Israelis must overthrow Benjamin Netanyahu. Some on the right say he is Israel's first real hope for peace, but a quick look at his record and stated beliefs betray a virulent, ultra right-wing, colonialist worldview that makes him the Israeli equivalent to Hamas leaders. His supposed "call for peace" last summer was a thinly veiled justification for eternal domination over the Palestinian people.
Throughout his speech, Netanyahu acted as if Palestinians are unwelcome nuisances in the land they are just as entitled to as Jewish people. He then "offered" (there was no real offer) Palestinian statehood in which its citizens would have no actual sovereignty or independence.
Netanyahu said, "The territory in Palestinian hands must be demilitarised--in other words, without an army, without control of airspace and with effective security safeguards."
What Netanyahu is pretending to offer is not a state--it's a cage. Its not sovereignty--it's imprisonment. There is every reason for Israel to demand that a Palestinian state not terrorize Israelis, and for Palestine to demand that Israel not terrorize Palestine. But it is absurd and immoral to demand that Palestinians not have their own defense forces.
Since that speech, Netanyahu has announced he will not freeze settlements or expansionsim, which he calls "natural." He has broken promise after promise made to the United States that he will end colonialism. He is very much supported by the Israeli right, and he obviously has no intention of changing Israel's course.
But until change does occur, there will be no real peace for Israelis or Palestinians. Palestinians will continue to be oppressed by an illegal occupation, and Israelis in certain cities will continue to live in fear of murderous terrorists.
Diasporan Jews must let their voices and opinions be heard. I do not let Rosie O' Donnell speak for me as a liberal, and I will not allow AIPAC to speak for me as a Zionist. We should be as on-gurad in our criticism of Israel's current regime and of their occupation as we are when dealing with American antisemitism. Let's support dovish Zionist groups that are pro-Palestinian as well as pro-Israeli.
What's at stake is nothing less than Middle Eastern lives.
3 comments:
Great post and I agree unconditionally. Netanyahu has never been serious about a legitimate two-state settlement, going so far in his open contempt that his spokesman proclaimed that, “yeah, the fragments of territory that we leave to them [which will be noncontiguous, separated ghettos, in effect], they can call it a state if they want. Or they can call it fried chicken.” Obviously, as you rightfully observe, this sort of attitude very much ill-serves the two-state peace process, as does Hamas’ virulent anti-Semitism.
The Israel-Palestine conflict cannot be resolved with such extremes dominating both sides, the moderates – which happen to be the majority on both sides, a majority of Palestinians as well as Israelis favor a two-state settlement – need to remove these extreme elements from power (it would be nice to see a party such as Meretz in power in Israel, a party which did terribly in the recent elections but which former minister of internal security and foreign affairs Shlomo Ben Ami supported) and seriously engage the peace process, as was uniquely done before at the Taba summit.
Thanks for the awesome response, JDHURF. I think what you wrote is beautiful and fair-minded!!
Oh and I agree about Meretz and I really like Shlomo Ben Ami. By coincidence, the director of J Street is named Jeremy Ben Ami.
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