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Israel should start studying South Africa, so inevitable transformation is a peaceful one

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Looking at the recent elections in Israel, Joseph Dana argues in the National that Israelis are hiding their heads in the sand about the profound instability in the region, and the inevitability of the dismantling of the Israeli regime of occupation. Dana says that Israelis had better start reading the tea leaves, and study the South African model, so that the transformation is relatively peaceful. Dana: 

Iran and Syria were noticeably absent from exit polling data as Israelis made their election about taxes in Tel Aviv and whether ultra-orthodox men should have to join the military. Instead of electing a general from the military establishment, Israeli voters made former television journalist Yair Lapid the kingmaker.

This demonstrates that the security narrative inside Israeli society is not as strong as it may seem when seen from the West, and it also shows that the status quo of occupation and unequal governance has entrenched itself in the Israeli mindset.

Like many white South Africans at the height of the apartheid system, Israelis are desperate to feel normal. They understand that the situation with the Palestinians is not ideal, but see no other way. Therefore they prefer to pretend that their country is like Spain or Greece, where the most pressing issues are those related to the financial situation of their society.

The reality is that this dangerous thinking is harming Israel’s ability to see the legitimate national security dangers that are looming on the horizon.

Ultimately, Israel’s system of unequal governance will be dismantled, along with the intellectual scaffolding employed to support it. This is where South Africa’s continuing process of unravelling apartheid can inform and assist Israelis and Palestinians in a constructive though rather painful manner.

The time for this debate is now, before the coming storm of transformation shakes the Middle East.

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smart. i am so ready for this moment to arrive.

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I think Israeli government does study the history of the Union of South Africa, and how the increase in the non-white population caused the whites to leave the British Commonwealth and attempt to go-it-alone as a Republic with voting rights for whites and “honorary whites” (Asians).
One might surmise the Israeli government will not make citizens of most of the Palestinians living in the West Bank.

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Israelis may be a bit tired of being unpopular, but they are also controlled by a powerful military-industrial-complex much like that of the USA and the constant need to massacre neighbors (Gaza, Lebanon) in order to remind themselvces how much they are feared, and to make war and threaten war (Iran, Lebanon, Syria) — so that it is hard to see how a peace-movement, a justice-movement, or a democracy-movement could really take hold.

Also, an awful lot of myth-reinforcement to overcome. Of these the hardest would be to overcome the myth of Zionism’s “right” (as opposed to desire) to displace the Palestinian Arab people because of Jewish fears of another Holocaust. Can you imagine all those fancy Zionist folk who live in the old stone houses confiscated from the upper-class Palestinian Arabs (correctly, generally, called “Absentees”, but the legal regime regarding “Absentee Property” ignoring the reason for the absence) desiring to return them to their owners? Or even admit to the crimes? I cannot.

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RE: “Dana says that Israelis had better start reading the tea leaves, and study the South African model, so that the transformation is relatively peaceful.” ~ Weiss

MY COMMENT: A big part of the problem is that the U.S. continues to act as an “enabler” of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank (much like the U.S. for a while acted as an enabler* of South Africa’s apartheid).

* FROM WIKIPEDIA [Constructive engagement]:

[EXCERPT] Constructive engagement was the name given to the policy of the Reagan Administration towards the apartheid regime in South Africa in the early 1980s. It was promoted as an alternative to the economic sanctions and divestment from South Africa demanded by the UN General Assembly and the international anti-apartheid movement.[1]
The Reagan Administration vetoed legislation from the United States Congress and blocked attempts by the United Nations to impose sanctions and to isolate South Africa.[2] Instead, advocates of constructive engagement sought to use incentives as a means of encouraging South Africa gradually to move away from apartheid.[3] The policy, echoed by the British government of Margaret Thatcher, came under criticism as South African government repression of the black population and anti-apartheid activism intensified. . .

SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_engagement

* FROM foreignaffairs.com: “South Africa: Why Constructive Engagement Failed”, By Sanford J. Ungar and Peter Vale, Winter 1985/86

• Article Summary
Ronald Reagan’s imposition of limited economic sanctions against the South African regime in September was a tacit admission that his policy of “constructive engagement”–encouraging change in the apartheid system through a quiet dialogue with that country’s white minority leaders–had failed. Having been offered many carrots by the United States over a period of four-and-a-half years as incentives to institute meaningful reforms, the South African authorities had simply made a carrot stew and eaten it. Under the combined pressures of the seemingly cataclysmic events in South Africa since September 1984 and the dramatic surge of anti-apartheid protest and political activism in the United States, the Reagan Administration was finally embarrassed into brandishing some small sticks as an element of American policy.
[We’re sorry, but Foreign Affairs does not have the copyright to display this article online.]

SOURCE – http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/40525/sanford-j-ungar-and-peter-vale/south-africa-why-constructive-engagement-failed

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with justice for palestine

except for the those who have committed crimes against humanity

each & everyone?

as equals?

free to stay?

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