It hasn't taken long for the Lieberman ascendancy to pay dividends. Right-wing Jewish activists descended on Umm al-Fahm, the largest Palestinian city inside Israel, today in to carry out a provocative march to "demand loyalty" from the Palestinian citizens of Israel who live there. The protesters were primarily settlers from the West Bank who now find themselves in the Israeli political mainstream with the incoming Israeli government. Fascist Israeli activist Itamar Ben-Gvir was one of the leaders of the march and his talking points could have been lifted directly from Avigdor Lieberman's campaign stump speech. He is quoted as saying: Our statement talks about loyalty to the State of Israel," added Ben-Gvir, one of the leaders of the "march of the flags."
There is in Umm al-Fahm a gang of hooligans, who think they can win
using violence. The State of Israel is the Jewish people's state. We
are here to voice our truth and not to create provocations. The Umm al-Fahm march is another sign of the trend that the settler movement is turning its sights onto the Palestinian areas inside Israel in an effort “judaize” all of historic Palestine. But this movement is just a symptom of a broader ideology that now getting explicitly articulated and publicly embraced. Uri Avnery writes about this in the Palestine Chronicle in describing a recent debate in the Israeli Supreme Court which hardly received any attention. The case involved the Israeli law which prevents a Palestinian citizen of Israel from sharing their Israeli citizenship, or even living, with a spouse if they are living in the occupied territories or a “hostile” Arab country. Avnery writes: The matter came before the Supreme Court, The petitioners, Jews and
Arabs, argued that this measure contradicts our Basic Laws (our
substitute for a nonexistent constitution) which guarantee the equality
of all citizens. The answer of the Ministry of Justice lawyers let the
cat out of the bag. It asserts, for the first time, in unequivocal
language, that: “The State of Israel is at war with the Palestinian people, people against people, collective against collective.” One
should read this sentence several times to appreciate its full impact.
This is not a phrase escaping from the mouth of a campaigning
politician and disappearing with his breath, but a sentence written by
cautious lawyers carefully weighing every letter. If we are at
war with “the Palestinian people”, this means that every Palestinian,
wherever he or she may be, is an enemy. That includes the inhabitants
of the occupied territories, the refugees scattered throughout the
world as well as the Arab citizens of Israel proper. A mason in Taibeh,
Israel, a farmer near Nablus in the West Bank, a policeman of the
Palestinian Authority in Jenin, a Hamas fighter in Gaza, a girl in a
school in the Mia Mia refugee camp near Sidon, Lebanon, a naturalized
American shopkeeper in New York – “collective against collective”. Avnery is clear that this government position is not an exception. Rather, it is a rare instance of speaking the reality that everyone knows. He continues: These
anonymous lawyers should perhaps be thanked for daring to formulate in
a judicial document the reality that had previously been hidden in a
thousand different ways. The simple reality is that 127 years
after the beginning of the first Jewish wave of immigration, 112 years
after the founding of the Zionist movement, 61 years after the
establishment of the State of Israel, 41 years after the beginning of
the occupation, the Israeli-Palestinian war continues along all the
front lines with undiminished vigor. The Umm al-Fahm march is just the shock troops of the "radicalization process the entire country is undergoing." Avigdor Lieberman is currently the face of this process but its roots and history run much deeper.
Related posts:
- First sign of how Obama will deal with a Lieberman government
- Another sign Lieberman has a chance of weakening US-Israeli relationship
- Lieberman will have plenty of company: right-wing rogues gallery to enter the Knesset
- The fact that Lieberman is not exposed and savaged in the U.S. is testimony to one thing, the Israel lobby
- ‘Equal rights for all’ Or, How will American policy, and values, respond to Lieberman?
{ 50 comments }
A must read on Sic Semper Tyrannis.
And Witty thinks the rule of law with its due process should settle all issues of title to land… Even NAZI Germany had a judiciary.
yeah, I have blogged this under the heading "The Fascist Beast Is On The March Again". I have no compunction in using the term 'fascist' within the context of Jewish politics whatever, since I have never confused fascism, as a political ideology, with 'anti-Semitism'.
Witty will extol the virtues of State policy when it's the JEWISH State.
