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Seething with anger and fear

A news item posted on Facebook from an Israeli TV station is keeping me awake this Christmas night. I have just shared a posting from the activist Jeff Halper about the Christian town of Bethlehem. I thought that his appeal for the international community to interfere to stop the madness of Israel’s occupation is strengthened by the addition of my formally Moslem voice to his formally Jewish one. I have a Hindu friend who will be happy to add his as well. Perhaps this will snowball into something meaningful.

But my feeble attempt is rendered totally insignificant by the news item causing my insomnia. The report is about real madness; vicious, murderous and ultimately state-sponsored collective insanity. And it has echoes of madness that no one denies in retrospect. And yet the Channel 10 TV reported psychosis at a settlers’ wedding party in the OPTs is, at the end, tolerated, financed and even sponsored by the very same world forces that have made pogroms an evil thing of the past and the blood libel that underlay it such an evil accusation that even thinking of it makes me shudder in shame. I will be labeled anti-Semitic and a terrorist for bringing the subject up in the new context of the crimes of the settlers and the occupation.

Yes, the thought is incoherent even to me. So let me see if I can ferret its basic elements for myself and perhaps for the reader: First here is the blood libel that watching the TV report brought to mind: European Christians in those dark times and savage locales accused the Jews in their Shtetles of abducting and murdering Christian children to use their blood in preparing the Matzoth for their holiday celebrations. Somehow the murders were believed to gladden the evil Jews in their vile celebrations. It was taken for granted that ‘their religion requires it.’ So far all of that is in the past and we all have recovered from the madness of such invented evil rumors.

Fast forward to the present with a new set of beliefs, started, fueled and maintained in the very same Western culture with daily reminders in the form of news reports: Moslems in general, Arabs among them in particular and especially Palestinian Arab Moslems, cannot go about their daily lives without murderous terror acts against the civilized world. The context in which they commit their terror is that of their daily lives but particularly to celebrate special occasions and prepare their children and youth for ascension to heaven as Shaheeds. After all, ‘their religion requires it.’ And whom can such aggressors commit their violence against but the truest representatives of Western culture in the region, Israel! Two birds with the same stone: practicing modern anti-Semitism while making up for the West’s past anti-Semitism. How else can the West pay up for its Holocaust crime against the Jews? German material compensations are not enough. It needs to pay up with sociocultural and political favors as well.

But the picture is still incomplete and incoherent. How does the video at the base of my muddled thoughts fit with all of this? Yes, that is it; it doesn’t. That is the problem. I want to say something that is so disturbing to Western ears that I have to find someone else to say it for me. The late prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz said it by coining the term Zio-Nazism but he was too civilized to use the expletives that come to mind. Thank God for Google! Yes, my friend Gideon Levy has said it for me. Here it is

Religious ultranationalism, which hides behind the worn-out name “religious Zionism,” … [w]ith negligible contributions to society, the economy, culture, science, literature and art; with a common denominator based mostly on messianic, religious, racist beliefs and a hatred of the other, especially the Arab; with a fictitious love of the land, isolation from the world and a folkloric religion, all wrapped in gooey kitsch; without practical vision; with a hollow spiritual leadership that bases its power on incitement to hatred and approval of bloodshed; at the focal points of violence and breeding grounds of corruption, and with insufferable arrogance this movement has exploited the vacuum, the horrible apathy that has spread in secular society, and climbed its way up to the high reaches of power.

Yes, Gideon says what I am thinking. He is sounding out the right alarm. The extremists are taking over the country. But I am still unsatisfied with the sign-off; I still search for the exact closing note that keeps ringing in my ear from within.

I keep searching and find this: 

Judaism Israel-style has taken on the trappings of the Nazis Blut und Boden (“Blood and Soil”). But not just blood as the Nazis conceived it, that is, a form of ethnic purity and bloodlines, but actual blood. … What does this video show if not Jews seething for blood? The blood of Palestinians? What will we expect to see next? Snuff videos of Eshbal and his fellow terrorists actually stabbing Palestinian babies to death? Perhaps drinking their blood? Where does it end?

Yes, in that last line Richard Silverstein said what was on my mind. Thanks, Richard, for the clarity. Yes, they will drink blood. We have seen it all before. We saw the same religious fanatics eat the liver of their enemies. Yes, ISIS and these guys are one and the same and ‘their religion requires it.’ And, yes, the West started it all way back with the anti-Semitic pogroms. Even now it funds and arms both.

Yes I am damn upset!

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Dr. Kanaaneh, are you still at the anger stage? I am well pass it. My screaming at the news, at the politicians, at the smugness of people who ask me why am I obsessing with “Jews” is so last decade.

I don’t do anger any more.

I am pass sadness as well. I used to cry when I saw what has come to pass in Greater Israel. I used to cry when bombs were raining down on Gaza. I am well pass it.

I don’t do sadness any more.

