Israel is about to make a misjudgment as disastrous -- and deadly -- as the attack on Gaza. In a few days, it looks likely to re-elect Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister once again.
This is a man calling for the violent re-occupation of Gaza to "liquidate" its elected government. This is a man who says he will "naturally grow" the West Bank settlements. This is a man who says he will "never" negotiate over Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights, or control of the West Bank water supply. This is a man who says establishing a Palestinian state would leave Israel with "an existential threat and a public relations nightmare reminiscent of 1938 Czechoslovakia." This is a man who Yitzhak Rabin's widow says helped to incite his murder.
The political beneficiaries of Operation Cast Lead have been Israel's hard-right. The opinion poll numbers have surged for Netanyahu's Likud and for the even more extreme Avigdor Lieberman, a Russian immigrant was openly advocates the ethnic cleansing of Arabs. They say the only problem with the 23-day bombing of Gaza -- killing 410 children, and hugely strengthening Hamas -- is that it didn't go far enough.
The world needs to urgently look at these individuals and ask how this came to pass.
Everybody agrees that the key to understanding Netanyahu lies with his father, Benzion. He is a distinguished scholar of medieval history who believes the world is eternally and ineradicably riddled with genocidal anti-Semitism. When he arrived in British Mandate Palestine, he declared that the majority of Jews there were naĂŻve and idealistic. They had to immediately seize the entire Biblical land of Israel -- taking all of the West Bank and stretching right into present-day Jordan. There could be no compromise, ever, with the Arabs, who only understand force. The man he calls his mentor, Abba Ahimeir, described himself proudly as "a fascist."
Today, Benzion's son routinely compares dealing with the Palestinians to dealing with Nazis. He can only understand their anger as a resurfacing of Europe's irrational, genocidal hate. He insists they have no right to a share of the land because they "stole" it -- in the year 636 AD. He writes: "It was not the Jews who usurped the land from the Arabs, but the Arabs who usurped the land from the Jews... twelve hundred years ago."
Accordingly, Netanyahu rubbishes every peace initiative offered by Israel. His reaction to Yitzhak Rabin's decision to sign the mild and moderate Oslo accords with Yassir Arafat reveals the depth of his opposition to compromise. He warmly addressed crowds which chanted "Rabin is a Nazi" and "through blood and fire, Rabin shall expire." He called the Prime Minister "a traitor", shortly before Rabin was murdered by a Jewish fundamentalist who agreed.
In order to justify his opposition to all compromise to the Obama administration, Netanyahu has adopted a neat distraction-idea. He says he wants "economic peace" with the Palestinians, developing their economy, rather the political process. But how can anything develop amidst the rubble, blockade and roadblocks he has in mind? This is a piece of spin to sugar-coat the on-going occupation.
The other person who has surged ahead in the polls -- and looks likely to be Netanyahu's coalition partner -- is Avigdor Liberman, a Russian ex-nightclub bouncer who was once arrested for attacking a boy who he suspected of insulting his son. Lieberman grew up in the Soviet system -- and he retains a Soviet mindset. His party, Yisrael Beytenu (Israel, Our Home) has campaigned claiming that Israel's two million Arab citizens are "a danger to the country", to be dispensed with, in part, by ethnic cleansing. Lieberman wanted to bus thousands of released Palestinian prisoners to the Dead Sea and drown them.
Today, he has moderated his stance and merely wants to "transfer" many hundreds of thousands of Israeli Arabs -- inevitably by force -- to the scraps of remaining land that will be labeled Palestine after Israel has annexed the major illegal settlement blocks. If your name's not on the list, you're not staying in.
At times, he says his model for how to deal with the Palestinians is Cyprus in the 1970s, where the mixed Turkish and Greek populations were separated out at gunpoint. "The final result was better," he sighs. "Minorities are the biggest problem in the world." He would like to begin these racist expulsions with a simple, swift move: executing Israeli Arab members of the Knesset. Since they have spoken to the democratically elected Palestinian leadership, they are "traitors", Lieberman argues. They should be dealt with "like Hamas."
At other times, Lieberman shifts analogy, and says the correct model for dealing with Gaza and the West Bank should be to copy Vladimir Putin's approach to Chechnya in the 1990s. One third of the civilian population died.
Perhaps even more depressing than the rise of these political thugs is the flat and flat-lining response from the other parties. Both Kadima and Labour militantly defend the blockade and bombing of Gaza, not least because their leaders -- Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak -- led the charge in cabinet. Even Barak has picked up the comparison to Putin and started approvingly quoting the new Russia Tsar. The brave pro-peace parties like Meeretz are shunted far to the margins of the debate.
How did this happen? It is essential to remember that Israelis didn't end up in the Middle East out of a wicked desire to colonise and kill, as some people now gleefully claim. They are there because they were fleeing genocidal Jew-hatred. That doesn't justify a single crime against a single Palestinian -- but if we forget this, and the unimaginably vast trauma that lies behind it, we cannot understand what is happening now.
