Apartheid, fascism – but mostly colonialism

7 August 2016, Alternative Information Center http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

Written by Michel Warschawski*

Struggling against Israel as a fascist or apartheid state must be a part of an anti-colonial struggle that Jews themselves participate in.

 

Fascism, apartheid

My friend and comrade Eli Aminov sent me a text that he wrote titled Fascism or Apartheid. In his piece, he argues with an article recently published in Haaretz and written by Professor Zeev Sternhell, a leading expert on European fascism. Sternhell’s article warns of fascism in Israel and convincingly demonstrates local developments reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s. In response, Aminov argues that the term “apartheid” is key to understanding contemporary Israeli society.

If we use the term “fascism” in its broadest sense rather than its classical definition – which assumes that a strong working class threatens the capitalist system and consequently must be destroyed – then Sternhell, Avrum Burg and others who use the term are right: in the past decade the radical right wing regime has employed violent means to thwart all opposition. Such means include passing anti-democratic laws, employing tactics of

An interview with Tallie Ben Daniel

28 July 2016, Alternative Information Center http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

Written by Alternative Information Center (AIC)

 

The problematic equation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism hasn’t stifled student movements for Palestinian human rights at U.S. universities. 

Tallie Ben Daniel is the Academic Advisory Council Coordinator for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). She completed her PhD in Cultural Studies at UC Davis in June of 2014 and is currently working on a book manuscript titled "Gay Capital: San Francisco, Tel Aviv and the Politics of Settler Colonialism." Ben Daniel talked to Molly Dubrovsky, the editor of alternativenews.org, about student movements on U.S. campuses campaigning for justice in Palestine. 

MD: What sort of obstacles are activists against Israeli occupation facing on university campuses in the U.S. today?

TBD: Anti-occupation activists on university campuses – students and faculty – are facing quite a few obstacles, but notably, those haven't hampered the struggle for Palestinian human rights – the movement grows by the day. The largest obstacle is

Ben Ehrenreich Throws Stones at Conventional Wisdom About Israel

July 8, 2016,  פֿאָרווערטס Forward http://www.forward.com (US)

Sheerly Avni

 

In the classic American film noir “Out of the Past,” the wayward mob mistress and the private eye hired to drag her back home are, inevitably, flirting in a casino in Mexico. “Is there a way to win,” she asks, sultry and musical, pretending that she’s talking about the gambling tables. “No,” the doomed chump answers, “but there is a way to lose more slowly.” It’s hard not to read “The Way to the Spring,” journalist Ben Ehrenreich’s deeply reported new chronicle of Palestinian life and resistance in the West Bank and Hebron, with those dark words in mind. The men and women he grows close to lose almost every battle they fight — beaten down by Israel’s infinitely superior military force and the expansion of Jewish settlers operating with apparent government approval. And despite or, he might argue, because of his Jewish heritage, Ehrenreich makes no bones about siding with the losers.

 

 Courtesy of Ben Ehrenreich

Simple Pleasures: The daughter of artist 

Eid Suleiman al-Hathalin playing ball on her birthday.

The book has already been both lauded for its impassioned writing and criticized for the author’s explicit sympathy for his subjects (sometimes within the same review). Sheerly Avni spoke with Ehrenreich by phone from his home in Los Angeles, just as he was packing for a trip to the Palestinian Festival of Literature.

Sheerly Avni: You lived in the West Bank and spent some time there on and off, for about three years. How much did the amount of time you spent there impact your understanding of events?

Ben Ehrenreich: I know a lot of Americans and Europeans who visit the West Bank either as reporters or with delegations and return home filled with optimism and hope because they’ve met all these great and inspiring people who are engaged in inspiring acts of resistance. But actually living in the West Bank gives you a very different

Race to a million "mixed" couples

7 November 2011, Alternative Information Center (AIC) המרכז לאינפורמציה אלטרנטיבית

http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

Uri Yacobi Keller for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Jewish Israelis who advocate for separation between Jews and Arabs feel threatened by mixed couples, like the one on the Israeli reality show "Race for the Million." How might romantic connections and chance encounters between Jews and Palestinians happen in Israel, which is increasingly becoming openly racist?

Participants in the Israeli reality TV show, "Race to a Million."

Walla! Culture recently ran a story pointing out that one of the couples competing in the popular Israeli reality TV show, “Race for the Million,” is “mixed”. Meaning: a male, Muslim Palestinian citizen of Israel and a Jewish Israeli woman who dare to openly flaunt their romantic relationship on prime time television.

But before this couple came to Walla!’s attention, they were under fire from an organization called LEHAVA (“flame” in Hebrew, it’s an acronym for “Preventing [Jewish] Assimilation [with non-Jews] in the Holy Land”), which has published a pamphlet calling for a boycott of the show.

In a short interview with Walla! Culture Benzi Goopstein, the chairman of LEHAVA, remarked, “[Jewish] assimilation is the continuation of the Holocaust.” He also claimed that mixed couples result in violence against women.

However, Mr Goopstein did concede that “allegedly” the mixed couple “looks nice” on TV.

Suffice it to say that Mr Goopstein’s comparing romantic relationships between Jews and Arabs to the systematic genocide of millions of people is, at the very least, a slight exaggeration. And never mind that banning “mixed” romantic relationships between Jews and Germans was a fundamental of the Nazi regime’s discriminatory, anti-Semitic policies.

What I would like to expand on here is this: the very day I heard about the whole thing I went, as I often do, to a certain bar in downtown West Jerusalem. This bar is owned by Jews and Palestinians and its customers are Jews and Palestinians. And it is not uncommon to hear English, Spanish, German, French and other languages there. On the evening that I went, I noted two Palestinian girls chatting in Arabic over beers, some Arab guys, a few Germans, and many Jewish Israelis in various stages of drunkeness.

The place opened about a year ago during the football world cup. Without anyone forcing them, Jews, Palestinians, and “others,” sat down together to watch men chasing balls across a field. The bar has been running ever since.

But it’s just a bar. The fact that Jews and Palestinians drink beer there together, have some sort of fun, flirt with each other and, perhaps, do even more than that, is not artificial or encouraged by anyone. Nor is it very interesting or important to anyone. It happens because they’re young people doing what young people do.

