Liked for the info, which makes me even more angry. And to think someone in Israel is probably glad, and hoping to move into his house (or to build one where his family’s used to be).
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Why do so many analysts of the situation perceive a
need to say in a sort of pro forma way that Israel has a “right to exist”?
Why does a state that’s been a genocidal settler state from the very (and recent) beginning have a right to exist?
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Honestly, same argument could be made about the US, and (if you go back in history enough) most modern states. I suspect this statement is in an effort to pre-empt accusations of antisemitism, not that it will work, of course.
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I’ve been thinking about that form of minimizing, and I think it’s whataboutism.
Palestinians are having their homes and land stolen and being slaughtered right now, not centuries or many decades ago. If we were living in what’s now the US when that land grabbing genocide was happening, then that would be a current injustice to do something about (while something like reparations is the more valid concept now).
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“tradition!”
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The unspoken statement in most calculations with regard to Israel is “Without the power of a (nuclear) state to protect them the Jewish people would become victims of genocide.” It isn’t a crazy thing to believe given even a short perusal of history. The world hasn’t done a good job of demonstrating that it is a false belief.
But once you take this as a given then statements such as “Criticism of Israel is inherently anti-Semitic” begin to make more sense, however illegitimate.
What is more awful is that it also seems that there is a converse belief that has seeped into the minds of the right - i.e. “Because they do not have the power of a nuclear state to protect them, we do not need to concern ourselves with the genocide of Palestinians”.
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i’m currently being hectored on twitter by someone who has taken my comments about the destruction of gaza’s only covid testing labs and the murder of two of gaza’s doctors along with their entire family as being anti-semitic. i no longer have patience for the trope that:
criticism of israel = genocidal anti-semitism
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I’m putting this in the Tom Cotton post, if you don’t mind… someone there needs to hear it.
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Right? The big issue is that the question “Will the Jewish people be worse off without a nationalist state?” isn’t allowed to even be considered. If you think your survival depends on a state, the slightest criticism of it seems like an existential threat and there is not really any way to convince you otherwise.
The John Oliver quote above “I would hope that a real friend would tell me when I’m being an asshole” is something that nationalists don’t understand. You are either on their side or against them. Hopefully most Israelis see Biden’s reluctant call for a ceasefire as the actions of a friend, otherwise they are not going to have any friends.
I haven’t seen what is happening on the ground with regard to protests today.
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The problem with this for me is framing the US as “an unwavering friend to Israel” which isn’t quite the way Jewish anti-racism activists see it. This is not Israel the tail wagging the US as dog it’s often portrayed as. Rather it is the creation of Israel as a client state which does US bidding. Some of those Israel have supported over the years in this context make a bit more sense. Obviously they have leeway and being at the sharp end of the sword they do damage that the US wasn’t necessarily intending.
But if the US wasn’t happy with this, or if Israel doing this didn’t achieve (primarily but not only by any means) US goals this wouldn’t happen.
Ask yourself: is the US happy with Al Saud? What would happen if it wasn’t or if it became a liability?
That.
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I have a hard time seeing a great deal of American interest in Gaza though. The US needs Israel to be a dominant power as a client in the middle east but I don’t see how they need them to be an apartheid state.
I have an even harder time seeing any interest the US has in Israel not being an apartheid state.
Palestinian strategy for decades was that the US would broker an honest peace. They were fundamentally wrong. The US wants a dominated Palestine to go away.
Also: sometimes the cruelty is the point.
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I can think of a few, like not fostering resentment against the US, but I’m sure the people who effectively define what a “US interest” is or not don’t necessarily agree with me.
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I think the US state is large enough that it pulls in different directions. In this case it seems a very large proportion of the population, the military, both political parties, the intelligence services, and the majority of the media are comfortable with everything about apartheid, imperialism, murder, torture, stealing land, imprisonment without due process etc. Everything apart from the words.
Same in the EU.
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This clip is why I nominated Sunday’s episode as the best ever from John Oliver. No one has spoken the truth so clearly on mainstream US media that I’ve seen. I was cheering out loud, but almost in disbelief. America and the Americans who let this slide have blood on their hands. Period.
Also, I got my conservative mom to watch with me yesterday (on demand). She laughed and cried, but the point is that she finally was able to voice two things: 1) Israel is in the wrong here and our facilitation of their actions is reprehensible and 2) with help from the segment on Stand Your Ground laws when they showed a Fox news clip of that murderer getting a parade–she finally closed the door on Fox news, something I’ve been fomenting for a while. Great success!
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