He is not a morally serious person.
It's just like Fenton and all the other ZioPuke blaming the stone throwers for getting shot threw the head by IDF goons.
Let's draw upon a more familiar scenario:
The blacks who got hosed during the 60s were asking for it. They were causing trouble and disobeying State policy.
This is the same mentality of Zionists. Anything for their religion – State policy; Zionism.
They won't question the validity of State policy. They won't question whether policy is the same as justice (never has been and never will be).
So following the disgraceful example by Witty and other cowards, we should never question State policy. We should never throw stones. Policy = Religion. To defy policy is heresy and you will be punished by death if necessary.
Relevant historical tidbit concerning stone-throwing and Apartheid in South Africa:
At both the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 and the Soweto Uprising, there were credible reports of stone-throwing by the protesters, although the protests were intended to be peaceful ones.
I don't support these protesters – yet I note that Phil Weiss supports the right of foreigners to protest in mililtary zones under the aegis of ISM, but denies the right of Settlers to march in Umm al-Fahm. What's the difference? 1. The protesters that are considered fascists are the Jewish ones, not the ones from Hamas or ISM. 2. The protests were by Israeli citizens within the bounds of the 1967 green lines and weren't in military zones. Given that Hamas doesn't want Jews period and that these marchers don't want people disloyal to the State, I'd give them both the fascist tag for the point of this posting.
As to L(S)D's post – the African-Americans who were hosed in the 60's were citizens of the United States. They were subject to hosing because, and only because, they were black, not because they were throwing rocks at police officer's heads or blocking US border police from preventing illegal immigration from Mexico because they believed that the Mexicans should own Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
The protesters in the Gaza and the West Bank are not citizens of Israel, are often, like Corrie and Tristan, not in any way connected to the region other than through the auspices of ISM (which Tristan became intrigued with after tree-sitting and trespassing to block an athletic stadium got boring). Sometimes they throw rocks, sometimes they don't. But they are not authorized in the areas they are harrassing troops, nor are citizens of Israel authorized to harrass troops in such areas.
By drawing a parallel between the African-American struggle in Selma to the situation in Gaza, you are defaming the actions of African-Americans who were peacefully, without rocks, demonstrating to have their Constitutionally protected rights granted to them. There is no Gazan or West Bank Palestinian right to live in the State of Israel – there is no right to eject Jews from Israel – there is no right to bomb Israeli citiies – there is no right to murder Israeli citizens in discos and pizza parlors – there is no right to terrorize Israelis – there is no right to call Jews "brothers of apes and pigs".
The Hamasites and their Philiistine supporters – who coincidentally are fond of wearing hoods – are the Klan here, not the Israelis.
Once again, you ignore the point of my analogy, you stupid bastard.
POLICY vs. JUSTICE.
Who says the State of Israel has any right to be in the OT? Israel itself?
You write your own rules and expect people to follow it when it is destroying their lives.
Why were the IDF in that village? Why is Israel continuing to colonize the W. Bank?
So you conveniently begin the criticism AFTER Palestinians react.
They are always the reaction to Israeli/Zionist injustice.
Umm al-Fahm is a Twenty-first Century Skokie, Il.
"As to L(S)D's post – the African-Americans who were hosed in the 60's were citizens of the United States. They were subject to hosing because, and only because, they were black, not because they were throwing rocks at police officer's heads or blocking US border police from preventing illegal immigration from Mexico because they believed that the Mexicans should own Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico."
More signature fenton rubbish. The rhetoric concerning black activists as terrorists and a security threat were identical to the Nazi vomit spewed by the israelis about Arabs both within and outside the green line. Blacks rioted..burned down entire city blocks during the civil rights struggle. What the hell are you talking about? Absurd!
Your history is abysmal.
The protesters in the Gaza and the West Bank are not citizens of Israel, are often, like Corrie and Tristan, not in any way connected to the region other than through the auspices of ISM
It of course would be much more easy to deal with this "mob" if no external observers were present? A logic the IDF understands well. Gaza.