That, more than any demonstration, is threatening to the likes of Mr Goopstein.

This bar is still far from representing the vast majority of the Jerusalem or Israeli nightlife. The Israeli public is, most definitely not on “our” side--it remains a base for the mainstream Israeli politicians who seek to continue occupation. But that same public also watches television where, in reality shows, there happen to be Jews and Palestinians who share their lives in peace. And that same public includes young people who go to bars to have fun where they might end up meeting Palestinian youth who are there for the same reason.

The road from randomly drinking beer together to a meaningful, substantial reduction in racism in Israeli society is still extremely long. And as long as these social meetings between Jews and Palestinians remain as nothing more than “fun” (or reality television) and are not accompanied by loud political contemplation, they hold little importance or political interest.

But if it annoys the likes of Mr Goopstein, it could be some sort of start.

Translated by the Alternative Information Center (AIC)

The danger of legalizing Israel as a state of Jews

MKs and ministers who object to Dichter's bill must make an extraordinary effort to battle the bill entitled 'Basic Law: Israel - the Nation-State of the Jewish People' using all legitimate means.

7 november 2011/Haaretz EDITORIAL Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

On Sunday, Knesset legal adviser Eyal Yinon made it clear to Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and his deputy, MK Mohammed Barakeh, that there were no grounds for blocking a bill entitled "Basic Law: Israel - the Nation-State of the Jewish People" from being submitted to the Knesset. Rather, he said, there should be both a public and parliamentary debate on the bill because of the broad implications it had for Israel's constitutional status.

In response, Rivlin announced that he would not conduct any further debate on the issue in the Knesset Presidium, claiming that the bill does not contravene the essential definition of Israel as a democratic country. He did, however, express his objections to the bill, which states that Israel's democratic regime would be subordinate to the state's Jewish identity, and which drops Arabic as an official language.

Both Jewish and Arab MKs from the left-wing parties, as well as other public figures, have expressed deep concern about the bill, sponsored by MK Avi Dichter (Kadima ), which, in practice, does away with the State of Israel's constitutional foundation. They argue, justifiably, that the bill contravenes the Declaration of Independence and its principles, and threatens the delicate balance between the state's national identity and its democratic and civil character.

The bill is making MKs in Dichter's own faction uncomfortable, with party chairman Tzipi Livni expressing her vehement opposition to it. Several Likud lawmakers and government ministers are also upset by the initiative, and certainly by the bill's wording.

But mouthing objections isn't enough. The bill may very well meet the technical requirements for submission to the Knesset, but it is a very risky venture. If it passes, it would be a watershed for Israeli democracy. It is liable to totally breach the dividing line between the principles of a democratic regime and the categorical, indisputable preference for the Jewish majority that will only deepen the growing distrust that Arab citizens have for the state.

MKs and ministers who object to Dichter's bill must therefore make an extraordinary effort to battle it using all legitimate means. It will be an important test for Livni, and for the entire legislature.

THE EXTREME RIGHT TURNED ISRAEL INTO AN ANACHRONISM

Unlike Europe, where the right has significantly grown but is still not in power, in this country the racists, the extreme and clerical right is the government, with only a vacuum opposing it.

1 August 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

By Zeev Sternhell

Slowly but surely Israel is acquiring the status of an anachronistic entity. The legislation that passed in the Knesset that dark night last week, which makes ethnic inequality a legal norm, has no parallel in democratic countries because it contradicts the very essence of democracy. In terms of the principle on which it is based, institutionalized discrimination against the non-Jewish population takes us back to the early days, when Israel’s Arab citizens were under a military government.

This had a far-reaching effect on Israeli society. Aside from the desire of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and the ruling elite not to limit their freedom of action, it was the ethnic and institutionalized discrimination that rendered impossible the writing of a constitution. In that way the Israelis, who for the first time became citizens in their own country, learned that independence did not require equality and democracy did not include respecting human rights.

In the year after Israel canceled its military government in Arab areas, the great disaster of the Six-Day War took place, and a military government was established in the territories. Over time, with the settlements, a colonial regime has been created that does not even try to conceal its nature. At a time when all Western countries have stopped ruling over other nations, Israel is creating a colony for itself, and even transferring the norms that reign in the occupied territories across the borders into the state itself.

Does the West have any such anachronism? The settlement colonialism is the main reason today, usually the only one, for the opposition, sometimes bordering on hatred, that Israel arouses among much of the Western intelligentsia. It’s not the enemies of Zionism and the anti-Semites who are delegitimizing Israel, but Israel itself, with its own two hands.

Although the extreme right has become stronger in Europe too, and the last word has yet to be said, racists don’t rule there, and they are considered a repugnant minority not only to the left, but to a substantial part of the liberal right as well. In this country, however, the extreme and clerical right is the government, with only a vacuum opposing it.

The disgraceful flight from a confrontation with the right in the Knesset will not soon be forgotten, and the center’s moral bankruptcy will be recorded as a disgrace. The greatest enemies of democracy and the sources of fascism’s strength have always been not the radical right’s independent power, but the opportunism, conformism and cowardice of the center.

And what would we say if in a Catholic country in Western Europe, the church leaders controlled political parties and dictated entire chunks of national policy? How would we react to the sight of a party leader and important government minister kissing the hand of a robe-wearing cardinal and running to carry out his instructions in the public arena? And how would we accept the news that to attain one of the most important positions in the country − chief of the Shin Bet security service − the clergy’s consent was required?

Of course, such sights would generate scorn and disgust, but in this country we have long gotten used to the fact that the settlement rabbis’ “halakhic rulings” can openly reject the rule of law and the state’s authority, and the hilltop youth are allowed to declare de facto autonomy in the areas they control. We have also gotten use to figures like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Interior Minister Eli Yishai and MK David Rotem, the chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, whose ilk in Europe are part of a history many people are ashamed of. It’s sad to see how one of the great hopes of the 20th century has become an anachronism before our eyes.

MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE: ISRAEL'S BLINDNESS

1 August 2011, Palestine Chronicle http://palestinechronicle.com (USA)

By Lillian Rosengarten*

We are by now too familiar with the label anti-Semite aimed towards all who dissent from the deplorable policies of Netanyahu's right-wing disaster. It does not matter if the resistance to Israeli occupation and ongoing collective punishment arises from the actions of Jews, Muslims, atheists, socialists or any human rights activists. In addition, Jew against Jew has created a deeply disturbing divide that pits Jews against one another and seriously questions what it means to be Jewish within a context of compassion or as a fear response to having once been dehumanized and thoroughly victimized. How can this justify the continuous role of Israel as victimizer in the form of an obscene collective punishment, an entire population marginalized, hated, left war torn and homeless without freedom. What is the message to the world after decades of this occupied prison?

I personally have been called an anti-Semite and nothing could be farther from the truth. My motives are not anti Jewish but rather antiwar I see as fascism in the form of an extreme nationalistic Zionism. This behavior cannot help but destroys the soul of Judaism a spiritual religion that ascribes to tolerance, compassion, does not kill and has the courage to reflect on its way of life. It is by now known that the Knesset, the core of Israeli government has thrown out a female Arab-Israeli member, Hanin Zuabi, who had the audacity to participate in protest against her country's actions. She witnessed the brutal murder of 9 unarmed activists on the ill fated Mavi Marmara that attempted to break the Gaza siege. She is now threatened with the loss of her Israeli citizenship.

Yes it is me again, Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany shouting to the world, never again, not in my name." Every day I am bombarded with news of some other atrocity in the name of protecting the "democratic state of Israel." I want to awaken from this nightmare. I no longer can tolerate to hear, “Palestinians do not recognize Israel and wish to destroy us." How much longer can we hear Netanyahu's mantra (US complicit here) "we will never recognize the terrorists Hamas” (legally elected by a majority of Palestinians.) I want to reiterate again, those who call others terrorists must reflect on the terrorism within themselves. The US is grossly guilty of similar careless projections of the label "terrorist" while refusing to acknowledge their own use of terrorism. Tragically Israel and the US both suffer from inordinate forms of extreme denial on the nature of their own violent behavior to keep wars and human suffering going and cannot self reflect on their ego maniacal political agendas. Other countries aid violence by selling arms and contribute powerfully as destroyers of human life in exchange for exorbitant payments.

Recent news has induced a cringe response. Germany sold a torpedo submarine to Israel, capable of deploying nuclear missiles and firing nuclear holocaust. How is this possible? Can it be a form of German restitution to assuage unconscious (or conscious) guilt by association with their infamous history when Nazi insanity and rabid anti-Semitism coupled with Aryan delusions of grandeur ruled Germany? I do not claim to know yet recognize the sheer lunacy to send weapons to Israel. Do we need more killings and endless suffering? Where is the resistance, the outrage? I need to hear more, louder, stronger. Does the Israeli agenda now include a nuclear war with Iran? Has Israel completely lost all reality? I can say much the same for the US that would engage mindlessly with Israel for we are Israel's strongest ally for an exorbitant corrupt price. Is the agenda of Netanyahu's right wing hoodlums to blow up all their neighbors to become the only country in the Middle East and the “only democracy?" Let Israel not become victim to its own self-fulfilling prophesy by their own hand. Such a nightmare, calling for the destruction of Israel cannot happen. Israel along with their Palestinian neighbors MUST change political direction. As of now, Israel is drowning in a sea of paranoia and fear. How can a democracy and brutal occupation exist together? How is it so many remain blind? It has happened before in the 30's but this time it occurs with a twist of fate. Racism lives in a different form yet is equally virulent. I am afraid. Left undisturbed, this myth of democracy will support a continuous unending tragedy for both Palestine and Israel. They must, in order to survive face each other with honest dialogue and sincere attempts at mutual understanding and compromise.

Now I end with some comments on Israel's harsh decision to build museum over a century old Muslim graveyard. For years Muslims struggled unsuccessfully to prevent this construction. The irony is the "museum of tolerance" is being built to promote coexistence and is a project of the Simon Wiesenthal (Nazi hunter) center. Ultra orthodox Jews claim ancient Jewish graves were once located there. Instead of tolerance, one sees arrogance, racism, infantilism, and utter righteousness in action. Can it be this provocative and destructive decision serves to reinforce the tragic rise once again of worldwide anti-Semitism?

*Lillian Rosengarten, a refugee from Nazi Germany is a Buddhist practitioner, poet, writer and a pacifist. She contributed this article to

PalestineChronicle.com. Contact her at: truthpoem@gmail.com.

THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM

30 July 2011, Gush Shalom גוש שלום http://zope.gush-shalom.org (Israel)

By Uri Avnery

The Nazi Propaganda Minister, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, calls his boss, Adolf Hitler, by hell-phone.

“Mein Führer,” he exclaims excitedly. “News from the world. It seems we were on the right track, after all. Anti-Semitism is conquering Europe!”

“Good!” the Führer says, “That will be the end of the Jews!”

“Hmmm…well…not exactly, mein Führer. It looks as though we chose the wrong Semites. Our heirs, the new Nazis, are going to annihilate the Arabs and all the other Muslims in Europe.” Then, with a chuckle, “After all, there are many more Muslims than Jews to exterminate.”

“But what about the Jews?” Hitler insists.

“You won’t believe this: the new Nazis love Israel, the Jewish State - and Israel loves them!”

THE atrocity committed this week by the Norwegian neo-Nazi – is it an isolated incident? Right-wing extremists all over Europe and the US are already declaiming in unison: “He does not belong to us! He is just a lone individual with a deranged mind! There are crazy people everywhere! You cannot condemn a whole political camp for the deeds of one single person!”

Sounds familiar. Where did we hear this before?

Of course, after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

There is no connection between the Oslo mass-murder and the assassination in Tel Aviv. Or is there?

During the months leading up to Rabin’s murder, a growing hate campaign was orchestrated against him. Almost all the Israeli right-wing groups were competing among themselves to see who could demonize him most effectively.

In one demonstration, a photo-montage of Rabin in the uniform of an [] SS officer was paraded around. On the balcony overlooking this demonstration, Binyamin Netanyahu could be seen applauding wildly, while a coffin marked “Rabin” was paraded below. Religious groups staged a medieval, kabbalistic ceremony, in which Rabin was condemned to death. Senior rabbis took part in the campaign. No right-wing or religious voices were raised in warning.

