So he won and I have to say I am relieved. There wll be no more endless cycles of pointless ‘negotiations’ with Israel pretending that some day it will agree to a two-state solution while continually escalating both settlement (colony) building and the maltreament of the Palestinians. Now everyone will see that the Palestinians were right all along and that Israel has never been a partner for negotiations.
There is no real political Left in Israel and if the other side got to form a government, all we would have seen is more of the same. Now we’ll see if the EU has the decency and conviction to enact proper sanctions. Then of course there is the US. The US Administration might stall for a while, but we’ll see if they have what it takes to do the right thing. Israel is no friend to the US and the sooner they realise it the better.
Israel is on a slippery slope of its own making. Get your popcorn, sit and watch. Israel is becoming more radicalised than ever before. Certainly much more than when I was growing up there. Of course I could be wrong — and I hope I am — but I think Israel’s pathological siege mentality will now become more pronounced and more evident to outsiders. Israel has for a long time been readying itself for when the time comes, to bunker down, live with austerity and give up the fancy lifestyle the country has become increasingly accustomed to in the last 20-25 years. They can do this.
Israel has always prepared itself psychologically and economically to being isolated. All that openness to the rest of the world that Israel has enjoyed increasingly in the last generation or so, and Israel’s acceptance by others, have always been seen as temporary in the eyes of most Israeli Jews. They had always expected it to end and had the mentality of ‘let’s enjoy it while it lasts and make the most of it while we can’. Fundamentally Israeli Jews believe that the world hates them because they are Jewish (in their mind it has nothing to do with colonialism or the Palestinians). So although Israel has brought its own situation upon itself, that is not how Israeli Jews see it. They believe things are ‘happening to them’ for no fault of their own. They expect isolation and have dropped all pretences to pander to the West and are behaving more in line now with their true nature. Even less radical people will become radicalised now in Israel. There will be even more propaganda and more brainwashing than ever before.
Netanyahu really does represent most Israeli Jews even though some of them do not like him. But the reasons they do not like him are not what you expect. Most Israeli Jews identify with Netanyahu’s perception and understanding of what the rest of the world is like and of the world’s relationship with Israel. After all Netanyahu is a product of Israeli society just like I was, and believe me, when you have that kind of psychology and that incredibly effective, powerful propaganda machine all around you, it is easy to believe that what you see is really how it is… Israeli Jews have always lived in a psychological ghetto and it’s that ghetto that I got out of back in 1991.
Life will get very difficult for Jews in Israel soon enough, and many with dual citizenship will abandon ship. Those who remain will be the die-hard fanatics and zealots who are dangerous because they might have the psychology of murder suicide. I believe that before it is over, things will get really bad there and extremely dangerous. Israel will become much more fanatic and extremist than ever before with a lot less inhibitions.
I am therefore worried about the Palestinians and wonder how much more of this they could possibly take and what they can expect in the next few months and years. Israel isolating itself is more dangerous for the Palestinians because world public opinion will no longer be a moderating factor on Israel’s behaviour. And believe it or not, it did have a moderating effect. What you have been seeing so far and what Palestinians have been experiencing is not yet the worst. Gaza gives you the idea of what Israel has in mind for all Palestinians.
So the message to those of us who support the Palestinians is to get ready to escalate our support. It is about to get very very tough. With Netanyahu at the helm the end of colonialism and occupation is nigh, but it is about to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Yossi Israeli is very unwell. Everyone hates him, or so he thinks
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/jerusalem-vivendi/.premium-1.647427
“But we learned, when we see him sending out tweets, texts and a video saying “Hurry friends, the Arabs are going out in droves to vote, bused in by the left” – we see in that moment what he really thinks of the 20% of Israeli citizens who are Arab.
They are the enemy. They are a danger. They and their votes are to be feared. Their walking peacefully to their places of voting is an existential threat, just like every Palestinian organization of every political stripe. Just like Iran and ISIS and BDS. Just like the Obama administration. ”
Is this book available in Hebrew? Couldn’t JStreet do something useful and buy a copy for every Sabra ?
http://www.amazon.com/Feel-Fear-Anyway%C2%AE-techniques-Indecision-ebook/dp/B008OXEROK
Excellent article, which describes what I believe to be the inherent pathology of Israeli society. Deep down – or not that deep down – it’s all about how the world hates the Jews, and that therefore nothing Israeli Jews do really matters. Everyone will hate them anyway. Combine that with an obsession with ‘security’, lording it over a captive people, and 2OO nuclear weapons, and you have got one hell of a scary mix. A veritable witches’ brew.
This leader or that leader is really neither here nor there. That said, a Netanyahu victory has been the least worst option. Now it’s up to the rest of the world to decide how to deal with a country which has yet again voted in an openly racist leader who has made it quite clear that the occupation should last forever.
Over to you, world.
Thank you Avigail for what is a truthful and yet very sad report. My heart has always been of a similar kind to Phil’s and I probably share in some ways his disappointment at the election result. Of course our immediate concern is for the safety of ALL the peoples of I/P, particularly the Palestinians, and consequently the safety of Jews if and when anti-Israel sentiments turn into anti-semitic acts of violence.
As a boy, like so many in Europe, I was deeply affected by the films and reports of the concentration camps and what is known as the Holocaust. I also became aware of the atrocities of the Jewish terrorists in the Irgun and Lehi (Stern) gangs: British soldiers, policemen and innocent Jews were mudered. Yet our hope was that the founding declaration by David Ben-Gurion including reference to freedom, justice and peace for all inhabitants as envisaged by the prophets, would be enacted.
Both in sadness and anger we look at Israel today, which in no way follows the teaching of the prophet Isaiah to be “a light to the gentiles”. Indeed we are again in days like those of the prophet Jeremiah who referred to the people along with false prophets and priests as adulterers, i.e. unfaithful to The Lord (Jer. Ch.23 v8 -10) paralleled by Isaiah ch.24 v4 -6.
So, we in the UK and EU must stand up and actively persue justice for the Palestinians, particularly appropriate at this time when Israel has recently demolished shelters built by with EU money for the Bedouin. Also I note that the UK has just received a ticking off from the US for daring to be a founder member with China of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The times. they are a changin’!! The US needs to realise that it is losing friends and allies of substance, whilst being drained by its zionist fifth column. Thank God for Jews of conscience like you,Avigail, and long may your influence increase!
So he [Netanyahu] won and I have to say I am relieved. I still can not get used to the idea that more violence and injustice is good for Palestinians. No outsider should say so.
At least this election gave proof in quotes that Netanyahu and Herzog are the violent racists they are. And nearly 50% of Israel voted for them. (Also, let’s not forget that it was necessary for “Arab” Israelis to vote by ethnicity to have a vote in knesset at all). The one and only Racist Democracy in the Middle East. Vote BDS.
Regarding this statement: “Israel has always prepared itself psychologically and economically to being isolated,” I disagree. Israel has, for its entire existence, been dependent on U.S. Food Stamps, U.S. taxpayer money. Not that this will stop any time soon, but they simply ain’t economically independent no could they exist without this funding.
After spending a week with almost 1000 Jews at the Jewish Voice for Peace membership conference, I would say that Diaspora Jews will make a difference. I would further encourage everyone to join JVP (we are not Jewish but we are members). They and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation are the two primary U.S. sources of “push” on this issue, in my opinion.