Concerning expertise on or definition of facism my favorite is: Roger Griffin
Palingenesis – Politics
The protesters in the Gaza and the West Bank are not citizens of Israel
That's funny because Gaza and the West Bank are not part of Israel. From the Zionist/Fascist perspective, Israel should be punished as severely as Tristan was for being in Gaza and the West Bank.
Fahimis like to block the highway and throw stones at "Jewish" cars, burn tires and fight with the police, and sometimes use rifles to snipe at passing Jews. I expect "Land Day" on March 28th to be commemorated by such activities. The urban and social geography of U al-F is such that the Islamic Movement controls the town, and sends out riot squads to interact with the Jewish periphery, so this act is a highly illiberal reassertion of social control, political sovereignty, and a refusal to accept Arab terror, insofar as the fairly irritating but low-level terror coming from U al-F can be suppressed. In general, the Islamic Movement within the town has had the local elite "play the democratic game" of liberal citizenship, while unleashing terror thugs on the Jewish periphery from time to time to demonstrate to the State that "you need us."
That you know nothing of this specific social context makes me want to make sure you stay far removed of a position of influence over any Israelis, whether Jewish or Arab.
@ Fenton
Phil Weiss supports the right of USA foreigners to protest in Israeli mililtary zones (anywhere Israel says is
a military zone) because USA citizens are told they have a "special relationship" with Israel because it is
"a democracy" like the USA, with the same values and interests as its enabling country. If Israel wants to get the benefits of being the "51st state" it must also act like the 51st state and adhere to the USA values.
Per capita in foreign aid, every Israeli citizen of jewish origin gets more USA taxpayer welfare than any USA citizen. It cuts both ways–or at least the American protesters like Rachel Corrie Tristan did their heroic best to make this so. They should be applauded, not derided–of course, that's only if you are a USA patriot and believe in USA official values.
To me this is Zionofascism on the march. Ultimately these settlers want to remove all Palestinian presence from the land the Skygoblin promised them.
Fenton's attempt to equate these protesters with Anderson is absurd, Anderson and the ISM are peacefully protesting for a just cause (even as residents, not civilians they have that right). Instead the rightwing protesters are aiming to increase the amount of injustice because all they want is an Arab-free Yisrael.
Good point by Tommy too: the IDF has strictly speaking no business in the WB and should have withdrawn from it shortly after 1967.
@ Fenton
"There is no Gazan or West Bank Palestinian right to live in the State of Israel."
Just that they were there, living for hundreds of years, before the Jews came and kicked them out.
Most Gazans are descendants of arabs who were booted off their land in 1947-48, for example.
@ Fenton
" –there is no right to call Jews "brothers of apes and pigs".
The Hamasites and their Philiistine supporters – who coincidentally are fond of wearing hoods – are the Klan here, not the Israelis."
And there is no right to call Arabs "worms" and "sand niggers." There is no right to teach Jewish K-12 students by omission that Arabs were never a majority in the land now called Israel. The right wing Jews and their Chris's Stools supporters, which includes the sock-puppet Fentenburg, are fond of wearing
racist, rabidly ethnocentric t-shirts made in Israel–they are the Klan here, not the Christian and Muslim Palestinians.
Slightly O/T:
Israeli troops shut down press conference with injured American's parents [the Andersons]; beat activists
Never heard of Maannews, anyone have corroboration of these events?
Dixit Fenton:
"There is no Gazan or West Bank Palestinian right to live in the State of Israel."
Fenton's nailing his colours to the mast, I guess…
In response to Harry Fenton, I participated in the ISM, knew many others who participated in the ISM, and can categorically state that I'm not a fascist and the ISM is not a fascist movement. More interestingly, many of the key Palestinian organizers in the ISM are members of the rapidly-eroding Palestinian Christian community. It originated out of Bethlehem, the historical center of Palestinian Christianity. All of my Palestinian contacts were Christians. This does not, of course, automatically prevent them from being fascists, but your too easy conflation of the ISM with Hamas on one side, the Kahanist settlers who marched on Umm al-Fahm on the other, is blatantly dishonest. There are many legitimate reasons to criticize the ISM – don't call them fascist. Be honest.
