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For years  Israelis and  Zionists have been pumping  ‘Shoah’ into our veins by using every possible propaganda outlet: media, education, Hollywood, music, literature, billboards and so on.

Seemingly they have been very successful : We are all properly ‘ Holocausted ‘. We accept the suffering of the Jewish people — and we have even managed to draw a universal message from it all.

We do accept that a real Shoah is taking place in front of our eyes in Palestine, where the Jewish state locks millions of Palestinians behind bars: it starves them,  it stops medical supplies, food, cement, and educational materials from getting in. But it does not stop there — when the Jewish state feels like it, it also kills Palestinians indiscriminately.  It either blitzes them with white phosphorous , or  sends in its tank battalions  to drive over Gaza. 

In preparation for  Holocaust Memorial Day (1), London Zionist mouthpiece  The Jewish Chronicle is  very disturbed by a UK-based  pro Palestinian web site named www.shoah.org.uk

The site is obviously dedicated to the Palestinian Holocaust.

The Jewish paper insists that  the Shoah — like Israel — is a ‘Jews only club’. They do not want to ‘let anyone else in’.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust told the Jewish paper, “Using the word ‘Shoah’ in this context is done with the sole intention of causing offence to Holocaust survivors, their families and the wider Jewish community and shows the greatest possible disrespect to the tragedy of the Holocaust.”

I would fiercely argue that Pollock is wrong.  Using the word ‘Shoah’ in this very context is there to awaken the world, the Jews, and holocaust victims in particular,  to the fact that the biggest current  perpetrator of crimes against humanity — is actually  the Jewish state.

Mark Gardner, of the  Community Security Trust, said: “This website is yet another sickening example of how the Holocaust is perverted by anti-Zionists in order to attack Israel and Zionism.”

Mark Gardner is almost correct; anti Zionists do indeed use the Shoah as a means of mirroring. And it is now an accepted fact that the Palestinians are the last victims of Hitler. It is also becoming accepted that the Israelis are the Nazis of our time. And tragically enough, the crimes in Palestine carried out by the Jewish state are also being committed in the name of the Jewish people. As if this is not enough, it is Jewish pilots who drop white phosphorus from planes which are decorated with Jewish symbols.

These facts are disturbing and demand the immediate attention of world Jewry.

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies ( another morbid institute that claims to represent British Jews ) told the Jewish Chronicle  that “even without delving into what is clearly a one-sided and skewed narrative, by virtue of its title, this website is extremely provocative and any trivialisation of the Holocaust in which over six million Jewish men, women, and children were systematically murdered is completely abhorrent.”

Benjamin is probably too lame to grasp that what we see here is the total opposite — We are actually witnessing an acceptance of an astute universalising of the holocaust as carrying a humanist message for all of us. We can see a deeper understanding of the true moral meaning of that historical event.

Surely we need to stand up against all forms of ethno-centric homicidal policies. And it seems clear that Israel is no different from Nazi Germany in that regard. In fact Israel is far worse, because Israel acts under the guise of being a democracy, and its merciless policies are a  reflection of the majority Israeli population’s yearning to live in a ‘Jews only’ state. 

However, a few questions are still left open — Why exactly do the aforementioned Jews from the Jewish Chronicle and the Board of Deputies want to maintain the notion and reality of historical suffering as being exclusively Jewish property? Why don’t they want anyone else to use the word ‘Shoah’?  Why do they demand a total control over the usage of words and applications of meanings ? 

Can you imagine a Ukrainian protesting against the word ‘famine’ being  applied to the situation in Ethiopia?

I really wonder why so many Jews insist on grounding their identity politics on suffering and being hated by others?

For clearly, one must admit that being loathed is not exactly something to  brag about.

I am bewildered.

(1) It is interesting to read the definition of the Holocaust Memorial Day on the official HMD’s site:

“HMD is about remembering the victims and those whose lives have been changed beyond recognition of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and the ongoing atrocities today in Darfur.”

Basically everywhere except in Palestine.

NOVANEWS

 

Ian Buruma

Ian Buruma is Professor of Democracy and Human Rights at Bard College. His latest book is Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents.

2011-01-07

JERUSALEM – Israel has been welcoming some rather peculiar visitors of late. The Dutch populist, Geert Wilders, is a frequent caller, telling sympathetic audiences that Israel is on the front line of the Western war against Islam. And, in December, a delegation of European far-right politicians toured Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank, pleasing their hosts by reassuring them that this was “Jewish land.”

Some of these “friends of Israel” represent political parties whose supporters, to put it mildly, have not traditionally been noted for their fraternal feelings towards Jews. Heinz-Christian Strache, for example, leads the Freedom Party of Austria, which began, under its late leader, Jörg Haider, by actively courting former Nazis. “More strength for our Viennese blood,” one of his election slogans, gives an idea of Strache’s typical tone. His Belgian colleague, Filip Dewinter, represents a Flemish nationalist party tainted by wartime collaboration with the Nazis.

To be sure, nowadays even right-wing politicians in Europe are careful not to sound openly anti-Semitic. Wilders, for one, is ostentatiously philosemitic, and all the New Rightists like to stress the importance of what they call “Judeo-Christian values,” which must be defended against “Islamofascism.”

Leftist and liberal critics of Israeli politics like to point out that anti-Zionism is not the same thing as anti-Semitism. But it is just as true that being a friend of Israel is not necessarily the same thing as being a friend of the Jews.

Richard Nixon, for example, said of Jews that “you can’t trust the bastards,” but was a great admirer of Israel. And, of course, the last 2,000 years have shown that anti-Semitism is perfectly compatible with the worship of a Jew called Jesus of Nazareth. In the United States, some of the fiercest defenders of hardline Zionism are evangelical Christians who firmly believe that Jews who refuse to convert to Christianity will one day face terrible retribution.

Sometimes, the wrong friends can be useful. When Theodor Herzl was making the rounds of Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, trying to gain support for the establishment of a state for the Jews, he was often rebuffed by rich and powerful Jewish grandees, who saw him as a troublemaker. Instead, he found eager supporters among pious Protestants, for whom Jews belonged in their own holy land rather than in Europe.

Once the Jewish state was established, the earliest European friends of Israel were often people on the left, who admired the communal life on the kibbutzim, and saw Israel as a great socialist experiment, led by wise old left-wing idealists, such as David Ben-Gurion. Residual guilt about the Holocaust bolstered this attitude.

Things began to change after the 1967 Six Day War, and even more after the 1973 “Yom Kippur” war, when it became clear that Israel was not going to let go of the Palestinian territories that it had conquered. Later, when Israel began to build settlements all over the occupied territories, admiration even turned into active hostility from Europe’s left.

To many people on the right, however, the very things deplored by the European (and Israeli) left became reasons to admire Israel. These new friends liked the ruthless use of force, the ethnic nationalism, the continued humiliation of the Palestinians. Keen to revive a more militant form of nationalism in their own countries, politicians like Strache, Wilders, and Dewinter see Israel as a kind of model – a model discredited for a long time in Europe, owing to bad memories of fascism and Nazism.

Indeed, anti-Zionist leftists frequently attempt to discredit Israel by comparing its actions in Gaza and the West Bank to Nazi atrocities. This is a cheap trick, aimed to give maximum offense. Contrary to what the Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago once said, the Israeli army’s attacks in Gaza are not comparable in any way to Auschwitz. But the view, espoused by Israel’s new right-wing friends, that Israel is on the front line against Islamic fascism, is equally mendacious.

By comparing Islam in general – not only Islamist terrorism – to fascism, as the right-wing populists do, and to suggest that Europe faces a threat comparable to the Nazis, is not just wrong, but dangerous. For, if it were true, any and all measures taken against Muslims, however brutal, would be justified, and Israel would indeed be a frontline state, resisting “Islamofacism” to prevent another Auschwitz. This is certainly how many Israeli right-wing politicians explain things. And they find eager parrots among some of Europe’s most retrograde political forces.

It is a view that carries the grave implication that a peaceful solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is almost impossible. The longer Israel, cheered on by the wrong European friends, continues to humiliate the Palestinians and occupy their lands, the more likely it will be that hatred and violence will stand in the way of compromise, without which there can be no peace.

There is another potential consequence, however. False analogies with the past trivialize history. If the Israelis, or the Palestinians, are like Nazis, then the horror of what the real Nazis did has been greatly diminished.

But exploiting history to justify current violence will not work forever. Once people stop believing that Israel is defending the West against fascism, Israel will be blamed for all the violence in the Middle East. And Jews everywhere else will be blamed by association. In short, the wrong friends of Israel are even worse friends of the Jewish people.

Ian Buruma is Professor of Democracy and Human Rights at Bard College. His latest book is Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents.

NOVANEWS

 

Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem

Chair of West Midland PSC

 

Hi All,

There has been much going on in the area for the past 24 hours, that I was left with 20 articles that I’d read.  Rather than list them below, I’ll summarize several of the more significant events along with their links in case you should wish to read the details yourselves.

The first matter that I heard of this morning on the radio news and which appeared on the front page of the electronic edition of Haaretz was that someone had put out a video (Youtube, I presume) calling for the murder of the Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan because he supported Arabs not Jews (he called for an investigation of the racist letter signed by 200 or more Rabbis to not rent or sell property to Arabs) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4011351,00.html.  Only the medium used is new.  The type of accusation was typical also before Rabin’s assassination.  And how little incentive one needs to commit murder we have seen from the recent mass killings in Arizona.  The Israeli police have placed a guard around Nitzan’s house.

The 2nd nasty bit of news is from today’s Fascist Israeli elements– the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee approved a bill that will allow revoking citizenship from anyone convicted of terror or espionage crimes.  This is a broad depiction that could include many of us.  Will the Knesset pass the bill?  Probably yes, though even on the far right there are those who do not approve it http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4011469,00.html

Tsipi Livni announced that her party, Kadima, would not support another Fascist plan—the McCarthyist investigation of Israeli human rights organizations. http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=202984

The newspapers also reported that the Israeli Air force had bombed portions of Gaza last night, in retaliation for missiles shot into Israel that injured 3 Thais, who might not have been injured had they had a fortified area to run to as do the members of the kibbutz http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4011277,00.html

And then later in the day reports came of the IOF killing a 65 year old farmer in Gaza, for which (apparently) militants in Gaza shot 3 missiles into Israel http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4011277,00.html

There were several reports about yesterday’s demolition of the Shepherd hotel.  The details are more or less the same, but emphases differ. Two of these are

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/world/middleeast/10mideast.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/historic-hotel-flattened-for-settlements-2180297.html

PMO Netanyahu responds to criticism of the demolition and the plan to build 20 structures for Jews only that the government was not involved and that private parties (Jew or Arab) can build wherever they wish in Jerusalem (I’d like to see an Arab family trying to build a home in West Jerusalem!  But then Netanyahu has never been known for his fealty to facts) http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-building-on-site-of-east-jerusalem-hotel-corresponds-with-israeli-law-1.336221

And before we get to the few items that I do intend to give their texts, one other slight detail of interest, though it doesn’t mean much, is that Hillary Clinton in addition to calling on Arab countries to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, also calls on them to support the PA government http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011001989.html

We are left with 3 items.

The first of these is promising news—news to keep our eyes on.  The EU consulates in response to Israel’s conduct in East Jerusalem recommend (a) that East Jerusalem should be treated as the Palestinian capital, and (b) a whole slew of what appear to be sanctions against Israel—not enough sanctions, and not serious enough, but nevertheless these are concrete acts, and if taken will not necessarily suffice to make Israel change its ways, but perhaps if Israel does not, then maybe the EU will consider going further.  For the present, this is merely something to keep our eyes on.  Nothing has actually happened so far.

Item 2 brings us back to the reality of the occupation.  More specifically it deals with what is happening in Silwan.  It’s author, Hagit Ofran, a member of Peace Now, keeps tab of construction in the colonies and passes on the information so that we can all be informed, if we wish.  In the report below, however, she details how the Israeli police treats Palestinian residents of Silwan.

The final item tells us that Israel’s racism has finally reached the High Court.  Am not so sure that ‘finally’ is the correct word.

All the best, and still hoping for better times,

Dorothy

———————–

1.  EU diplomats say East Jerusalem should be treated as Palestinian capital

EU consuls to Israel, Palestinian Authority recommend boycotting Israeli products from East Jerusalem, call for EU officials to be present at home demolitions and evacuations.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/eu-diplomats-say-east-jerusalem-should-be-treated-as-palestinian-capital-1.336109

[see also the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/eu-officials-propose-help-for-arrested-palestinians-2180298.html ]

By Nir Hasson

East Jerusalem should be treated as the capital of the Palestinian state, according to a report compiled by the heads of European diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah. The report includes several other unprecedented recommendations to the European Union regarding its attitude toward East Jerusalem.

The European diplomats, mainly consuls, also recommend that EU officials and politicians refuse to visit Israeli government offices that are located beyond the Green Line and that they decline any Israeli security in the Old City and elsewhere in East Jerusalem.

