Gideon Levy on Israeli denial: ‘Anyone who raises a question is demolished’

There are 2 religions in Israel - Zionism and Security

Gideon Levy is a prophetic voice in Israel.  One of the main columnists on Ha'aretz and a legend in his own time.  Together with Amira Hass he provides the main opposition in Israel to the march of hysterical racism and Apartheid.  During the  2014 attack on Gaza he needed a bodyguard to travel around Israel.

Gideon's address was not a sophisticated analysis of Zionism so much as an empirical description of what Zionism has done to Israel.  He describes, correctly, Zionism as a totalitarian ideology.

Perhaps what comes across most clearly is the conviction of Gideon Levy that Israel is a racist, totalitarian society that cannot change of its own accord.  Israeli Jews are too comfortable, they don't or care about the Occupation 10 miles away and they are proof of Martin Luther King's conviction in Letter from a Birmingham Gaol is that the privileged will never change of their own accord.

Tony Greenstein

A week ago Gideon Levy spoke to the Israel lobby conference in Washington. Many people have shared the video of the Haaretz columnist, so I’m providing a transcript below of key passages.

Outside pressure is all that will change Israel. BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) is the only game in town. The Jewish lobby in the U.S. is the most important force in supporting Israel. The shameful Israeli propaganda over the attacks on the Tamimi family, the protesters in Nabi Saleh, shows how desperate Israel is, and maybe that offers hope.

Zionism is a totalitarian ideology that brooks no dissent. Everyone kept saying, Israeli soldiers could change things by talking about the occupation, but when Breaking the Silence came forward it was crushed. “Anyone who raises a question is immediately erased, demolished.” And the media play right along with the propagandists.

The two-state solution is over, the embassy decision proves it, and international friends should be pushing for equal rights for the two peoples between the river and the sea.

On the importance of American pressure to counter the Israel lobby:

Maybe you are holding the key for any kind of change, any kind of hope. Because the hope for change within Israeli society is so limited, it’s non-existent. People like you can really be a game-changer. Some of my ex-best friends are on their way now to the real thing, to the AIPAC conference, which will start on this weekend, politicians, journalists, to what I call as the annual drug dealers conference. They will discuss how many more drugs will they send to the Israel occupation-addicted state. How much more friendship will they express, and how much more money and weapons will they supply. And I can tell you in the United States, as an Israeli, we don’t have a bigger enemy than the Jewish lobby, we don’t have a bigger enemy for justice, for peace, for equality than those who think that if you supply the drug addict with more drugs, you are his friend. That if you support him blindly and automatically whatever he does, you are a friend.

No my friend, those are not friends, those are enemies, and I can’t tell you how happy and proud I am to be here today and not there tomorrow.

The totalitarian nature of Zionism inside Israeli society:

Zionism is one of the two religions of Israel. And as any religion, you can’t question it. The second religion is obviously the religion of security. Anyone in Israel who dares to raise any kind of question marks is immediately perceived as some kind of traitor.

We are getting it with the milk of our mothers… It’s very hard to understand from the outside, how an ideology became part of the DNA. How an ideology became something that must be taken for granted. [Growing up] I know what I thought about those very very few who claimed they were not Zionists or god forbid, anti-Zionists. They were the Satans, even though they were Jews and Israelis.

I don’t recall one example on earth where an ideology is so totalitarian, is so saint, is so holy, that you have no right to put any kind of doubts, question marks, nothing, not about the past, not about the future, not about the present. Nothing. It’s unbelievable when you live in a state that where if you declare you don’t accept this ideology, you are not part of the place, you are not part of the society. You have no place there. “Go to Gaza, go to Damascus. Don’t stay here.”

When it comes to Zionism, there is no difference in Israel between left and right. When it comes to occupation, which is part and parcel of Zionism, there is no meaningful difference between left and right…. The difference is only by rhetorics.

Israel will not change if Benjamin Netanyahu is removed as prime minister. There is no light around the corner.

By the end of the day when you judge the real policy, not the rhetorics, yes Labor and the left are having much more sympathetic rhetorics… Shimon Peres… didn’t stop talking about putting an end to the occupation… He didn’t stop talking about it’s not democratic and it’s not justice that one people governs another people, beautiful beautiful ideas that Benjamin Netanyahu and those rightwingers would have never said. But Nobel prize winner Shimon Peres is the founding father of the settlements project. So what do we get out of this nice rhetorics except showing a nice face of Israel and doing the very very very same crimes.

