It is a well-known fact that two former Prime Ministers of Israel, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, have in recent years warned that Israel will become an apartheid state if it does not divest itself of the Palestinian territories that it occupies. The two men are cited all the time by American commentators who are not allowed to make this judgment themselves, let alone offer the observation that this is not just a prediction, Israel is practicing apartheid now in the West Bank, with separate roadways etc.
Well, now I learn that another former P.M. also made the same prediction. Hirsh Goodman's toughminded memoir, Let Me Create a Paradise, God Said to Himself, has a lot about Goodman's service in several Israeli wars. During the '67 War, Goodman got back from his Sinai to his kibbutz in time to find his girlfriend in bed with a friend. Then:
I was too exhausted to care. I flopped into bed, put ont he radio and slept and slept and slept... Then David Ben-Gurion came on with his chirpy little voice, his sentences clipped and hard.
Israel, he said, better rid itself of the territories and their Arab population as soon as possible. If it did not Israel would soon become an Apartheid State. Demography, he said, was a greater danger than not having the territorial depth the right wing was always claiming Israel needed to defend itself.
That phrase, 'Israel will become an Apartheid State,' resonated with me. In a flash I understood what he was saying. I had seen the results of war and the beginnings of occupation with men hunched in trucks, hands on their heads, humiliated; taxis crushed mercilessly; people's livelihoods taken away in an instant; homes taken over and billiard cues used to extract the truth [reference to torture]. The taking of the biblical towns of the West Bank... was a miracle... But Ben-Gurion's warning would return to me incessantly as we settled into our base in El Arish [Egypt] for what seemed to be a long time to come.
Goodman himself grew up in Apartheid South Africa, which he left for Israel. He doesn't make the complete shift required here, toward understanding of what Israel has become. But he shows us that several former Prime Ministers now have understood the issue.
And remember, that when Jimmy Carter had the temerity to use the word Apartheid, 40 years after Ben-Gurion's warning, Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air assailed him for doing so. Our discourse is far weaker on this issue than Israel's. Why? Because of the lobby and the non-belief in American democracy when it comes to this policy.
Ben Gurion was talking about substantive apartheid relations, in the intent to preserve Jewish self-governance.
He noted that the far-right objective of ethnic cleansing of Palestians/Arabs from the region was impossible, undesirable, not credible, and illegal. He certainly had no love of militant Arab objectives.
That is substance.
The issue with Jimmy Carter was over a word, and then implied strategy.
I forgot who commented on this. But, the criticism of the use of the term apartheid for Israel/Palestinian relations implies that the same remedy will apply in all respects.
And, that parallel is false. There is no respected Mandela and Mbeki (respected to the same degree and morally tested in the same degree) that can lead Palestinian solidarity to the fundamental charity and unity that Mandela inspired.
The demographics are different, creating a fundamentally different dynamic. 50/50 that is geographically divided largely (20% minority maximum) is a natural partition solution. 10/90 is a natural unified democracy.
Fundamental differences between apartheid and Israel/Palestine substantively. Fundamental differences in practical remedy.
“He noted that the far-right objective of ethnic cleansing of Palestians/Arabs from the region was impossible, undesirable, not credible, and illegal”‘
But he was all for it.
“And, that parallel is false. “‘
On the contrary. As the Haaretz artilce points out, BDS is the only thing that will produce results. The parallel is obvious and undeniable.
Mandela himself has stated it is.
There are manyMandela’s who can lead Israel, but like Mandela Israel has them in prison and like South Africa did with Mandela, Israel labels them terrorits.
The huge irnony is that has you been a South African white supermacist, you would have been decrying Mandela for failing to stick to non vilent resistance.
You love to obsess about the demographics, but the demographics are irrlevant.
There are no differences between apartheid and Israel/Palestine substantively. Madenla should know, and as the Haaretz articel oiints out, the rememdies are the same.
I would suggest that the remody for Israel needs to be far more severe and include sanctions.
Mandela was not recognized by US or Israel as prophet.Neither will Palestinian leader would be. When a new independent paestine is born Israel and US will see the signs of the prophet in one or two alive or deceased Palestinian.
Thats the way it goes.
Witty, you know as well as anyone that there are many Palestinians prepared and keen to go forwards without rancour. The supremacism of the Zionists is what prevents them recognising such people.
I don’t know who Hirsh Goodman’s girlfriend was back in 1967, but his current wife is New York Times reporter Isabel Kirschner. Does she have a conflict of interest? Oh yes.
NY Times has a family rehabilitation programme for Jews traumatized in I/P war. I wonder if it would make an exception and give a job to the family member of that Malboro poster boy from Iraq.
Israel will become an apartheid state if it does not divest itself of the Palestinian people in the territories that it occupies.
There, fixed that for you.
It is quite clear that Israel wants land and ‘pure’ state over peace.
“During the ’67 War, Goodman got back from his Sinai to his kibbutz in time to find his girlfriend in bed with a friend.”
It’s good to know that some people understand the seriousness of the ticking fuse of the Palestinian Demographic Time Bomb! The collapse of Israel’s birthrate will not be laid at the feet of the closed thighs of Goodman’s girlfriend!
I sent Tel Aviv my plan for a program of Jewish-State-sponsored promicuity, adultery and polygamy. It’s good to know at least some people are taking the future of the Jewish race seriously!