The report, which was completed last month, was sent to the EU’s main foreign policy body, the Political and Security Committee in Brussels. It was apparently not released at the time due to the sensitivity of its content.

The diplomats’ report also discusses the possibility of preventing “violent settlers in East Jerusalem” from being granted entry into EU countries. In the area of commerce, it recommends encouraging a boycott of Israeli products from East Jerusalem.

The first part of the report details construction and expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem, the infringement of human rights of Palestinian residents of the eastern part of the city, as well as inequality in education and medical services available to Palestinians. The report concludes that beyond their humanitarian significance, these conditions weaken the Palestinian hold on the city.

European criticism of Israeli policy in the territories and particularly East Jerusalem is not new. But the dramatic turn in the report can be seen in the operative steps it recommends, which in fact constitute the foundations for sanctions against Israel.

For example, the document proposes that visiting senior EU officials not use Israeli businesses operating in East Jerusalem, such as hotels and transportation companies, and that archaeological sites operated by “pro-settler organizations” (a reference to the City of David National Park ) not be visited.

The report goes on to suggest that public awareness be raised about settlement products, “for instance by providing guidance on origin labeling for settlement products to major EU retailers,” and that EU citizens be informed “of the financial risks involved in purchasing property in occupied East Jerusalem.”

The diplomats also recommend that the EU encourage Israel to allow the reopening of Palestine Liberation Organization offices in East Jerusalem, in keeping with the road map. Israel closed the PLO institutions during the second intifada.

EU diplomats are called on to express great concern during their meetings with senior Israeli officials over the state of emergency services to East Jerusalem Arabs, the report also says.

It added that EU officials should be present at house demolitions or evacuations from homes, as well as at court hearings on such issues, and “ensure EU intervention when Palestinians are arrested or intimidated by Israeli authorities for peaceful cultural, social or political activities in East Jerusalem”.

The report further recommends that the European Union “encourage Arab countries to acknowledge the multicultural dimension of Jerusalem, including its Jewish and Christian heritage.”

================

2. Eyes On The Ground in East Jerusalem

Hagit Ofran brings you the human stories behind the headlines.

http://settlementwatcheastjerusalem.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/police-silwan/

The Police Attacks on Silwan

The Jerusalem police have been putting a lot of pressure on the Palestinian residents of Silwan in what seems to be an attempt to break the social and political leadership of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem. The recent wave of attacks started a few weeks ago when Adnan Ghaith, one of the local leaders of al-Bustan neighborhood, received an order of expulsion from Jerusalem for four months.

Last week, Jawad Siyam, the director of the Madaa Community Center in Wadi Hilweh was arrested for three days and then released into house arrest. This was after a Palestinian man filed a complaint of assault against him, but Siyam was interrogated mainly about his political and social activity in Silwan. One of central reasons given for the extension of his arrest was a suspected conspiracy to commit a crime, yet the charges that were filed against him today mentioned only the alleged assault.

Probably the most severe, though, was the police attack on Battan Al-Hawa last Friday night and the arrest of Zoheir A-Rajabi. Battan al-Hawa is one of the most tense places in Silwan, if not in all of East Jerusalem. Tension there began when settlers built an illegal building, Beit Yonatan, in the heart of the neighborhood. The armed guards of the settlers, the armored jeep taking them in and out of their house and the added police patrols have been the focus of many quarrels, brawls, and in some cases stone-throwing incidents that ended in clashes with the police, tear gas in the streets and in the homes, injuries and arrests.

When I came to Battan Al-Hawa on Saturday morning, I could see the traces of what had happen the night before. Four armed policemen walked down the alley, attracting the attention of the children who were playing in the street. They were coming to man the military-post that the border police put up on the roof of one of the Palestinian homes a few months ago, without the required injunction.

According to what I was told, the previous night, their colleagues at the post were forced off the roof by some young Palestinians following a brawl which probably irrupted after one of the policeman talked to/watched/or touched a young Palestinian woman. The policemen left behind a box full of ammunition. Zoheir A-Rajabi, who is one of the local leaders, managed to get hold of the box and to prevent the youngsters from stealing and using its contents. He called the police and informed them that they could come and take the box, and so they did.

Two hours later, the police came back with a huge amount of cars and soldiers. They used massive amounts of tear gas, shock grenades and plastic bullets.

The boy Ahmad Abu Ramila hit by a plastic bullet at the balcony of his home

They entered Rajabi’s house by force, broke the door, and arrested him, not before breaking his computer and taking it away.

The police broke the door and took the computer

Watch the testimony of Rula A-Rajabi the wife of Zoheir a-Rajabi (in Arabic)

They also tried to enter his brother’s house. They used a shock grenade at the door, broke the glass and called the family out.

A Shock Grenade at the Door and the Broken Glass of the Door

Eventually the family managed to prevent them from entering but Zoheir’s brother was beaten up badly by the police, his rib was broken as well as his top jaw bone. Now, 48 hours later, Zoheir A-Rajabi is still in custody, probably under allegation of assaulting a policeman.

But this was not enough for the Jerusalem police: early this morning (Sunday 9/1/11), they arrested some of al-Bustan neighborhood’s activists. According to reports, about 10 people were arrested, including the son of Fakhri Abu Diab, one of the local leaders of al-Bustan, well known by the press and the diplomatic community as one of the spokesmen and social leaders of al-Bustan. Fakhri Abu Diab himself was summoned for an investigation at the police headquarters as well as Adnan Gaith.

What all this means?

It seems to me that the Jerusalem police have decided to try and break the local leadership of Silwan. These kinds of community leaders need be remarkable people. The Palestinian society in East Jerusalem is fragmented and crushed. Day-to-day hardships and the constant threat to the basic needs of the residents (home demolitions, expulsions and denial of residency, neglect of the infrastructure and social services) keep the residents busy dealing with survival. The police, the settlers and the secret services are using Palestinian collaborators and informers, making it almost impossible for the people to trust one another.

Under these circumstances, the price of taking action to organize the people for any kind of activity can be very high. The local leaders of Silwan, together with many other Palestinians in their neighborhood, are trying to do the impossible and create a community ready to act in order to achieve common goals, and ready to stand up against the oppression of the Israeli authorities and the settlers in East Jerusalem. The Jerusalem police doesn’t want such leadership, and is trying to wear them down with investigations, arrests, expulsions and other means that would never be accepted in a democratic system.

This is only a further example demonstrating that Jerusalem is not united: in West Jerusalem some form of a democracy is kept. In the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, there is occupation, and a fight for survival.

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3.  Haaretz,

January 10, 2011

Israel’s racism has finally reached the High Court

The court uses strong language regarding the illegality of segregation. But, in the same breath, it enables those with power to maintain it almost unhindered.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-racism-has-finally-reached-the-high-court-1.336141

By Merav Michaeli

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has threatened it will petition the High Court of Justice if the Knesset passes the bill that would subject applicants for residency in small communities to the discriminatory approval of admissions committees. The petition is not worth the trouble. The High Court will take a year or two to ponder the issue and then ask that a committee be established to look into how many communities use admissions committees, why people are rejected and whether the rejections were justified.

The committee will issue a report stating that admissions committees are indeed problematic, and the state cannot permit segregation and discrimination, except in cases when it is voluntary.

Then the High Court will rule specifically and unequivocally that discrimination and segregation are illegal unless someone desires such policies, in which case they should be allowed in accordance with the outlines of the committee report. So the policy will remain in place. While the High Court and the investigatory committee toil away, the admissions committees will flourish, large numbers of the public will be segregated from the “clean” population, allowing the latter group to dwell securely in communities that become increasingly similar in character to West Bank settlements. And “compatibility with social and cultural fabric” will become synonymous with voluntarism as a way of legitimizing the discrimination.

This scenario is not the product of my wild imagination. It is precisely what happened in the case of segregation of men and women on buses serving the ultra-Orthodox public, which ended last Thursday with an astonishing High Court ruling in which segregation and discrimination were condemned. “Have we returned to the days of Rosa Parks, the African-American woman who in 1955 brought about the end of racist segregation and discrimination in the buses of the United States?” the court asked. Strong words, indeed.

But, at the same time, the court left the back door open, and I am not simply speaking metaphorically. All the ultra-Orthodox women will continue to board the buses through the back door as they were conditioned to do, even through violence, over the course of the seven years that this scandalous segregation spread. During this period, the High Court of Justice weighed the issue. The investigative committee was appointed. It wrote its report. And the transportation minister pondered whether to accept its recommendations.

This approach has become customary with the court in recent years. It was true with the ruling on the appointment of a woman to the Turkel Committee investigating the Turkish flotilla incident. It was also true regarding the issue of fertility treatments for single women, and in the case of proper representation of Arabs in the Israel Lands Administration, etc. In its opinions, the court uses outstanding, strong, truly moving language regarding the illegality of segregation and equal rights. But, in the same breath, it enables those with power, the ones who are carrying out the oppression and discrimination, to continue to maintain it almost unhindered.

Two concurrent developments have brought the High Court to his point. First, it doesn’t function in a vacuum. The expansion and penetration of discrimination, racism and segregation in Israeli politics and Israeli society reaches the court as well. It can be said that the dominant culture of the occupation, which has filtered down into various sectors in Israel for many years, is also filtering down to the High Court of Justice.

One can be more precise and say that the tools with which the High Court has for years legitimized the occupation now also serve its legitimization of serious injustices within Israel itself. Let’s admit it. The approach involves verbose, enlightened condemnation regarding illegal acts and then giving them a legal seal of approval as a “necessary evil.” This is what the High Court has done throughout the years of occupation. Aside from the issue of torture, which took the court 10 years to outlaw, everything has been legitimized: assassinations, home demolitions, sealing of homes, expulsion, expropriation, administrative detention, withholding of information and, of course, the separation fence.

The second development is part of the dangerous and fascist introversion of the Israeli political system in recent years, as expressed in attacks on the High Court. The fact that the court does not provide backing for the truly beautiful theories it expounds in its directives reflects how these attacks on the court have penetrated. If it is not afraid, the court is at least wary. That is the result of threats, legislative initiatives and ministerial acts of people like former justice minister Daniel Friedmann.

Our politicians should understand that through their dangerous acts, which corrupt and destroy anything good, they won’t be able to rely on the court to save them and us from perdition.

NOVANEWS

 

Someone pointed me to a recent piece about why it’s reasonable to call other atrocities Shoah, a Hebrew word that means literally catastrophe or devastation, and in its proper noun variant, is used for Holocaust. The author is of zero interest to me. What interests me is that it is taken as a point of high principle that atrocities other than those that occurred to “Jews” (but really to Roma, the disabled, gays, communists, trade-unionists, and others) should also be called Shoah, genocide, or Holocaust. Like most principles dear to the Facebook and Twitter battalions of the Palestine solidarity movement, this is stupidity of the first order. It’s stupid because under the cover of anti-Zionism, it’s Zionist to the core: a people has not endured tragedy until it has had its own Holocaust.

Atrocity must mirror the purposeful genocide of the Jews before it can enter into the historical ledger books as intolerable massacre. It’s also deeply racist: atrocity must be compared to not only Jewish atrocity but white peoples’ atrocity before it becomes real. It’s colonialist: the first atrocity to enter History was the Holocaust. Forget Leopold’s War. Forget Armenia. Forget the capitalist famines of the late Victorian Era. Shoahshoahshoah. Sorry but I had to get that out of my system.

Technorati Tags: capitalism, colonialism, Genocide, Holocaust, Holocaust Industry, Israel,Palestine, Zionism

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NOVANEWS

 

 January 10, 2011

by crescentandcross  

NOVANEWS

 

01/10/2011

• Dep’t of Homeland Security suggests anti-Semitism may be motive for assassination attempt in Arizona

• Remnick takes another step– the occupation is ‘deeply wrong’

• Angry Arab says that after Bill Clinton got in, Arabists were ‘eliminated’ from State Dep’t

• Ynet: US gov’t believes that Palestinian state would be ‘disaster’ and 2nd Tehran

• Amidst ghettoes, camps, and a mural for a mass-murderer, a settler offers his coexistence plan

• Hillary Clinton condemns Shepherd Hotel demolition as demonstrators cry, ‘This is stolen land’

• Abu Rahma family has become symbol of occupation (and of an authoritarian regime– Gideon Levy)

• Barghouti: Ariel U boycott is first step

• War and Michael Walzer

• Israelis demolish Shepherd’s Hotel in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish housing

 

Dep’t of Homeland Security suggests anti-Semitism may be motive for assassination attempt in Arizona

Jan 09, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

JTA picks up a Fox News report that a Dept of Homeland Security memorandum has mentioned the alleged gunman’s connection to American Renaissance, a nativist group that Homeland Security notes rails against ZOG (Zionist Occupied Gov’t) and is “anti-Semitic.” The memo also mentions that wounded congresswoman Gabriel Giffords is Jewish. The JTA story says that Giffords made her Jewish identity a proud point of her political campaign (following a 2001 trip to Israel, after which she embraced her Jewish roots).