When it comes to the basic, Israel is really united…

Occupation is off the table in Israel. Nobody talks about it, nobody discusses it, nobody is concerned about the occupation…  It’s like the rain, like the sun.. Some like it, some like it less. But nobody thinks that anything can be done about it. It doesn’t bother us so much, that’s the truth. It’s only a half hour from our homes, but who hears about it and who cares about it. And the crimes are on a daily basis.

The Israeli media are in the tank on Israeli propaganda about the Tamimi family.

The media hardly covers them, and if they cover them, it will always be according to the Zionist narrative. A terrorist of 12. A girl of 14 with scissors in her hands as an existential threat to the state of Israel. A girl who is slapping a soldier as someone who deserves life sentence. Not less than this! A girl that one hour before her cousin was shot in the head 50 meters from her home. So now the Israeli army claims that this was fabricated. I mean, even the Israeli propaganda lost its shame.

The Israeli claims about the Tamimi family show that the propaganda has never been so desperate:

When Israel dares, dares to claims that this child Mohammed Tamimi whom I met a few days after he was injured, he lost half of his brain, that he fabricated his injury, then you see that Israel is really desperate. If Israel needs this kind of level of propaganda, if Israel is getting so low, in denying shooting in the head of a child of 15– and claiming that he falls from his bicycle– then you know that things are getting worse. Maybe it’s a  hope for a new beginning, but right now look how low does it get there.

No society lives in as much denial as Israel

It’s totalitarian– no society lives in as much denial as Israel.

And all those are passing Israeli society as if nothing is happening. No question marks. Very little moral doubts if at all. A coverup. Living in denial like never before. I cannot think about one society that lives in such denial like the Israeli society, and again it includes left and right. Except of the very devoted extreme left, activists, let’s remember them. But they are really small figures and totally totally delegitimized…. The occupation must go on, Ahed Tamimi must stay in jail forever, and the crimes must continue because we have no other choice.

There are three core values of Israeli culture that enforce the totalitarian discourse.

The first value: we are the chosen people. Secular and religious will claim it. Even if they don’t admit it they feel it. If we are the chosen people, who are you to tell us what to do.

The second very deeply rooted value: we are the victims, not only the biggest victims, but the only victims around…. I don’t recall one occupation in which the occupier present himself as the victim. Not only the victim– the only victim….

There is a third very deep rooted value. This is the very deep belief again everyone will deny it but if you scratch under the skin of almost any Israeli you will find it there, the Palestinians are not equal human beings like us. They don’t love their children like us. They don’t love life like us. They were born to kill, they are cruel, they are sadists, they have no values, no manners… This is very, very deep rooted in Israeli society.

And maybe that’s the key issue. As long as this continues, nothing will move. We are so much better than them, so much more developed than them, more human than them.

All our dreams will never become true so long as this core conviction will not change.

Breaking the Silence should have been an “earthquake” in Israeli society. But it was crushed.

Anyone who raises a question is immediately erased, demolished. Look at the Jewish lobby so called in Israel, and Breaking the Silence. For years we were dreaming of the day that  soldiers would stand up and tell the truth. Not Gideon Levy the liar the traitor… no, soldiers who have committed those crimes will just come and testify about what they had been doing.

And here it came. Over 1000 testimonies, of soldiers who in a very brave way gave their testimonies about what they have been doing in the occupied territories thoughout the years. This should have been an earthquake in any healthy society. It’s our sons. But what happened? Nothing. Breaking the Silence was immediately delegitimized by the establishment with the typical collaboration of the Israeli media. I’m afraid to say that Breaking the Silence is crushed today. And this was just one example.

Israeli society has a very clear intention to crush any type of criticism, from within or outside.

The occupation is not temporary.

It was never meant to be temporary… There was never a statesman in an influential position, prime minister or so, who really meant to put an end to the occupation. None of them. Some of them wanted to gain time in order to strengthen the occupation… Some others wanted to be perceived by the world, to be hugged by the world, as people of peace. But none of them had the intention to put an end to the occupation. How do I know it? Israel has never stopped building settlements. And anyone who builds one house in the occupied territories has no intention whatsoever to put an end to the occupation.