The actual murder was indeed carried out by a single individual, Yigal Amir, a former settler, the student of a religious university. It is generally assumed that before the deed he consulted with at least one senior rabbi. Like Anders Behring Breivik, the Oslo murderer, he planned his deed carefully, over a long time, and executed it cold-bloodedly. He had no accomplices.

OR HAD he? Were not all the inciters his accomplices? Does not the responsibility rest with all the shameless demagogues, like Netanyahu, who hoped to ride to power on the wave of hatred, fears and prejudice?

As it turned out, their calculations were confirmed. Less than a year after the assassination, Netanyahu indeed came to power. Now the right-wing is ruling Israel, becoming more radical from year to year, and, lately, it seems, from week to week. Outright Fascists now play leading roles in the Knesset.

All this – the result of three shots by a single fanatic, for whom the words of the cynical demagogues were deadly serious.

The latest proposal of our fascists, straight from the mouth of Avigdor Lieberman, is to abrogate Rabin’s crowning achievement: the Oslo agreements. So we come back to Oslo.

WHEN I first heard the news about the Oslo outrage, I was afraid that the perpetrators might be some crazy Muslims. The repercussions would have been terrible. Indeed, within minutes, one stupid Muslim group already boasted that they had carried out this glorious feat. Fortunately, the actual mass-murderer surrendered at the scene of the crime.

He is the prototype of a Nazi anti-Semite of the new wave. His creed consists of white supremacy, Christian fundamentalism, hatred of democracy and European chauvinism, mixed with a virulent hatred of Muslims.

This creed is now sprouting offshoots all over Europe. Small radical groups of the ultra-Right are turning into dynamic political parties, take their seats in Parliaments and even become kingmakers here and there. Countries which always seemed to be models of political sanity suddenly produce fascist rabble-rousers of the most disgusting kind, even worse than the US Tea Party, another offspring of this new Zeitgeist. Avigdor Lieberman is our contribution to this illustrious world-wide league.

One thing almost all these European and American ultra-Rightist groups have in common is their admiration for Israel. In his 1500 page political manifesto, on which he had been working for a long time, the Oslo murderer devoted an entire section to this. He proposed an alliance of the European extreme Right and Israel. For him, Israel is an outpost of Western Civilization in the mortal struggle with barbaric Islam. (Somewhat reminiscent of Theodor Herzl’s promise that the future Jewish State would be an “outpost of Western culture against Asiatic barbarism”?)
Part of the professed philo-Zionism of these Islamophobic groups is, of course, pure make-believe, designed to disguise their neo-Nazi character. If you love Jews, or the Jewish State, you can’t be a Fascist, right? You bet you can! However, I believe that the major part of this adoration of Israel is entirely sincere.

Right-wing Israelis, who are courted by these groups, argue that it is not their fault that all these hate-mongers are attracted to them. On the face of it, that is of course true. Yet one cannot but ask oneself: why are they so attracted? Wherein lies this attraction? Does this not warrant some serious soul-searching?
I FIRST BECAME aware of the gravity of the situation when a friend drew my attention to some German anti-Islamic blogs.

I was shocked to the core. These outpourings are almost verbatim copies of the diatribes of Joseph Goebbels. The same rabble-rousing slogans. The same base allegations. The same demonization. With one little difference: instead of Jews, this time it is Arabs who are undermining Western Civilization, seducing Christian maids, plotting to dominate the world. The Protocols of the Elders of Mecca.

A day after the Oslo events I happened to be watching Aljazeera’s English TV network, one of the best in the world, and saw an interesting program. For a whole hour, the reporter interviewed Italian people in the street about Muslims. The answers were shocking.

Mosques should be forbidden. They are places where Muslims plot to commit crimes. Actually, they don’t need mosques at all – they need only a rug to pray. Muslims come to Italy to destroy Italian culture. They are parasites, spreading drugs, crime and disease. They must be kicked out, to the last man, woman and child.

I always considered Italians easygoing, loveable people. Even during the Holocaust, they behaved better than most other European peoples. Benito Mussolini became a rabid anti-Semite only during the last stages, when he had become totally dependent on Hitler.

Yet here we are, barely 66 years after Italian partisans hanged Mussolini’s body by his feet in a public place in Milan - and a much worse form of anti-Semitism is rampant in the streets of Italy, as in most [or “many”?] other European countries.

OF COURSE, there is a real problem. Muslims are not free of blame for the situation. Their own behavior makes them easy targets. Like the Jews in their time.

Europe is in a quandary. They need the “foreigners” – Muslims and all – to work for them, keep their economy going, pay for the pensions of the old people. If all Muslims were to leave Europe tomorrow morning, the fabric of society in Germany, France, Italy and many other countries would break down.

Yet many Europeans are dismayed when they see these “foreigners”, with their strange languages, mannerisms and clothes crowding their streets, changing the character of many neighborhoods, opening shops, marrying their daughters, competing with them in many ways. It hurts. As a German minister once said: “We brought here workers, and found out that we had brought human beings!”

One can understand these Europeans, up to a point. Immigration causes real problems. The migration from the poor South to the rich North is a phenomenon of the 21st century, a result of the crying inequality among nations. It needs an all-European immigration policy, a dialogue with the minorities about integration or multiculturalism. It won’t be easy.

But this tidal wave of Islamophobia goes far beyond that. Like a Tsunami, it can result in devastation.

MANY OF the Islamophobic parties and groups remind one of the atmosphere of Germany in the early 1920s, when “völkisch” groups and militias were spreading their hateful poison, and an army spy called Adolf Hitler was earning his first laurels as an anti-Semitic orator. They looked unimportant, marginal, even crazy. Many laughed at this man Hitler, the Chaplinesque mustachioed clown.

But the abortive Nazi putsch of 1923 was followed by 1933, when the Nazis took power, and 1939, when Hitler started World War II, and 1942, when the gas chambers were brought into operation.

It is the beginnings which are critical, when political opportunists realize that arousing fear and hatred is the easiest way to fortune and power, when social misfits become nationalist and religious fanatics, when attacking helpless minorities becomes acceptable as legitimate politics, when funny little men turn into monsters.