 
     

Remnick takes another step– the occupation is ‘deeply wrong’

Jan 09, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

There was an emotional encounter between neocon Bret Stephens, New Yorker editor David Remnick and Fareed Zakari on CNN’s GPS today. At 12 or so, Zakaria brings up the recent Israeli interview with David Remnick, in which he said he is sick of the occupation. And Remnick responds:

I’ve always been tired of it. What I think of it is relatively immaterial.. If things seem quiet now, and I was just in Israel for ten days, and in the West Bank as well… I know this is not by any stretch of the imagination as perilous as Pakistan…but the corrosive effect of occupation on Israeli society and on the region is really serious. And so it is disappointing.. that Obama for whatever reason is going to slowly withdraw from this issue and not spend any big political capital to do it. Because the only place that will be able to bring people to the table is the United States.

Neocon Stephens then objects. Zakaria says,

It is now 43 years, you [Stephens] were the editor of the Jerusalem Post, it is 43 years, the Israelis have been ruling a population that it has not enfranchised and it has not yet let go. You can’t be comfortable with that.

Stephens: No I’m not. I’m against the occupation.

Zakaria: But what does that mean?

Stephens: It’s bad for Israel. It’s bad for the Palestinians. It’s bad for the world.

Remnick: And it’s wrong. It’s deeply wrong.

Eliot Spitzer is also on the panel. I believe he safely ducked this issue. And let me say one other thing. An all-star panel, as Zakaria advertises it, and three of the four panelists are Jews, and their opinions range from neoconservative to liberal Zionist. This is why I harp on the new quasi-Jewish establishment, because of our inevitable representation in such fora. Where are the realists? (Only Zakaria) Where are the Arab-Americans? Or the anti-Zionists? When Remnick says that what he thinks of the occupation is immaterial, he is wrong. He has the power to help shape American Jewish opinion. And that’s the ballgame.

      

Angry Arab says that after Bill Clinton got in, Arabists were ‘eliminated’ from State Dep’t

Jan 09, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

Angry Arab has a fascinating post on a letter written to the NYT by ass’t sec’y of state Jeffrey Feltman. Angry Arab– As’ad AbuKhalil– uses the letter as an opportunity to reflect on the elimination of Arabists from the State Department since the Clinton years.

A few quick points before the excerpt: there were Arabists all over the State Department in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s; and they generally lost.

They opposed the creation of Israel and warned that it could only be established and preserved by force (prophetic). They pushed for the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, and lost (and the wound still festers). The Arabists were described as a romantic and anti-Semitic and fuddy-duddy elite in the Robert Kaplan book that Angry Arab mentions below, The Arabists– a book that treated Israel’s creation as a great liberal advance. Many of them came out of the old WASP establishment; and it is impossible to talk about the vanishing of the Arabists without speaking of the rise of Jews into the Establishment and the Jewish mistrust of that blueblood ancien regime.

I was raised to dislike and fear Arabs; and my youthful prejudice is still widely shared in American Jewish life. Erica Jong wrote, Arabs and Other Animals, as the title of one of her chapters in her bestseller Fear of Flying– a no-cost prejudice, like the n-word back when Mark Twain was writing. Clinton’s was the most philosemitic presidency in history. He appointed two Jews to the Supreme Court, and his Middle East negotiating team was almost all Jewish. These sociocultural factors are of course significant in policymaking; and though I believe younger Jews are far more worldly than their parents’ generation, the change is taking place slowly. Brzezinski was railroaded after the Carter administration because he was seen as being too pro-Arab.

He was said to be advising Obama; I don’t see hide nor hair of him. The great Rashid Khalidi (who as an Obama adviser actually might have saved the two-state-solution) was blackballed during the 2008 campaign. And remember the manner that the neoconservatives blackballed Chas Freeman as National Intelligence director in early 2009– an Arabic speaker, who liked Saudi Arabia, he was deemed an Arabist. Forget about it. That happened in the Obama administration, of course, and why? Well for the same reason that Feltman and Treasury’s Stuart Levey can endure from the disaster Bush administration into the Obama administration, because they are regarded as reliable by the Israel lobby, a force outside partisan politics. It’s all of a piece, the character of the new Establishment.

Angry Arab:

So Jeffrey Feltman wrote a letter to the New York Times today to express his disapproval of a Lebanese newspaper and its editorial line. When I read that last night, I could not help but think of the degradation of Middle East expertise in the US government. It is fair to say that ever since Bill Clinton came to power, the Arabists were completely eliminated from policy making positions at the White House and State Department (although some remain at other branches of the US government). Of course, the war on Arabists began in earlier years: Henry Kissinger tried to marginalize them in earlier years too. Their obituary was written in the book on their record by Robert Kaplan.

In the late 1990s, I spoke about the Arabists and made the point I am making now at a conference at Georgetown University. After my talk, I was approached by Robert Pelletreau–he was the last Arabist to serve as the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs because the job went after him to ardent Zionists from outside the Foreign Service: people like Martin Indyk–and he pleaded with me to not use the word “Arabist” because it hurts the career and image of Middle East specialists at the US government. Feltman comes from the Foreign Service but does not dream of ever being considered an Arabist: not only because of his Likudnik politics but also because of his failure to achieve any of the knowledge or competence of Arabists in yester years….

This is not about politics: I am not endorsing the political views (always timid) of former Arabists: but I am at least pointing out the competence of Arabists in comparison to the Zionist crowd who now occupy positions of power relating to the Middle East in the US government.

     

Ynet: US gov’t believes that Palestinian state would be ‘disaster’ and 2nd Tehran

Jan 09, 2011

Jeffrey Blankfort

 

Ynet piece by Hagai Segal:

“George W. Bush issued his two-state vision only after Ariel Sharon voiced a similar vision. Until that point, the Americans believed (just like Israel’s governments) that a Palestinian state would be a disaster. Secretly they still think so, because one Tehran is enough, yet they cannot be against it when Israel is in favor.”

Another demonstration of the confidence many Israelis have in their influence in Washington. To date it has not been misplaced.

 
     

Amidst ghettoes, camps, and a mural for a mass-murderer, a settler offers his coexistence plan
Jan 09, 2011 06:23 pm | Scott McConnell

 

Our group has been five days in Israel/Palestine; the scene is more depressing than my last trip here five years ago. Against the inexorable tightening of the screws on the Palestinians–  Occupied Palestine brings to mind Orwell’s image of a boot stamping on a human face, forever—one can perhaps balance the heightening of international awareness and protest, and a quickening  in the long dormant Israeli Left.  But  there is room for surprises from unexpected directions.   

Our day began with a bus trip out to Hebron—a pause on the side of the road to take in the separation Wall surrounding Bethlehem, severing it from its farmland and olive trees. A Presbyterian colleague told me she once believed the world would never put up with the Israelis turning Bethlehem into a walled ghetto, but the world  has, with hardly a peep. The road to Hebron is a vivid demonstration that you don’t need to occupy a large amount of territory to  maintain control: here a Palestinian refugee camp, from 1948—and outside it a small complex of Israeli gates and pillboxes and machine guns.  Everyone who enters or exits must satisfy the IDF guards.

Here another Arab town, surrounded by the Wall, cut off from its own olive trees, which now fall on the Israeli side. One suspects there are aquifer considerations too—the Wall is generally routed to steal water from the Arabs and give it to the settlers. Here’s  another crossing where the Palestinians now have to go through a tunnel to reach the other half of their town.

Hebron of course, is a trip in itself—a place like no other in the world.  The city center has been turned into a ghost town for the benefit of a few hundred settlers—guarded by an equal number of IDF.  After viewing the tombs, we wander the deserted streets on a cold afternoon. The Palestinians have been removed from the city center. A European NGO witness and observation patrol drives slowly around. Eight year-old settler girls throw rocks at it. The settlers have  painted a mural, which looks to me like an attempt to portray a heroic Baruch Goldstein, mowing down Muslim worshippers with a machine gun.  My Israeli guide, from New York, isn’t sure that’s what the painting represents.

And then, a lift in the mood, from a most surprising source.  On the drive back we stop at Gush Etzion, a hilltop settlement, to meet with Nachum Pechenick, the director of Eretz Shalom. Born in Hebron, he is a settler who wants, allegedly, to co-exist peacefully and meaningfully, with his Arab neighbors. Our group is pretty skeptical. We are tired, but turn up the hill. He meets us and we follow to a restaurant.  Night has fallen, the sky is clear. You can see Jerusalem on the right, and  before us, all the way to Tel Aviv and  the coast. Pechenick is in jeans, big knitted kippa,  big brown beard, about forty.  We sit down for tea and coffee in a restaurant full of settlers and their kids, warm and convivial.  The guy starts talking . His English is halting, but expressive.  He draws you in.  He is religious, charismatic—reminds me of the 60’s.  He loves the land, has a mystical attachment to it, won’t leave. His own settlement is illegal, even by Israeli standards.  But his group tries to make friends with Palestinians—cooperate on soil, water, joint playgrounds with their kids. (This last may be the most radical, un- Zionist, and potentially productive, concept.) Respect their property.  He hopes to live, he tells us, as a religious settler Jew in a Palestinian state.

Peace must be made on the ground, between neighbors.  I try to maintain my realist stance, but am taken by it.  The guy is, kind of obviously, full of love. When he says that peace won’t come by driving Jews from Judea and Samaria, it does make sense.  (It won’t come from what the Israelis are doing now, that is clear enough.)  But after forty-five minutes it becomes  plain to me that Nachum Pechenick should have an American audience. I would wager a lot of young American Jews –feeling as trapped by the current  situation as I do–would find him enormously appealing. Certainly more so than the fraudulent peace maneuvers of Dennis Ross and George Mitchell. 

Pechenick tells us has nearly a thousand followers. Who knows?   If he’s right about the thousand, he could,  I believe, have ten thousand after a month of talking to college Hillels. And through that emerge as a meaningful part of our sense of what’s possible. 

A bit of googling finds Pechenick last spring trying to organize a joint demo last spring with West Bank Palestinians against a fence expansion.  He is, as he puts in his not quite colloquial English, “off the box.”  Over to you, Tikkun.  Here’s his website: www.eretzshalom.org.

     

Hillary Clinton condemns Shepherd Hotel demolition as demonstrators cry, ‘This is stolen land’

Jan 09, 2011

Alex Kane

 

Caterpillar and Volvo bulldozers demolish a part of a historic hotel in occupied East Jerusalem. (Photo: Alex Kane)

[UPDATE: Hillary Clinton condemns the destruction:

[We are very concerned about the initiation of demolition of the Shepherd’s Hotel in East Jerusalem. This disturbing development undermines peace efforts to achieve the two state-solution. In particular, this move contradicts the logic of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties on the status of Jerusalem. We believe that through good faith negotiations, the parties should mutually agree on an outcome that realizes the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem, and safeguards its status for people around the world. Ultimately, the lack of a resolution to this conflict harms Israel, harms the Palestinians, and harms the U.S. and the international community. We will continue to press ahead with the parties to resolve the core issues, including Jerusalem, in the context of a peace agreement.]

Ramallah, West Bank–I was a witness to the destruction of a historic hotel in occupied East Jerusalem today, but activists bearing witness didn’t let the incident go on without making some noise.

After meeting with members of the Rifka Al-Kurd family, who now live steps away from illegal settlers who evicted members of the family to take over their home in Sheikh Jarrah, the delegation I am with received news of the hotel demolition.

Up the street from the Rifka Al-Kurd family residence is the Shepherd Hotel. Al Jazeerareports:

The Shepherd Hotel was razed by three Israeli bulldozers, early on Sunday, as part of a plan to build a new settlement of 20 units in the heart of the occupied city.

The hotel is located on the demarcation line between two Arab neighbourhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Wadi al-Joz. The site will not only divide the two neighbourhoods but it will also change the aspects of occupied Jerusalem.

According to official documents, the hotel was owned by al-Quds Mufti, Haj Amin al-Hussaini, who was deported by the British rule in 1937. He later died in Lebanon in 1974.

The settlement project is funded by Irving Moskowitz, a wealthy Jewish-American gambling magnate.

Mammoth Caterpillar and Volvo bulldozers were working on razing a wing of the hotel.

Defending the demolition in front of the press was Elisha Peleg, a Jerusalem City Council member who is part of the right-wing Likud Party. Peleg insisted that “Jerusalem is the united capital of Israel,” while international activists and Palestinian women yelled “this is stolen land,” “shame on you” and disrupted his interviews with the media. In front of the gates to the hotel stood Israeli police and private security guards carrying rifles.

I told Peleg that he was a shame to Jews around the world. He turned around and told me that journalists shouldn’t voice their own opinions and that there was nothing wrong with building for Jews.

“They want to continue to take more land,” said Nasser Ghawi, a Palestinian resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah who has also seen his home taken away and given to Israeli settlers.

Israeli activists hastily organized a protest against the hotel demolition.

Alex Kane is a blogger and journalist based in New York City. He blogs on Israel/Palestine and Islamophobia in the U.S. at alexbkane.wordpress.com, where this post originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.