Israelis have it too good to even think about occupation. And the brainwashing is too deep for the facts to get through.

I am very very skeptical about change from within Israel because life in Israel is far too good, and brainwash system is far too efficient. To have a dialogue today with most Israelis citizens is even for me an impossible job…. Brainwash is so deep and the denial is so deep and the ignorance. They know nothing. Anyone in this hall knows so much more about the occupation than any average Israeli, including those who served there in the army… So to expect a change from within this society, when restaurants are packed, when life is beautiful, when there is hardly terror in Israel… The only violent attacks are mainly now in the occupied territories… Tel Aviv is living a very, very peaceful secure life. To expect this society to stand up and say, No more– out of what? What incentive? The hopes for change from within Israeli society are really very, very minimal…. People like me, my only hope is from people like you.

Trump’s move of the embassy to Jerusalem is good news in the end, for it removes any illusions about the U.S. role.

It means that the United States has declared officially the death of the two state solution… The United States has declared officially what we have known for many years, the United States is not and cannot be a fair mediator…. United States is officially a friend of the occupation and only of the occupation… For the long run I see it as an achievement, end of the masquerade, end of the lip services. And I’m very grateful, you’ll be surprised, to Donald Trump, who brought us there.

Activists should fight the Zionist project on three fronts. First, stand up for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against efforts to criminalize it.

One must be is to fight this unbelievable process of criminalization of criticizing Israel. This must stop and we shouldn’t give up… When they call you anti-Semites– they get paralyzed. If you call someone an anti-Semite in Europe he is paralyzed, and they take advantage of it in a very manipulative way. Don’t let them! You should be proud in raising your voice. BDS right now is the only game in town. BDS is a legitimate tool. Israel is using it, by calling the world to boycott Hamas, to boycott Iran. You have the full right not to buy products from sweat shops in South Asia…. What does it mean that you should apologize for boycotting something that deserves boycott?

We have one  proof why BDS is the right thing to do. Look how Israel gets nervous about BDS, and if they get so nervous about it you can know that is the right way… Those sentences very soon will become a violation of Israeli law. You are not allowed to call people to boycott Israel, but let’s challenge them.

Two and three– counter Israeli propaganda.

The second challenge is to try and tear especially in this country the lie that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. We need it desperately… It’s all about telling people the truth. A state that possesses one of the most brutal tyrannies on earth cannot be called a democracy, period.

The last lie I suggest to you to fight is the lie that all this is temporary…. ’48 never stopped. Let’s remember it. It’s the same policy, those are the same methods. Same brainwash, some explanations and excuses. As long as this continues, no one can claim that this is temporary. The occupation is there to stay.

The two state solution is over, and we must struggle for equal rights, between river and sea.

For many years I was a great supporter of the two state solution…. I thought the two state solution is a reasonable and achievable solution. Total justice will never be achieved in this part of the world, and I thought that this would be a relatively fair, just solution…

The very dramatic fact, today between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, there are exactly 50/50: Six million Palestinians and six milli

on Jews… It is roughly half and half, two peoples equal right now. If someone thinks that one people can dominate another people, and let’s get back to Zionism… the basic of Zionism is that there is one people which is privileged over the other. That is the core. This cannot go on. And if it goes on, it has only one name… apartheid.

Even if it sounds now like a utopia, even if it sounds now like something unthinkable, it’s time for us now to change the discourse, it’s time for us to talk about equal rights, about one person one vote. Let’s challenge Israel. Israel will say no, then we can officially declare Israel as an apartheid state.

We shouldn’t give up… I truly believe that Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinian Jews, can live together. We tried it in the past. It is being tried today in all kinds of small frameworks. We can really live together, believe me, I’d rather have a Palestinian prime minister than Yair Lapid or Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the question period, Levy said that the occupation would not last even for a few months without American support. And that Israel would change if it is truly isolated by Europe, so that Israelis face travel restrictions. Yes, outside pressure will at first unite Israel, but that will soon change.

I can assure you after the first rhetorics of, we are all united against the world, they hate us, then rationality will come into the picture.

