Thanks to Bradley Burston for calling the fascist spade a spade. It's better when Israeli Jewish journalists say this stuff about Israeli society, and we American Jews can quote them, thus making it harder to call us self-haters. Burston:
The Boycott Law is the litmus test for Israeli democracy, the threshold test for Israeli fascism...
This is the one. This is where the slope turns nowhere but down.
This an important historical moment.
When Israel's apartheid regime comes crashing down, we will remember July 11, 2011 as the day Israel alienated itself from the bulk of its sane "moderate" supporters, and the beginning of the total demoralization of all but the most-right wing of the New Afrikaners. This law puts the J Streeters into a bind from which the only escape is to support BDS, in some form or other. Perhaps more than any other cruel and self-destructive act on the part of Israel, the boycott law will provoke the previously-silent to speak out.
Or not. Am I too optimistic? Do I have too much faith in the majority of world Jewry's moral rectitude?
“Am I too optimistic? ”
I’ve already seen two diametrically opposed reactions. One acquaintance is throwing Israel under the bus, another one continues to dissemble, as he did with each event that disappointed him (Netanyahu’s reelection, Cast Leadm the failure to halt settlement building, the Mavi Marmara (it’s the boiled frog phenomenon with him).
I am afraid to say that I think this will be the true for most “liberal” Zionists, just as it was with the loyalty oath etc. There might be a little noise in the short terms, J Street will pretend to be outraged and before long, it will fizzle out and become business as usual.
Liek you said, when Netanyahu was elected, campaingingi n a platform of two state rejection and alongside Liberman, the liberal Zionists were insisting that Israel had corssed the point of no return, but 2 years later, there they are, still supporting Israel 100%, right or wrong.
I am inclined to agree.
With each step toward insanity Israel has taken— it’s supporters have ‘justified’ it.
It reminds more and more of Milton Mayer’s description of how Germans became acclimated to Nazism.
i’m not familiar with mm’s description but i can see a parallel here..
this law is just going to empower the bds movement.. that much is obvious… it will be a lose lose situation for all of israel if it doesn’t get thrown out via a higher court..
everything israel is doing seems like a lose lose situation to me. they should try hiring some professionals, or something. for heavens sakes what the heck are they thinking.
The journalist Milton Mayer went to Germany to interview ordinary Germans right after WWII, because he wanted to understand how they had allowed the Holocaust to happen. He wrote about what he discovered: “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45.”
What Mayer discovered was the principle of the frog in the boiling water: the government made incremental changes, slowly, the people didn’t object, and suddenly, the water boiled. There’s an excerpt from the book here:
link to press.uchicago.edu
Everyone should be familiar with this, not only because of what is happening in Israel, but because it describes what is happening in the U.S. as well. The excerpt begins:
“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.
“This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.
…..
“To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head….”
Christabel Bielenberg, an Englishwoman who was married to a German and who thus lived through the whole Third Reich, was interviewed for the World at War TV series about her experiences and she made the same comparison, saying that Hitler’s genius was being able to gauge just how much of an incremental change the German public was able to put up with at various points.
RW is a wonderful example of this mindless acceptance of Israel.
- Ethnic cleansing? “Necessary”.
- The settlements and their on-going expansion? “Live #AND# let live”.
- Offensive assaults by Israel designed to evoke responses that are used to justify “belligerent reprisals”? Defence of civilians.
- Collective punishment of Gaza? Damn you, Hamas!!!
- Destruction of land, homes, livelihoods, wells and livestock? “Dissent”.
- Israel’s unwillingness to enter into sincere negotiations for a just and mutually-beneficial peace? Air and chocolate (or some such stupidity).
Israel is the rapist, the Palestinians are the victims and RW is the “humanist” who demands that the victim lie still until the rapist has achieved “enough rape” and then, when the rapist is satisfied, he and the victim can work on realizing “peace, not ‘justice’”.
