Yesterday Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon called on the west to continue to provide “moral support” to Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people” in the face of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which he called a weapon to destroy Israel in a way that conventional weapons had failed to do.
In Washington to seek a deal on a bigger military aid package, Ya’alon used an appearance at the Wilson Center to emphasize that the most important support to Israel is the belief by the west in its right to exist as a Jewish state. He urged westerners not to be “manipulated and deceived by slogans like occupation, apartheid. There is no apartheid in Israel whatsoever.”
Here’s a transcript of those remarks. Ya’alon began (at 1:01) by stating that Israel had achieved prosperity in the face of huge disadvantages, such as a small country and few people, by using “our minds and our hearts– knowledge and spirit.”
We believe with sharing our advantages with our neighbors. We try very hard. The Palestinians enjoy our economy… We hope that other countries will be able to share it… We are ready to share. But no doubt that looking around from our country to the entire Middle East– standing in the Golan Heights is an example, which I do it, every couple of months. Looking to the east unfortunately the color that is dominating is black and gray. Smoke, fire. In our side– green.
We are ready to share it. Actually we support the villages across the border [in Syria], providing them with material support. As Jews we cannot avoid it. We can’t ignore it. Medical equipment, food, blankets in the winter, oil, whatever. All their needs. So we are ready to share.
But we should get rid of this reluctance of recognizing our right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people. And in this regard western or likeminded people should not be manipulated and deceived by slogans like occupation, apartheid. There is no apartheid in Israel whatsoever. The only Christain community that is growing in the Middle East today is the Christian-Arab community, and we are proud of it. It is not the case in Lebanon, it is not the case in Syria, it is not the case in Iraq…
So this kind of understanding of our unique situation in which westerners, like-minded, are manipulated by false propaganda regarding the situation in Israel and so forth. We should overcome it. Otherwise Israel will be delegitimzed in a way that is viewed by them as a weapon against us with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions all these kinds of weapons is alternative whether to conventional type weapons, non conventional type weapons. It’s a new weapon, as the result of our success to deal with the conventional type of warfare. So
We need this kind of understanding. We do need this kind of at least moral support, and that’s what I’m asking here in Washington.
I’d note that Ya’alon was praised for his insights by his interlocutor, Aaron David Miller, a longtime advocate for Israel– “I’m a great believer in the special nature of the relationship; I worry about it.” He was introduced by Joseph Gildenhorn, the former chair of the Wilson Center trustees, who is also a big supporter of Israel. Gildenhorn went out of his way to salute Israel’s “outstanding ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer,” who was in the audience. Even though Dermer undermined President Obama just a year ago and lobbied against the Iran deal; that doesn’t matter. The Wilson Center is the heart of the liberal establishment in Washington, headed by Jane Harman, a former California Congresswoman and strong supporter of Israel, who is also very wealthy. The wealth and political influence of the older American Jewish community, which is devoted to Israel, is the essence of the Israel lobby’s political strength. Ya’alon conducted a massacre in Gaza just a year and a half ago. Recently Ya’alon said that Jews grieve their dead more intensely than Palestinians, because Palestinians yearn for death. Aaron David Miller asked him nothing about these things.
Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of Israel, his policies are as clear and unchangeable as chiseled granite, and his agents and minions in the US will stay on message until . . . . until what?
Until the US demands a change in policy and leadership in Israel, as the price of renewal of our security agreement. He continuously insults Obama for not being more compliant with his demands, more willing to overlook the deceit and double-talk with which his policies are sold to the West as “the right to exist as a Jewish state,” while implemented in the Middle East as Apartheid, ethnic cleansing, open, blatant racism, disproportionate violence, and a permanent occupation designed to and destined to result in annexation of all of Palestine and expulsion of all Palestinians and Arab Israelis.
Get over it he demands. And will continue to demand with escalating harshness until he is ousted. There is no way forward with Netanyahu except his way, and the sooner the US and the rest of the West assert just as clearly that it is unacceptable, the sooner Israel can try to right itself under different leadership.
“Jewish” is a religion-based identity. A “nation-state of the Jewish people” is a religion-supremacist construct. There is no moral way to support such a state.
I’ve said before and it must be said again: Jewish Apartheid has a ton more support than white Apartheid ever had in the American elite, whether in the media, the think tanks, the government etc. It’s just a fact of life.
As for Yaalon’s statements about Israel, did he forget that a majority of Israel’s first budget came out of diaspora donations? Did he forget the watching eye and the close security relationship Israel had from its earliest days? Back in the 50s and early 60s, it was actually France which was close to Israel even if the US and UK were never far behind.
Finally, his speech underscores the importance of Western support(essentially American support, since the EU is an American poodle) for Israel and the Jewish Apartheid project.
This is why they fear BDS so much.
“But we should get rid of this reluctance of recognizing our right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people”
Yes the civilised world should really recognise our right to have Jews only roads , Jews only settlements etc etc ad nauseam and cease and desist forthwith with these malicious accusations of “apartheid”. It is simply not fair – sob,double sob,triple sob.
The ugly face and ugly voice of what has become an ugly “nation state”.
BTW As ever substitute “Aryan” for “Jew” and it is much the same rhetoric and message.
Still in all yet another good sign that the Elders are starting to wet their pants in the face of the growing BDS campaign.
BOYCOTT UGLY APARTHEID ISRAEL
SUPPORT BDS
TELL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS ABOUT BDS
Ýa”alon “The only Christain community that is growing in the Middle East today is the Christian-Arab community, and we are proud of it. It is not the case in Lebanon, it is not the case in Syria, it is not the case in Iraq.”
Well, maybe “growing” is not quite the right word…
“…Pew found that only 2 percent of Israel’s population in 2015 was Christian, down from 3 percent in 1949.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2016/march/israel-christians-think-opposite-evangelicals-pew-zionism.html