Time To "Bitch-slap Israel"?

[dave32]

I dunno. I've never seen the issues so clearly defined before. Heck it's even getting into the mainstream media.

 

Did you read the Robert Wright piece in the NY Times? Very well written. I was impressed (not being sarcastic).

 

Link

 

Snipped:

 

"Boot has an ally in Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Foxman said the perspective attributed to Biden and Petraeus - America’s perceived support of Israel’s more inflammatory policies endangers American troops abroad and civilians at home - “smacks of blaming Jews for everything.â€Â

 

 

Foxman’s claim may seem hyperbolic, but look at it this way: If he can convince us that blaming any Israeli policy for anything is akin to blaming Jews in general for everything, then anyone who criticizes an Israeli policy will be deemed anti-Semitic  and fear of that label will keep everyone from criticizing Israel. And by virtue of never criticizing Israel, we’ll all be “pro-Israel.†And that’s a good thing, right?

 

Actually, it seems to me that if we were all “pro-Israel†in this sense, that would be bad for Israel.

 

If Israel’s increasingly powerful right wing has its way, without constraint from American criticism and pressure, then Israel will keep building settlements. And the more settlements get built  especially in East Jerusalem  the harder it will be to find a two-state deal that leaves Palestinians with much of their dignity intact. And the less dignity intact, the less stable any two-state deal will be.

 

As more and more people are realizing, the only long-run alternatives to a two-state solution are: a) a one-state solution in which an Arab majority spells the end of Israel’s Jewish identity; Israel’s remaining a Jewish state by denying the vote to Palestinians who live in the occupied territories, a condition that would be increasingly reminiscent of apartheid; c) the apocalypse. Or, as Hillary Clinton put it in addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference on Monday: “A two-state solution is the only viable path for Israel to remain both a democracy and a Jewish state.â€Â

 

So, by my lights, being “pro-Israel†in the sense embraced by Bauer, Boot and Foxman  backing Israel’s current policies, including its settlement policies  is actually anti-Israel. It’s also anti-America (in the sense of ‘bad for American security’), because Biden and Petraeus are right: America’s perceived support of  or at least acquiescence in  Israel’s more inflammatory policies endangers American troops abroad. In the long run, it will also endanger American civilians at home, funneling more terrorism in their direction.

[chuckwoww]

Amazing to read something like that in the NYT. Even Wolf Blitzer mentioned Petraeus' statement on CNN.

[Hugh_Hoy]

...The US and Israel are in uncharted waters.

 

Quite true. I'm not worried about the U.S. needing to take swimming lessons too much. But if I were an Israeli, I'd be worried that my lifeguard might be retiring.

 

I read a good letter to the LA Times today which relates to this very subject. Here it is:

 

"The government of Israel is just that -- a government. It is not the nation itself or the Jewish people, any more than the federal government in Washington is the same as the American people. And like any government, Israel's can be corrupt, incompetent and blind to the best interests of its own people.

 

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is right to criticize the Israeli government, and Israel ignores her criticism at its own risk. Many American Jews are tired of the endless wars in the region and want a two-state solution and peace. Large numbers of Israelis feel the same way, and many of them have voted with their feet, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have emigrated to the U.S. and other countries.

 

If Israel doesn't take some positive steps on its own toward a two-state solution, it will continue to exist in a state of siege that will damage its economy even more than it has been damaged already."

 

HH

 

 

 

[chuckwoww]

'Large numbers of Israelis feel the same way, and many of them have voted with their feet, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have emigrated to the U.S. and other countries.'

 

And those would mostly be moderates. Over the last 10 years or so they've been replaced by settler zealots and Russian mafiosi.

[Guest lazyphil]

let the istaeli 'manifest destiny' take its course. seems odd the US is the peace broker here, what with its own illegal occupation deal and all.....LP, the broken record hehe

[Guest lazyphil]

<>

 

 

worrying thing is these nutjobs have more nukes than i have brain cells (ok, thats a rubbish analogy, they could have only 3 then).....back them into a corner and round 3 begins, hoorah!!!

 

i blame the germans for all this, kamui, your nazi grandpops fucked up, you lot up fuck it!!!

[chuckwoww]

let the istaeli 'manifest destiny' take its course. seems odd the US is the peace broker here, what with its own illegal occupation deal and all.....LP, the broken record hehe

 

Strange? Not really. I know you want to bring Wounded Knee and Martin Luther King into it but the US is the most powerful nation on earth with vital interests in the region. Sure you don't mean ironic?

[kamui]

 

i blame the germans for all this, kamui, your nazi grandpops fucked up, you lot up fuck it!!!

 

While the Zionist movement is much older than the Nazi regime, you are right that the Nazis forced the Jews, who were able to flee, to find a new place to live.

 

[Guest lazyphil]

yes indeed kamui, i've heard about the zionist movement. but the nazis gave a good excuse, without the nazi/german holocasust it may have well remained a fantasy never to have happened. i repeat, its your mess, you lot clean it up.

[robaus]

LazyPhil,

 

According to your twisted arse-over-tit logic no-one has the right to criticize any aggressive theft of someone else's land, because ultimately all our ancestors were interlopers.

 

Well, if that's the case why don't you piss off back to the Olduvai Gorge, and leave Britain to its rightful owners - Sudanese Muslims whose DNA is probably a closer match to the original Britons than yours? hehe