Media Analysis

‘Arab citizens are ultimate enemies of Jewish state’ — ‘NY Times’ publishes racist argument

A lot of people are passing around rightwing Zionist Daniel Pipes’s op-ed in the New York Times yesterday in which he “strongly” opposed Israel’s plans to annex portions of the West Bank.

The marvel here is that the paper of record granted prestige newsprint to an explicitly racist argument. Pipes:

[A]nnexation would be likely to make more Palestinians eligible to become citizens of Israel. That would be a profound mistake, since its Arab citizens constitute what I believe is the ultimate enemy of Israel’s status as a Jewish state, the one that will still be standing after the threats posed by Iran and Gaza have been dealt with. Citizens of Israel, unlike external enemies, cannot be defeated. Their allegiance must be won over, and the larger their number, the harder that becomes.

Yes you read that right: “Arab citizens constitute what I believe is the ultimate enemy of Israel’s status as a Jewish state.” Can you imagine such an argument being made about Muslims in the U.S., or blacks, or any other minority? Impossible, in the New York Times.

Just substitute the idea — Jews are our ultimate enemies because it is hard to win over Jewish allegiance to a Christian state– and you are inside Pipes’s mental space.

Why are Palestinians hard to win over to the Jewish state? There is not an ounce of concern on the part of this American writer for Palestinians as human beings with human rights in the land they have long lived in. No, they “lost” the conflict, so they must accept that, and having no rights under occupation is no concern to Pipes. “I am not someone who frets over the Israeli ‘occupation’ of the West Bank.”

Pipes’s six reasons to oppose annexation all revolve around the “Jewish state” maintaining its status in Western capitals. His concern is that by taking this step Israel will advance its own delegitimization, in people’s minds. To wit,

[A]nnexation would alienate and weaken Israel’s diminishing number of friends in the Democratic Party and in Europe. . .

[A]nnexation would most likely lead to Palestinian fury. . . Residents of the West Bank could start a new intifada — uprising — costing Israeli lives and harming its international standing. . .

[A]nnexation is sure to alienate Israel’s Left… [leading] probably to a contingent of Israeli Zionists turning anti-Zionist. . .

These selfish brutal argument reflects the fact that the Times op-ed page belongs to Bari Weiss, a rightwing Zionist, who will try to keep the brand alive among elite inflencers by any means necessary.

Though this article is an own-goal, for it confirms the longstanding leftwing critique, that Zionism is racist.

Scott Roth savagely captures the role of the newspaper here.

Opinion | Invading Poland might be bad for Germany. The @nytimes is a sick disgusting rag.

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No comments permitted in the NYT article, but this is so offensive to read, oblivious to the Reality.
“I am not someone who frets over the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank: in my view, the Palestinians long ago would have enjoyed self-rule had they stopped murdering Israelis.”

In 2018 alone, Israeli forces stationed on the Israeli side of the fences separating Gaza and Israel responded to demonstrations for Palestinian rights on the Gaza side with excessive lethal force. Between March 30 and November 19, security forces killed 189 Palestinian demonstrators, including 31 children and 3 medical workers, and wounded more than 5,800 with live fire. That doesn’t include the Palestinians killed by Israelis in the Occupied Territories.

Israeli authorities continued to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank and to discriminate systematically against Palestinians and in favour of settlers, in providing services, allowing freedom of movement, and issuing building permits, among other actions.
During 2017 and the first eight months of 2018, Israeli authorities approved plans for 10,536 housing units in West Bank settlements, excluding East Jerusalem, and issued tenders for 5,676, as compared to approving plans for 4,611 units and issuing tenders for 592 units in all of 2015 and 2016, according to the Israeli group Peace Now.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities destroyed 390 Palestinian homes and other property, forcibly displacing 407 people as of November 19, the majority for lacking construction permits that Israel makes nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in East Jerusalem or in the 60 percent of the West Bank under its exclusive control (Area C).

The FACTS are, Israelis kill many, many, many more Palestinians than Palestinians kill Jews. Power over the powerless gives you that ability few dare challenge.

The US and the West appease Israel with appeasement as the word was made famous so many years ago.

As I read about the article published by the NY Times, I could not help but think about the German Nazi newspaper, Der Sturmer, which was essentially publishing the same kind of rhetoric, only their target usually were Jews. What also comes to my mind are the Palestinian Arabs who are citizens of Israel, which comprises about one-fifth the population., some of whom are part of my extended family. What Daniel Pipes has done is to also confirm what the state feels about these citizens based solely on their identity. That should also conjure up thoughts and images that could certainly be made of times past. This is a perfect example of why history just goes on repeating itself because nothing is ever learned. As Shakespeare once wrote, “a rose by any name would smell as sweet” (even if was called a weed). With that thought in mind, a racist ideology by any name (even if it’s called Zionism), smells as foul). Shame on the NY Times for permitting such an article to be published. Perhaps an appropriate name for them would be the “N.Y. Sturmer.”

In short, what Pipes is telling us is that regarding native Palestinians in the illegally/brutally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem whose numbers continue to grow dramatically, he and his fellow Zionists have painted themselves into a corner and are now realizing that as long since predicted, they have bitten off more than they can chew.

… Daniel Pipes …

[A]nnexation would be likely to make more Palestinians eligible to become citizens of Israel. That would be a profound mistake, since its Arab citizens constitute what I believe is the ultimate enemy of Israel’s status as a Jewish state … Citizens of Israel, unlike external enemies, cannot be defeated. Their allegiance must be won over, and the larger their number, the harder that becomes.

Mr Pipes understands that the “demographic threat” herd of non-Jewish Israelis must be kept to a minimum in order to preserve Jewish / “Jewish State” supremacism. Pragmatist that he is, he must also understand that “necessary evil” may be required to cull that herd. It’s not known whether he will assist with the shoot-and-cry dirty work or simply hold his nose and cheer on those who do it.

If Daniel Pipes’s plank five comes true and leftist Israelis leave the country, super-duper cool! The country really couldn’t become any more right-wing, and Pipes is clearly worried about the demographic issue, while I only care about demographics which actually lead to a shared democratic state and not a racist country led by a Master Race.

And if plank six leads to more Arabs becoming citizens, that would also be very nice!

It really says all you need to know about Daniel Pipes that he hates the idea of recognizing another people’s basic humanity. But you could have guessed that he would feel this way from his sneering tone.