Also, for anyone else: I'm new to these boards, so hey. I stopped paying attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004 because I couldn't take it anymore – too much tragedy, too much violence, getting called an anti-Semite a few too many times. However, the war in Gaza and the electoral triumph of the far-right has (just when I thought I was out!) pulled me back in.
I also have a question: does anybody have the statistics, or know where I can find the statistics, on Israelis who have left Israel since 2000? I run into Israelis all the time in New York, all liberals/leftists, and they all tell me that they are never going back, because of the political, social and cultural situation, because of their feeling that Israel has changed and that their secular viewpoint isn't welcome anymore. I've literally met nearly two dozen Israelis who match this description. I'm curious to think about what effect this has had on Israeli elections and the decline of the left.
Welcome back to "the cause", dadanarchist!
Jewish influx into Israel seems to be stagnating. I also know of Jewish Israelis who left but have no source of hard statistics.
Let's see, would the Israeli high court allow Um Al Fahm residents to protest against the occupation or to have any protest presence whatsoever inside whichever West Bank Settlement these right wingers come from? The answer: No. Equal citizenship? No. And to Fenton: The correct historical analogy here goes something like this – At a time when the US is dropping nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, right wing activists enter Japanese American communities and demand a "loyalty test" and ask Japanese Americans to pledge allegiance to US military actions. Oh yeah, right, that already happened, and it was called Internment. Was that democratic citizenship, my friend? Or was that fascism? Not to mention, unlike the Japanese, Palestinians aren't immigrants, they are natives and were burying their grandparents and great grand parents in what is now Israel long before the arrival of Purest Israeli himself, Mr. Russian immigrant Beiteinu.
"The protesters were primarily settlers from the West Bank who now find themselves in the Israeli political mainstream with the incoming Israeli government."
Wrong, Phil! This is what many liberal Zionist apologists like to say about the Israeli political landscape (just like Americans who like to think that our foreign policies were so peaceful and wonderful, until Bush II messed everything up. Exceptionalism not only morally sucks, it makes you stupid.). The settlement project started soon after the 67 War under a Labor government (I believe the first settlement was established in 1968 or 1969). The settlers have always been well represented in the various parties that have held power, including Labor, and they always received massive economic incentives, not to mention extraordinary military and security protection, from all those governments. We are talking about billions upon billions of dollars over the years. If it wasn't for massive aid from the US, all of this would have bankrupted the state a long time ago.
@Dad – I think others have written on this phenomenon, and it would make an interesting study. I have certainly met some Israelis, also secular and leftist (mainly students), who are in no real hurry to rush back, either.
It looks like, along with Kafka, we see a failure to communicate. Why is this so? I submit it is due to Zionist muzzle here and everywhere in the West–how can you talk about anything Israel is doing, no matter how much money we give them–and it's a lot, when this is the strict and elastic nature of your confinement:
http://www.doingzionism.org.il/resources/view.asp?id=2218&subject=131
Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen fest geschlossen!
SA marschiert mit mutig-festem Schritt.
Kam'raden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen,
Marschier'n im Geist in uns'ren Reihen mit.
Die Straße frei den braunen Bataillonen.
Die Straße frei dem Sturmabteilungsmann!
Es schau'n aufs Hakenkreuz voll Hoffnung schon Millionen.
Der Tag für Freiheit und für Brot bricht an!
http://electronicintifada.net/artman2/uploads/2/080928-pchr-settlers.jpg
@Dadaanarchist,
"Also, for anyone else: I'm new to these boards, so hey. I stopped paying attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004 because I couldn't take it anymore – too much tragedy, too much violence, getting called an anti-Semite a few too many times. However, the war in Gaza and the electoral triumph of the far-right has (just when I thought I was out!) pulled me back in."
That's essentially my story, too. I stopped paying attention for a long time and then the Gaza massacre brought me back to my senses.
But Dag, the Zionists tell me that Islamic fanatics – even Christian Islamic fanatics — are the Brownshirts of today? Was I misled?