When Israelis will be prevented from going to Macy’s for their shopping, or to Galeries Lafayette in Paris for their shopping, this is the day that the occupation will be over.

A Day in the Life of the Most Moral Army in the World - Israel's treatment of Palestinian schoolchildren and teachers

School should be a safe space for children but not in Hebron

This is just an everyday tale of the harassment of Palestinian school children and their teachers in the West Bank and Hebron.  It isn't simply that Israel is one of the few countries in the world that use torture on children but that in everyday life, the army makes life unbearable even for school children attending school.

School should be a safe space for children.  They should not be fearful of coming to school each day yet for Palestinian children there is the ever present fear that the Israeli army may attack them on their way to school or on the journey home.  

Naturally if anyone says this out loud you will be considered anti-Semitic according to people like the junior war criminal and ex-Defence Minister under Tony Blair, one Ivor Caplin.

See Video: Israeli soldiers harass Palestinian elementary school teachers and students in Hebron

The Routine Violence of Israel's Occupation is Caught on Camera

The Campaign Against 'Anti-Semitism' will say this video is 'Anti-semitic' and Len Duvall, London's Racist Labour Leader will agree

Only the die-hard Zionists of the misnamed 'charity' the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism will say this video of sickening Israeli police violence is anti-Semitic.  Their grounds no doubt will be that it insinuates that British Jews and all Jews are violent thugs.

This is however just an example of the routine violence of Israel's occupation.  Not just the occupation of the West Bank but the ritual bombing of Palestinians in Gaza, the regular shooting up of Palestinian fishing boats and as the video also shows the consistent violence meted out to young Palestinian children.

I post below the article by the legendary Gideon Levy, one of Israel's few anti-racist journalists in Ha'aretz newspaper.

 Opinion Israel 2017, Now the Video

The public outcry over footage of a violent policeman attacking a Palestinian truck driver is almost as nauseating as the video itself.

Gideon Levy Mar 26, 2017 12:52 AM

Police officer caught on video attacking Palestinian truck driver. Screenshot/Twitter

The shock, tut-tutting and condemnation over Thursday’s video footage, in which a policeman is seen beating a Palestinian truck driver, are maddening and repulsive. Only the video itself is more repulsive. The policeman disgusts you? That’s exactly what the occupation looks like. It is as violent, ugly, brutal and loutish as the policeman; this is exactly how Israel has abused millions of people every hour, every day, for 50 years.

It’s not just that the video reflects routine in the occupied territories: At any given moment, there are Israeli soldiers and policemen who strike Palestinians, kick, head butt, bark or swear at them, like in the video. What’s worse is that the footage reflects a far broader reality than the occupation.
It is a situation report, an Israeli selfie. If the film “Exodus” aspired to present an Israel of the War of Independence era, the video of the violent policeman presents Israel 2017. Exodus was the dream, the policeman its fragment: watch the film and you’ll see us.

Every Israeli has seen countless similar images in this “land of quarrels”: on the road; at the supermarket; in the hospital; on the soccer field or the parking lot ... in almost every line, this is the language, the Israeli lingua franca: bullying. Why pick on the policeman? He’s typical of his homeland. He did what everyone else did, almost. He’s also the son of us all. He’s a uniformed thug – so what?

He was already suspected of beating a civilian once before, and the police force didn’t see fit to prosecute him then. So, he acted as expected. It’s important to note the type of violence used: this is seasoned violence, almost inbred violence. The head butt is the weapon of an experienced bully; an inexperienced bully does not head butt.

You also have to listen to his language, the jargon of Israel. “I’ll pay for that? You son-of-a-whore … get out of my sight!” he shouts at Mazen Shwiki. “I’ll screw the mothers of all of you.” That’s how they speak in Israel. Not only in the occupation, not only on the road. It’s all here: the most important value of Israeliness – not to be a sucker (“I’ll pay?”); the immediate transition from threat to action; the power, the aggressiveness, the arrogance, the coarseness. The filthy language.

