Bernard Avishai has been doing great work recently. Here he contemplates the true tragic import of the likely new government, and hints at the inevitable liberal response to it (one state, baby). Notice Avishai's generosity: Israelis pride themselves on technological achievement. They say in essence, don't disturb us about apartheid because we will show you how to desalinate water! Well Avishai wants to share that legacy too:
[I]t is not at all clear that [Livni's] vision, or Ehud Barak's
for that matter, is much different from Netanyahu's, or Lieberman's for
that matter–one of the reasons Livni has been so coy. Indeed, it is
not at all clear, as Haaretz's Nehemia Shtrasler wrote recently, that Israel really has a political party that envisions both secular, democratic principles as the basis for internal peace, and global enterprises as the building blocks of an external peace.
This
is the great disappointment of the last election, a shame, truly, since
so many Israelis would know what to do with peace. Just last week, as
was widely reported, a team of Israeli scientists announced a
breakthrough invention, an "artificial nose" that was able to "sniff"
cancer in 92% of cases. What was not widely reported is that the lead
doctor, Hossam Haick, is a Christian Arab from Nazareth, the child of a family which a 1948 version of national unity failed to drive away.
Thanks to Jeff Blankfort.
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{ 24 comments }
Huh? This shows that yes, minorities can and do thrive in Israel. And Israel can take pride in their accomplishments as well.
A great news item, since usually the focus is on things like sports or music. But this shows how one of the first Zionist establishment's in Israel, the Technion, has enabled a Christian Arab to become one of the world's great scientists!
Meanwhile, Dubai's racist boycott is really beginning to backfire.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/showsports.aspx?id=SPOEN20090084418&ch=2/22/2009%209:28:00%20PM
From WTA director Larry Scott:
"I started to get phone calls from international sporting bodies. Some of the academic institutions, political institutions and cultural institutions in the UAE were getting a lot of pressure from this as well.
"Because they would have cared about the same things we care about, and had the same assurances about Israeli participation. One international organization called for an international political boycott against the UAE."
The anti-Israel crows has always said that if they were just allowed to strut their stuff, then you'd see some change. Well, here it is. Once this disgusting behavior is exposed, more and more institutions realize its racist nature and will take counter-action.
The thing about a single-state is that to manifest it requires an enormous amount of work primarily at reconciliation.
If the first work to achieve a single-state is contempt for the other, the single-state idea becomes that much further from realization.
The goal of a single state may be an excellent one. But, the means to get there are more excellent, and worth the time of dissenters. But, by definition "dissent" is a criticism, NOT an advocacy, NOT work towards an end.
counter-action such as this?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/788595.html
http://www.kabobfest.com/2006/11/israel-grounds-palestinian-football.html
Speaking of the means to get there, or anywhere, that is, "harnessing the US Administration"–Israel's latest political power configuration is a train wreck waiting to happen:
http://www.juancole.com/2009/02/netanyahu-train-wreck-for-israel-middle.html
Either the Arabs in Israel are living under horrific conditions, cowering in terror and just waiting for the zio-nazi jackboot to crash in on them on there way to extermination. Or they are able to go to Israel's finest universities and achieve major successes. The "Pig" needs to make up his mind.
BTW, I notice the "Pig" has a marked affinity for homosexual imagery. Not that there is anything wrong with it .
From the link:
Why is this man only a "senior lecturer" at Technion, and not a full professor?
You'll have to ask the Board of Directors.
"Why is this man only a "senior lecturer" at Technion, and not a full professor?"
He's too young. If he doesn't feel he's being treated fairly he can always leave. Considering how well Christians are treated in Egypt, he can teach there.
I love how you guys try to portray Israel as non-racist while constantly tripping over your own racism. Why Egypt? He's got no connections there. Are all Arabs alike in your mind? He's done post-doctoral work at Cal Tech. I imagine he could get a full professorship at a US college without a lot of additional effort, if he wanted. I would guess that he's got family ties in Israel that keep him there. But your solution is to have him leave if he doesn't think he is treated fairly. How very "white" of you. Anyone wanting equality in Israel should just go elsewhere, eh?
Are all Arabs alike in your mind?
Not so. However, arab nationalism reflects that concept, as does the Arab League and Nasser's Pan-Arabic movement. The Arab brotherhood has that in mind.
Israel's academe is very small and most people remain junior faculty until they take over from their own mentors in advanced middle age, so most of the dynamic young researchers in hard sciences in general and in medicine especially have less impressive titles than their equivalents in the USA.
Are all Jews alike in one's mind?
Not so. However, zionist nationalism reflects that concept, as does organized world Jewry, and AIPAC. The
zionist version of being a real jew has that in mind.
