Even in the best of times it is difficult to call out Israel for its heinous policies toward Palestinians since it annexed the territories in 1967, so it is not surprising that everyone is coming down on Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib for the comments they made after the massive surprise attack by Hamas that has Israel scrambling to find dozens of hostages taken in the raid. But, if anyone is to blame for this violence it is Bibi Netanyahu.
When Bibi first came to power in the mid 1990s his goal was to fully absorb the Palestinian territories and make it all one Israel. He has never had any intention of accommodating Palestinians, rather he imagined putting such a tight stranglehold on their divided territories that they would flee to neighboring Arab states like Jordan and Lebanon. He pushed the Israeli settlements on the disputed territories until now we see half a million Israelis living on these occupied lands, most of whom are Eastern European and Russian Jewish emigrees who fled the crumbling Soviet Union. It was all part of the Zionist movement. This is rarely talked about as most people hail the "pioneer spirit" of these Jews who built towns out of the desert and now form the backbone of Netanyahu's Likud Party.
The amount of violence that has been waged during this time is incalculable but suffice it to say the Palestinians have borne the brunt of that violence. They have tried repeatedly through the Palestinian National Authority to sue for peace and a two-state solution to the nearly 60-year old conflict but it has failed largely because the only settlement hardline Jews like Netanyahu are interested in is Jewish settlement.
As a result, Hamas no longer recognizes the Palestinian authority in Ramallah. Hamas has steadfastly refused to recognize Israel and has waged countless attacks on the occupied territories, each of which has been met with overwhelming retaliation. There was some attempt to broker a peace agreement at the tail end of Ariel Sharon's government when he pushed for disengagement from Gaza but his massive obesity caught up to him in 2006. He suffered a stroke followed by cardiac arrest and spent most of his remaining years in the hospital. His Kadima Party fell apart and Netanyahu was able to regain control of the Knesset, spurring further settlement and creating the tensions we see today.
One hates to see so many civilians caught in the middle of this surprise attack, especially festival goers who had no idea what was happening. Pictures of pretty girls held captive by Islamic militants are used to feed the anger of the outside world. Netanyahu is relying on as much sympathy as he can get from the West to justify what will be a massive military campaign similar to what we saw in 2006 when Israel invaded Lebanon to root out Hezbollah. The only problem is how to safely retrieve these "children and grandmothers" who were kidnapped? Not like Israel ever showed much sympathy for Palestinian "children and grandmothers" in the numerous attacks it has launched on Gaza City and Beirut.
I really can't blame Rashida Tlaib for speaking out as she is of Palestinian descent and seeing all this hate projected on Palestinians is overwhelming for her. She knows the lengths Netanyahu will go to to exact his "mighty vengeance" which will far exceed what Hamas has exacted on Israel. It is the only way Netanyahu knows to keep face among an electorate that believes this is all their land and that the Palestinians are intruders. He has built his entire political career on this premise.
With little support from the US and EU or even their own Arab neighbors, Palestinians will once again have to bear the brunt of these attacks. Jewish settlement will continue and their homeland will be further cut apart. Most of us have no idea how much the Palestinians have suffered over the decades and an attack like this only serves to create further distance from the root cause of all this violence - the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
In 1948 Einstein was joined by several Jewish scholars when he wrote his famous letter to the 𝑵𝒀 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 re the evils of the Herut (now Likud) party. He repeatedly equated that group with fascists - a designation well earned.
ReplyDeleteWhile two wrongs can never be a right, it is Netanyahu whose fascist policies caused this terrible mess we see today. A bulletin just a few hours ago revealed that an Israeli rocket landed on a hospital and that 500 civilians were killed. The inhumanity of this is indescribable.
Netanyahu is a war criminal who richly deserves a Nuremberg tribunal and a sentence of 𝓁𝑒𝓍 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒾𝓈.
Likud evolved from the Stern Gang, a notorious Jewish terrorist organization that existed during the time of the Mandate, wreaking havoc on British authorities. Of course, one country's terrorist is another's "freedom fighter," which is how Israelis felt of this gang, but it in no way excuses the violence they carried out during the WWII years in the region, as Britain was preoccupied with war. At one point, these hoodlums even sought association with Hitler's Germany. How's that for irony!
