Israeli new historian Benny Morris writes himself into a scholary cul-de-sac by stating that there was “no ethnic cleansing” by Zionist forces in 1948, after he stated in a 2004 interview that it was “ethnic cleansing” and it was necessary and didn’t go far enough to make peace.
Israel is not an occupier, says Israel’s former ambassador to Canada, Peter Baker. But the history of Israeli expansion since 1948 could not be clearer: it seeks more and more land with as few Arabs on it as possible, and destroys not just the villages but the memory of those places.
Twice in the last ten days, the Netanyahu government has adopted a new spin-strategy: taking the term “ethnic cleansing”, which the world has increasingly become aware that Israel enacts, and turning it against its Palestinian victims.
Liberal Zionists blame the occupation for Israel’s woes, when they should blame the ideology of Zionism. As Prime Minister Levi Eshkol said in 1967, when the occupation began: “I want them [Palestinians] all to go, even if they go to the moon.”
The United States applies pressure on countries all over the world, including sanctions on Iraq that killed 500,000 children. Yet any boycott of Israel is treated as terrorism or an inappropriate attempt to impose a solution from outside. Even some Israeli Jews are calling for boycott.
Rabbis from Rashi to Ramban have long tried to hide or apologize for bible teaching that a soldier must “satisfy his lust” with a captive women. Now the Israeli chief army rabbi Eyal Qarim’s comments have exposed the hideous point for all to see.
The Old Testament allowed rape of women during battle, and Eyal Qarim, who has been appointed the chief rabbi of the Israeli army, seemed to endorse that code in 2003 when he said that soldiers were permitted to succumb to their “evil urge” for the cause of the army’s success.
After UNRWA criticized Israeli house demolitions in Qalandiya refugee camp as collective punishment, Israeli centrist Yair Lapid challenged UNRWA over its protection of refugees and the very definition of refugees. Jonathan Ofir takes him on.
The leader of the Israeli political party the Joint List, Ayman Odeh, referred a demand Thursday to the Government Judicial Advisor to open an investigation against the Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman due to suspicion of incitement to violence, when he referred to Member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi as a terrorist.
A man who had a heart attack at the wheel and crashed into a Tel Aviv restaurant and then was beaten to death while unconscious was thought by his assailants to be “not a good person.” I.e., a Palestinian terrorist. This is not the first mistaken lynching in Israel, and it disturbs the Israeli narrative, we’re the victims.