The fact that he did it in uniform makes no difference. The policemen also speak Israeli. Israel is violent because it can be. It bombs in Syria and assassinates in Gaza because it can. It’s the neighborhood bully because no one stopped it. And it is also violent within because it’s possible.
The policeman – who goes by the so-Israeli name Moshe Cohen – is also violent because he can be. The fact that he stood opposite a crowd did not deter him. He knew and they knew that he’s the strong one and they the weak; he’s the oppressor and they’re the oppressed, so he’s allowed to. He is lord of the land and they the dust at his feet. Everyone here fulfilled their role: the helplessness and fear of the Palestinian drivers who were afraid to come to the defense of their friend against the policeman’s rage. The uniform of the occupation against the helplessness of the occupied. The pistol in its holster, pay attention to the way the cop stands and walks: this is how the owner behaves. This is how our country behaves.

It’s an ugly picture, really ugly, hence the instant outcry when we witness it. More than the outcry was aimed at the policeman – he’ll quickly be forgotten, and it’s doubtful he’ll face trial – it was directed at the mirror it put up, a self-portrait of Israel 2017.

Which is why we’d like to forget this policeman. Let him be kicked out, let him be under house arrest for a few days, then get out of our sight (in his words); just don’t let him be put on trial. We had enough with the Sgt. Elor Azaria manslaughter trial: deep down, we knew we were all on trial.
A few hours after the video was broadcast, a reception was held at the home of peace activist Alice Krieger. Guest of honor was Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, the doctor from Gaza [who lost three daughters during Operation Cast Lead]. “Hatred is weakness,” the bereaved father said in Hebrew, a language that only a few are still able to understand in Israel. “Kindness, tolerance and patience are power.” In the darkness of the evening and the video footage, the doctor’s noble words reverberated as detached, ridiculous, almost hallucinatory.

How a Watermelon Posed a Threat to Israel’s Security

The Bureaucratic Malice of Israel’s Occupation

On one level of course it is amusing, that a water melon is deemed to be a security threat.  :But  the fact that Israeli soldiers won’t led an old Palestinian man pass with his watermelon is indicative of the crushing nature of Israel’s military presence in the middle of Hebron.  Whilst the settlers are allowed to come and go without hindrance and the settlers are allowed to attack and intimidate the Palestinians of Hebron without let or hindrance, the Palestinians face bureaucratic obstacles every day. 

Everything is a security threat.  Despite Israeli human rights workers arguing that their action in preventing him pass into ‘a closed military zone’ which happens to be where the man lives, the soldiers refuse to budge.

Because in an illegal occupation there is of course no law.  What matters is might, nothing more and so we see the crushing and bureaucratic nature of the Israeli occupation, which makes someone wait for 4 hours in order to pass with their water melon.

Israel Herzog v Gideon Levy and the Bankruptcy of Israeli Labour

The debate in the pages of Ha’aretz between Gideon Levy and Isaac Hertzog, leader of the Zionist Union/Israeli Labor Party demonstrates the utter bankruptcy of the Zionist ‘left’.

It is a useful reminder of how useless the Israeli Labour Party is since there are illusions among the Corbynistas, not least Corbyn himself, that the Israeli Labour Party represents an alternative to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Herzog condemns himself and his tradition out of his own mouth.

“Only when I and the leadership of the huge camp I represent prove that in defense of the country, on security issues and in times of danger, we always side with the state… will we be able to win the trust of the majority in Israel.”

And that is true.  In every single war that Likud has led, from the invasion of Lebanon to the repeated attacks on Gaza – Cast Lead, Protective Edge et al.  the ILP has always stood full square behind Begin and Netanyahu.  Of course it is a deception to believe that that would win the support of the majority in Israel.  Why vote for the ILP when you can vote for the full-blooded version instead? 

Herzog’s second card was to accuse Levy of not being a Zionist!  Now that might be a crime in Israel but overseas it should open peoples’ eyes.

“Levy used to be a Zionist,” wrote Herzog. “I’m no longer sure that he is one.”

In Herzog’s eyes this is a crime.  What does it mean to be a Zionist?  Well it means believing that ‘the Jewish people’ have a right to Palestine – all of it.  Indeed more than all of it.  The Zionist belief is in the Land of Israel from the Litani river in Lebanon in the north to the Nile in the south and East to the Euphrates.  Of course all this is for the future.  At the moment Palestine is more than enough.