DeleteThey deserve the same fate as was handed out at Nuremburg with no mercy whatsoever.
DeleteIt should be noted that Israel and its apologists continue to project animal imagery to Palestinians just like Nazis did with Jews during WW II:
ReplyDelete‘Human Animals’: The Sordid Language Behind Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
Arabs are like “drugged cockroaches in a bottle.” ... former Israeli army Chief-of-Staff, Gen. Rafael Eitan in 1983, speaking at an Israeli parliament’s committee...
Many seem to forget that, long before the Gaza war, on October 7, and even long before the establishment of Israel itself in 1948, the Zionist-Israeli discourse has always been that of racism, dehumanization, erasure and, at times, outright genocide.
If one is to randomly select any period of Israeli history to examine the political discourse emanating from Israeli officials, institutions and even intellectuals, one is to draw the same conclusion: Israel has always built a narrative of incitement and hatred, thus making a constant case for the genocide of Palestinians.
Only recently, this genocidal intent is becoming obvious to many people.
“There is (..) a risk of genocide against the Palestinian People,” the UN experts said in a statement on October 19. But this ‘risk of genocide’ is not born out of recent events.
Indeed, effective political or military actions anywhere in the world hardly take place without an edifice of text and language that facilitates, rationalizes, and justifies those actions. Israel’s perception of Palestinians is a perfect illustration of this claim.
Prior to the establishment of Israel, Zionists denied the very existence of the Palestinians. Many still do.
When that is the case, it becomes only logical to draw a conclusion that Israel, in its own collective mind, cannot be morally culpable of killing those who have never existed in the first place.
Even when Palestinians factor into the Israeli political discourse, they become “bloodthirsty animals”, “terrorists” or “drugged cockroaches in a bottle”.
It would be too convenient to label this as just ‘racist’. Though racism is at work here, this sense of racial supremacy does not exist to merely maintain a socio-political order, in which Israelis are masters and Palestinians are serfs. It is far more complex.
As soon as Palestinian fighters from Gaza crossed into the southern border of Israel, killing hundreds, not a single Israeli politician, analyst or mainstream intellectual seemed interested in the context of the daring act.
The post-October 7 language used by Israelis, but also many Americans, created the atmosphere necessary for the savage Israeli response which followed.
The number of Palestinians killed in the first eight days of the Israeli war against Gaza has reportedly exceeded the number of casualties who were killed during the longest and most destructive Israeli war on the Strip, dubbed “Protective Edge”, in 2014.
...
From Golda Meir’s “Palestinians did not exist” (1969) to Menachem Begin’s Palestinians are “beasts walking on two legs” (1982), to Eli Ben Dahan’s “Palestinians are like animals, they aren’t human” (2013), to numerous other racist and dehumanizing references, the Zionist discourse remains unchanged.
Now, it is all coming together, the language and the action are in perfect alignment. Perhaps, it is time to start paying attention to how Israel’s genocidal language is translated to an actual genocide on the ground. Sadly, for thousands of Palestinian civilians, this awareness is simply too late.
https://original.antiwar.com/ramzy-baroud/2023/10/29/human-animals-the-sordid-language-behind-israels-genocide-in-gaza/
As Einstein wrote 75 years ago, the Likud represents the very essence of fascism and Nazism. If he were alive today, this is precisely what he would say.
I guess blogger didn't like some of the language and had marked your post as "spam." I accepted it. Unfortunately, these are things we can't publicly express without being viewed as "antisemitic." What I don't get is that there is opposition to Netanyahu within the Israeli community. Very strong opposition in fact, yet he keeps retaking the parliament.
Delete"spam"? "anti Semitic"?
DeleteWho ~ Einstein? Sidney Hook, Hannan Arendt or any of the other Jewish scholars who signed that 1948 letter? As for me, my ancestry is Jewish. The same blood that ran through David, Solomon, and Jesus is the same blood that runs through my veins. Only a complete imbecile of the lowest order with their brains firmly stuck up their stink holes would call me anti Semite.
