Adam Horowitz writes:
Today in the New York Times Benny Morris gets his semi-annual opportunity to try to justify Israeli militarism and expansionism: "Why Israel Feels Threatened". Presented as an outline of all the threats Israel faces he begins, "Many Israelis feel that the walls — and history — are closing in on their 60-year-old state".
Morris goes on to list Israel's adversaries, or the walls that are closing in on Israel: the Arab and Islamic world, public opinion in the West, Hezbollah to the north, Hamas to the south, and Israel's own Palestinian citizens (20% of the state) right in the middle. Morris then warns that the current destruction of a Gaza might just be the model to handle all of these threats:
Let's not get sidetracked by the fact that Morris might be calling for the ethnic cleansing of a fifth of the Israeli state (wouldn't be the first time). It is more useful to focus on the challenges Morris ignores, the walls he doesn't see. Reading Morris's article, it is clear he can only see the reactions, but not the cause. He lists the responses to Israel and to Israel's ongoing Jewish colonization of historic Palestine, without mentioning the elephant in the room, that the walls closing in on Israel are all self made.
For Morris the hallmarks of Zionism, expansionism and militarism, are such a given that they go unmentioned. And what his article demonstrates is that "the walls closing in" is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Timeline Witty ignores because the Palestinians should stay on an Israeli diet:
January 2006: Israel fires artillery rounds into Gaza and bombs buildings after Hamas wins Palestinian elections
June 2006: Operation Summer Rain follows the capture of an Israeli soldier. A total of 240 Palestinians are killed in two months of bombing and ground raids
November 2006: Operation Autumn Clouds, a six-day ground invasion of Beit Hanoun, results in at least 50 Palestinian deaths. Another 18 from one family are killed in artillery shelling
June 2007: Israel steps up air raids after Hamas seizes control of Gaza
January 2008: A total of 18 Palestinians are killed in one day in an Israeli incursion into al-Zaytoun
February 2008: Israeli troops go into Jabaliya; around 120 Palestinians are killed in five days
December 2008: Operation Cast Lead is launched. At least 360 Palestinians are killed in the first four days
"Rabbi",
Your summary is incomplete, as is Horowitz' assessment of Morris' comments.
Morris is not an idiot. He is the author of books on the history of Zionist adventurism and Zionist rational defense.
He is the Zionist realist, the equivalent in analysis to Walt and Mearsheimer.
To the extent that Phil or others reject his observational approach, THEY become the un-realists.
ALL sets of observations are incomplete. The responsibility of a thinking and moral person is to collect a representatively complete understanding, and form their conclusions of possible strategies (with varying goals) and act them.
The litmus oriented "dissenting" view is uniquely inflexible. Reality exerts a twist, and the dissenter is left embarrassed for his/her former rigidity.
I like what I've read by Morris, and dislike what I've read stated about him, largely for the presumptive speculation exagerated to "truth" of his conclusion or proposal.
Even if his conclusion differs from my or others', his conclusions are NOT naive, not uninformed, and not ideological.
Israel feels threatened because it has not stayed within its legal borders, set by the UN in 1947. Almost every act of aggression, whether started by Israelis or Arabs, has led to the acquistion of more territory by Israel, which could not have been done without the benefit of gifted arms to Israel from either Europe or America. Arming Israel with the latest technological killing systems ever devised has allowed Israel to become a killing machine. The response to this enormous power makes some Israelis feel threatened, so they destroy more apartment blocks in high density urban neighborhoods and drop more antipersonnel weapons in playgrounds.
Witty, in your hasbara duties, have you ever considered actual English? As opposed to ziobabble?
Maybe you could try responding to Horowitz' point: expansionism and militarism are part of Zionism's very fabric.
That's where this war begins.
You just don't get it. And intentionally so.
Witty likes Morris.
Everyone should read this 2004 interview in which Morris clearly justifies and supports GENOCIDE and ETHNIC CLEANSING (an Israeli coinage, I believe):
"Ben-Gurion was right. If he had not done what he did, a state would not have come into being. That has to be clear. It is impossible to evade it. Without the uprooting of the Palestinians, a Jewish state would not have arisen here."
"…I don't think that the expulsions of 1948 were war crimes. You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. You have to dirty your hands."
"If you expected me to burst into tears, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I will not do that."
"There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing. I know that this term is completely negative in the discourse of the 21st century, but when the choice is between ethnic cleansing and genocide – the annihilation of your people – I prefer ethnic cleansing."
And that was the situation in 1948?
"That was the situation. That is what Zionism faced. A Jewish state would not have come into being without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them. There was no choice but to expel that population. It was necessary to cleanse the hinterland and cleanse the border areas and cleanse the main roads. It was necessary to cleanse the villages from which our convoys and our settlements were fired on."
But I do not identify with Ben-Gurion. I think he made a serious historical mistake in 1948. Even though he understood the demographic issue and the need to establish a Jewish state without a large Arab minority, he got cold feet during the war. In the end, he faltered."
I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that Ben-Gurion erred in expelling too few Arabs?
"If he was already engaged in expulsion, maybe he should have done a complete job. I know that this stuns the Arabs and the liberals and the politically correct types. But my feeling is that this place would be quieter and know less suffering if the matter had been resolved once and for all. If Ben-Gurion had carried out a large expulsion and cleansed the whole country – the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion – rather than a partial one – he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations."
I find it hard to believe what I am hearing.
"If the end of the story turns out to be a gloomy one for the Jews, it will be because Ben-Gurion did not complete the transfer in 1948. Because he left a large and volatile demographic reserve in the West Bank and Gaza and within Israel itself."
And today? Do you advocate a transfer today?
"If you are asking me whether I support the transfer and expulsion of the Arabs from the West Bank, Gaza and perhaps even from Galilee and the Triangle, I say not at this moment. I am not willing to be a partner to that act. In the present circumstances it is neither moral nor realistic. The world would not allow it, the Arab world would not allow it, it would destroy the Jewish society from within. But I am ready to tell you that in other circumstances, apocalyptic ones, which are liable to be realized in five or ten years, I can see expulsions."
Including the expulsion of Israeli Arabs?
"The Israeli Arabs are a time bomb. Their slide into complete Palestinization has made them an emissary of the enemy that is among us. They are a potential fifth column. In both demographic and security terms they are liable to undermine the state. So that if Israel again finds itself in a situation of existential threat, as in 1948, it may be forced to act as it did then.
And on and on. . .
"SURVIVAL OF THE FITIST"
link to haaretz.com
Haaretz archives only part of the interview; the full text is here:
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story1117.html
"Ben-Gurion was right. If he had not done what he did, a state would not have come into being. That has to be clear. It is impossible to evade it. Without the uprooting of the Palestinians, a Jewish state would not have arisen here."
I pity Benny Morris now. Does anyone recall when he tried to correct the record regarding the creation of Israel?
Hell rained down on the man. He's now trying to move back into the good graces of some rather than go into exile like Dr. Pappe had to.
Have any of you read Morris?
He is rightfully attributed with leading the candor, the expose, of aspects of Zionist history, that you RELY on for your assumptions and "analysis".
Disagree if you like.
True, Witty, and now he is back-pedaling as fast as he can, as Cee describes.
Benny Morris recently advocated the nuclear bombing by Israel of Iran.
He was advocating genocide in the New York Times.
Morris is more than idiot, I'd say. He's an extremely demented man. He believed that Israel didn't go far enough in 1948 and should have killed far more Palestinians and driven all of them from their land.
No wonder you like him, Witty…..