Replies: 6 Comments

I agree totally with Howard Wolf's comment. No "good" action by Israel will bring peace or even approval. Israel's enemies only want to dissolve AND conquer Israel, especially since it's now an oasis artwork out of the the grains of sand it was before 1948!

Unfortunately, liberal Israel is giving the image of weakness by over generously giving out territory which never should have gone to them...

As to the 2-state situation...Israel started as a small country, and after shedding out territory it has shrunk much, BUT, as a 2-State, it will be a dot in the map...that is, if the Palestinians' harassment allows them to remain there.

The blacks in America are finally enjoying a dignified life because of their strong, continuous fight to acquire AT ANY RATE the respect they wanted and deserved. They appropriately ignored criticisms even when they used fatal violence to get what they felt they needed, thereby proving their strength to the world.

Adela, Saturday, September 19th

I think it is better to distinguish between the ones who are opposed to the existence of Israel, support the Palestinians uncritically, and demonize Israel completely (Chavez), and others who are not against the existence of Israel, but who tend to view Israel thorough a one sided, simplistic, politically biased, ignorant, self righteous, hypocritical, naive, down right stupid and false prism. They are the majority of people we have a problem with, but I wouldn't call them anti-Israel.

It is clear that Carter and Tuto force our conflict into an ill fitting framework biased by their own political experiences, and that they accept without criticism Palestinian propaganda. It is possible that they do so because deep down they harbor a irredeemable hostility toward Israel, I don't know. But I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt. If for no other reason then because the numbers of people who are actually anti-Israel is big enough as it is, but also because the tendency to force the conflict into a simplistic framework is quite common even among people who are certainly not anti-Israel. (I had to explain to an American that Gaza has nothing in common and is in fact the complete opposite of Chechnya. He was not anti anything, but from America, and starting with certain biases, all conflicts look alike).

Micha, Thursday, September 10th

Unfortunately the questions you appropriately raise here, you fail to address and return to the old mantras of the past: it’s either my way or no way.
Now we know that Carter and Tutu have done a great deal of damage in stirring up ferocious anti-Israel sentiment whether by intention or not. Carter’s apartheid analogy while widely applauded has also been widely criticized and Tutu has fixated on Israel with prejudicial bias as his terms of reference conveniently bypass Darfur and take the direct route to Israel-Palestine as the new apartheid.

In this case however, Carter has raised a very relevant issue and while we may squirm and throw abuse as to the “who” behind these questions, glean some transient satisfaction from our momentary self-aggrandizement and ignore the issues, it does not absolve us from the “whys” that the questions present.

The first why is: why is Israel that has affirmed the road map to a two state solution still building new settlements? Barak has just signed authorization for 500 new units of construction in occupied territory – and this in the framework of a “compromise”. There was a time when territorial aspirant Israelis and their governments believed that divine intervention or luck would bring enough Jewish immigrants to Israel to create a demographic majority in the land between the Mediterranean an the Jordan river. I think we can now safely assume that G-d is not on our side on this one. So the illegal process of colonizing occupied territory runs not only against international law, international consensus, a majority of opinion of Jews in Israel and the diasporah, but against demographic realities. The only answer that springs to mind is that this government, that argues in its platform in favor of settlement in the West Bank, believes and carries out its ideology: a greater Israel which, as we speak, metamorphoses into a binational state as Carter suggests. So the Netanyahu government still lives in the Begin time-warp of a one state solution whereby the Jews will be a majority for about 5 minutes. And after that? They will dominate a disenfranchised Arab majority and, by their own hand fulfill the prophesy of an apartheid state which Israel’s accusers foresee.

The second why is: why is Israel dispossessing Palestinians of their homes and land? Well, they built there illegally you will surely say. Law and order must be respected. The government of Israel has a policy which no doubt will be well received by compassionate people around the world: first we shall dispossess the Palestinian families of their illegal assets and then we will think about dismantling the illegal construction in occupied territory by emboldened armed settlement youth. How does that go down?

The third why is: why is the government of Israel not embracing the two state solution but fighting against it? Netanyahu’s refusal to accept it at the outset and his demands for some kind of reimbursement for the charity of freezing settlements only underscores an Israel that pursues no real solution. Rather than embracing the opportunity given here and thus influencing the process back towards the Geneva Accord or the Clinton Proposals by engaging, Israeli leadership does all in its power to distance itself from the process.

Let me tell you something: this is no time to play hard to get. Israel is on the fast track to becoming a pariah state: demographics are running against it, world opinion is hardening against it including within the USA and a growing number of friends and Jews worldwide are losing the ability to empathize.

jayzed, Wednesday, September 9th

Desmond Tutu has a long record of anti-Israel statements and actions. Saying Palestinians paid for the Holocaust is one of the milder statements. In addition to condemning Israel Apartheid, he has called on Israel to engage Hamas.

Carter wrote a book that was chock full of fabrications - intentional inventions and distortions. I detailed quite a few of them at the time. When a person goes out of his way to lie, we have to conclude he is anti-Israel.

Ami Isseroff, Wednesday, September 9th

Ami,

Although it makes a nice wordplay, I don't think it is fair to describe the Elders as Anti-Zion. We should be happy that Carter supports the two state solution.

It seems to me that he problem with Carter and Tuto is not that they are anti-Israel as but that they are anti complex situations. Faced with the complexities and contradictions of the Middle East they prefer simple fictions over daunting realities. It's easier to say that the Palestinians are victims of the Holocaust who want peace and the Israelis are white people who failed to learn from the Holocaust and are unwilling to make peace than to track all the mistakes and failures and fears and contradicting ideas on both sides that brought us to this point.

Micha

Micha, Wednesday, September 9th

It goes without saying that one cannot worry about what the enemy finds acceptable or objectionable when the enemy's objective is to cut your throat. The Elders of Anti-Zion have bought all the slanders and calumnies of Fatah and Hamas.

Howard Wolf, Tuesday, September 8th

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