     

Abu Rahma family has become symbol of occupation (and of an authoritarian regime– Gideon Levy)

Jan 09, 2011

Kate

 

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Israeli forces demolish Shepherd Hotel
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli bulldozers began demolishing the Shepherd Hotel in theSheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday under the protection of a huge force of Israeli police and border guards. Israeli authorities leveled the hotel to make way for a new settlement. The initial plan is to build 20 Jewish-only residential units, Ma’an’s Jerusalem correspondent reported. Secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi described the demolition as further evidence of Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing, which he said exposed the real plots against Jerusalem. 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349404Israel demolishes East Jerusalem hotel wing to clear way for new homes
Bulldozers arrive in Sheikh Jarrah early Sunday to raze wing of Shepherd Hotel compound, where 20 new Jewish housing units will be built despite U.S. and British condemnation … The hotel was declared “absentee property” by Israel after it captured and annexed East Jerusalem. The title was transferred to an Israeli firm, which sold it in 1985 to Irving Moskowitz, a Florida bingo king and patron of Jewish settlers. 
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-demolishes-east-jerusalem-hotel-wing-to-clear-way-for-new-homes-1.336021

East Jerusalem: Construction of Jewish neighborhood begins
Shepherd Hotel leveled to make room for 20 housing units designated for Jews. Peace Now: Extreme right taking over east Jerusalem like thieves in the night
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4010762,00.html

Israel demolishing chance for peace: Palestinians
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian officials on Sunday slammed Israel’s demolition of an east Jerusalem hotel to make way for settler homes, accusing the Jewish state of destroying any chance of peace … “By doing this, Israel has destroyed all the US efforts and ended any possibility of a return to negotiations,” Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said in a statement.”Israel has no right to build in any part of east Jerusalem, or any part of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967,” Abu Rudeina said, calling on the United States to “stop Israeli tampering.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110109/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictjerusalemsettlers

Netanyahu is warned against using private guards at East Jerusalem settler compound / Akiva Eldar
Housing Minister Atias asked to transfer security in the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to the Israel Police following fatal shooting of a Silwan resident by a privately employed guard … The housing minister says that since March 2010, some 15 security guards were removed from their position because they were found to be unsuitable to work in the unit. He said that in May alone there were 246 incidents registered by the security guards in their log book, including three in which they had to use firearms because they considered their lives to be in danger. 
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-warned-against-using-private-guards-at-east-jerusalem-settler-compound-1.335959

Palestinians and police trade accusations over violent clashes in Silwan on Friday night
According to Palestinian sources, the incident began when a number of Border Police officers trying to enter a home in the village to reach the defensive position on its roof assaulted an elderly woman who resisted their entry … Police confirmed that nine arrests were made and said more are anticipated. For months Palestinian neighborhood activists, aided by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and attorney Leah Tsemel, have been fighting against what they say is an unlawful police position on the roof of a village home. 
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/palestinians-and-police-trade-accusations-over-violent-clashes-in-silwan-on-friday-night-1.335963

Persecution of Adnan Ghaith continues, despite release
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 9 Jan — Al-Bustan Popular Committee member Adnan Ghaith received a summons from Israeli police for investigation today. Renewed police attempts to investigate Ghaith for his political activity in Silwan come hot on the heels of his release on bail by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court on 6 January. Ghaith has been fighting a lengthy legal battle against Israeli authorities’ attempts to enforce a temporary ban on Ghaith from the Jerusalem area. The ban, originally an order issued by an Israeli military commander of the central region, is expected to come in to effect on 12 January, for a period of four months.
http://silwanic.net/?p=10326

Israeli police call director of Wadi Hilweh Information Center again
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 9 Jan — The Israeli Police called Jawad Siyam, director of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center and member of the Neighborhood Committee, for an interrogation again this morning. Siyam was released by the Magistrate Court on January 7, when evidence for the assault charges laid against him proved insufficient.
http://silwanic.net/?p=10303

Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions

Video: Israel engulfs an entire West Bank village in tear gas / Joseph Dana
Amid controversy over Israel’s use of tear gas against unarmed demonstrations in the West Bank and the media attention placed on Bil’in’s protest after the killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah, Israel attacked the village of Nabi Saleh with poisonous gas. As soldiers were leaving the village, marking the end of the demonstration, the army covered the entire place with tear gas. Houses, shops and mosques engulfed in the tear gas which killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah. The army was able to do this with a  special device called ‘the ringo’ which fires 60 rounds of tear gas in about 7 seconds. The footage speaks for itself especially from minute 7:00.
http://972mag.com/israel-engulfs-an-entire-west-bank-village-with-tear-gas/

In the West Bank, everyone knows there’s a culture of no-accountability / Lisa Goldman
The death last week of Bil’in resident Jawaher Abu Rhamah, after she inhaled tear gas at a demonstration, has received a great deal of publicity, making her into a symbol of the violent means the Israeli army uses to maintain its control over the West Bank. Many commentators are parsing the incident as if it were an isolated one, but the truth is that violence and brutality are the norm. And while there is plenty of documentation to support that statement, most Israelis would prefer not to know.

A few months ago, at a Friday demonstration in Nabi Saleh, a border police officer threw a percussion grenade on my foot … He was grinning a little bit.
http://972mag.com/in-the-west-bank-everyone-knows-theres-a-culture-of-no-accountability/

Family, friends and volunteers renovate Hajja Sara’s kitchen tent
The image below was taken during our visit to Hajja Sara of Palestinian Susiya on Thursday January 6. Her tent kitchen was torched before dawn on December 28, apparently by neighboring settlers – part of a wave of escalation in the area.Following news of the incident, family and friends in Palestine and Israel, as well as Israeli and international groups, have enlisted to help in donation and work on the ground. Hajja Sara’s kitchen now stands again. We too have received donations in money and in kind (cooking equipment), and will deliver them shortly to Hajja Sara and her family.
http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/family-friends-and-volunteers-renovate-hajja-saras-kitchen-tent/Israel Prize laureates join academic boycott of settlement university
155 academics sign petition calling Ariel, where the education center is located, an illegal settlement whose existence contravenes international law and the Geneva Convention … Among the signatories are three Israel Prize laureates … Yigal Cohen-Orgad, chairman of the Ariel college’s executive committee, said: “A tiny and bizarre minority of some 150 lecturers is behind the petition, out of 7,000 faculty members…”
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-prize-laureates-join-academic-boycott-of-settlement-university-1.335954

Iranian activists back home from Gaza
Iranian activists accompanying Asia’s first humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza have returned home after successfully completing their mission. The Iranian activists arrived in the Iranian capital, Tehran, after delivering medical supplies and electricity generators donated to the people of Gaza.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159152.html

Meet the first ever Indian activists to enter Gaza (Palestine)
Press Invitation – You are cordially invited to meet the delegates at the press conference and share their experience through personal testimonies, as well as their rich collection of videos and photographs that documented the historic journey. Venue: Press Club of India, Raisina Road, New Delhi (Near Metro Station Central Secretariat) Time: 2.45 pm    Date: Monday, January 10, 2011
http://www.milligazette.com/news/305-meet-the-first-ever-indian-activists-to-enter-gaza-palestine

Peaceful views of Palestine
Amesbury [Massachusetts. USA] — The Amesbury Peace Center will host another program in its continuing exploration of issues related to peace in the Middle East, titled “Gaza Steadfast, a Photographic Presentation and Talk,” by Skip Schiel. [every little bit helps]
http://www.wickedlocal.com/amesbury/news/x1966198113/Peaceful-views-of-Palestine

Violence / Reprisals / Rumblings of war

Hamas urges Gaza militant groups to stop attacks on Israel
(Reuters) Hamas official says organization began talks with other militant factions in order to ‘control the situation on the ground’, signaling Hamas hopes to avert any large-scale IDF operation in Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-urges-gaza-militant-groups-to-stop-attacks-on-israel-1.336053

Man hurt in Qassam strike
At least three Qassam rockets were fired at southern Israel Saturday evening, wounding a truck driver lightly … The wounded truck driver, Yitzhak Zaafrani, was hurt by glass shreds after driving near the rocket landing site. He told Ynet that he suddenly heard a loud explosion while driving, as the windshield shattered.  “I drove to the entrance of one of the kibbutzim and called the police,” he said. “I was hit by a little shrapnel, but all is well…the IDF will respond, because if it doesn’t respond things will get worse.” 
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4010687,00.html

Israeli right demands ‘heavy price’ for Gaza rockets
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Right wingers in the Israeli government called on Sunday for tough military action against Gaza militants after a violent weekend on Israel’s border with the Palestinian coastal enclave. “The government must consider afresh a policy of zero tolerance, exert a heavy price, not let this situation deteriorate,” National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told journalists at the weekly cabinet meeting … The Israeli military said two rockets slammed into southern Israel on Sunday, one shortly after midnight and a second later in the morning, bringing the number of rockets and mortar shells fired across the border to 20 since January 1.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349560

IDF mulls deploying anti-mortar system along Gaza border
The defense establishment may erect a deterrence system along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip in light of increased mortar attacks on western Negev communities, Army Radio reported on Sunday. Leaders of communities in the Gaza envelope told defense officials this week that residents have begun to fear mortar shells more than rockets because there is no protection system in place as of yet.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-mulls-deploying-anti-mortar-system-along-gaza-border-1.336043

War crimes

‘Good hit. Alpha.’ / Amira Hass
Rare testimony from the flight navigator in the 2002 bombing of Hamas military commander Salah Shehadeh that killed 14 civilians, including eight children … Last month Maj. T. spoke about the moments before and during the bombing and about his discovery that civilians had also been killed. Haaretz has obtained a recording of his remarks. They appear below in translation
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/good-hit-alpha-1.335981

Zahhar: We are close to historic victory
The Palestinians will achieve a historic triumph in any future confrontation with Israel, but the toll will be heavy on the Palestinian side, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said Saturday … The Hamas official made the comments at a ceremony held to commemorate the second anniversary of a massacre at the UN-controlled Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. The school was bombarded by Israeli forces during Operation Cast Lead … Abdullah Baroud, a child who was injured in the attack on Al-Fakhoura school, delivered a speech describing how he and his friends had suffered.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349440

The murders of Jawaher Abu Rahmah and Omar Al Qawasmi

Family of Israeli soldiers’ victim to sue
Ramallah: The family of Omar Al Qawasmi who was mistakenly killed on Friday morning by Israeli soldiers say they will sue the Israeli Army once their mourning period is over … “We will study the circumstances and see the best possible court to file the case, and the Israeli Higher Court of Justice is an option. Any other court in the world is a possibility.” 
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/family-of-israeli-soldiers-victim-to-sue-1.743199

Palestinian mother tells of a family tragedy during protest against separation barrier
Daughter becomes third casualty in a West Bank family dedicated to ‘non-violent resistance’ against Israeli barrier … “How do you think I feel?” says Abu Rahme softly, a white scarf covering her head and an almost absent look in her eyes. She can hardly comprehend what has happened to her family or the repeated horrors that have been inflicted on it. The family has come to symbolise the Palestinian struggle against the occupation of the West Bank.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/09/palestinians-ramallah-israeli-barrier

The IDF uses propaganda like an authoritarian regime / Gideon Levy
Instead of working toward revealing the truth behind the recent death of an anti-fence demonstrator the IDF is reaching into its bag of lies.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-idf-uses-propaganda-like-an-authoritarian-regime-1.335985

Racism / Discrimination / Suppression of dissent

Survey: Employers don’t want Arabs, haredim, disabled
Israeli employers shy away from hiring ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arabs and the disabled, according to a survey by the Ono Academic College. The study is based on questionnaires sent to 41 major companies in high-tech, health care and ministries. This is considered a significant sample of employers.
http://english.themarker.com/survey-employers-don-t-want-arabs-haredim-disabled-1.335287

Minister Herzog: PM responsible for racism wave
Welfare minister slams planned investigation into activity of leftist groups; urges Netanyahu to ‘stop groveling before Lieberman’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4010943,00.html

Israeli intellectuals decry Knesset plan to investigate leftist groups
In letter sent to all Knesset members, signatories say investigation of citizens by elected officials signals the end of democracy.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-intellectuals-decry-knesset-plan-to-investigate-leftist-groups-1.335967

Israel’s very own Revolutionary Guards / Zvi Bar’el
The Knesset does not want to look like the parliaments in the Arab countries, but it does not want to give up the authority to act like them. It wants to act as if there is a law against receiving contributions from foreigners without actually having to legislate it and make a mockery of itself. All it wants to do is “investigate,” that is, to brand as suspect all those associations without having to air the issue in a court of law.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-very-own-revolutionary-guards-1.335983

Siege / Restrictions on movement

West Bank: UN warns of new Israeli controls
The United Nations says it is increasingly concerned that Israel is about to tighten access restrictions to the occupied West Bank. It has been briefing aid agencies that Israel could soon increase restrictions and strengthen its checkpoints.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12137377