Over the past few months, I keep returning to an extraordinary essay written by the great Israel novellist Amos Oz in 1982. The Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin had compared the Palestinian leadership to Adolf Hitler, so Oz wrote: "You display an urge to resurrect Hitler from the dead so you may kill him over and over again each day... Like many Jews, I feel sorry I feel sorry I didn't kill Hitler with my bare hands. But there is not, and there never will be, any healing for the open wound. Tens of thousands of dead Arabs will not heal that wound. Because, Mr Begin, Adolf Hitler is dead. He is not hiding in Nabatiyah, in Sidon, or in Beirut. He is dead and burned to ashes."
Israeli society consists, Oz says, of "a bunch of half-hysterical refugees and survivors". The two thousand year trauma of the blood libel, the Inquisition, the pogroms, Auschwitz and Chelmno and the Gulag Archipelago, have produced a distorted vision, where every shriek of pain directed at Israel can sound like the rumble beginning in the massed crowds at Nuremberg.
This means that Israel is missing opportunities for peace. Even much of Hamas -- an Islamist party I passionately oppose -- is amenable to a long-term ceasefire along the 1967 borders. That isn't my opinion; it is the view of Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security service Shin Bet. He told the Israeli cabinet before the bombing of Gaza that Hamas would restore the ceasefire if Israel would only end the blockade of the Strip and declare a ceasefire on the West Bank. Instead, they bombed, and the offer died.
The former head of Mossad, Ephraim Halevy, says that Hamas "will have to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original goals" if only Israel will begin the path of compromise. This would drain support for the really implacable rejectionists like Osama Bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh, and make it easier to build the international coalitions needed to hold them back.
Instead, too many Israelis -- imprisoned by their history -- seem determined to choose the opposite path: of Netanyahu and Lieberman and ramming an endless alienating boot onto the throat of the Palestinians. It doesn't have to be like this. We can only say to them with Amos Oz, as urgently as we can: Adolf Hitler is not hiding in Gaza City, or Beit Hanoun, or Hebron. Adolf Hitler is dead.
Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. To read more of his articles, click here. For an archive of his articles on Israel/Palestine specifically, click here.
Follow Johann Hari on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johannhari101
Who benefits from this endless circle of rebuild and then destroy?
As for me, a US taxpayer, it might help if US war equipment would no longer be supplied to Israel or Saudi Arabia. If the countries in that region of the world don't want to settle their differences diplomatically then let them fight with sticks and stones.
-Lastly, it's way past time to cut all funding to Halliburton-KBR. which is another example of wasted taxpayer money in the furtherance of 'Peace'.
quote:
Today, Benzion's son routinely compares dealing with the Palestinians to dealing with Nazis. He can only understand their anger as a resurfacing of Europe's irrational, genocidal hate. He insists they have no right to a share of the land because they "stole" it -- in the year 636 AD. He writes: "It was not the Jews who usurped the land from the Arabs, but the Arabs who usurped the land from the Jews... twelve hundred years ago."
/quote
I mean, it is plain silly for any Israeli to claim "He can only understand their anger as a resurfacing of Europe's irrational, genocidal hate." We all know that when the state of Israel was established, Palestinians were forcibly exiled, and that this is still within the lifetimes of some people still living. Other Palestinians have heard the stories from parents and grandparents who only recently passed away. 636 A.D. doesn't count. It is literally just history. The 20th century usurpation of Palestinian land, on the contrary, is a living memory, completely different.
People like Netanyahu who cannot live peacefully with their neighbors, are uncivilized beasts, not humans with a differing opinion.
Thank you Mr. Hari for your courage as always.
Hamas is a terrorist organization with an unabashed intention to destroy the Jewish people of Israel. They are shooting rockets at Israeli civilians, using Palestinian children as a human shield. Facing this ruthless enemy, the Israeli government would be irresponsible to not take a strong stance in defending its people from this ongoing threat of annihilation.
Israel can't keep creating enemies then claim defence when it goes after them. By crushing the Palestinians in flesh and in spirit, you create radicals, which excuses more crushing etc.
IT is clear that Hamas's 'destroy Israel' is posturing. They haven't the means, and indications are they haven't the will either - they want a deal that doesn't feel like submission.
Israel needs the US's tough love. Stop fooling around, make the obviouse in-our-faces deal now or no more money, no more US shield in the UN and no more arms. We get tough will so many other countries but haven't the guts to call Israel to heel.
Sad, and everyone suffers.
Israel does not seek peace, because it would have to make some territorial concessions.
The Hamas does not want peace, because it would make themselves obsolete.
So, let them fight until they get sick of it... It may take another century...
The weapon-selling corporates continue making profit with this misculture of hate...
The world is watching, but has no guts to interfere with a robust madate.
