We have already spilled enough pixels on this site talking about the incoming Israeli government. Netanyahu will be the Prime Minster, Avigdor Lieberman will be Foreign Minister, and Ehud Barak has weaseled his way into remaining Defense Minister. This is a war cabinet if one ever existed. You can scroll back through the site to read the horrible repercussions this government may lead to.
There are two slight bright spots: First, the government's composition is threatening to isolate Israel as it shows the true face of its expansionist and racist policies to the world, and second, the Israeli public is already starting to reject their new leaders (32 governments in just over 60 years, it's clear there's not much patience). A Ha'aretz poll shows that less than a third of Israelis "are satisfied" with the government and only 25% support Lieberman representing their country abroad.
To mark the occasion, here is a flyer created by Palestinian-American businessman Sam Bahour. Writing from Ramallah, Bahour recommends that people:
Hang this poster/flyer on your library bulletin board, supermarket bulletin board, city hall bulletin board, university bulletin board, place on car windshields at events, take out newspaper ads, hold press conferences, add to your websites, send to your newspapers editorial staff, etc, etc.
Do what you can to expose yet another Israeli government that tries to cover its war crimes with words.
Download the flyer as a pdf.
Distinguish questions of sovereignty vs questions of title.
I'll say it again and again and again, because it is important.
The assertion of rule of law in a color-blind manner is/can be independent of the question of sovereignty.
As law (in contrast to the term "international law" carelessly thrown around), status and remedy is determined on a case by case basis.
It IS a valid criticism of Israeli practise within the state of Israel, and in the occupied territories.
After Palestinians (and some Jews), get their day in court, then the status of title can be and be regarded as settled, consented.
The politically based assertion "all this land is only ours" (whether stated by Palestinians in the West Bank, or Israelis wherever) is the formula for a fascist approach, that denies individual or even specific collective's rights, in subordination to national.
Bret Stephens goes to the theater and discovers a phial containing a culture of typhoid or cholera:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123846281350272143.html
Witty
"Ben-Gurion said that anyone who approaches the Zionist problem from a moral aspect, he is not a Zionist." (Moshe Dayan, September 1967)
I guess my memory is failing Witty. What court was it that you said should solve “sovereignty” issues ? – or is it title issues in your ambulance chaser legalese?
I say let's get on with the "ethnic cleansing" of those poor AshkeNazi settlers
Dear Richard Witty, As long as wealthy, politically connected American Jews are actively trying (and succeeding) in manipulating the US government into incinerating Arab and Muslim countries, it is completely legitimate to open a discussion of incinerating the criminal Zionist invader, interloper, and robber population in Stolen and Occupied Palestine.
Nuremberg Law is quite clear that Zionist colonists in Stolen and Occupied Palestine may be attacked at any time while the State of Israel as a signatory to the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide almost certainly has an obligation of self-obliteration.
The ICC has far more reason to indict Netanyahu and other senior Zionist leaders than it does to bring charges against Omar al-Bashir.
BTW, Arabs are becoming more interested in learning about the Israel Lobby and the role it plays in US politics. The Khaleej Times just published an opinion article from my wife.
Netanyahu is fundamentally a creation of American Jabotinskian/Neocon politics and really does not develop out of the Israeli political culture, which is for all intents and purposes irrelevant.
Israel has never been more than a pawn for outside commercial interests, primarily military, but also of course real estate. It is a great mistake to imagine that 'the real estate lobby' is anything other than a global force.
RIchard Witty – Netanyahu isn't interested in talking about land; he's talking war.
Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will
link to theatlantic.com
I've already trashed the idea at Commentary Magazine, and actually am not interested in returning for a while, until the wind dies down and the fuming subsides. Others might go joust with the great neo-con minds moldering away there. Tobin's article provides a perfect entrance, he's talking about bullies.
There is a more cheerful note, though. See here: link to plands.org
Check that out, Witty – and everyone else.
About the percentages of people who are "satisfied" with the government. Of course it is low. The nature of the proportional representation system in Israel means that every government is a compromise government, a coalition not a ruling party. The people who are satisfied are most likely the ones who voted for the largest faction of the ruling coalition.
Israeli government is as democraticly elected as you can get with a representational form of government. Which of course leads to chaos. Thank goodness we have winner takes all elections here in America.
so that makes the israeli govt something worth kowtowing to in washington, correct?