Egyptian authorities uncover four Egypt-Gaza tunnels
The Egyptian authorities declared Saturday that four tunnels connecting Egypt to Gaza and though which goods, diesel fuel, gasoline and building materials were being smuggled, have been uncovered.  No smugglers were arrested, but police are currently guarding the tunnels, which will eventually be destroyed, sources say.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/3416/Egypt/Politics-/Egyptian-authorities-uncover-four-EgyptGaza-tunnel.aspx

Gaza: One crossing open for limited goods
Israeli authorities informed Palestinian liaison officials that one Gaza crossing would be partially opened Sunday for the limited transfer of goods, Palestinian crossings official Raed Fattouh told Ma’an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349375

More about Hani Amer from Mas’ha / Dorothy Naor
I have a few comments about the details concerning Hani Amer from Mas’ha, about whom I have written several times in the past. The article below [by Joseph Dana] rightfully depicts the Nakba as continuing, but does not sufficiently depict the hardships that Hani and his family have to deal with … Hani’s well, mentioned below, is used to provide water to other farmers in the village. 3 years ago Hani paid several thousand shekel to the Israeli electric company so that he would have electricity to run his water pumps.  But the army will not allow him to have electricity, and the electric company won’t return the money. Also, one of the water pipes is broken and needs repair, but the army does not allow the equipment in to repair it, so the water goes to waste.
http://groups.google.com/group/newprofile/browse_thread/thread/ff37ee8fe298379e/19ccb07883b93ff7

Detention

PFLP: Israel responsible for detained leader’s life
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Sunday held Israeli authorities responsible for the life of party leader Ahmad Sa’adat. The PFLP Secretary-General and Jamal Abu Al-Haija entered their third week of hunger strike in protest over their treatment by Israeli prison authorities. Israel has kept both men in solitary confinement for almost two years. PFLP appealed to the International Red Cross to visit Sa’adat urgently, and urged human rights organizations to intervene in Israeli violations of international law. [End]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349632

Rights group rejects criticism by Gaza ministry
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian rights group on Saturday rejected claims by Gaza’s Interior Ministry that it is not legally competent. The ministry released a statement Saturday slamming the Independent Commission for Human Rights. The statement came in response to a report by the commission claiming the Gaza government mistreated detainees and refused to allow rights groups to visit prisons in the Strip. Director of the commission Mamduh Al-A’ker said the organization was established under a presidential decree issued in October 1993 by late President Yasser Arafat.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349358

Political/Diplomatic news

Israel envoy to discuss reviving peace talks in US
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington next week to discuss ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a statement from Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110108/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_talks

Report: Erekat denies direct talks with Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Sunday denied rumors that direct talks with Israel have resumed, the Kuwaiti News Agency reported. Erakat said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were holding separate meetings with the US administration but no Israeli-Palestinian meetings were being held, according to the report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349579

Haniyeh discusses unity with Al-Masri
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met with businessman Munib Al-Masri and a delegation of independent figures on Thursday to discuss national unity … Al-Masri, head of the independent movement to end Palestinian division, has shuttled between Gaza and the West Bank in an attempt to draw rival Hamas and Fatah factions closer to reconciliation. Informed sources told Ma’an that the Nablus billionaire would open projects to create job opportunities in the besieged Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=348944

Israeli diplomats ordered to cut off contact with host governments
Foreign Ministry employees committee issues request as part of broadening of strike with goal of receiving salary increases … Foreign Ministry employees will also stop issuing entry visas to Israel, meaning that tourists – with the exception of those from the United States, Canada, Russia and western European nations – won’t be able to enter Israel until further notice. 
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-diplomats-ordered-to-cut-off-contact-with-host-governments-1.335936

Other news

Russia Today video: Down Fatah Avenue, on to Hamas Square: Ramallah praises its heroes through street names
The West Bank city of Ramallah is naming its streets to mark its 100th anniversary but some of the choices are causing controversy [from a comment: First.. sure, controversy.. but when israel names it’s streets after people like Ben Gurion, Golda Meier, or Ariel Sharon.. it’s ok]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW76FUfO3ns

Minister slams Islamic scholar’s criticism of PA
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – The recent comments by leading Islamic scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi criticizing the Palestinian Authority has provoked mixed reactions in Palestine and across the world. Qaradawi, head of the international union of Muslim scholars, said the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organization were leading the Palestinian people to great danger … PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash on Saturday told Ma’an Radio that Qaradawi’s comments were disappointing and unacceptable.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349403

New scanners could end preflight questioning at airport
The Israel Airports Authority is scheduled to start testing an automatic baggage screening method today, which will replace the current policy of questioning passengers in order to determine the degree of risk they pose. 
http://english.themarker.com/new-scanners-could-end-preflight-questioning-at-airport-1.335979

Israeli activist says cleared by Shin Bet to visit Gaza PM
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An Israeli activist who plans to ask Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit said Sunday he has Israeli security approval for his mission … Israel’s Channel 10 reported Sunday that Marshak planned to enter Gaza with a delegation of Palestinians from inside Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=349623

Doctor: Comatose ex-Israeli PM respond to pinches
(AP) JERUSALEM – The personal doctor of Ariel Sharon says the comatose former Israeli prime minister responds to pinches and opens his eyes when spoken to … Former Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin told The AP there has been no change in Sharon’s condition.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110108/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_sharon

beautiful, peaceful photos – relief from news
Images from a weekend in the Negev / Hagai El-Ad
Some of these were taken in  Timna Valley’s Sasgon Basin where Adam Teva V’Din , and other environmental justice NGOs, are fighting destructive resort development.
http://972mag.com/images-from-a-weekend-in-the-negev/

Iraq, other Mideast, Arab world

Saturday: 4 Iraqis killed, 10 wounded
Meanwhile, at least four Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in light violence. No reports escaped Baghdad today even though “bombings and shooting remain a daily occurrence in the Iraqi capital.” Eight people were wounded when a bomb exploded in AbuGhraib. A bomb blast in a Hashimiya chicken coop killed two children. In a second version of the news item, the dead were a woman and her four-year old nephew.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/01/08/saturday-4-iraqis-killed-10-wounded-2/

Arab summit plan in Iraq faces challenges
BAGHDAD (AP) – Insurgent threats and a lack of hotel space for delegations pose stiff challenges to Iraq’s plans to host for the first time in 20 years the annual Arab League meeting, despite assurances from the body’s leader Sunday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110109/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

Exiled Iran opposition claims attack on Iraq camp
PARIS (AFP) – The head of Iran’s main exiled opposition coalition on Saturday accused forces in Iraq of carrying out an attack on a camp housing Iranians that left dozens injured.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110108/wl_mideast_afp/iraniraqoppositionpolitics

Palestinian plight in southern Lebanon refugee camps / Wyre Davies
It is sometimes controversially said that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in worse conditions than those during the Israeli occupation in Gaza. There is no better place to witness and document the plight of Lebanon’s refugees than Nahr al-Bared.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12138075

Israeli violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty: the record / As`ad AbuKhalil
Lebanese Foreign Minister, `Ali Ash-Shami, states that Israeli violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty in the last year alone was 4000: averaging 11 violations a day.  The violations were 7000 from 2006 and 2009.  This should suffice for Lebanon to reject in principle any role for the UN or for international treaties in dealing with the Israeli threat.  The only choice for Lebanon vis-a-vis Israel is armed resistance against Israeli occupation and aggression.  All other measures merely give Israeli the cover for its war crimes. 
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/01/israeli-violations-of-lebanons.html

Mussa rejects intervention over Christian attacks
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa rejects the potential “exploitation” of attacks on Christians in the Arab world as a pretext for intervention by outside powers, he said in Iraq on Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110108/wl_mideast_afp/iraqarabdiplomacychristiansmussa

Clinton meets Lebanon PM, back tribunal probing his father’s assassination
(Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State confers with current Lebanese premier Saad Hariri after meeting with Saudi Arabian King Abdullah in New York.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/clinton-meets-lebanon-pm-backs-tribunal-probing-his-father-s-assassination-1.335891

Clinton seeks stronger ties with Arab allies
U.S. secretary of state set to depart on trip to United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s trip to the Persian Gulf is intended to strengthen ties with Arab allies, rally support for penalties against Iran, and promote democracy and security across the Middle East. 
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/clinton-seeks-stronger-ties-with-arab-allies-1.335949

Protesters killed in Tunisia riots
(Video) At least 20 people have been killed in clashes with police in a two cities in Tunisia. Six people were killed and another six wounded in the city of Tala, 200km southwest of the capital Tunis, on Saturday, after security forces opened fire on protesters. Another 14 people were killed in similar clashes in the Kasserine region, union sources told Al Jazeera.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011191414183128.html

Algeria unrest turns deadly
(Video) Three people have been killed and hundreds injured in continuing protests in Algeria, as the government meets to discuss ways of halting the rising food costs and unemployment that have sparked the unrest.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201118135821794812.html

Yemen separatists kill soldiers
Southern secessionists in Lahaj kill at least three in an attack on army checkpoint, the latest in a wave of violence … In a separate incident on Saturday, eight soldiers were injured in the city of Lawdar when their vehicle came under attack. The city was the site of asuspected al-Qaeda ambush that killed nine soldiers on Friday.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011196914838812.html

U.S., other world news

*Video: Keith Olbermann – Violence and threats have no place in democracy 
One of the USA’s most eloquent commentators connects the violent rhetoric and imagery coming from American politicians and media with the attack on a congresswoman in Arizona, and demands change.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/#40983401
or http://www.truth-out.org/keith-olberman-special-comment-violence-and-threats-have-no-place-democracy-video66674

WikiLeaks demands Google, Facebook unseal subpoenas
Call comes after revelation that US has tried to force Twitter to release WikiLeaks members’ private details
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/08/wikileaks-calls-google-facebook-us-subpoenas

Icelandic MP fights US demand for her Twitter account details
Birgitta Jonsdottir brands efforts by US justice department to access her private information ‘completely unacceptable’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/08/us-twitter-hand-icelandic-wikileaks-messages

WikiLeaks: Twitter deserves credit for defending its users’ rights
The US department of justice has ordered Twitter to hand over the messages and account details of several users who are, or have been, associated with Wikileaks. Initially the order was sealed, that is it was to be kept secret from the targets. It’s to Twitter’s credit that it asked for the order to be unsealed and then informed the users concerned.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=73726

 

     

Barghouti: Ariel U boycott is first step

Jan 09, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

More than 150 Israeli academics have now called for a boycott of Ariel University Center of Samaria in the occupied West Bank in part because it was built to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. (Yes and the colonization of East Jerusalem proceeds apace today, and how do people come to terms with that reality?) Omar Barghouti welcomes the action, and responds in part:

As in the South African academic boycott, for Israeli academics to endorse a boycott of their own institutions does not mean that they must quit their jobs or seek employment elsewhere, as some dishonestly claim. There are diverse ways to fight colonialism and apartheid from within without committing career suicide. It may mean, for starters, ending their personal complicity in projects that violate human rights and international law by refusing to be part of them and urging others to follow suit; applying pressure on their institutions and academic associations to condemn the occupation and apartheid and end all complicity, partly by challenging the organic partnership between these institutions and the state’s system of colonial oppression; and, most crucially, inviting world academics and academic institutions to join the boycott, as brave South African academics had done in the  struggle against apartheid there.

World academics should seriously consider an academic boycott of the Ariel college-colony, at the very least, as a first step towards a full boycott of all Israeli academic institutions involved in planning, implementing, justifying or whitewashing Israel’s colonial rule and apartheid. While at it, they may want to consider the compelling boycott case against Hebrew University, too, as an institution that has been guilty — for several more decades than Ariel — of maintaining a campus mostly on Palestinian
territory occupied by Israel in 1967, in clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, among other violations.

     

War and Michael Walzer

Jan 09, 2011

Matthew Phillips

 

  “The tasks of the critic, thus armored, are…to question relentlessly the platitudes and myths of his society”—Michael Walzer, The Company of Critics

“We justify our conduct; we judge the conduct of others.”—Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars

In November, NYU School of Law hosted a conference entitled “The Enduring Legacy of Just and Unjust Wars—35 Years Later”. The conference wasn’t open to the public; but the occasion of the anniversary of Michael Walzer’s celebrated book gave me further opportunity to reflect on the shadow Walzer has cast over our intellectual life. I first became acquainted with Walzer’s writing as an undergraduate when, during a session of a course on Modern Jewish Philosophy, the class discussion shifted from Emmanuel Levinas to a thinker with somewhat more tangible ideas. Everyone in the class agreed on the stature of Michael Walzer as a public intellectual. I don’t remember the context of the conversation, or its content, but I do remember something the professor said in an offhand way. He said that Walzer was “the kind of liberal who likes to reason his way to a good conscience”.

This quote has stuck with me as I have gone on to explore Walzer’s writing. Since that time, Walzer has commented frequently— mostly in his familiar outlets of The New Republic and Dissent—on the two wars Israel has embarked on, first in Lebanon in 2006 and then Gaza in 2008, as well as the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Understandably, the views of the author of the seminal Just and Unjust Wars would be sought after, if only to bestow on each of these wars the moral seal of “just” or “unjust”. Readers may have been relatively surprised, as I once was, to find that Walzer “supported” three of these four wars. The exception, predictably, was the war in Iraq; even here, however, Walzer was careful to square his opposition to the war with what he termed, in the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan, a “decent left” position.