Speaking of "anti Semitic spam" {sic}, I note that
Delete𝐎 𝐏𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬!
𝐁𝐲 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟐, 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟒
follows this thread. The father of the Menuhim siblings was a staunch anti Zionist Jewish scholar. For some reason I have never gotten around to reading his bio. Perhaps I requested it from the library but my request was not fulfilled. I have found an essay he wrote online and will try to read it (it's a bit difficult to do so on my PC):
https://archive.org/details/dudeman5685_yahoo_JCZ/mode/1up
People need to understand that anti Zionism does not necessarily constitute anti Semitism. I have always held that religions are to be revered by all. But no one is obligated to honor political ideologies with the same awe or respect.
A long while ago I communicated with our pal Bob Whelan about our mutual love of Iberian history. While I love to read the history of the entire Peninsula, my favorite part of it is Sefardic history. I find it utterly fascinating.
Thus, any jackanapes who thinks I can possibly be anti Semitic can take their idiotic ideas and go stick it.
I was referring to blogger not my own thoughts on your post. Unfortunately, it seems that much of the editing is now done by AI and so it flags key words. I had several of my posts flagged sometime back for what was considered offensive language, such as referring to "Deep Throat" from Watergate. I wouldn't take it too personally ; )
Delete@Gintaras,
DeleteSorry. Did not mean to make it appear as if I was commenting on your post. It was the spam bot and idiocies of others on the subject that I was objecting to.
Good of you to open a dialog on the subject so that we can exchange ideas about it freely.
The situation in Gaza is growing worse by the day. I really don't know what Israel hopes to gain from this. They won't root out Hamas anymore than they did Hezbollah when they invaded Lebanon in 2006 and laid waste to Beirut. Not like I have any empathy for these organizations, but you can't make a whole people suffer over jihadists. Most Palestinians don't even support Hamas and Hezbollah. These are mercenary arms for Iran, whose sole purpose appears to be to stir up unrest in the region. They are succeeding. I would think Israel would understand this by this point but Netanyahu just feeds into the angry rhetoric. I read that he now wand to occupy the northern half of Gaza. I saw that coming. This is why so many Palestinians refused to leave. They know they will have a very difficult time repatriating, as was the case with the 1967 war. Biden is caught between a rock and hard place on this one.
ReplyDeleteWhat do the genocidalists in Israel hope to gain? Easy:
Delete“What we are doing in Gaza, we can do in Beirut.”
They know that all they need do is to snap their fingers and their coddlers in Washington DC will kiss up to them immediately by providing money and weapons to facilitate their campaign of imperialistic genocide.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/israel-what-we-are-doing-in-gaza-we-can-do-in-beirut/
𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐞𝐥 𝐀𝐯𝐢𝐯’𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧, 𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.
I saw that one high ranking member of the IDF is already calling it a Nakba. Their aim is to cede North Gaza to create a buffer zone similar to what they did with the Golan Heights. This is why so few Palestinians chose to leave. They know they will never be repatriated.
DeleteShitforbrains Republicans in Congress censure Rashida Tlaib for making allegedly untoward remarks. But those same political morons disregard even more inflammatory remarks by Marjorie Taylor Greene, including her idiotic comments that Jewish space lasers pose a threat to humanity.
ReplyDeleteGo figure.
It's just awful what is going on in Congress right now with its Speaker from God, its MMA representatives and general disdain for the Constitution. What they did to Tlaib is just par for the course. They had already censured Adam Schiff as "payback" for the Trump investigation. What a bunch of assholes!
DeleteOn another forum I was given a timeout for allegedly making anti Semitic remarks when I posted the same things I posted here. Told those morons that I was of Jewish descent, used Jewish sources as links (mostly from antiwar which was created by a Jew), was a member of the Jewish students union in law school, and wrote a doctoral seminar thesis on Shakespeare's 𝑴𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆 and anti Semitism. Naturally those Nazis didn't give a sh!t.
ReplyDeleteThose Hitlerians are just so full of crap.