palestinians and what they decide will not be pretty. There is a reason why Palestinians have been kept in refugee camps all these years: no one wanted them loose in their country. As I said, I just hope we can stay out of it.
If Israel were much smaller – think The Vatican – sequestering themselves religiously makes sense.
But their claim to be an independent nation, established just because they said so and on land that they did not have title to, comes with a HUGE responsibility to and for the peoples that their claim soaked up.
If “Bibi” and his gang of zealots cannot stand to accept complete equality for the mostly Muslim Semites because of their disdain for non-Jews, then they have no other choice than to recognize an independent Palestine.
Netanyahu’s style of religious apartheid rule is supposed to be anathema to the principles of America.
That we taxpayers even toss a Sheqel in their pot is distasteful.
That its well over 3 Billion dollars per year is shameful.
I say let Sheldon Addlebrain take care of that tab. He can afford it.
“Netanyahu’s style of religious apartheid rule is supposed to be anathema to the principles of America.”
Where did you come up with “religious apartheid”? Do you have any idea how Israel operates? Do you have any idea what percentage of the population of Israel consists of Muslim Arabs who live freely there and enjoy ALL the privileges of Israeli citizenship? What percentage of the Israeli Kineset is made up of Muslim Arabs who exercise all the rights and privileges of a Member of the Kineset? Do you even know where Israel is located on a map?