Once the hope of liberal Zionists, Benny Gantz is now siding with settlers against Netanyahu for political advantage. Angered by the move, dedicated Zionist Michael Koplow urges U.S. Jewish community to open discourse to include a one-state outcome.
Israel has gone from attacking former US President Jimmy Carter for using the “A” word in the title of his 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, to having to deal with an Israeli organization making the legal case that the entire state may be an Apartheid state.
What will it take to shift the balance towards liberation for Palestinians? Ali Abunimah, Nada Elia and Phil Weiss discussed this topic in an online event sponsored by Haymarket Books, Electronic Intifada, and Mondoweiss.
The only variety of Zionism still on offer is the ethno-nationalist creed of Benjamin Netanyahu and the many politicians in Israel who sit to his right in the Knesset. And with annexation, we are about to begin the final phase of the Palestinian people’s long and tortured dispossession.
Rashid Khalidi’s great great great uncle tried to tell Herzl not to colonize Palestine in 1899 but Herzl assured him that Zionists would bring Jewish acumen to the country and improve everyone’s lives. Yet after 100 years of settler colonialism, aided by superpowers, Palestinians remain undefeated. An interview with Khalidi about his new book.
Daniel Pipes’s op-ed in the NYT opposing annexation of the West Bank because it would increase number of Palestinians –without any concern about how annexation will affect Palestinian human rights — confirms critique that Zionism is racist. But op-ed editor Bari Weiss will do anything to try to maintain Israel’s hold on elite opinion.
Bruce Robbins on why he made a documentary about Shlomo Sand: “If everyone knew what Sand has discovered about the construction of the Jewish story of exile and return, beautiful but false, they would be a little shaken… I hope that American Jews who tend to be liberal will transfer their democratic values to Israel. Let’s be democratic across the board.”
The creation of the modern Hebrew language in Israel built upon romantic and messianic concepts of ‘return’ to the ‘promised land.’ It served a purpose of ethnic cleansing, as it serves the application of apartheid today.
The Israeli left is shocked when one of its legislators– Orly Levy-Abekasis — refuses to support a government that has the outside backing of Palestinian politicians. They shouldn’t be shocked. This is Zionism.
Israel’s third election inside a year shows the rightwing continuing to gain ground. This is what Jewish nationalists want. A society governed by an authoritarian leader, no matter how corrupt. Just so long as there are no Arabs anywhere near power. The only hope politically is the burgeoning Joint List of Palestinian parties, which reject apartheid and discrimination.