Zionist nationalism, which is a redundant term since Zionism is the nationalistic movement of the Jewish people, does reflect the concept that the Jewish people who wish to return to their homeland of Israel ought to be able to do such.
Citizen: You know nothing about Jews and Zionism. And shouldn't even pretend to know. And I'll admit that I don't know much about scumbag, anti-semitic, low life, cock sucking assholes like yourself. It's not a world I'm privy too.
"This shows that yes, minorities can and do thrive in Israel."
All this really shows is that there are a few individuals who manage to thrive there despite the very severe built-in disadvantages of not being a member of the "more equal" Jewish majority. The difficulties presented by not being a Jew – or more specifically of being an "Arab" – in The Jewish State are very well documented, and very well known. They permeate virtually every aspect of life.
From the Juan Cole link posted above by Citizen –
'Netanyahu is the devil's gift to international terrorism, which his policies will provoke. Fifty years from now, the turn of Israel to the hard right will be looked back upon as the beginning of the end of Israel, the time when the crucial decisions were made that rendered it impossible for the Israelis to stay in the Middle East in the face of the increasing popular anger Netanyahu will have provoked in 1.5 billion Muslims. No, Israel cannot be defeated on the battleground. But the French colons in Algeria were never really defeated on the battleground, either, nor were the thousands of Britons who had ruled India.'
————
Netanyahu's accession to power is reminiscent of the hard-line segregationist governors who were elected in the early 1960s, twenty years after the WW II integration of the military had made clear that American racial arrangements were changing. This crop of intransigents picked a fight they couldn't win, managing to provoke passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that shut down their white-power shtick for good.
Netanyahu operates under his own delusions. Doubtless he remembers being feted during U.S. visits in the 1990s, and assumes that his glib English and telegenic looks will once again seduce Americans into overlooking his hardline policies. He doesn't have a clue how much America has changed, particularly since the Gaza massacre. Antizionism, hardly even respectable to discuss a couple of years ago, now occupies a firm niche in the U.S. political landscape.
Cynically whipping up Israeli war fever during the campaign may have won the election, but lost the battle. War-weary Americans have no stomach for Netanyahu's territorial aggression; much less his cultural intolerance, at a time when the U.S. has just shattered a long-standing color bar. Netanyahu is an anachronism, profoundly out of step with the times. And that's good news for those who want to end the sick, symbiotic U.S.-Israeli 'relationship.' Good riddance; we never loved you anyway.
Quoting Juan Cole about this is like quoting "Pig Weiss" Not exactly a neutral source.
SOG: Citizen: You know nothing about Jews and Zionism.
What's to know that hasn't been discussed here, or is not available in books? Is there a secret handshake? A secret passage in the Talmud or Torah that only Jews can read and implement because its hidden in code and you alone get the key at your Bar Mitzvah? A message in a bottle from 5,000 years ago popped up in the Dead Sea? What?
Or are you just so incredibly Chosen that like 18th C Southern belles you have rules about who may or may not talk to, or for, you?
MRW, they all exclaim insider information from "anti-Semites" such as those who "troll" this site.
Are the comments getting quite testy (from both ends)? Gideon refers to Philip as a 'pig'. Quite insulting and if that was a gentile directed at a Jew, wouldn't that be anti-Semitic? Fuck. This place just gets out of hand huh?
Seems like the king of Phil's pholls has come down from the mountain to prove he is the biggest phool. It actually appears that you've understood little of the religion you were accidently born into. Thank God you opted out before you could actually learn anything, like the handshake.
@ chris berel
"Are all Arabs alike in your mind?
Not so. However, arab nationalism reflects that concept, as does the Arab League and Nasser's Pan-Arabic movement. The Arab brotherhood has that in mind."
Zionism reflects the concept all jews are alike in their minds. When a zionist meets a non-zionist jews,
the zionist ASAP accuses him or her of "anti-semitism" in the form of a self-hating jew.
True, Zionist nationalism is a redundant term since Zionism is the nationalistic movement of the Jewish people; Zionism does reflect the concept that the Jewish people who wish to steal land from the natives under the fantasy they are returning to their homeland of Israel ought to be able to do such. By definition therefore Israel is a criminal state.
RE: "Citizen: You know nothing about Jews and Zionism. And shouldn't even pretend to know. And I'll admit that I don't know much about scumbag, anti-semitic, low life, cock sucking assholes like yourself. It's not a world I'm privy too."–Sword of Gideonthe point
LOL. What's this guy Sword's IQ, 70? Did he ever make it through grade school? Sure does not look like it.
What an embarrassment for those who stop here of the jewish tribe.
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