Is that Dr. Goebbels I hear laughing in hell?

IN DEALING WITH FLOTILLA, ISRAEL IS ANYTHING BUT SMART

Outsourcing, aggressive and vocal diplomacy and ridiculous lies thwarted the flotilla, but they have not taken Gaza off the international agenda.

7 july 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

By Amira Hass

CRETE - Like an anti-Semitic caricature, Israel has extended its long tentacles around the globe in an effort to stop 10 decades-old ships from sailing to Gaza. Many Israelis interpreted this as a great victory.

The story could be read as follows: The Greek government wanted to save people whom it surely views as eccentrics and professional trouble-makers, even if naive, from a traumatic and perhaps even fatal experience. The Greek foreign minister rejected claims that Israeli pressure led his government to ban the flotilla's departure. He explained that Greece wanted to prevent a "humanitarian disaster" in the event of a clash between the Israel Defense Forces and the protesters.

Indeed, a Greek police officer - one of those who tried (in vain ) to discover from passengers on the Tahrir who was piloting their ship - did not beat around the bush. We wanted to save you from the Israeli army, he told one of them. The Jew of the blood libel, of whom one must be wary, has been replaced by an Israeli navy commando.

In anti-Semitic caricatures, the cunning Jew is doomed to lose and his control over the world is fated to come to an end. But Israel's government is revising the caricature and sketching a glorious victory. A war of attrition, in the form of mysterious breakdowns and unprecedented red tape by the Greek authorities, thwarted the flotilla's original plan to anchor off the Gaza coast. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly thanked the Greek government, he knew full well what he was thanking it for.

We must now await future media leaks to know what exactly Greece received in exchange, other than closer military ties. Perhaps money, to complete the caricature?

This is a convenient time to be using pressure tactics. Greece's socialist government is in a fragile situation, as the European Union and the International Monetary Fund are forcing the country to adopt an austerity plan that most of its people oppose. True, the fact that Greece has become a subcontractor of the Israeli army did not bring the masses into the streets, but there is no doubt about it: The sympathy of the Greek soldiers who arrested the Tahrir's passengers and of the bureaucrats who delayed them was with the flotilla and with Gaza, not with their government's orders. That's all we need: another country whose government gets along well with Israel in complete opposition to popular sentiment.

The flotilla's organizers added a term from the world of business and globalization to their description of Israel's domination of the Palestinians. Israel, they said, was outsourcing the industry of the blockade on Gaza. In exchange for reward, a foreign government - Greece - took on an active role and adopted a deliberate policy of keeping the Gaza Strip one huge prison.

Logic dictates that a government whose policy validates anti-Semitic stereotypes ought to worry Israelis and Jews worldwide. But the Israeli government is doing what its voters want and believe in. For there is one stereotype that has not been recycled here: that of the wise Jew.

Outsourcing, aggressive and vocal diplomacy and ridiculous lies thwarted the flotilla, but they have not taken Gaza off the international agenda. If Israel - which knew full well that there was not one gram of explosives aboard the ships - had let them sail to Gaza, the flotilla would not have preoccupied the international media as it did.

Blocking the flotilla did not discourage the organizers, who are graduates of the anti-apartheid and anti-white supremacy struggles. Rather, it provided ample proof of how white Israel is. As a result, blocking the flotilla only increased their motivation to keep placing the Palestinians' demand for freedom at the forefront of the international agenda.

A moment before boarding the next flotilla

24 June 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

I’d rather use my influence and power, in concert with other members of American civil society, to actively and nonviolently resist policies I consider abominable.

By Gabriel Matthew Schivone*

You might wonder what would motivate a Jewish American college student to participate in what may be the most celebrated - and controversial - sea voyage of the 21st century, one that aims to nonviolently challenge U.S.-supported Israeli military power in the occupied territories. I simply cannot sit idle while my country aids and abets Israel's siege, occupation and repression of the Palestinians. I would rather use my personal influence and power, in concert with other members of American civil society, to actively and nonviolently resist policies that I consider abominable. So, next week, I and more than 30 other American civilians will be sailing on the U.S. ship the Audacity of Hope, to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

I am one of a growing number of young American Jews who are determined to shake off an assumed - and largely imposed - association with Israel. Prominent advocacy organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee, which proudly proclaim their unconditional support of Israel, for several years have been declaring their "serious concern" over the increasing "distancing" of young American Jews from the state.

But what Israel apologists like the AJC view as a crisis, I see as a positive development for American Jews, who, like other parts of U.S. society, are shifting from blind support for Israel to a more critical position that reflects opposition to our country's backing for Israel's policies.

If Israel's apologists in the U.S. are alarmed by a falling off in unconditional support for Israel, they should be even more concerned that such a diverse range of youth - especially young Jews - are joining up with constituencies that actively organize against America's role in the occupation. Today, the so-called crisis has expanded from the coasts to such places as Arizona. It probably was just a matter of time before a Jewish anti-occupation group emerged in my home state, given that a fairly substantial portion of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on the University of Arizona campus (in Tucson) were Jewish. For our part, we Jews launched an initial chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace at the UA campus in spring 2010 - one of nearly 30 JVP chapters throughout the country, which has a mailing list of 100,000 - and thereafter branches in the general Tucson and Northern Arizona communities, and at Arizona State University, in Phoenix.

Through JVP, I discovered there were a great many others like me, who were experiencing profound internal conflicts regarding Israel. They included people who had been intimidated from expressing public criticism of Israel, and others who were afraid to speak out in defense of Palestinian rights for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic.

It was clear that a campus JVP opened up a powerful, organic outlet through which Jewish students could safely exchange and process - without fear, intimidation or a need for self-censorship - their critiques, concerns, ideas, knowledge, questions, discoveries and plans to promote achievement of a genuinely mutual peace in Palestine/Israel. Before JVP came along, it wasn't possible to have an open discussion, or feel that we as Jews had an alternative to either unquestioning support of Israel (the status quo) or staying silent and thus supporting it by default. I myself was silent and timid for much too long.

