Israeli Labor leader Merav Michaeli on the ICC move to investigate Israel for war crimes: “It is a very, very problematic decision. It does not promote peace in any way. It does not promote a solution for the two state solution. It escalates the conflict.” Though Michaeli says the two-state solution is “completely not on the agenda” for voters in the March 23 election.
J Street, Americans for Peace Now and New Israel Fund issue wishywashy statements on the ICC moving forward to investigate Israeli war crimes. It’s sad it’s come to this– “heartbreaking,” “sobering,” a “tragedy.” And J Street feels deep sympathy for Israeli families who fear for their children in the Israeli army. But while they say Israel must be held accountable, they can’t approve the ICC investigation.
At a time when network news is celebrating Israeli vaccination rates, SNL’s Michael Che isn’t buying. “Israel… vaccinated half their population. I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.”
The Jewish National Fund has been “redeeming” Palestinian land by giving it to Jews for 100 years, but liberal Zionists are alarmed by a new plan to buy up Palestinian land in the West Bank to bolster illegal Jewish settlements.
Now Trump is gone. Liberal Zionists can no longer comfortably argue that injustice in Israel/Palestine is mainly caused by Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish settlers. Nathan Thrall showed calmly and persuasively that the liberal Zionists and the Peace Processors have been running a long con game for decades, insisting that Israel will agree to a 2-state solution only if you don’t criticize and give them whatever they want.
Dahlia Scheindlin’s comments on the “stability” of leftwing Jewish Israeli attitudes show the lengths that liberal Zionists will go to prove that the apartheid project possesses some sort of fundamental decency. Because young people’s hardline attitudes are just the “romantic spirit of the nation… militarist and nationalist.”
According to Dahlia Scheindlin’s polling, some left-wing Jews will vote for a right-winger, Gideon Sa’ar. And as for the young being so right-wing — “the romantic spirit of the nation is militarist and nationalist” going back to the 1950s among the young.
Response to Netanyahu’s deal with right wing racist party shows that US Israel lobby is getting tired of fighting for the good Israel. That drumbeat of racism and Jewish supremacy is working on American advocates for Israel. They’re losing their own illusions. What was “dangerous and deeply concerning” two years ago is just more of the same today.
The ICC ruling on Israeli war crimes in occupied territory is a Rubicon moment for progressives. And it should get liberal Zionist backing as a real step toward 2 states. But they want no real pressure on Israel, just “criticism.”