Re: Umm al-Fahm, about which Eurosabra seems so knowledgeable:
One of the reasons the town of Umm al-Fahm got so big — and why many of its residents have long and unpleasant memories of settlers, not just over the Green line, is that many of them were ethnically cleansed off their lands and villages all around the city in 1948. Some managed to stay on the Israeli side of the armistice line in crowded ghettos like Umm al-Fah under martial law until 1967, but they were classified as (Orwellian!) "Present Absentees" in order for their lands to be seized and handed to nearby kibbutzes. None of their many lawsuits have ever enabled them to recover the stolen property.
And Whittless here argues that Israeli courts should judge the legitimacy of Settler land-grabs across the Green Line. . .
I think its clear that the Zionist mafia is lying and double-talking their fascist ways right into the pit of oblivion……..
These comments ring true today.
"So tell me, why are the liberal Zionists supporting these insane fascist freaks to continue to STEAL all of that land and militarize arabs even further into the zionist group of insanity?
Why indeed is the real question!!
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
And the real problem is the Zionists get a blank check and a free pass, while the Arab Islamics don't get a free pass at all"
What is this insane movement about to begin with, why is it so nationalistic and out of touch?
Should we be caring about Natalie Portman's looks or other Jewish types who do not support the Israeli government, or should we be looking smack dab at the Israeli fourth reich WHACKJOBS like George Soros?
And these are the "LIBERAL ZIONISTS" for peace, just imagine what the HASBARA ZIONISTS are like and what Tim Geithner is thinking with all these crazy fascists like Netanyahu!!!!
off topic post:
Informed Comment: Khamenei's Speech Replying to Obama
Fenton
There is no Gazan or West Bank Palestinian right to live in the State of Israel
What state of Israel? It refuses to create a constitution. It refuses to define its borders. In fact, it has encroached upon the property of others since 1948.
Interestingly enough, Palestine Remembered does not show many destroyed villages in the area of Umm al-Fahm, or in the Jenin district as a whole, perhaps because the Triangle was peacefully transferred in '49-'50 in an annex to the Armistice Agreement. If you mean that many residents are people who fled over the line to Cisjordan from the many, many destroyed villages of the Galilee and who were re-incorporated into Israel, that's an interesting point and a distinct possibility. More likely is that Internally Displaced People in Israel moved to it post-war. The thing is, because Jordan retained the area around Jenin and Umm al-Fahm, I don't buy the "Israel emptied the villages of Jenin District into Umm al-Fahm" line because not even the evidence on Palestine Remembered will support that.
MRW,
Legal borders set by treaty with Jordan and Egypt. UN recognizes the Blue Line as the border with Lebanon, even if Lebanon doesn't. Israeli civil law within the Green Line plus Jerusalem, plus the Golan which the PA doesn't recognize. Purple Line with Syria, which Syria doesn't recognize. The UN does recognize the 1967 border for purposes of UN 242. Israel has declared its borders, just because the Arabs don't like it doesn't make those limits invalid. And PA law rules much of the West Bank, and all of Gaza.
It's touching that you care so much about an Israeli constitution, too.
Another thing that should be pointed out is that right-wing mob harassment of Arab villages in Israel is nothing new, either. They will only get more visibility and encouragement, perhaps, now that Lieberman and his cohorts are in the government. But for Palestinian Israelis, it will be more of the same. Also, attention-grabbing incidences like this should not divert attention from the structural racism and discrimination they have long faced, regardless of the government in charge. It's too easy to dismiss events like this as, tsk, tsk, the work of a few kooks, letting the larger society and government off the hook (just as a noose in the locker of an American American worker or a racist song distributed by a dittohead RNC member will receive some press attention, but America's structural inequalities often will not).
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb, Eurosabra.
Yes, Umm al-Fahm and the rest of the Wadi Ara were never conquered directly by the Zionists in 1948 but handed over by the Jordanians as part of the armistice. That's why it was impossible for the inhabitants to be forcibly expelled — in peacetime — as they were from many other conquered Palestinian towns and villages "under cover of war." A number of nearby villages survived, but others with rich agricultural holdings — Lajjun, AlMansi, and others in a line north of the city were destroyed and their lands annexed by Israelis.
