The following article by Andrew West was published in The Northern Star (NSW north coast) on Saturday, July 22:
Is militant Zionism the correct path?
Weekend Star
Long after Israeli bombs stop falling on Lebanon’s airports, roads and bridges and Hezbollah’s rockets stop landing on Israel’s railway stations, two questions will remain.
When will Israel end its policy of collectively punishing those whose democratic decisions it does not like; and when can we have an honest discussion about Israel itself?
One of the more insidious aspects of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and Gaza has been the suggestion that, because the Palestinians voted for Hamas and some Lebanese for Hizbollah, then somehow the people deserve their fate.
It is an interesting proposition. What then can we say about the huge number of Israelis who voted to give Avigdor Leiberman and his racist Yisrael Beiteinu party 11 seats in the Knesset in this year’s election?
Just as Hamas and Hizbollah disgracefully refuse to accept Israel’s legitimate right to exist within secure borders, Leiberman and his allies want to ethnically cleanse Israel of its 20 percent of Arab citizens. He speaks of “transferring” Arabs, who have lived in Israel for millennia, to surrounding countries.
The Washington Post reported Leiberman’s big pitch to Israelis was for a “more homogeneous” (read purely Jewish) state. Yet no western country has imposed economic sanctions or military blockades on Israel because a significant slice of its population embraced a racist.
In fact, even suggesting sanctions and blockades (which I do not support) is a taboo in the West, which raises the second issue.
One of Israel’s great strengths as a country is not its nuclear arms or its reliance on the US for billions in military and economic aid, but the vibrancy of the discussion inside the country. This discussion goes to the heart of Zionism itself and whether, in its current militant form, it helps or hinders Israel’s undoubted right to future security.
Having visited Israel for extended periods, I have been witness to, and a participant in, this discourse with hundreds of Israeli Jews of goodwill. Yet to raise such questions outside Israel, as the Jewish-Australian author Antony Loewenstein does in his superb new book, My Israel Question (MUP), means that, like him, you will be pilloried by the reactionary right as traitorous or, most disgracefully, anti-Semitic.
Over the past 20 years, Israel has lost many of its friends because it refuses to look inward and ask some hard questions – about the way its treats the Palestinians and even who it elects to govern.
Indeed, for such a ‘moral’ country, it is ripe with double standards and should examine itself and resolve these issues before continuing on with foreign policy.
When we say Israel has a right to exist, just which Israel are we talking about? The planned greater Israel? The Israel that will exist if Israel is successful in stealing even more land from Lebanon? The Israel that will exist when the wall is finished? The Israel of today? The Israel along the 67 line? The UN designated Israel, created with the expulsion of 800,000 of it’s citizens, into what looks like permanent refugee status in order to create a Jewish majority?
Amazes me how anuone can deny Israel is an apartheid state.
Would it not be simple if the Jewish (or current Israeli) lived along side Arabs and Muslims. Peace and love can change people, bring people together and unite until no troubles exist amongst them. But what this illegal state decided to do is to pursue its own hidden agenda which today it is paying the price for with blood of its own and Arabs.
Shame on Israel and its supporters who build walls using the blood of the innocent Arabs and Muslims.
“Amazes me how anuone can deny Israel is an apartheid state. ”
Is it modelled on Apartheid really? When I think of the South African explanation, they claimed “Separate but Equal” which we know is nonsense but was a way of appearing civilised.
The Israelis seem so confident of their status as superior moral beings, they no longer even attempt to hide their barbarity. Only when stopped to be asked they give, “Oh yeah, what was it? Right, two state solution. Gotta go, got Arabs to kill.”
No, not an “apartheid” one. That implies separate societies sharing the same land. What these wankers want is to complete the ethnic cleansing started 50 years ago.
As odious as the white South African regime was, at least it didn’t seek to expel the much larger native population!
What can you say about a country which strives to be even worse that that pariah state? And all those who blindly support it no matter what?!
But adam, what about the evil ways of the Jews that are too numerous to mention?
Have any of you actually been to Israel? Or are you just relying on Al Manar TV?
We all knwo you;ve been to Israel Captain. How could you not have gone there?
So what did you learn? How to kill an Arab child with an Uzi?
he did meet and befriended several Arabs, which makes him even more detrmined. The old adage “you have to be cruel to be kind” has never been more applicable.
That’s probably where the plot from Alien came from.
Becasue as Captain knows, Inside every Arab, there is a terrorist gestating, waiting for the right time to come out. Bets to put those Arabs out fo their misery right Captain, and have a pure of heart Israeli Jew curtail thir potential suffering?
i’ve been there captain,
i lived there in jerusalem and tel aviv for six months in 1994,
i worked in construction with palestinians and israelis,
i did painting of apartments, gardening and worked in a kosher resteraunt with two arab cooks,
and you know what,
it means fuck all to any of what is being discussed here,
we all have the internet, we all have access to new and information,
and we can make our own conclusions regardless of wether we have been there,
so shut up and address the points
Thanks for setting him straight Smiths,
Next thing he’ll probabyl ask if any of us speak Hebrew,
I recall the last time you shared your experiences in Israel and how that other loony who is no longer with us, stated that your opinion was of no relevance.
The morons are just a waste of time. They’re not interested in discussion, just putting out fires and damdage control for their beloved country that they refuse to live in.
I’ll drink to that Smiths. Cheers