We are committed to acting out of Jewish ethical traditions, while holding Israel to the same standard as any other state in the international system - no more, no less. Before JVP, there was nothing on my campus that was critical of Israel from an American Jewish perspective. Zero. The group's success demonstrated that young Jews - moved by their cultural or religious values, which include a belief in universal human rights - have been on campus all the while, ready and willing to join a human rights-based cause for justice in Palestine/Israel. All it took to gain support on campus and elsewhere in the state was a potent sprinkling of opportunity, initiative and political will.

In Athens, as I write, waiting to board the Audacity of Hope, I am wearing a Star of David amulet around my neck, which was given to me the night before I left Arizona by a dear friend and fellow JVP organizer. She got it from a silversmith in Haifa while on a "Birthright" trip as an adolescent. For her, it had always been the reminder of the crude brainwashing she felt she had encountered on that trip. But when she came across the star recently, she decided it might be put to good use if I were to wear it on my journey. And so that's what I'm doing.

I wear it as a symbol of the basic values of Judaism that I feel are not emphasized sufficiently today: the imperative to welcome the stranger as you would want to be welcomed; and of helping to free the slave from a bondage that you would not wish to suffer.

As a consequence of various nonviolent actions undertaken all over the world, led crucially by Palestinians on the ground, the Israeli occupation will one day end. Those of us who face up to the unavoidable choice of either tolerating or resisting these crimes will determine how long the death and suffering of mainly Palestinian noncombatants continues, and how long a lasting peace in Palestine/Israel remains out of reach.

*Gabriel Matthew Schivone is a Chicano-Jewish American from Tucson, and coordinator of Jewish Voice for Peace at the University of Arizona.

Israel's right to exist does not mean its government can act with impunity

10 June 2011, The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk (UK)

Legitimacy in international relations relates not to a single idea but to overlapping concepts, one of which is appropriate conduct

Peter Beaumont

Last year the Israeli Reut Institute published a report examining what it said was the agenda for eroding Israel's legitimacy in the international arena – an aim, it argued, whose end was to turn Israel into a "pariah" state and challenge its "very legitimacy of its existence as a Jewish and democratic state".

It was not alone. As the Israeli newspaper Haaretz remarked at the same time, "delegitimisation of Israel" has become the "new buzzword in the world of pro-Israel activism." So much so, Haaretz noted, that prominent organisations including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee had all outlined plans how to fight it. On Friday a story in the same paper detailed Israeli officialdom's worries that UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September would "delegitimise Israel and foil any chance for future peace talks".

Others have gone further, contending that "delegitimisation" has become the face of the new antisemitism, manipulated, as the Reut Institute claimed, by a minority.

All of which, however, leads to a question: precisely what is meant by legitimacy in an international context?

It is unclear enough as a concept that Robert Kagan was able to argue in the New York Times in 2004 that "the struggle to define and obtain international legitimacy in this new era may prove to be among the critical contests of our time".

One of those who has studied this field is Ian Clark, author of Legitimacy in International Society. "The core principles of legitimacy," he writes, not only "express rudimentary social agreement about who is entitled to participate in international relations" but also – critically – "appropriate forms of their conduct".

The reality is that the notion of legitimacy in international relations relates not to a single idea but to overlapping concepts that defy the simplistic definition being applied by those Haaretz describes as being involved in "pro-Israel activism".

First is the notion of the sovereign integrity of countries as states recognised by the international community and enshrined in international law. It is this legitimacy that recognises Israel's right to exist and participate in international forums.

It is the same legitimacy that Egypt or Tunisia or even Libya enjoys within its international boundaries.

A second notion of legitimacy – familiar and well-studied from Hobbes onwards – is the legitimacy a government claims through the support of its citizens, in the case of a democracy via an electoral mandate, to represent for a period of time the policies of a given state. In other words, an internal legitimacy represented on an international stage.

But simply because a government and state is "democratic", however – or because it enjoys a large mandate – does not mean it is immune from committing questionable and illegal acts.

The third crucial notion of international legitimacy is Clark's category of "appropriate forms of ... conduct".

It is in precisely in this area that the government, a regime or series of governments of a state can be seen to relinquish legitimacy both through its acts and how they are perceived over a period of time.

For Israel, that means specifically illegal occupation, settlement building and a disproportionate use of force that historically has claimed the lives of too many Palestinian civilians in the name of defence.

The distinctions are crucially important because in the deliberate conflation of the competing spheres of legitimacy by some of those who support Israel, they are making an essentially undemocratic argument utilising Israel's right to exist as an argument for impunity.

DESMOND TUTU, ISRAEL E EU

25 maio 2011/Carta Maior http://cartamaior.com.br (Brasil)

Para mim, é tão imoral empresas lucrarem com a ocupação israelense da Cisjordânia, Gaza e Jerusalém Leste quanto era no caso das empresas que lucravam com o apartheid sul-africano. Como o mundo e eu aprendemos há 25 anos, a pressão externa é muitas vezes necessária para provocar mudanças políticas e deter um governo opressor. A geração de hoje está preparada para desempenhar um papel histórico, ajudando a trazer a paz, a justiça e a igualdade para o Oriente Médio. O artigo é de Jordan Ash.

Jordan Ash - Common Dreams (EUA)

(Jordan Ash é representante do movimento Jewish Voice for Peace, em Minnesota,EUA)

Quando eu era criança, minha mãe incutiu-me um forte sentido de certo e errado. A moral que ela transmitiu estava firmemente enraizada na história do povo judeu. Minha mãe falou-me dos pogroms na Rússia, das duras condições de trabalho que os judeus tiveram que suportar e da discriminação que enfrentaram nos Estados Unidos. Ela também me falou de Samuel Gompers, que fundou a Federação Americana do Trabalho, e de Michael Schwerner e Andrew Goodman que deram suas vidas, ao lado de James Chaney, no movimento em defesa dos direitos civis.

As lições que aprendi foram claras. Devemos lutar pela Justiça. A discriminação e o preconceito são coisas erradas. Todas as pessoas são iguais e merecem ser tratadas com dignidade e respeito.

Nos feriados, comemorávamos momentos onde praticamos essas lições. Na Páscoa, nos lembrávamos que éramos escravos no Egito. A Chanukah é a história de como Judas Macabeu e um pequeno grupo de homens derrotaram o exército grego para que pudéssemos praticar a nossa religião. No Purim, nós vaiávamos quando ouvíamos o nome de Haman, que queria destruir os judeus e brindávamos a Ester que arriscou a vida para salvar seu povo.