So far, it is a lose-lose-loss
Nothing wrong with occasional 1001 tales reading. But let's introduce some facts, shall we.
Territorial concessions--
Gave ENTIRE Sinai back to Egypt. Including the only oil deposts in its posession.
Gave up control of South Lebanon.
Brought Arafat and his entire band into territories and gave him control of W. Bank and Gaza.
Unilaterally evicted Israeli settlers from Gaza.
Sorry to interpose reality into fairy tales. But do go on.
Key phrase "Gave Back"
That's not a concession, that's returning stolen property.
People come and take over your house and farm using guns and bombs and tanks and jets and missiles.
They hold it.
They want you to bargain with them to negotiate a compromise on who gets what part of your property.
They later let you have some.
Is that a concession?
They give all of it back to you. A concession or complying with the law?
Would you agree to drop all claims to your house and land in a deal with your thieves that let them keep some of it?
Palestinians have made enormous territorial concession since 1947. They’ve given up claim to land that is theirs by the principle that land belongs to its legitimate residents. Israel took land that wasn't its to take, and either explicitly expelled Arabs or de facto expelled them by refusing to let them return to their lawful homes and land.
Evicted settlers from Gaza. I think you mean enforced a law to reverse the illegal confiscation of land by Israeli Jewish settlers of Palestinians.
Sinai, etc. Everything you mention is returning stolen land and property.
Yes, real paragons of morality in doing that, in following the law, in behaving morally.
same treatment Gaza had for the leadership?
Ahhhhh, you mean Natannayhu, like Gaza leaders should take over all government functions of the entire state via a miltary coup, throw its opponents from buildings and proclaim a Ji-had? Cute. Nahhh, that a A-rab Middle Eastern thing. Israel is too Europeanized for that.
Is r a el is an apartheid state, everyone knows it, and some just don't want to pronounce it lest they be accused of anti-S.
I don't make this up, its been written down and published by the PLO in their "Phased Plan" and in the Hamas Charter. Don't take my word on it, look it up for yourself.
1.Israel doesn't need nor wish to dominate anyone. T
2.the domination thing is strictly a domain of neo-Jihadists and their supporters.
3.There's not SINGLE Arab country that desires to enter into open war with Israel. For obvious reasons- a 100% chance of crushing defeat.
Some tried. And the ones that were beaten the most are now at peace with Israel.Smart.
4..Arab states now realize that homegrown militants are FAR greater threat to the stability and peace than Israel ever was or would be.
Reality matters.
"Poor innocent Israel" would carry some weight if it stuck inside its borders as given in the 1947 Partition (which they don’t; they immediately capturer about half of the land not partitioned for a Jewish states), didn't occupy other's land, take their resources, refuse to let them have refugees return to their rightful homes, start war after war, kill Arabs at a rate of many X over Israeli's killed by Arabs,. Why don't Arab nations want to go to war with Israel (mostly they don't regardless of the Palestinians but take a hostile posture to satiate their public)? Is it because Israel is some poor little peaceful nation? No, it's because Israel is a hostile, territorially aggressive nation who refuses to abide by international law and covenants.
Their popularity, however, can be directly linked to the ascent of the extremist Hamas and its takeover of Gaza. The reason the recent Gaza military operation enjoyed so much popularity among Israel's rank and file is related to the thousands of rockets fired from Gaza in the recent years, creating a constant climate of stress and fear among the general populace. Even though the brief truce saw a reduction (not a cessation) of launches, no one on either side doubted it was only a matter of time before the attacks would resume.
Israel, if it elects Netanyanhu, will have done so in reaction to the Palestinians' own choice of a more radical and violence oriented approach toward Israel. A choice that the Palestinians should reconsider. I wonder if Mr. Hari's analysis might change a bit were he to acknowledge this factor in his considerations.
I have another take on it. Israel is surrounded by countries and a group of people bent on it's destruction. Also, Israel sees a greater Europe being overrun by a paralisis which makes it impossible for Europeans to even admit that there is such a thing as Islamofascism bent on Israel's destruction.
So Israel, like any animal cornered and in fear, is going to react. I say more power to them.
No PALESTINAIN STATE WAS FORMED.
WHY?
Answer this question truthfully and the entire context of the conflict will become clear.
Background
Jordan illegally annexed West Bank and Jerusalem.
Egypt ruled Gaza with iron fist.
THERE WAS NO PROTEST AGAINST THESE ACTION.
So how is Israel illegally annexing the West Bank, Jerusalem and brutalizing Gaza any improvment? Rather worse, as it happens.
Either come out and say you are for ethnic cleansing of all of Palestine and coneed your hateful ethnicism or for the first time contribute something useful to the reconcilliation and mutual security of these two tragic peoples.
20 year-control without allowing Palestinains to form a state is " AN ACADEMIC POINT"?!
This is astonishing.
Would Mr. Hari like to have a go at this? Why not?