The emotion that I am gripped by is fear. Raw, rocking back and forth, petrified, staring at the abyss fear. The descent of Israel into a state of the nation gripped by self propelling and self propagating psychosis is fast and its relentless on its path. And there is nothing to stop it. This is a one way runaway train to genocide, and I can see it clear as day: Every step necessary to reach the point of no return is already either happened or is happening now:

This is borrowed (abridged and annotated) from Stanton 1998:


Genocide is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The process is not linear. Logically, later stages must be preceded by earlier stages. But all stages continue to operate throughout the process.

1. CLASSIFICATION: Categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: Palestinian and Jew, Muslim and Jew,
Check.

2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications and apply the symbols to members of groups. Jarmulka and headscarf. Yellow car number plates versus Blue car number plates. Identity card saying one is Jew, or Muslim, or Christian.
Check

3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals (not having soul, unlike Jews), vermin(like snakes), insects (like cockroaches)or diseases.
Check

4. ORGANIZATION: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility for genocidal killings: Settlers – recently encouraged to carry arms.
Check

5. POLARIZATION: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center.
Check. Check. Check and Check.

6. PREPARATION: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Victims property is expropriated. They are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved.
CHECK

7. EXTERMINATION begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human.

8. DENIAL is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims.

What I am praying for is that the feeding of hate frenzy that is increasingly obvious even to the outsiders will result in mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of non-Jews from Greater Israel rather than their extermination, althougth there is enough ammunition and arms (and knives!) in the hands of Settlers (militia and military) to do the job.

I am well aware that the hate like that will not spare Jews from their killers. They will be bad Jews, self hating Jews, lefties Jews, Pal lover Jews, Pal hiding Jews aplenty to keep slaughter going a bit longer.

I’m petrified.

Because we already know that genocides will happen again and again. and there is one about to explode right in front of our eyes.

excellent JSIL = ISIS connection

We have seen it all before. We saw the same religious fanatics eat the liver of their enemies. Yes, ISIS and these guys are one and the same and ‘their religion requires it.’ And, yes, the West started it all way back with the anti-Semitic pogroms. Even now it funds and arms both.

That was sick and evil. This video should have been shown in the US media, but then no zionist owner will approve of that. There is an ingrained hatred, viciousness, and thirst for the blood of Palestinians, even babies, that is inherent in the actions of these Jewish extremists, that is frightening. They lead the murders, carry weapons supplied by the Israeli government, kill at pleasure, and are protected very well by their government. They come across as insane and rabid. As long as their government keeps supporting and protecting them, we will see the murders of Palestinian babies, women, and men, continue. It seems the hasbara gets silent when these videos are linked in these articles, and cannot deny the evil that thrives in stolen lands.

If a nation could be psychotic it’s name would be Israel.

No doubt someone will be along shortly to claim these fanatics don’t represent the true face of Israel. They do though as those not involved turn a blind eye and allow it to operate grow and fester.

The most one sees is a few meaningless words out of a pols mouth while these criminals carry out their sick crimes often under government protection.

I fail to see any point that would redeem Israel. It is beyond the pale.

@Eva Smagacz
“What I am praying for is that the feeding of hate frenzy that is increasingly obvious even to the outsiders will result in mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of non-Jews from Greater Israel rather than their extermination, althougth there is enough ammunition and arms (and knives!) in the hands of Settlers (militia and military) to do the job”
1.What precisely in your eyes is “Greater Israel”. Is there a”Lesser Israel”
2.Where will this mass expulsion be to – Jordan ? Lebanon ? Egypt ?. I am sure they would be delighted and simply open their borders without a fight.
3. Logistics ie commuter trains / buses / cattle trains all heading towards closed borders and avoiding settler only roads or railway lines
4. What about all those Jewish Israelis who share your sentiments regarding your peoples ongoing crimes including the ex military chiefs , the ex Mossad chiefs and not least what remains of the “left”. Will they be incarcerated or expelled to keep them quiet.
5. What if the” expulsees” objected to the expulsion – ie resistance. Remember there would no longer be a token Palestinian Authority to keep them in check
4. Your Settlers are well armed it is true but their heroics and antics against defenceless Palestinians so far have been ignored or actively supported by the IOF. When faced with people who are actively fighting back they would s..t themselves, grab their children and second passports and hi tail it back to their native lands. Especially the Americans.”Do the Job” I don`t think so.
5.It is 2015 coming on 2016. Not 1943,not 1948,not 1967 not 1992. The world has moved on hugely in terms of live news streaming . The “expulsion” and “ethnic cleansing” you refer to would be live on TV – even the bent and bought US media would not be able to suppress it.

In short yes there is a runaway train but it is hurtling towards a single state in what was Palestine. Initially it will be an apartheid state then as with South Africa and, with even the good old US of A eventually on board, there will be world wide boycotts and eventually a single democratic state. Significant numbers of Israelis and especially the more recent aliyah rats will leave the sinking ship and head for Florida where they can rekindle their eternal victimhood status in the comfort of their beachside apartments.

The full scale expulsion,full scale ethnic cleansing,full scale relocations with or without financial compensation have no doubt been seriously discussed in Israeli Government circles particularly amongst the looniest of the loony right but they are and will remain no more than pipe dreams.