E, é claro, ela me falou do Holocausto, das formas heroicas com os quais os judeus lutaram e dos modos horríveis pelos quais morreram. Esta foi a história que deu tanta importância à fundação de Israel. Era como se, após uma sucessão de tragédias, a história do nosso povo tivesse um final feliz.
Como fui ensinado, os árabes queriam negar-nos esse final feliz e jogar todos os judeus no mar, simplesmente porque eram judeus. Eu, como tantos outros judeus, não fui ensinado que a fundação de Israel exigiu a remoção forçada de 700 mil palestinos.

Quando cheguei à faculdade, em 1985, rapidamente me envolvi em uma tentativa de envolver a escola em um boicote contra empresas que faziam negócios com a África do Sul. Fui preso em um ato de desobediência civil, juntamente com outros dez estudantes, incluindo Amy Carter, filha do ex-presidente e ganhador do Prêmio Nobel da Paz, Jimmy Carter.

Por volta dessa época, vi um panfleto que falava sobre a aliança profana entre os Estados Unidos, África do Sul e Israel. Eu quis acreditar que se tratava de uma falsa acusação promovida por anti-semitas contra Israel, mas não era. Israel forneceu armas para o regime do apartheid.

Alguns anos mais tarde, quando Nelson Mandela foi libertado da prisão e visitou os Estados Unidos, alguns judeus ameaçaram protestar por causa de declarações de Mandela, comparando a luta dos palestinos com a dos negros sul-africanos.

O fato de essa verdade sobre Israel ser algo muito doloroso, eu ignorei-a. Mesmo eu que procurava viver com os valores transmitidos por minha meu, que trabalhava com os sindicatos e organizações da comunidade, ignorei o que as pessoas estavam dizendo sobre a opressão contra os palestinos. Eu coloquei Israel fora da minha mente e, por um longo tempo, também coloquei os judeus fora de minha mente.

Então, vinte anos depois, ouvi um grupo de jovens judeus se manifestarem contra o que Israel estava fazendo nos territórios ocupados e como eles – como judeus – se sentiram obrigados a fazer tudo o que podiam para impedir isso.

Eu fui para Israel então, para ver com meus próprios olhos. Eu vi que Israel estava construindo um muro de 425 milhas, separando comunidades e famílias umas das outras, agricultores de suas terras e impedindo os palestinos de chegarem ao trabalho ou à escola. Vi que o governo israelense estava demolindo casas palestinas, enquanto continuava permitindo a construção de novos assentamentos judaicos.

Ficou claro para mim que o principal interesse de Israel não era alcançar a paz, mas tomar as melhores terras para si, enquanto forçava os palestinos a uma vida de pobreza cheia de lembranças diárias de seu “status inferior”. A minha experiência confirmou o que Jimmy Carter tinha dito: que Israel criou um sistema de apartheid.

Pouco tempo depois de ter voltado, a Universidade de St. Thomas, em St.Paul, desconvidou o arcebispo Desmond Tutu para uma atividade, após o Conselho de Relações da Comunidade Judaica ter dito que Tutu teria feito comentários ofensivos à comunidade.

O que Tutu havia dito? “Eu fiquei profundamente angustiado na minha visita à Terra Santa, que me lembrou muito do que aconteceu com nós, negros, na África do Sul. Eu vi a humilhação dos palestinos nos postos de controle e de bloqueio nas estradas, sofrendo como nós, quando os jovens policiais brancos nos impediam de nos locomover”. Às vezes a verdade dói.

O site JCRC Minnesota apresenta uma citação do líder zulu sul-africano Chefe Buthelezi dizendo que “o regime israelense não é o apartheid”. Quem é o chefe Buthelezi? Ele foi um dos únicos negros sul-africanos a se opor ao boicote e a incentivar o investimento estrangeiro na África do Sul, alegando que era uma coisa boa para o povo negro. A comunidade empresarial internacional abraçou-o e ignorou o fato de que todos os líderes negros do movimento anti-apartheid eram a favor de sanções e do boicote.

Inspirado pelo sucesso do movimento de boicote e de desinvestimento contra o apartheid sul-africano, uma ampla fama de organizações da sociedade civil palestina fez um apelo em 2005 em favor da campanha Boicote, Desinvestimento e Sanções como parte de uma campanha não violenta para acabar com a ocupação israelense.

As pessoas que se opunham ao boicote à África do Sul 25 anos atrás argumentavam que a melhor maneira de mudar o apartheid era por meio do “engajamento construtivo” das corporações com o regime do apartheid. Elas estavam erradas.

Para mim, é tão imoral empresas lucrarem com a ocupação israelense da Cisjordânia, Gaza e Jerusalém Leste quanto era no caso das empresas que lucravam com o apartheid sul-africano. Como o mundo e eu aprendemos há 25 anos, a pressão externa é muitas vezes necessária para provocar mudanças políticas e deter um governo opressor. A geração de hoje está preparada para desempenhar um papel histórico, ajudando a trazer a paz, a justiça e a igualdade para o Oriente Médio.

Tradução: Katarina Peixoto

Robert Fisk: PRESIDENT'S FINE WORDS MAY NOT ADDRESS THE MIDDLE EAST'S REAL NEEDS

In a keynote speech today, Barack Obama will try to redefine America's relationship with the Arab world. Our writer is sceptical

19 May 2011, The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk

OK, so here's what President Barack Obama should say today about the Middle East. We will leave Afghanistan tomorrow. We will leave Iraq tomorrow. We will stop giving unconditional, craven support to Israel. Americans will force the Israelis – and the European Union – to end their siege of Gaza. We will withhold all future funding for Israel unless it ends, totally and unconditionally, its building of colonies on Arab land that does not belong to it. We will cease all co-operation and business deals with the vicious dictators of the Arab world – whether they be Saudi or Syrian or Libyan – and we will support democracy even in those countries where we have massive business interests. Oh yes, and we will talk to Hamas.

