Have you noticed that all criticism of Israel on the part of our political leaders is now boiled down to the phrase, “The status quo is unsustainable.” Obama used to talk about the occupation. Now this vague “unsustainable” phrase overcomes Jim Crow, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, evictions, nonviolent resistance, the entire scene of Palestinian dispossession.
Jeffrey Goldberg’s review in the New York Times Book Review of Gershom Gorenberg’s new book, The Unmaking of Israel struggles through the talking points and ends with a similar openended vagueness.
On a recent visit to the West Bank city of Hebron, I met with a Palestinian resident who recently passed through Israel’s military justice system. His rights in this system were limited. This particular Palestinian lives on a street that he shares with Jewish settlers. The settlers, unlike the Palestinians, are full citizens of Israel; they can vote for their leaders, and have open access to the Israeli civilian judicial system. The Palestinians who live side by side with them are not allowed a say in choosing the government that rules over them. Gorenberg’s book makes clear that this is a situation that cannot go on forever.
I applaud Goldberg’s incisiveness about an unjust situation. But wait, hasn’t this been clear for a long time? Not just for “this particular Palestinian.” But for millions living alongside 500,000 Jewish settlers. And how long is forever? And how are Palestinians supposed to respond to this “forever,” which so far has lasted, with western aegis, since 1920 or so, even as the west upholds the right of self-determination?
I like this too:
“Most of Ofra [settlement] was built ‘with no legal basis’ on land privately owned by Palestinians.” Gorenberg notes that the settlers would not have succeeded had they not had the support of politicians like Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.
How did it happen that a country of laws — Israel’s Supreme Court justices are renowned around the globe — came to be so lawless in one corner of the territory it ruled?
Because the laws reflect the zionist ideology and therefore support and maintain the apartheid structure which Goldberg notes. The fiction of ‘neutral’ laws is a convenient cover for the most appalling oppression and harassment of innocent people.
Although I have not yet read “The Unmaking of Israel”, it got me thinking about the MAKING of Israel. My mind wandered to prior statements and quotes from Israel’s “founders”. How appropriate it was to re-read these sayings and to see that whatever Israel did, is still doing, and will likely continue to do is on the path set by that master plan whose principles were clearly articulated by the top zionists that ever lived. This blueprint is right there in front of our eyes, laid out in much detail. I wish that every Palestinian, Israeli, and whomever is interested in I/P re-read these sayings as well. I share them below.
THEODOR HERZL: Zionism demands a publicly recognized and legally secured homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people. The process of expropriation and removal of the Arabs of Palestine must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.
ZE’EV JABOTINSKY: We cannot give any compensation for Palestine, neither to the Palestinians nor to other Arabs. Therefore, a voluntary agreement is inconceivable. All colonization, even the most restricted, must continue in defiance of the will of the native population. Therefore, it can continue and develop only under the shield of force which comprises an Iron Wall which the local population can never break through. This is our Arab policy. To formulate it any other way would be hypocrisy. There is no justice, no law, and no God in heaven, only a single law which decides and supercedes all – Jewish settlements of all the land.
MOSHE SHARETT: There is no Arab who is not harmed by Jews’ entry into Palestine. The state of Israel must, from time to time, prove clearly that it is strong, and able and willing to use force, in a devastating and highly effective way. When the Jewish state is established, it is very possible that the result will be transfer of Arabs. We are equally determined to explore all possibilities of getting rid, once and for all, of the huge Arab minority which originally threatened us. By the reduction of the Arabs on the one hand and Jewish immigration in the transition period on the other, we will ensure an absolute Hebrew majority in a parliamentary regime. Transfer could be the crowning achievement, the final stage in the development of policy, but certainly not the point of departure.
DAVID BEN GURION: If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. There has been Anti – Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that? So, it’s simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won’t survive. We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population. We must expel the Arabs and take their places. We must do everything to insure they ( the Palestinians) never do return. Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and take away from them their country. Behind the terrorism [by the Arabs] is a movement, which though primitive is not devoid of idealism and self sacrifice. To maintain the status quo will not do. We have to set up a dynamic state bent upon expansion. Take the American Declaration of Independence for instance. It contains no mention of the territorial limits. We are not obliged to state the limits of our State. After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine.
CHAIM WEIZMANN: Palestine must be built up without violating the legitimate interests of the Arabs.. Palestine is not Rhodesia… 600,0000 Arabs live there, who before the sense of justice of the world have exactly the same rights to their homes as we have to our National Home. There must not be one law for the Jew and another for the Arabs….In saying this, I do not assume that there are tendencies toward inequality or discrimination. It is merely a timely warning which is particularly necessary because we shall have a very large Arab minority. I am certain that the world will judge the Jewish State by what it will do with the Arabs. We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not. You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world.
GOLDA MEIR: How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to. There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed. This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy.
MOSHE DAYAN: What cause have we to complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population. We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state; instead of the Arab villages, Jewish villages were established. Let us not today fling accusations at the murderers. During the last 100 years our people have been in a process of building up the country and the nation, of expansion, of getting additional Jews and additional settlements in order to expand the borders here. Let no Jew say that the process has ended. Let no Jew say that we are near the end of the road. I know how at least 80% of all the incidents with Syria started. We were sending a tractor to the demilitarized zone and we knew that the Syrians will shoot. If they did not shoot, we would instruct the tractor to go deeper, till the Syrians finally got upset and start shooting. Then we employed artillery, and later also the air-force… I did that… and Yitzhak Rabin did that….
ARIEL SHARON: Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial. Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours… Everything we don’t grab will go to them. Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We the Jewish people, control America and the Americans know it.
MENACHEM BEGIN: The Palestinians are beasts walking on two legs.
YITZHAK SHAMIR: The Palestinians would be crushed like grasshoppers … heads smashed against the boulders and walls.
RAPHAEL EITAN: When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle. We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel… Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.
EHUD BARAK: I imagine that if I were a Palestinian of the right age, I would, at some stage, have joined one of the terror organizations.
YITZHAK RABIN: We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, what is to be done with the Palestinian population? Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘Drive them out!’. We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters. I believe that in the long run, separation between Israel and the Palestinians is the best solution for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I enter negotiations with Chairman Arafat, the leader of the PLO, the representative of the Palestinian people, with the purpose to have coexistence between our two entities, Israel as a Jewish state and Palestinian state, entity, next to us, living in peace. I would like Israel to be a Jewish state, and therefore not to annex over 2 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Israel, which will make Israel a bi-national state.
How did it happen that a country of laws — …….— came to be so lawless in one corner of the territory it ruled?
one corner? it’s half the people, it isn’t one corner.
Goldberg is clear about some things that you are utterly vague about, critical things.
What he is advocating for, similarly to Gorenberg, a two-state solution at peace, resulting from mutual viability and health.
You are not clear about what you are advocating for.
And, as that is a critical decision (revolution vs reconciliation), it KEEPS the status of one of war, and in war of victor lauding over defeated.
I know you know that that is the case, that militancy keeps up the status of conflict. You are an intelligent man, and capable of seeing beyond the simple, and capable of keeping your eye on the prize of Palestinian self-determination and rights, WHILE retaining the jewel of Israeli self-determination and rights.
A different status can be achieved, but only by means that are consistent with a goal of peace.
So Goldberg writes: This particular Palestinian lives on a street that he shares with Jewish settlers.
I’d like to know what this “sharing” looks like. From Hebron, I know only one sort of pictures. Like, “sharing” a battlefront.