An article written in The New York Review of Books on the eve of the 2003 invasion was called “The Right Way”. The “rightness” in question was not the invasion, or its execution, or the likely consequences for American soldiers and Iraqis; rather, Walzer was advising liberals to adopt his perfectly measured way of opposing the attack on Iraq—suggesting that the Left should never fail to emphasize the brutality of Saddam (as if that was in question), and even go so far as to concede the menacing nature of the Iraqi regime to its neighbors. Whatever one thinks of Wazler’s formula, it was obviously not conceived by Walzer to galvanize liberals, or to have any significant effect in arresting the drive to war.

Michael Walzer’s lasting authority on the subject of war clearly derives from his work Just and Unjust Wars. This book has, by all accounts, achieved something like canonical status, both within and outside the academy. It is easy to see why, though I will only posit a few reasons, from the perspective of a lay reader. It is written in clear and accessible prose, peppered with philosophical and literary allusions, all the more inviting because of the complex just war tradition Walzer navigates— rooted in Catholic moral theology, but historically involving thinkers as diverse as Maimonides, Aquinas and Hugo Grotious. Secondly, Walzer eschews a narrow legal positivism in favor of a broader moral perspective. Of course, law and morality inform each other throughout the work; they are not, however, indistinguishable in Walzer’s account of war. Lastly, there is Walzer’s determined stance as a citizen. Although it is not entirely clear from the book itself, Walzer has admitted elsewhere that the guiding idea behind Just and Unjust Wars was his support for the Six-Day War in Israel, as opposed to the American war in Vietnam, which he protested against.

Thus Walzer, by his own account, set out to give his intuitive responses to war a theoretical framework for which to justify those responses, ex post facto. One can perhaps state that Walzer, in addition to much else, succeeds in vindicating his a priori positions. I would add, however, that later editions do not take account of the rich historical record that the Six-Day war has produced, especially as interpreted by Israel’s “New Historians” when the Israeli archives opened in the 1980s.. As some of these historians have shown, blame for the war falls, perhaps unevenly, on both sides.

More importantly, there is the issue of how the raison d’etre of Just and Unjust Wars has affected Walzer’s future stances on war. I would argue, indeed, that the qualities one notices in Just and Unjust Wars—Walzer’s unwillingness to defer to the framework of international law, his clear support for Israel’s resort to force, the ability to shape the argument to suit the war—have led him to badly misjudge later conflicts. At the very least, it must be quite ironic that given his moral authority, as well as his protestations about the “hellishness” of war, Michael Walzer has—with remarkably few exceptions—supported the many military adventures the United States and Israel have undertaken since Vietnam. True, as we shall see, Walzer has sometimes equivocated, mostly to inveigh against the predictable consequences that naturally follow from war. In the cases where he has opposed war, moreover, Walzer has basically done to the antiwar position what the Israelis did to the Road Map: entered enough caveats and qualifications as to make it essentially untenable.

There is one final quality of Just and Unjust Wars, in light of Walzer’s recent commentary, that bears mentioning. This is encapsulated by the subtitle of the book: “A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations”. Walzer understands, or has in the past, that moral positions are nothing if they are not grounded in real events; that is, the way wars are actually, not ideally, fought. Thus every argument made by Just and Unjust Wars is illuminated by historical example. In Walzer’s later stances on particular wars, however, he has neglected or distorted the factual record. The factual record, in this sense, refers to historical context—obviously crucial to understanding—as well as verifiable information about how a war has been fought. In no instance has the conduct of a given war, even when it has manifestly included atrocities, affected Walzer’s initial judgment of that war. In other words, while his notion of just war has been applied quite loosely, Walzer’s judgments of war, once established, have been seemingly resistant to reinterpretation. In the case of Israel’s most recent wars, Walzer might be contrasted to prominent and likeminded Israeli liberals, many of whom at least called for a cease-fire in these conflicts as civilian casualties mounted on the other side.

In May 2009, Walzer co-authored (with the Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit) an article entitled “Israel: Civilians and Combatants” in the The New York Review of Books. Readers of the New York Review understand their longstanding journalistic practice of recruiting Jewish intellectuals, preferably Israelis, to criticize Israeli policy—probably to protect the respective journal from charges of anti-Semitism or similar ad-hominem attack. Anyway, it would be hard to exaggerate the combined leverage—one senior member of the American Jewish left, another a senior member of the Israeli left—of these two authors, at least to those who care about Israeli politics. This came, of course, at a time when liberal opposition to (certain) Israeli policies was growing within the United States, as the emergence of the lobby J Street has shown. 

Far from a forceful denunciation of the actual war in Gaza, however, the article is essentially a speculation of what Israeli policy should entail, in the future. This is perhaps unsurprising, as Walzer apparently supported the Gaza War with, as always, a few caveats. In this case, Walzer and Margalit were responding to an article by two Israeli academics called “Assassination and Preventive Killing” which appeared in an American journal in 2005. Readers might wonder as to why Walzer and Margalit would scrutinize an article that appeared more than three years earlier. Walzer and Margalit, indeed, could not state definitively that the ideas expressed in the article governed IDF conduct in Gaza. So why now, in May 2009? Wouldn’t it be more prudent to consider the implications of this article, or others like it, before Israel engaged in two major wars? Or are we to believe that these two Princeton colleagues, both seasoned in debates surrounding Israel, were unaware of both the article and the ideas contained in it before May 2009, months after the Gaza fighting ended? Even if they only belatedly encountered the article, ideas surrounding policy rarely appear in a vacuum.

Apart from the dubious sense of timing, there is the nature of the article itself. As I said, Walzer and Margalit’s essay is not a retrospective consideration of the actual wars Israel has engaged in, whether in Gaza 2008 or Lebanon 2006. In fact, Walzer and Margalit are careful to remove their ideas from the realm of actual history. They hone in not on the issue of targeted assassination (which they purposely choose not to comment on), but on the question of the immunity and safety of non-combatants. They take issue with the idea, as put forward by the two Israeli academics, that given the confused nature of fighting terrorists, who readily recruit from and mingle with civilians, that Israeli soldiers might be absolved from the responsibility of risking their own safety to protect the lives of civilians on the other side.

To Walzer and Margalit, Israeli soldiers are responsible for the lives of civilians—both their own, and the enemies. To blur the distinction between combatants and noncombatants, we are to understand, even in a war on terrorism—this would be a fateful blow to the concept of jus in bello. Walzer and Margalit end with the coy suggestion that Israeli soldiers should have no problem understanding the idea of treating theother side’s civilians as if they were your own; after all, aren’t Jews everywhere guided by the “counterfactual” notion that they were all present at Egypt?

One probably shouldn’t dwell on this clever idea; Walzer and Margalit do not seriously believe an idea repeated in the Passover haggadah would guide the actions of Israeli soldiers during war. Yet it does point to something real, and, I think, quite important about Walzer and Margalit’s article, which is its extreme presumptuousness. Here we have two professors at Princeton, both far removed from the realities of war, essentially telling soldiers in another country how to behave. They even, in fact, go so far in their article as to literally tell both sides what they should say to their soldiers.

This might seem mundane, given how often intellectuals pontificate on issues of war and peace (and everything else), but it is noteworthy in Walzer and Margalit’s case because of their total unconcern for reality. Is there a chance in hell, to put it bluntly, that Israelis are going to take risks to their own safety, as Walzer claims they should, to protect the lives of those widely perceived to be the enemy? Walzer seems to think so, because the chief impediment to the immunity of noncombatants, in his eyes, is a matter of policy. Policy, of course, can be dictated and reversed (though nowhere, as I have said, does Walzer flatly state that Israel has purposely attacked civilians), perhaps with the necessary convincing from liberal intellectuals in the The New York Review of Books, which Israeli generals surely peruse on their breaks.

But the chief impediment to the immunity or noncombatants is not simply, in the case of Israel and the United States, a matter of policy. It is equally a matter of two other things, namely the methods of modern warfare as well as the ideology of soldiers and their leaders. In other words, even were the United States and Israel to flatly rule out attacking civilians in war (which these countries, in practice, do not), other important issues would confound the nature of policy. If one wishes to seriously address the issue of civilian immunity, therefore, we must deal with these complicating factors. Yet Walzer virtually ignores these problems, instead focusing on academic questions that do not account for any sort of contingency in warfare. For this reason, we must seriously question his ability to grapple with war today, at least war as practiced by Israel and the United States. 

Let us return to the issue of noncombatant immunity in the wars of Israel. Noncombatant immunity, as any reader of Just and Unjust Wars knows, is a crucial component of just war theory. It is also, as mentioned, the ostensible topic of Walzer’s article in the New York Review of Books, co-authored with Avishai Margalit. In the article on the Gaza war, however, no historical background to the conflict is given, and there is no mention whatsoever of Israel’s actual prosecution of the war. Instead, Walzer and Margalit frame their approach to the subject as a response to that article written in 2005. Of course, by mid-2009—and I would suggest that this was the real impetus for Walzer’s article—very serious allegations were being made about Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza, allegations that would eventually culminate in the Goldstone report.

But the authors never engage any of these allegations. Their criticism is entirely hypothetical and prescriptive; they simply admonish the Israeli army to respect noncombatant immunity in future engagements. Of course, as the authors themselves know, what they tell the Israeli military to do will have no bearing whatsoever on what it actually does. What Walzer and Margalit would be capable of achieving, however, are reasoned conclusions about Israel’s behavior in Gaza. Yet this element—namely, reality—is curiously missing from their article. Instead, the reader is treated to a lengthy discussion of a scenario concocted by the authors, revolving around an imaginary kibbutz captured in northern Israel—something like the liberal equivalent of a Pentagon “war game”. One might conclude that the actual Gaza invasion, with its evident destruction and alleged atrocities, isn’t sufficiently relevant in hindsight to the issue of just war theory and Israel. 

To be fair, Walzer has also responded to Israel’s recent wars in a more timely manner, at least while they were ongoing. His article, “The Gaza War and Proportionality”, dated January 8, 2009, objects to the widespread notion that Israel’s attacks were “disproportionate” simply because they amounted to greater civilian casualties on the other side. As Walzer points out, correctly, issues of proportionality in war don’t amount to a simple one-for-one equation. Wars have aims; they are not simply a series of reprisals, and are thus governed by different rules than (to use his example) a family feud. Rocket attacks from Gaza, moreover, despite the failure to inflict large casualties, have obviously been designed with that intention.

Is Israel, therefore, obligated to wait until Hamas has more sophisticated rockets? In that case, Walzer asks, “how many civilian casualties are ‘not disproportionate to’ the rocketing of Tel Aviv?”. Put this way, Walzer suggests, one is likely to justify the use of too much force. Yet it would be the logical conclusion of those insisting that Israel’s attack had been, up to that point, “disproportionate”.

Here, I think, Walzer effectively dismantles a superficial objection to the Gaza War; “proportionality” is not simply a matter of tallying casualties, remarkably lopsided though they were in Gaza. Yet it is crucial to note the issue of “proportionality”, however wrongly interpreted it was by both media pundits and heads of state, was hardly the main problem with Israel’s war. For as Walzer must know, the decision to go to war was itself the real crime, given that a cease-fire had been in place six months prior to the invasion, during which time Hamas rockets came to a standstill.

Israel, in fact, did not live up to its obligations under the cease-fire (which required an ease of the blockade), then refused to renew Hamas’ offer to renew the cease-fire, just as Israel has always dismissed similar Hamas offers for long-term truces. This is all plain to those who follow the Israeli press—Israel’s decision to go to war in December 2008 was just that: a decision, hardly the only available option at Israel’s disposal. As was similarly revealed to Americans on 9/11, Israel’s war on Gaza showed the entire world that whatever their obvious enmity toward the Palestinians, the safety of Israel’s citizens is hardly the priority of the Israeli government. This is scandalous; but it is the only conclusion one can draw from the fact that the Israeli government has done everything in its power to avoid limited truces with Hamas in the future, while violating those cease-fires that have reigned between Hamas and Israel. 

The fact that Walzer was able to ignore this issue—that given the precedent of a non-violent solution, the war itself simply need never happened—may seem quite remarkable. Indeed, one might think that a preeminent just war theorist, in his capacity as public intellectual, could be relied upon to point to an clear instance of a government going to war as an alternative to peaceful resolution, of which the Gaza War was a paradigmatic example. Such an expectation is akin to supposing that a preeminent mathematician, when examining an apparently complicated proof, could point to mere errors of addition. Such logical (and moral) clarity is seemingly beyond Walzer.

