Hello, everyone. I begin writing this diary after a few very hectic days. A good friend of mine, mother of two wonderful children, has been hospitalized this week, and it looks like she has some form of cancer. I have been staying at her place, helping her husband with many things, mostly the children, both of whom have a nasty chest cold that has been making the rounds lately. I hope for the best, but honestly, I am very worried for my friend and her family.
But before I crash tonight, I need to unwind and get my mind onto something else, so here it goes...
There are many terms and words in the realm of Israel/Palestine, many of which are contentious and have caused many arguments here at Dkos. I won't go into them all, but one has been a favorite, and it is Apartheid. No matter how many Israelis say it, use it, and back it up as a relevant and useful in the discussion of Israel's occupation (and for some, more than that), there are many who resist and deny it. Well, I think that those days are over;
Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, last night delivered an unusually blunt warning to his country that a failure to make peace with the Palestinians would leave either a state with no Jewish majority or an "apartheid" regime. "As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic," Barak said. "If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."
Of course, there is much that Barak stated that I disagree with, particularly in regards to the contradiction in terms of Israel's identity as a 'Jewish and democratic' state. Sorry Ehud, you can't have it both ways; a state that reserves power and privilege for a particular group, like, in the case of Israel, Jewish people (Israeli and non-Israeli), cannot be 'democratic' as the term has come to be understood. Such institutionalized inequality has long been recognized as unacceptable, and it is time that we be honest about it in regards to Israel.
Seriously, Olmert said pretty much the same thing a few years ago;
"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Haaretz Wednesday, the day the Annapolis conference ended in an agreement to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement by the end of 2008.
"The Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us," Olmert said, "because they will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents."
And, you know what, he's right; maybe not now, but eventually, the contradiction between Zionism and true progressive values (like democracy, equality, one person-one vote, etc) will become obvious to many many more in the USA. Hell, it's happening right now, in front of our eyes, with fools such as Dershowitz actually helping to speed up the process with his vile hate and ignorance.
On to a few more things that we should take note of, first being some revelations regarding Israel's conduct in Gaza;
Israeli commander: 'We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza'
Civilians 'put at greater risk to save military lives' in winter attack - revelations that will pile pressure on Netanyahu to set up full inquiry
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
A high-ranking officer has acknowledged for the first time that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives in order to minimise military casualties during last year's Gaza war, The Independent can reveal.
The officer, who served as a commander during Operation Cast Lead, made it clear that he did not regard the longstanding principle of military conduct known as "means and intentions" – whereby a targeted suspect must have a weapon and show signs of intending to use it before being fired upon – as being applicable before calling in fire from drones and helicopters in Gaza last winter. A more junior officer who served at a brigade headquarters during the operation described the new policy – devised in part to avoid the heavy military casualties of the 2006 Lebanon war – as one of "literally zero risk to the soldiers".
The officers' revelations will pile more pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to set up an independent inquiry into the war, as demanded in the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report, which harshly criticised the conduct of both Israel and Hamas. One of Israel's most prominent human rights lawyers, Michael Sfard, said last night that the senior commander's acknowledgement – if accurate – was "a smoking gun".
Micheal Sfard discusses this further in his own commentary,
If this commander's quote represents the rules of engagement as they were applied during Operation Cast Lead, then it is a smoking gun because it proves the case that Israel was charged with. It proves the main revelations in the Breaking the Silence report. When I read the testimonies in that report – some of which were difficult to read – what was common to them was a change to rules of engagement so that either there were no rules, or they allowed soldiers to shoot anything that moved in the vicinity.
And the words of Gideon Levy;
Israeli left needs to wake up before it's too late By Gideon Levy,
From now on the left will know that as long as it continues its winter (and summer) hibernation, its protesters will be thrown into jail and no one will spring them. From now on, Israel will know that its legal system discriminates between right and left - a strong, aggressive and violent right and a left deep in hibernation. That is the way it is when the leftovers of the left are busy with wages for authors, animal rights and useless organizing against Ehud Barak, with exemption from municipal taxes for synagogues and maternity leave for men. Meretz MKs do not even have time for Sheikh Jarrah. That is the way it is when the left wing of the Zionist establishment is dead.
