All this weekend I’ve thought about Ethan Bronner’s brutalized use of the term "cutting the grass" to describe Israeli raids and "actions" in the West Bank that have reduced violence, Bronner states. It seems to me an important moment: no one can say that this is not an ugly term, which hides a multitude of atrocities. Here’s one that Bronner surely isn’t covering, from a raid the other night.
Israeli Occupation Forces arrested an elderly resident of Jayyous this week, a Palestinian village located in the Qalqilya region, that has maintained an active campaign against the terrorisation of its people and the annexation of its land by the illegal Apartheid Wall.
Mohammad Salim, a 63 year old resident of Jayyous was taken from his home in the middle of the night by Israeli Occupation Forces this week. Salim, an elderly man, was just a few short hours away from leaving for Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to make the holy pilgrimage of the Hajj when he was taken by the military. Residents – even his own family – are dumbfounded as to why he would be targeted.
This is not atypical of the military’s strategy in Jayyous – what appears a haphazard campaign of unpredictable – seemingly random – arrests and violent invasions is a methodical attempt of the army to sow the seeds of internal discontent and provocation within the village.
a methodical attempt of the army to sow the seeds of internal discontent and provocation within the village.
In other words, the Israelis actually want another intifadeh to “justify” further grossly-disproportionate assaults on the Palestinian population, just as a child may taunt another child, hoping to provoke a fight that will “justify” him beating the other child senseless. “I didn’t start the fight, he did!” Maybe so, kid, but you wanted it and the whole point of your taunting was to provoke him into starting it, so as far as I’m concerned, the blame is on you.
This is just how they went around provoking wars with their Arab neighbors, then blaming them.
“Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us, to pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Diaspora Jews, so that they will be forced to run to us crying. Even if it means blowing up one or two synagogues here and there, I don’t care.”
Disgusted – who that?
potsherd,
The quote was long held to be Ariel Sharon’s. It’s from an Amos Oz interview with Sharon in 1982, finally published in English much later, and printed in counterpunch as well just before 9/11.
Here’s a link that lets you read parts of it (the quote above is towards the bottom) and it contains the web archive ink to the original.
link to kadaitcha.com
I was unclear above. Oz doesn’t say who the interview is with.
thanks – the sentiment is familiar, but not the attribution
You have to wonder who it was if not Sharon
Just like hundreds of other quotes on anti Israel sites it’s a fake.
… the Israelis actually want another intifadeh to “justify” further grossly-disproportionate assaults on the Palestinian population …
I agree, and think that any resumption of attacks on civilian targets by any Palestinian would be disastrous. While a good case might be made that attacks on colonists in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are morally defensible and legitimate resistance because these colonists are NOT civilians but rather a very heavily armed militia engaged in war crimes as defined by international law and common sense, Zionist media in the United States, the critical battleground for hearts and minds, would easily win any spin contest.
oops
… civilian targets by any Palestinian group would be ..
Does it matter? Gaza showed us that Israel will attack Palestinians no matter what they do.
Yes, but this isn’t just about preventing Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the short-term, but building support for BDS and political challenges to the Israeli Lobby. The goal is eventual freedom, is it not? Eyes on the Prize…
I think colonial Zionists want to play the tit-for-tat game because only the Palestinian tit’s getting reported in the American media. Each suicide bombing of a civilian target is a propaganda coup for those folks who want Americans to simply dismiss Arabs as violent subhumans and shift their attention to what’s on TV tonight. It is an abomination that Palestinians have to endure incessant Israeli tat’s. However those are going to happen anyway and while hitting back might feel good, it is counter-productive in winning the longer term struggle as long as there is still a chance of undermining external support for ethnic cleansing and colonization.
If that chance vanishes then their best bet, and a very, very poor one indeed, is to emulate Hezbollah’s defense of south Lebanon by undermining Israeli public support and/or acquiescence to ethnic cleansing and colonization by making it too expensive in lives and money. Given the truly vast economic, political, and social investments Israelis have made to make the Occupied Palestinian Territories ‘Arabrein’, at least the Israeli political establishment will be willing to pay a very high price. I think that support for ethnic cleansing and colonization has been part of the core shared identity of its members across the political spectrum for 40 years. Handing them propaganda gifts with which to stir up war hysteria and hatred plays right into their hands by increasing the chance that Palestinians will have no option left but a permanent Intifada which would either break support for the colonies or lead to their total expulsion from the West Bank.
And I’m sure the IDF grabbing this elderly man just a few hours before he has that once in a lifetime opportunity for hajj is a total coincidence.
It’s amazing how readily Zionists visit religious persecution on others considering how much Jewish people had to suffer from it in Europe.
“Last night we carried out between 15 and 20 actions,” a top Israeli commander said of the West Bank raids, in a recent interview under military rules of anonymity. “That was a fairly typical night. It’s like throwing a blanket on a fire. If we stop for a minute, we will go backwards very quickly. We call it cutting the grass.”
Your attribution that this is a Bronner statement, is MIS-representative.
If you read the article, if anything, Bronner himself points to the Netanyahu misrepresentation that the “settlement freeze” is one in fact, and that is stated as Bronner’s voice, not a quote of another.
I would be THANKFUL that criticism of Netanyahu was clearly, articulately, intelligently, hitting the mainstream press.
I would be thankful if Uncle Sam finally woke up and told the American people
the truth–and put his dentures in:
link to salon.com
If Ethan Bronner wants to be clear of criticisms like this Witty, than he must not give a quote like this and than purposefully continue giving an explication of the quote by skewed facts. By statements that followed like this (that did not come from another source) –
“And, Israeli officials note, even if the Palestinian Authority were to receive full credit for the sharp reduction in West Bank-based violence, there is still Gaza. It is ruled by the Islamists of Hamas who remain dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Since Palestinian Authority officials dare not even set foot there, it is hard to credit their claim to have dismantled terrorist networks.”
Phil presented this as the “analysis” of news by Ethan, and clearly this is what took place in the piece. He further embellished the statement of the “top Israeli commander,” by adding fuel to the fire agreeing with why the “grass must be cut.” As if showing this process is natural, inevitable – like the sun rising in the morning, or snow falling in winter, or birds flying about from tree to tree.
To state it more forcefully, it would be like a Nazi saying “all Jews must be exterminated” in a quote, and than going on not to disagree but to say “and we know what those Jews are like. The deserve everything they get.” Clearly not repeating the line of extermination, but embellishing it with further Raison d’être.
Clearly it is not something you would notice Witty, because you do it with such frequency here. When a practice becomes second nature to someone it is very difficult to identify the process being performed by another, because they have so internalized the skewed device.
I would be thankful if JUST ONCE you took notice of crimes against Palestinian people. Like say, a 63-year-old man being dragged out of his home by Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night for the “crime” of being party to anti-occupation protests. You know, that non-violent thing you keep insisting the Palestinians should be doing instead of terrorism? But no, instead it’s just an opportunity to attack Phil.
Cliff’s right, you know.
Why are you surprised Witty? Bromwich is fanatic ideologue. It was convenient for his purposes to misattribute the quote to Bronner.
A day late, a dollar short and one french fry shy of a Happy Meal, Julian.
Pingback: When journalists and professors and students were arrested during protest, NYT treated it as good news