Walzer’s widely disseminated response to the Lebanon war in 2006 is also worth considering. Published in The New Republic, “War Fair” perfectly encapsulates all the shortcomings of Walzer’s perspective. Again, there is the confused and belated timing: Walzer counsels Israel that “there cannot be any direct attack on civilian targets…this principle is a major constraint also on attacks on the economic infrastructure”. Yet a few lines down, he readily acknowledges that this principle has already been violated by “Israeli attacks on power stations in Gaza and Lebanon”. Walzer’s objection to “reducing the quality of life in Gaza, where it is already low”, furthermore, “is prudential, as well as moral”. Walzer appreciates the complex reality that people do not like to witness their livelihood being destroyed, and are likely to react aggressively against those who preside over that destruction.

In reality, Walzer barely conceals that the tactic he is discussing is what is often referred to as “collective punishment”. Of course, Walzer objects to this, both on principled and pragmatic grounds, for the Palestinians and Lebanese are invariably going to hold Israel responsible for their punishment (even if, unbelievably, Israel is in fact responsible). Indeed, what Walzer refers to in 2006 as “reducing the quality of life in Gaza” soon culminated in the ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza. Walzer, in Just and Unjust Wars, calls siege “the oldest form of total war”; in the same book, Walzer also points to the closing of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping as a reason for Israel to claim the right to launch a preemptive strike on Egypt in 1967.

Of course, if this is convincing, then the far graver strangulations placed on the Gazans today would thus be considered a more serious military provocation; and we might therefore realize that one crucial reason the Palestinians are not allowed to have a military is to remove the one instrument they could use to assert the same rights for themselves that Israel has claimed in the past. In any event, readers might look to future editions of Just and Unjust Wars to account for the criminality of the siege in Gaza, perhaps as a fitting bookend to Walzer’s historical discussion of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Needless to say, its devastation on Palestinian society has been chronicled and documented by virtually every human rights group—sources arguably more thorough and reliable than Josephus.

Walzer, like the Israeli government, clearly believes that the capture of three Israelis soldiers and the firing of rockets from Lebanon and Gaza compelled the Israelis to act in the summer of 2006. Let us begin with the capture of the Israeli soldiers. Walzer acknowledges that a military response to the capture of three Israeli soldiers was not strictly “necessary”, since these acts have often, in the past, been a transparent attempt to negotiate a prisoner exchange. Yet this time, since Hamas and Hezbollah “describe the captures as legitimate military operations”, a military response was warranted.

Furthermore, and crucially, “Israel’s goal is to prevent future raids, as well as to rescue the soldiers, so proportionality must be measured not only against what Hamas and Hezbollah have already done, but also against what they are (and what they say they are) trying to do.”

Walzer is clearly right, again, that “proportionality” was not the crucial issue. Yet what would happen if the Lebanese and the Gazans were to apply Walzer’s reasoning to their own position? This is a fair question unless we believe that Israel is uniquely entitled to certain prerogatives in war that others are not. Walzer has never explicitly claimed this on behalf of Israel. Should we therefore bear in mind the many Palestinian and Lebanese civilians who have been abducted over the years, being held without charge and lingering unaccountably in Israeli prisons? Surely the abduction of civilians is a graver crime than the abduction of a uniformed soldier on duty, such as Gilad Shalit.

Does the “other side” therefore have the right—in fact, a greater right— to mobilize on their behalf? Walzer, of course, simply doesn’t entertain the possibility. / “The crucial argument”, Walzer tells us, “is about the Palestinian use of civilians as shields”, a tactic of pressing interest because it “tests the philosophers’ dialectical skills”. Putting aside all of the evidence suggesting that the IDF has itself engaged in such a tactic, the bombardment of Lebanese civilians—not the alleged use of “human shields”—was undoubtedly the most serious issue of the Second Lebanon War. The bombardment, as Walzer surely knows, followed from the Israel’s initial unwillingness to send a ground invasion of forces well into Lebanon. Whatever one feels about the merits of this approach militarily, it flatly violates a principle that Walzer made explicit in an essay on the war in Kosovo in his book Arguing About War: that one, in his words, “can’t kill unless [they] are prepared to die” (emphasis in original).

Walzer attached much importance to this principle in terms of the Kosovo intervention (which he nonetheless supported) in 1999. In this instance, Walzer was troubled by the modern state fighting wars exclusively from the air, in a way that completely exposes the enemy while totally shielding itself from attack. This is obviously the strategic advantage of aerial bombardment; it is also, for Walzer, the source of its immorality.

So what about Lebanon, and, indeed, Gaza? As Walzer says in the same essay on Kosovo, “political leaders cannot launch a campaign aimed to kill Serbian soldiers, and sure to kill others too, unless they are prepared to risk the lives of their own soldiers…they cannot claim, we cannot accept, that those lives are expendable, and these not”. It is perhaps worth repeating that Walzer’s critique of aerial warfare, however useful, did not lead him to reconsider his endorsement of the Kosovo intervention. Logically, however, and if his misgivings are to be in any way taken seriously, Walzer would at least have to apply them to future conflicts. Yet they never emerge again in Walzer’s commentary.

Could this be because the United States and Israel do not presently engage in what Michael Ignatieff has dubbed, in the context of Kosovo, “virtual war”? Nothing could be further from the truth. It would take a separate essay to discuss this issue in full; to take only one example, however, with regard to the U.S. war in Iraq, it was well understood that the American people would not tolerate a protracted armed confrontation with Iraqi forces. The military thus applied the doctrine of “Shock and Awe”, which meant to effectively overwhelm and destroy the enemy from the air before any actual fighting began.

In the Second Lebanon War, the emerging resistance of Hezbollah led to the widespread bombardment of South Lebanon, only after which did Israel pursue a ground invasion. Predictably, the death of many Lebanese civilians resulted from the bombing campaign, as well as the near devastation of Lebanon’s infrastructure. In 2008, Israel’s continued embrace of “virtual war” reached its climax in Gaza. Norman Finkelstein, in his book This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion, cites evidence of how Operation Cast Lead was “largely conducted by remote control”. As one soldier, part of Israel’s “Breaking the Silence” collective, observed after the war, “It was like a playstation computer game”. To another it felt “like a child playing around with a magnifying glass, burning up ants”.

In the end, what has Michael Walzer really said about warfare today? If anything, Walzer has critically evaded or obfuscated the most important questions about war; and his ethical framework is, at best, hardly more illuminating than most people’s intuitive responses. Walzer’s analysis has always hinged on the implicit idea that atrocities, when our side commits them, can nonetheless be compartmentalized; behavior need not affect our essential judgment of war. In some cases in history, of course, such as the Allied bombing of Dresden, this attitude might be warranted.

Today, however, when U.S and Israeli wars are transparently more lethal than those attacks credited—often wrongly— with precipitating those wars, it becomes nothing but intellectual sophistry to maintain, as Walzer has, that one can support or defend a given war, but not the bombing of civilians, the use of cluster bombs, white phosphorous, etc. As everyone can see, the former necessarily contains and engenders the latter. Equally regrettable is Walzer’s willingness to essentially wipe the slate clean before every war, as if the past actions of the US and Israel cannot fairly predict their further conduct in war. Most people, though perhaps not just war theorists, wouldn’t be so unassuming. / What then, in reality, has been Walzer’s purpose in commenting on war? Once one looks past the common trope about “human shields”, or the moral truisms about not killing innocent people, one sees that Walzer has basically stuck to reiterating Israel’s declared aims, and tailoring his arguments accordingly.

Rather unbelievably, Walzer has even seen fit to invoke the crudest examples of Israeli hasbara—for example, asking us, in the context of a discussion about rocket attacks from Gaza in 2006, to “imagine the U.S. response if a similar number [of rockets] were fired at Buffalo and Detroit from some Canadian no-man’s land”. Of course, if Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth, can be justly compared to a “no-man’s land”, then it would indeed make little sense to condemn virtually any response to such attacks, no matter how brutal or excessive. At other times Walzer has waxed philosophical (“dialectical limits”), or he has created some hypothetical scenario to carefully analyze (as in the article co-authored with Margalit), but he has shed no light on how these conundrums translate into reality.

With regard to the U.S., he has used the majority of his energy not to oppose our many wars, but to berate the left for failing to conform to his correct mode of (always ineffectual) opposition. As for the cruel and cynical ways that the U.S. and Israel fight wars today, with use of power far beyond the means of their opponents, Walzer has only scratched the surface.

Then there is international law. It has long been Walzer’s aim to polarize issues surrounding the legality of war from his own “moral” judgments about war, the latter of which is really deserving of our attention. In “The Crime of Aggressive War”, a 2007 essay in Washington University Global Studies Law Review, Walzer claims that “there are good reasons why the development of just war theory preceded the development of the international laws of war. Legal texts may only imperfectly and incompletely embody our moral ideas, but without moral ideas, we would not be able to write legal texts.” Such reasoning, as far as I can tell, is perfectly sensible, and appears to add to—rather than detract from—our understanding of international law.

Yet this is not Walzer’s true goal. As Walzer says in the same essay, “all states that are members of the U.N. have the same legal value. They do not, however, have the same moral value”. Furthermore, “the judgments we make (or should make) when a particular state is attacked or invaded have more to do with the moral value of the state then with the brute fact of attack or invasion”. Of course, this is the rationale offered by virtually every aggressor throughout history—surely no one attacks a state with brute force if that state is perceived to have a great deal of “moral value”. And even if one were to accept Walzer’s reasoning, moreover, it is nonetheless quite disturbing that our preeminent just war theorist apparently believes that the “value” of any state—however one determines it—should take precedence over the lives of ordinary citizens, who are war’s victims (weapons don’t disfigure the moral qualities of a state). Indeed, if you are one of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have had loved ones killed in the aftermath of the invasion in 2003, you learn from Walzer that the American invasion “does not fit the moral meaning of aggression” because “there was no common life under Saddam Hussein” which Iraqis at large were willing to defend.

This is pure (and deeply offensive) nonsense; as anyone who reads Nir Rosen’s superb reporting knows, Iraqis not only shared a high standard of living prior to the devastation wrought by sanctions in the nineties (which Walzer supported); but it was also the occupation forces who fomented the sectarianism leading to civil war and sought to capitalize on the highly fractious nature of the state they invaded. In any event, we are often reminded that for every two Israelis there are three opinions; perhaps Hamas can thus invoke the deep polarizations within Israeli society as a pretext for attacking the Israeli people—or Iran can launch an attack on Washington, citing “red state” and “blue state” antagonisms as evidence that Americans share little “common life” worth defending.

A month after the symposium held to honor Walzer’s Just and Unjust Wars, the world noted an anniversary of a different sort—the two-year mark of the Israeli massacre in Gaza. The utter lack of restraint Israel exhibited in that war, should, I think, finally compel us to rethink the merits of just war theory, and not only in terms of how it has been postulated and exploited by Walzer. For it is obvious that far from placing clearly defined limits on war, just war theory has become an endlessly malleable paradigm which can be readily invoked by the most powerful states, though never their enemies or victims—which is precisely why Obama relied on it in his Nobel speech. It is also obvious that just war theory is no reasonable alternative to strict adherence to international law, and that Walzer’s distinction between “illegal but morally necessary wars” is an ideological recipe for wars that are neither legal nor moral. Yet one quality just war theory undoubtedly has, and that international law admittedly lacks, is that it allows intellectuals to rationalize the actions of a favorite state, and, in turn, assuage the tribulations of their conscience.

 
     

Israelis demolish Shepherd’s Hotel in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish housing

Jan 09, 2011

Philip Weiss

 

This story was on NPR this morning, good. Residents of occupied Sheikh Jarrah woke up to the sound of the bulldozers. My account comes from a source who has seen the UN version of events:

Shepherd’s Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem is currently being demolished. The demolition started this morning and is ongoing. Shepherd’s Hotel is being demolished in order to facilitate the construction of a residential Jewish settlement. These demolition and settlement construction plans date to the 1984. In July 2009, the Israeli planning authorities approved the construction license. It allows for the demolition of the existing building in favor of two residential buildings, with 30 housing units and associated amenities at the first stage and 90 housing units at a later stage.

The property called Shepherd’s Hotel was built in the 1930’s by Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, as his family home outside of the Old City of Jerusalem. The British exiled him in 1937, and the British used it as a military outpost. During Jordanian rule, from 1948 through 1967, the Mufti’s proxy took control of the property and rented it to hoteliers. Thus the home became known as the Shepherd’s Hotel. In 1967, the Hotel, along with the rest of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood where it’s located, fell under Israeli occupation. They confiscated the property and transferred it to the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property who in turn transferred it to the Israeli Development Authority from where it subsequently passed, on 5 November 1985, to “C & M Properties.”

NOVANEWS

 

The Holocaust, Palestine and the Arab World: Gilbert Achcar interviewed 

Arwa Aburawa, 

The Electronic Intifada, 

10 January 2011 

 

Gilbert Achcar (Arwa Aburawa)

In his latest book The Arabs and the Holocaust, Gilbert Achcar, a professor of Development Studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, explores the Arab world’s complex and sometimes contradictory relationship with the Holocaust.

Focusing on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Achcar tackles the Zionist caricature of all Arabs as anti-Semitic Holocaust-deniers complicit in Nazi crimes by meticulously deconstructing the evidence put forward. Achcar also doesn’t shy away from condemning the persistence of unacceptable attitudes towards the Holocaust across the region. The Electronic Intifada contributor Arwa Aburawa spoke to Achcar about The Arabs and the Holocaust.