Of course, President Barack Obama will not say this. A vain and cowardly man, he will talk about the West's "friends" in the Middle East, about the security of Israel – security not being a word he has ever devoted to Palestinians – and he will waffle on and on about the Arab Spring as if he ever supported it (until, of course, the dictators were on the run), as if – when they desperately needed his support – he had given his moral authority to the people of Egypt; and, no doubt, we will hear him say what a great religion Islam is (but not too great, or Republicans will start recalling the Barack Hussein Obama birth certificate again) and we will be asked – oh, I fear we will – to turn our backs on the Bin Laden past, to seek "closure" and "move on" (which I'm afraid the Taliban don't quite agree with).

Mr Obama and his equally gutless Secretary of State have no idea what they are facing in the Middle East. The Arabs are no longer afraid. They are tired of our "friends" and sick of our enemies. Very soon, the Palestinians of Gaza will march to the border of Israel and demand to "go home".

We got a signal of this on the Syrian and Lebanese borders on Sunday. What will the Israelis do? Kill the Palestinians in their thousands? And what will Mr Obama say then? (He will, of course, "call for restraint on both sides", a phrase he inherited from his torturing predecessor).

I rather think that the Americans suffer from what the Israelis suffer from: self-delusional arguments. The Americans keep referring to the goodness of Islam, the Israelis to how they understand the "Arab mind". But they do not. Islam as a religion has nothing to do with it, any more than Christianity (a word I don't hear much of these days) or Judaism. It's about dignity, honour, courage, human rights – qualities which, in other circumstances, the United States always praises – which Arabs believe they are owed. And they are right. It is time for Americans to free themselves from their fear of Israel's lobbyists – in fact the Likud Party's lobbyists – and their repulsive slurs of anti-Semitism against anyone who dares to criticise Israel. It is time for them to take heart from the immensely brave members of the American-Jewish community who speak out about the injustices that Israel as well as the Arab leaders commit.

But will our favourite President say anything like this today? Forget it. This is a mealy-mouthed President who should – why have we forgotten this? – have turned down his Nobel Peace Prize because he can't even close Guantanamo, let alone bring us peace. And what did he say in his Nobel speech? That he, Barack Obama, had to live in the real world, that he was not Gandhi, as if – and all praise to The Irish Times for spotting this – Gandhi didn't have to fight the British empire. So we will be treated to all the usual analysts in the States, saying how fine the President's words are, praising this wretched man's speechifying.

And then comes the weekend when Mr Obama has to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the biggest, most powerful lobbyist "friend" of Israel in America. Then it will be all back to the start, security, security, security, little – if any mention – of the Israeli colonies in the West Bank and, I feel sure of this, much mention of terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism. And no doubt a mention of the killing (let us not use the word execution) of Osama bin Laden.

What Mr Obama doesn't understand however – and, of course, Mrs Clinton has not the slightest idea – is that, in the new Arab world, there can be no more reliance on dictator-toadies, no more flattery. The CIA may have its cash funds to hand but I suspect few Arabs will want to touch them. The Egyptians will not tolerate the siege of Gaza. Nor, I think, will the Palestinians. Nor the Lebanese, for that matter; and nor the Syrians when they have got rid of the clansmen who rule them. The Europeans will work that out quicker than the Americans – we are, after all, rather closer to the Arab world – and we will not forever let our lives be guided by America's fawning indifference to Israeli theft of property.

It is, of course, going to be a huge shift of tectonic plates for Israelis – who should be congratulating their Arab neighbours, and the Palestinians for unifying their cause, and who should be showing friendship rather than fear. My own crystal ball long ago broke. But I am reminded of what Winston Churchill said in 1940, that "what General Weygand called the battle for France is over. The battle of Britain... is about to begin."

Well, the old Middle East is over. The new Middle East is about to begin. And we better wake up.

Jewish and Muslim leaders join forces to combat xenophobia

13 may 2011, Haaretz

Russian and Ukrainian Jewish and Muslim leaders meet in Kiev to discuss rise in Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as part of month-long European efforts to heighten awareness and fight racism, extremism and discrimination.

By Shlomo Shamir

80 leading Jewish and Muslim leaders from across Ukraine and Russia met in Kiev
on Thursday May 12, pledging to work together to fight a rising cascade of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the two countries.

In the first-ever “Muslims and Jews United Against Hatred and Extremism" conference held in the Ukrainian capital, community leaders from both countries heard chilling accounts of discrimination and abuse.

Conference participants spoke of the beating and harassment of Muslims and Jews in the two former Soviet republics, desecration of Muslim and Jewish cemeteries and bombings as well as other attacks on communal institutions of the two faiths.
The leaders pledged to work together to combat forces of extremism and hate and to put pressure on their local authorities to take a more assertive stand in fighting perpetrators of Islamophobic and anti-Semitic attacks.

Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) and vice president of the World Jewish Congress, hailed the historic event in Kiev, commenting; “The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, together with our partners, is gratified to be standing in support of joint actions by Muslims and Jews in the former Soviet Union and across Europe.

He added that the meeting's "purpose is to make clear that Jews and Muslims will be there for each other if either is being unfairly attacked, and will stand united in support ofprinciples of democracy and pluralism that will ensure a decent future for all Ukrainians and Russians.”

The Kiev conference was sponsored by the Ukrainian Jewish Committee and the Institute of Human Rights and the Prevention of Extremism and Xenophobia under the leadership of the noted Member of Parliament and business leader Oleksandr Feldman, in cooperation with FFEU.

80 Muslim and Jewish leaders from across Ukraine and Russia participated in the historic conference.

The Kiev conference was one of nine Muslim-Jewish events being held in countries in Europe during the month of May in commemoration of Europe Day.

Events opposing racism, extremism and prejudice against Muslims and Jews are being held in Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, in addition to the Ukraine throughout May, and are sponsored by FFEU, the World Jewish Congress, European Jewish Congress, World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations and the Muslim-Jewish Conference.

The events will culminate in Brussels on May 30, when top Jewish and Muslim leaders are to present a joint declaration to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, committing to "resolve to work together to counter efforts to demonize or marginalize either of our communities. Bigotry against any Jew or any Muslim is an attack on all Muslims and all Jews. We are united in our belief in the dignity of all peoples.”