Pre-1948 Umm al-Fahm was in the Jenin district. The pop
The Israelis refer to the area as "The Little Triangle" — and this is the land (with its Arab population) that the Israeli Lieberman wants to divest from Israel. The other tactic is to provide lavish subsidies to new Jews-only settlements in the area, which are to all intents no different physically from the Hilltop settlements just across the Green Line. Meanwhile, Arab towns and villages like Umm al-Fahm are hedged in, crowded and prevented from expanding onto state or JNF (that is, previously confiscated) land all around them.
The Zionists call this a policy "to Judaize the North" — whose Arab population is regarded as "a demographic threat." I'm not kidding.
The highest judicial body in Israel has issued a shockingly frank declaration of race war.
Yep. "Collective against Collective."
Could anything be more anti-American?
We pay for race war or ethnocentric war?
Yes we do. Americans, Awake–boot the Zionists to the curb!
I see the comments are still so colourful here. PS Most of you are taking the bait of Fenton and Eurosbara. Why? Is it so hard to resist their call for demagoguery?
Never heard of Maannews, anyone have corroboration of these events?
Gert, Ma'an News is indirectly tied to the PNA.
WAFA is the PNA's official broadcast authority.
The Palestinian Information Center (PIC) is Hamas' media outlet.
It's interesting to compare the news coming from each of these sources.
IMEMC reported on the press conference yesterday, but made no mention of any incidents.
The feeling is that without more Jews in the Galilee, Palestinian-Israelis will exploit a continuous zone of their settlement to call for union with the West Bank. Liberman's proposal of ceding the Triangle to the West Bank is a sort of anticipatory threat to give them Palestine, whether they want it or not. The continual mini-insurgencies that block off the Wadi Ara highway–there may very well be one this Land Day–act as a type of laboratory for irridenta.
Let's just say it…….
Nazis,Nazis,Nazis,
@ KatinPhilly,
Comparing "America's structural inequalities" to Israel's is a sick joke. The practical effect is to minimize Israel's vicious, institutional discrimination.
Divide and conquer: the Israelis do it, and left-liberal American activists of a similar pseudo-"victim" orientation employ the same tactics against Americans.
I just read in the NY Times that Liberman is out and that Netanyahu has formed (is in the process of forming?) a unity government with Ehud Barak.
Says Joshua: "I see the comments are still so colourful here. PS Most of you are taking the bait of Fenton and Eurosbara. Why? Is it so hard to resist their call for demagoguery?"
Joshua – It's more the other way around. These "colourful" comments were here well before I popped in. I am slightly more realistic about what "colourful" means on this website – it means racist, anti-Jewish nonsense. According to the typical commentary here, Jews are "Nazis", Jews are part of a secret cabal to take over America, Jews are the "Zionist Mafia", Jews are "Facist Beasts", Jews are "Nazi vomit", the Holocaust is fake, Gaza is the real Holocaust, Jews don't deserve to live in Israel, Jews don't deserve to live, etc. and etc. All of this would just be going on in an echo chamber whether or not Eurosabra (with his/her cogent facts and insights – not "bait" – which reduce most posters to sputtering profanity) or I or anyone else grounded in the real world came onto this site from time to time.
Frankly, anti-Zionism is bait and it is still anti-Semitism even if Phil slings it with a badge marked "Jude".
I just read in the NY Times that Liberman is out and that Netanyahu has formed (is in the process of forming?) a unity government with Ehud Barak.
Thanks Duscany. Here's a link to the Times article, for those interested:
Israel’s Labor Party Votes to Join Netanyahu Coalition
@ Harry Fenton,
Most here make the distinction between Jews and Jewish Zionists, just as most Americans make the distinction between Muslims and Islamists.
Because you are a Jewish Zionist, and don't believe in separation of religion and state for Jews (but insist upon it for everyone else), you are of the same fanatical mindset as Islamists, who don't believe in separation either (but unlike you, don't insist upon it for others).
Because you don't believe in separation, your Jewish Zionist activism is political activism, and not religious/ethnic (or however you Jewish Zionists are defining yourselves these days). Therefore, anti-Jewish Zionism is not racial or bigoted, but rather political.
Next, you will be insisting that gentiles aren't entitled to political activism, either, because anti-Jewish Zionism is politically “racist.”