Arwa Aburawa: Your book is a huge undertaking which explores Arab attitudes towards the Holocaust from the rise of Hitler to the present. What motivated you to write the book?

Gilbert Achcar: Well I came across this subject through various conferences and what struck me was the massive distortion that exists in the way Arabs and Palestinians are represented in relation to the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and Nazism. Over the last few years, I also noticed that there was an increase in the literature portraying the Arabs or the Muslims as basically Nazi-like people or Nazi-minded or stating that they supported Nazism in history. So, that’s why I decided to write this book and although I started with very modest intentions, the more I worked on the topic, the more it became clear that I needed to go for a voluminous book in order to cover all major issues. So what I ended up with is a thorough, critical examination of Zionist and pro-Zionist narratives, which portray the Arabs and the Palestinians through what they claim is the historical record.

By deconstructing Zionist representations of the Arabs and the Palestinians, I also wanted to dispel any Arab self-representation that conforms to the Zionist image or internalizes it in adopting reactionary attitudes of an anti-Semitic character. So this book is a contribution to the defense of the Palestinian and Arab causes against such distortions as well as a contribution to a more accurate representation of Arab attitudes.

AA: The main argument of your book is that Arab attitudes towards the Holocaust and anti-Semitism — in contrast to widespread clichés about Arabs — are quite complex, contradictory and have changed over the course of history. What are some of the main political movements and figures which influenced Arab attitudes towards the Holocaust?

GA: The Zionist narrative of the Arab world is based centrally around one figure who is ubiquitous in this whole issue — the Jerusalem Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who collaborated with the Nazis. But the historical record is actually quite diverse. The initial reaction to Nazism and Hitler in the Arab world and especially from the intellectual elite was very critical towards Nazism, which was perceived as a totalitarian, racist and imperialist phenomenon. It was criticized by the liberals or what I call the liberal Westernizers, i.e. those who were attracted by Western liberalism, as well as by the Marxists and left-wing nationalists who denounced Nazism as another form of imperialism. In fact, only one of the major ideological currents in the Arab world developed a strong affinity with Western anti-Semitism, and that was Islamic fundamentalism — not all Islam or Islamic movements but those with the most reactionary interpretations of Islam. They reacted to what was happening in Palestine by espousing Western anti-Semitic attitudes.

However, that was only one particular current and when we look at the balance sheet of Arab participation in the Second World War, we see that it was overwhelmingly on the Allied side. Even with the presence of the Mufti in Europe, all his exhortations for Arabs and Palestinians to join the forces of the Nazis and Italian fascists led to very, very little results — almost negligible. This just shows what little credibility and popularity the Mufti actually commanded in the Arab world. There were incomparably more Arabs who fought with the British and French troops against Germany and Italy than the other way round, so this really refutes the widespread notion that the Arabs supported the Nazis.

AA: Clearly, we can’t really talk about Arabs and the Holocaust without mentioning the Mufti. But what was his role in the Holocaust and how complicit was he in the Nazis’ war crimes?

GA: The first thing that must be said about Amin al-Husseini is that there is a lot more interest in him in the West and in Zionist literature than there is in the Arab world. It is amazing that in the Arab world, his name has almost disappeared into oblivion and almost no one refers to him, whereas in the West new books on him are coming out all the time. There is an entire industry dealing with the Mufti in the West from Zionist and pro-Zionist sources and the key aim of this industry is the Nazification of the Arabs. They are trying to Nazify the Arabs, if not the Muslims in this age of Islamophobia, through the figure of the Mufti.

Now the fact is that al-Husseini did his best up to 1937 to serve his British masters and prevent the Palestinian national movement from clashing with them. It was only in 1937 that he broke with the British and went into exile. In 1941, he fled to Europe and lived between Rome and Berlin, supported by the two fascist regimes until the end of the war in 1945. He became the key figure in their propaganda towards the Muslim world: he gave a lot of speeches over the radio and wrote lots of statements reproducing the whole range of Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda. Due to his ideological allegiance to Islamic fundamentalism and its tendency to essentialize the enemy, he held rabidly anti-Jewish views.

The crucial point here is that even after 1943, when he learned about the genocide of the Jews and that millions of them had already been massacred, his contribution to the harsh anti-Semitic discourse broadcast from Germany continued. His knowledge of the genocide did not deter him one bit; rather he increased his anti-Semitic vitriol. He supported a regime which he knew was committing an awful genocide, one of the worst crimes against humanity, and so it makes what he did at the time criminal. He even took it upon himself to write to Axis power governments asking them to not allow Jews to leave to Palestine, adding — and here to get to the criminal aspect of the letters — that he suggests they send them to Poland instead where he knew there were concentration camps. So he went far beyond his role as a national leader fighting for the interests of his country into complicity with the Nazis. Clearly, this is something that has to be denounced for what it is.

AA: In your book you state that the impact of Nazism on the Arab world was actually limited. Considering that the Nazis were fighting the Arabs’ colonial enemies at the time — the British and French — why was this?

GA: Well, there were a lot more people attracted to Nazi ideology in Western countries, including Britain and the United States, than there ever were in the Arab world. In fact there were fewer adherents to Nazi ideology in Arab countries, even in relative figures, than were found in Europe and North America. One of the reasons for this was fascist Italy’s persecution of Libyans and the perception that it was a colonial power a lot worse than Britain or France. There was also a perception in the Arab world when the war started that this was a conflict between imperial powers who wanted to divide the world amongst themselves. Most people were observing the war therefore with a more or less neutral attitude and were only hoping that Arab independence might result from the clash of world powers. So even as “the enemy of their enemy,” support for the Nazis was by no means automatic.

Of course, my book isn’t just about developing an ideological counter-narrative portraying all the Arabs as anti-fascist progressives. That is not the point of my book at all. Anyone reading it will see that I don’t try to hide anything on the Arab side and I don’t mince my words when it comes to Arab attitudes that I believe must be condemned — especially that of the Mufti. At the same time, I reject all suggestions that the Mufti was the embodiment of all Arabs or all Palestinians and expressed their collective attitude — that was not the case and is purely slanderous. I mean, when you read the Zionist propaganda you get the impression that the Mufti al-Husseini was one of the key figures in the Nazi regime, which is of course completely ridiculous. In terms of al-Husseini’s overall contribution to the Nazi regime, his input is negligible compared to thousands and thousands of Nazi leaders, bureaucrats and military commanders.

AA: If the Mufti was so unrepresentative of the Arab world, why has he become such a pivotal figure in any discussion of the Arab world and the Holocaust?

GA: The answer to this question is quite simple. The reason for this distortion is that until the Second World War, the Zionist movement didn’t have any arguments for its colonization of Palestine other than religious or colonial. The fact that the German Jews were persecuted by the Nazis did change this but even then, the natural reaction from the Arab world was to say”‘we condemn and resent the persecution of the Jews, but why should the Arabs and the Palestinians be made to pay for what the Europeans did?” The Zionist movement knew that a decision on Palestine would soon be made by the victors of the war and therefore did their best to depict the Palestinian Arabs as accomplices of the defeated Nazis. So to the Arab saying “why should we pay for what the Europeans did?” the response became, “because you played a part in the genocide.” So in this way, 1948 and the Nakba was represented in the Zionist narrative as the last battle of the Second World War against Nazism.

One striking illustration of this argument is in the famous, openly racist interview that [Israeli historian] Benny Morris gave to [the Israeli daily] 
Haaretz in 2004 and in which he basically says that in 1948 the choice was between the ethnic cleansing — he doesn’t shy away from using this term — of the Palestinians by the Jews or the genocide of the Jews by the Palestinians and the Arabs. In order to justify whatever cruelty they do to them, the Zionists and their unconditional supporters paint the Palestinians and the Arabs as Nazis. You can see this same pattern at work up to our time. How was the cruel war against Lebanon in 2006 justified? Well, by portraying Hizballah as Nazis. And how was the criminal slaughter in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009 justified? Again, Hamas were portrayed as Nazis.

AA: Although your work is careful to point out the complexity of views with regards to the Holocaust in the Arab world, there is no denying the presence of Holocaust denial. How and why did Holocaust denial emerge in the Arab world?

GA: What needs to be said first of all is that Holocaust denial in the Arab world is not the same as Holocaust denial in Germany, for instance. In Germany, it can only emerge out of deep anti-Semitism as Germans have every means of knowing about the full scale of the genocide. But for people in Palestine, the Holocaust is a historical event which is not directly related to their own history. So when some Palestinians say that the Holocaust has been invented or exaggerated by the Zionists in order to blackmail the West, they are attempting to give an explanation for the way in which Israel uses the Holocaust to legitimize its aggression. It seems to hold also for an explanation of the fact that Western powers, especially the United States, tend to support Israel unconditionally. Of course, this is a stupid and very simplistic argument, which is why I call it “the anti-Semitism of fools.”

In most cases, Holocaust denial becomes a very weak and stupid form of protest by people who feel crushed by the military violence and supremacy of the Israeli state. This explains why Holocaust denial attitudes increase every time Israeli violence flares up. Palestinians are facing this harsh reality and the misguided views of some of them on the Holocaust must therefore be judged in their context. We can’t put the two on the same level, in the same way that we can’t judge the racism of a white anti-Black lynching mob as being equivalent to the anti-White racism that might develop amongst their victims. One could say they are both forms of racism, but there is a crucial difference: the racism of the oppressed is reactive to the one that inspires their oppressors, and this is a distinction that I emphasize.

Last but not least, whatever form of Holocaust denial exists in the Arab world, it is denial of something that Arabs are not actually responsible for. Much more serious is the official denial of the Nakba [the 1948 ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine] by the Israeli state — this is an instance of state denial of a crime that they perpetrated. Fortunately the Nakba was no genocide and can’t be compared to the Holocaust in that respect, but it was nevertheless a crime against humanity and, moreover, the Nakba is not finished — in the sense that the oppression of the Palestinians by the State of Israel continues to this day. So the denial by the State of Israel of this reality and of its responsibility in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and in their continuing oppression is ultimately much more serious that any expressions of Holocaust denial by Arabs or Palestinians.

AA: The claim that the Holocaust has been exploited by the State of Israel for political gain is a statement which needs to be carefully assessed. Would you agree?

GA: Yes, of course. It is obvious that the Israeli state and Israeli politicians make cynical use of the Holocaust to justify their stances. What is even worse is that the Israeli government perpetrates war crimes and crimes against humanity — as confirmed by Judge Goldstone who is a Jew and a Zionist himself — and tries to justify them in the name of the Holocaust. This is a major insult to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. This said, the Holocaust (and this is still not understood by everybody in the Arab world) is not the property of “the Jews” or the Zionist movement. In fact, the Zionist movement has little legitimacy to speak for the victims of the Holocaust, as the historical record shows that it failed to prioritize the rescue of the Jews during the Holocaust and focused instead on its goal of a Jewish state.

The Holocaust is one of the major tragedies of the twentieth century and it bears universal lessons for us all about the dangers of ethnic discrimination and racism. This is what the Holocaust is about and these lessons teach us that we need to counter the Zionist state and what it is doing to the Palestinians. In fact, as victims of national quasi-racial oppression, the Palestinians are much more entitled than the Zionists to invoke the lessons of the Holocaust.

AA: In your book you assess the impact of 11 September 2001 and the rise of the neoconservative narrative and the impact it has on the clichés about Arabs as Nazi-supporting anti-Semites. In your view, are perceptions of Arab attitudes to Nazism getting better or worse?

GA: They are getting worse. After 11 September and the Islamophobic trend increased sharply, especially in the United States, the Zionists seized the opportunity to intensify their anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian propaganda since most Palestinians are Muslims. There’s a widespread discourse about so-called Islamofascism which tries to weave a narrative that starts with the Mufti and ends with Bin Laden, Hamas and Hizballah, with every opponent to Israel in between, be it Gamal Abdel Nasser, Saddam Hussein or Yasser Arafat. So it is important to challenge these attitudes, just as it is necessary to fight those attitudes in the Arab world and among Palestinians that are facilitating this kind of propaganda. 

Most people in the Arab world would agree that the Holocaust was an awful crime perpetrated by the Nazis. The best illustration of this is the fact that Zionism is widely compared to Nazism — of course, this comparison is over the top but it shows that people see Nazism as an insult. People should also know other stories, like that of the West Bank villagers of Bilin who dressed in striped pajamas similar to those of concentration camp inmates in order to protest against the Israeli army in January 2009, during the onslaught on Gaza. Again, the comparison is certainly over-exaggerated but the demonstrators’ intent was clear. This was a way of identifying with the Jewish victims and saying: “We are the Jews of the Middle East who are oppressed by the Israeli state in the same way that European Jews were oppressed by the Nazis.”

Arwa Aburawa (http://arwafreelance.wordpress.com/) is a freelance journalist based in the UK who writes on the Middle East, the environment and various social issues.

 

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