This kafkaesque part of the bill is being a bit overlooked. From Human Rights Watch:
“On its face, the law also applies to Palestinian “permanent residents” of East Jerusalem, an area that Israel unilaterally annexed in 1967 but is still considered part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories under international law. In a statement, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, Adalah, and the Coalition of Women for Peace pointed to the “absurd result” that “a boycott call by the residents of East Jerusalem against the settlements” would give settlers the right “to demand compensation from victims of the occupation.” ”
link to hrw.org
all those activists in ej. are they going to sue them, deport them. people like lubna marsawa? sickening
Can someone explain: what is the situation of the Palestinians on the West Bank (non East Jerusalem)? Are they “covered” too by this bill (like the settlers are)?
Yes, I think you are too optimistic…and maybe that makes me more pessimistic.
I tink will see forms of petzel logic no one has ever seen before…before the brain virus finally runs it’s course.
“Do I have too much faith in the majority of world Jewry’s moral rectitude?”
Clearly. The apartheid state of Israel has been around for decades. The bulk of Jews in the states and around the world have done little to nothing.. A welcome shift the last five or so years. No way to get around this. A fact
Please go to Troubadour’s DailyKos diary now.
link to dailykos.com
It’s getting much, much worse as Israel rushes headlong into full-scale fascism. I’m glad he’s the one publishing it on DailyKos because his life experience of having his wife attacked by a Palestinian terrorist means that his motives cannot be impeached.
Here’s the new wrinkle.
What I hope liberal Zionists will see is when a fascist state attacks the rights of some people eventually it attacks the rights of all people. The threat to the Jewish people and to their homeland is coming from within and not without.
things moving a bit over at Kos have not been over there for a long time
More progress:
Oh, Lord. (8+ / 0-)
It’s hardly ‘fascism’ to give the legislature power to veto court appointments. If it were, the U.S., Britain, France and a lot of other democracies would be considered fascist.
‘Fascism’ is a pretty clearly defined term. This isn’t it.
Fuck me, it’s a leprechaun.
by MBNYC on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 09:37:34 AM MDT
MBNYC.. this is not “fascist” but…. (3+ / 0-)
this is a step on the road to fascism. This goes beyond what exists in the U.S. due to the intent of the laws being passed.
Despite the asinine braying of some here at Daily Kos, this is a serious issue, and it is the beginning of some very “McCarthyesque” policies being proposed by the Israeli Right. I mean if Gideon Saar (the Minister of Education), a person who wants to outlaw teaching of the Nakba thinks this law is extreme… then there is something to what is being said.
Does this mean “ditch Israel” of course not, but, it should mean as a friend that we should say something and let the Israeli people know that they need not buy into the fear that the Right Wing is trying to foster there.
DK4: For those times when pissing in the hummus isn’t enough
by volleyboy1 on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 10:58:39 AM MDT
Hey everyone — wow, these are some powerful comments. Nothing to say in response, just appreciation for the engagement.
thanks for an excellent post matthew.
Matthews post are always informative
I’m glad zionists are in such a freak-out state that they’re making all the worst possible moves.
Step aside folks while Israelistan staggers from the moral rot within. The big fall surely is not far behind.
Important Note. We should not give a Flying Fish what “liberal” zionists think of this law. Most will continue to push for arming the racist and now even more fascist state, but they will be ever more emotional about it. But bottom-line is that they will be doing what aipac is doing, that is doing all that is possible to get US military support for Israel. If a few drop out and change their thinking, fine, but that is not what will make change in the US policy.
Relatively few americans are engaged in this issue at all. During the South African struggle, those that backed “constructive engagement” stood their ground forever. But they were overwhelmed by masses of people who woke up to what the US was supporting, and they had to step aside for real change. We just need to mobilize progressives on this issue, and Israel’s necessary actions to preserve an unjust status quo will make it even clearer what kind of regime the US is supporting.
At a peace rally with Woolsey recently, she was utterly offended at talk of ending US military support for Israel (i spoke to her), but there were signs for that in the crowd, and it was not controversial for her constituents attending the rally. Israel is losing the Left and even the liberals. Its support for Beck/Hagee is going to make it even further a pariah among the liberals. Eventually even the politicians will catch up.