So let's summarize: no religious activism allowed for non-Jews; no political activism allowed for non-Jews. I guess we're all just supposed to be cattle, doing whatever we’re ordered by “the chosen” ones, and subject to their sadistic whims.
I suppose you’re entitled to your sick fantasies, but we’re entitled to do what we have to do to prevent you from lobotomizing and enslaving us. No doubt in your stunted, narcissistic mind, any gentile resistance to your twisted designs is "oppressive."
For dadanarchist, this might help, from a 2007 story linked to on Lowenstein's blog:
http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2009/03/12/trying-to-lure-us-over/
Barak carries his Labor into Netanyahu government
DEBKAfile, Mar 24 2009
In a stormy session Tuesday night, Mar 24, Israel’s Labor party voted to join the government headed by Likud leader, Binyamin Netanyahu. Seven Knesset members tried to torpedo the conference in a tempestuous revolt against Labor leader Ehud Barak’s partnership accord with Netanyahu. Out of 1,191 members, 57.9% backed Barak, 42% voted against him. The prime minister has collected 66 Knesset members (out of 120) for his administration on paper. Continuation of the internal Labor revolt could pare his majority down to 60-61 deputies, including Israel Beitenu and Shas, and augur a split in Barak’s party. Still, Netanyahu may opt for presenting this line-up to the presiden,t while continuing negotiations with the United Torah Judaism and/or two nationalist parties to build up his government’s majority. He may also seize the moment and join forces with Labor’s Barak, the Histadrut Trade Unions Federation secretary Ofer Eini and key business figures, with whom he has already put together an emergency economic rescue plan, to form a strong centrist national grouping which would leave the Labor rebels and Tzipi Livni’s Kadima trailing behind in opposition. Barak retains defense, and gains another five cabinet posts for his colleagues, including agriculture, commerce and industry, social welfare and possibly health, as well as two deputy ministerial positions and the chair of a key parliamentary committee – foreign affairs or finance. Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to respect all former international agreements. There is no reference to the two-state formula espoused by Kadima. Monday, Likud and Shas signed their coalition accord, after Israel Beitenu signed on last week assigning foreign affairs to its leader Avigdor Lieberman. Shas came away with four cabinet posts, including interior for its leader Ellie Yishai, housing and the National Lands Authority, as well as a pledge to raise child allowances and allocations for the yeshiva seminaries.
In 1956,0n the eve of the Israeli-french-british attack on Egypt, a curfew was declared on a small town in israel.Upon returning home,from work out of town ,fields,and or trips, and unbeknowned to them,49 arab men women and children were murdered ,as they came into town,in cold blood by the israeli army unit sent to inforce the "curfew".the town? Um-elfahem.The commander of the army murderers was tried and fined one agora.A penny.WE have long,long unforgiving memory.
Great post by Ed, which bears repeating:
"Most here make the distinction between Jews and Jewish Zionists, just as most Americans make the distinction between Muslims and Islamists.
Because you are a Jewish Zionist, and don't believe in separation of religion and state for Jews (but insist upon it for everyone else), you are of the same fanatical mindset as Islamists, who don't believe in separation either (but unlike you, don't insist upon it for others).
Because you don't believe in separation, your Jewish Zionist activism is political activism, and not religious/ethnic (or however you Jewish Zionists are defining yourselves these days). Therefore, anti-Jewish Zionism is not racial or bigoted, but rather political.
Next, you will be insisting that gentiles aren't entitled to political activism, either, because anti-Jewish Zionism is politically “racist.”
So let's summarize: no religious activism allowed for non-Jews; no political activism allowed for non-Jews. I guess we're all just supposed to be cattle, doing whatever we’re ordered by “the chosen” ones, and subject to their sadistic whims."
Wrong, Dagon. It was Kafr Kassem. It was the origin of the "Black Flag" ruling that requires IDF soldiers to disobey any flagrantly illegal order. I'm surprised you didn't also cite the commander's rather callous "Allah Yerahmum"–"Allah will have pity on them", but perhaps as a pagan Philistine you're not pre-occupied with anti-Islamic blasphemy.
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