We can continue to remain silent and know that silence means collaboration. But when the left wakes up it will be too late. In fact, it is already too late. Meretz is dead, Labor is dying, Kadima is nonexistent, Peace Now is still deliberating over whether to petition against the pardon, and the right is freely celebrating and going wild. Eyes right: wake up and learn from its methods and the way it fights. In Israeli society, there is apparently no other way.
Just one caveat to Gideon's words; the Zionist left-wing has always been an illusion of sorts; although it once dominated the political scene in the pre-state and post 48 periods, the election of Likud in 1977 ended the left-wing stranglehold on Israeli politics, and many other facets of society (Ironically, it was this political change that allowed for the divergent, introspective and taboo-shattering historical work of Israeli scholars such as Baruch Kimmerling, Ilan Pappe, Avi Scliam, Gershon Shafir, and many others).
And what of the horrors committed towards Palestinians by the Zionist left? The Nakba, 1956, the occupation & settlements themselves, all this and more was done, to greater and lesser extents, by the vaunted Zionist left wing. Yes, the left wing did institute some progressive and socialist economic ideas, programs and institutions, whereas the Likud, particularly in its 90's Netanyahu incarnation, was decidedly neo-liberal. But when it comes to issues regarding Palestinians, the left and the right play the same game, its merely the tactics that differ. So whereas the left wing introduced the game of 'natural growth' and 'thickening' the settlements (build in a settlement bloc, so as to hide the expansion), the right wing tends to be a bit more cocky, building brand new settlements openly and in defiance of... its material and diplomatic benefactor, the one floating the loan guarantees, of course.
But it is still useful to project, and the 'right wingers' like Liberman, they come in very handy;
In Theodor Herzl's novel Altneuland, published in 1902, Rabbi Dr. Geyer ran in the elections on the platform of disenfranchising the Arab citizens. The mainstream Zionists, on the one hand, and the good Arab who welcomed the Zionists, on the other hand, rejected Geyer as a troublemaker and Geyer was defeated in the elections in the novel. Lieberman currently plays the role of Rabbi Geyer with the difference that he actually won in the elections and he is a kingmaker. This state of affairs seems to have misled many of the commentators who are focused on the danger that the emergence of Lieberman poses. That would be tantamount to focusing on Rabbi Geyer and forgetting Herzl and the Zionist project itself which entailed not only the displacement of the Palestinian people but also the unequal status for those who remained as citizens inside Israel.
The movement to the right wing within Zionism cannot be reduced to Lieberman, and what is troubling about Zionism cannot be reduced to its right-wing side only.
So with the Israeli government currently controlled by Likud & Likud lite (Kadima), along with the settlers, religious parties, we should be honest; the Zionist left was nothing terribly wonderful to begin with. In fact, it is the non-Zionist political Palestinian political parties that deserve our support, as they are the ones pushing for Israel to become a true democracy, that is a state of its citizens.
Arab politicians 'facing increased persecution’ in Israel
Leaders of the Arab minority in Israel warned this week that they were facing an unprecedented campaign of persecution, backed by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to stop their political activities.
Arab politicians are particularly concerned about a bill introduced last month requiring all parliamentary candidates to swear loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state. If passed, the seats of the 10 Arab MPs belonging to non-Zionist parties in the 120-member parliament, or Knesset, would be under threat.
Jamal Zahalka, one of those MPs, said: "Every week either the Knesset or the government try to impose new restrictions on our activities and freedom of speech. There is a growing trend towards anti-democratic legislation." Mr Zahalka, leader of the National Democratic Assembly party, said: "Imagine the outcry if a Jewish representative in the US or Britain was expected to swear loyalty to his country as a Christian state."
I really like Jamal Zahalka; he appears in Rachel Leah Jones' film Ashkenaz, well worth seeing.
But in the meantime, I'll end with this classic...