Actually Canary,
If you are going engage in skillful ridicule, it would be useful to at least address the point which is that TITLE is determined in courts, not sovereignty.
Mixing the two, is exactly the flaw of nationalism. Denying some person's civil rights for some national goal.
Posted by: Rowan | April 01, 2009 at 12:35 AM – please expand on this a bit. Why there in the Middle East? As Sin Nombre said in another thread 'we', the U.S., already had friends in the Middle East before the creation of Israel. So who is this global real estate force? Name names.
just look at the relationship between finance and real estate, and the players, from the west bank settlements to las Vegas, Laurie. Talking of Vegas, saw this today:
JERUSALEM, March 31 (Reuters) – Elad IDB Las Vegas LCC has signed an agreement to extend a $625m loan it took to purchase the site for a multi-billion-dollar Las Vegas Strip project, a company in the property group said on Tuesday. Under the agreement with the lenders, repayment of the loan will be postponed by 42 months, to August 2012, Israel's IDB Development said in a statement. IDB Development, with its Property and Building unit, owns IDB Group USA Investments Inc, which together with the Elad Group jointly owns Elad IDB Las Vegas. A sum of $95m will be deposited by Elad IDB to ensure interest payments for the extension period of the loan, it said. Elad, a private group belonging to Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, owns New York's Plaza Hotel and plans to use the Plaza name on its proposed $5b resort casino in Las Vegas. Last August Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse agreed to postpone until May 2009 Elad IDB's repayment of the $625m loan it took out in 2007 to purchase the now-demolished New Frontier Resort & Casino for $1.25b. In late 2008, Property and Building said that as the start of construction depends on conditions in the credit market, the group would seek an extension beyond May. IDB Development is a unit of IDB Holding.
OK, Noble Energy Inc. announced on Sunday that one of its exploratory wells off the coast of Israel had discovered three enormous underwater gas reservoirs.
The reservoirs are about 50 miles off the coast of the northern Israel port city of Haifa, and could mark the largest natural gas find in history, according to Yitzhak Tshuva, whose Delek Group Ltd. is one of the owners of the well Wasn't this found off Gaza's coast?
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=18030
@ Witty
"The assertion of rule of law in a color-blind manner is/can be independent of the question of sovereignty."
@ Canary in a Canard's Mind
"I guess my memory is failing Witty. What court was it that you said should solve “sovereignty” issues ? "
Israel's High Court is hamstrung by the nature of Israel's sovereignty: it has no real constitution and hence certainly no comprehensive instrument to protect civilian human rights. Thus the rule of law in Israel is at its core, fundamentally different than it is in the USA. Don't ever expect a Warren Court sitting highest in
Israel as the supreme interpreter of the law of the land.
link to flwi.ugent.be
And, as Joachim Martillo's comment suggests, either the Nuremberg international legal principles apply or the Nuremberg Trials were exactly what Goering said they were: Just a kangeroo court application of Might Makes Right.
@ Witty again:
"TITLE is determined in courts, not sovereignty.
Mixing the two, is exactly the flaw of nationalism. Denying some person's civil rights for some national goal."
That's the point: In the case of Israel, due to the nature and structure of its basic form of government it does precisely mix sovereignty and rule of law. All people, its citizens, are not created equally, nor give equal opportunities. Israel does deny non-Jews civil rights for some national goal. First and foremost, the state declared itself a Jewish State. It means to keep it that way. Fine. But with standing as an American citizen and taxpayer, I object to enabling
it's activities. Not in my name.
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Here's an example of Israel High Court in action, discriminating against citizens with Palestinian spouses. Note the interplay of judicial institutions and laws to arrive at the discrimination.
link to fidh.org
The USA courts use to regularly uphold covenants with the land to reinforce title remaining in
white hands. That's long gone here. A current issue is the "public purpose" issue regarding imminent domain, a state power rooted in the King as Sovereign.
"Mixing the two, is exactly the flaw of nationalism. Denying some person's civil rights for some national goal"
Richard Witty
Richard, I knew it was only a matter of time until you recognised the fatal flaws in Zionism. You are coming along fine. Now all you have to do is figure out who "people" is, and whether it includes Arabs. Do you think you can do that, Witty?