It means that Israel should be a Jewish state.  That meant the expulsion of ¾ Palestinians in 1948, the expulsion of 300,000 in 1967, the conquering of that part of Palestine allocated to an Arab state by the UN in 1947 and the racist, apartheid division of Israel from 1948 to the present. 

It means that as a Jewish state then being Jewish gives you privileges that a non-Jew does not possess.  In every aspect of society – education, employment, land, welfare benefits – being an Arab is to be the subject of ingrained, institutionalised discrimination that is purposely carried out by the State.  Whereas in most western countries racism is something the State deplores, in Israel it is applauded.

In the ‘war against terror’ Herzog promises that he will be “more extreme than Netanyahu’.  If Netanyahu has killed 150 people in recent weeks, then Herzog would have killed 500.  If Netanyahu killed 2,200 in Gaza then Herzog would have killed 5,000.  This is Israel’s great white hope.

The reality is that Likud has done nothing that the Israeli Labour Governments before them haven’t done.  Expulsions, administrative detentions, land confiscations, mass murder – you name it the ILP has done it. 

When the ILP mounts an election campaign today its main message to Jewish electors is that Likud’s policies are leading towards a bi-national state in which Arabs are a majority.  This is the evil that Labour will prevent.

The ILP has supported the racist and ‘anti-terror’ legislation of Netanyahu.  Be it the attacks on left-wing NGO’s or the banishing of supporters of BDS from Israel or making support for BDS an offence or the decision of Netanyahu, despite his own security advice, to make the Northern Islamic Movement an illegal organisation.  In all this Herzog is Netanyahu’s faithful puppet.

Perhaps the most amusing charge that Herzog makes against Levy is that he is obsessed with the Occupation.  This shows indeed what the priorities of the Israeli Labour Party is and why those who, like Labour Friends of Israel, pretend that the ILP has a radically different policy from Likud on the Occupation, are merely poor liars.

We should be grateful to Herzog for making it clear that there is no Zionist alternative to Netanyahu.

Tony Greenstein

Left vs. Left: Isaac Herzog and Gideon Levy Duke It Out

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog, left, and Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, right.Ofer Vaknin, Tomer Appelbaum

In a series of opposing op-eds, opposition leader Herzog and veteran Haaretz commentator Levy get to the heart of the differences within the Israeli left.

Haaretz Aug 28, 2015 3:47 AM

19 August

Levy began the exchange with a critique of Isaac Herzog’s tone after the opposition leader’s visit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Herzog’s “strong man” rhetoric about his extreme commitment to the war against terror, argued Levy, was vacuous at best and at worst, legitimized the right’s “foolish” notion that a third intifada can be prevented by force. Leave the scare tactics to the likes of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, or even former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, said Levy. What this country needs is a radical change of direction.

“It sounds so funny,” concluded Levy, “and it’s so sad.”

21 August

Herzog responded, bristling at Levy’s accusation of cliché when Levy himself “has been singing the same song for years, publishing the same article and the same text, twice and sometimes three times a week… Levy has been a one-trick pony since way back in the 1990s.”

Herzog wrote that leaders today have a different set of options than those of the nineties ­– ISIS, Hamas, Iran – all of these groups have led Herzog and the camp he represents to embrace the tough talk.

“Only when I and the leadership of the huge camp I represent prove that in defense of the country, on security issues and in times of danger, we always side with the state… will we be able to win the trust of the majority in Israel.”

“Levy used to be a Zionist,” wrote Herzog. “I’m no longer sure that he is one.”

23 August

The gauntlet had been thrown. Levy took it up, proudly acknowledging the “one trick pony” label as a badge of honor and shooting back with his own endearment for the Zionist Union leader: “Rambo Herzog, the fighter of terror.” In snide sarcasm, Levy apologized for “boring” Herzog by harping on the occupation.

“I’ve been trying to report on its crimes for 30 years or so. It’s an obsession of sorts: A person is convinced that his country has a malignant disease and that no issue is more crucial,” wrote Levy. 

“I’m sorry if that bores Herzog, but it’s a cruel reality for millions of people. It’s the reality that hasn’t changed, not the person writing about it.”

Levy detailed the many iterative solutions to the occupation he has believed in over the years, from “the Jordanian option” to Oslo to, now, boycotts and a “single democratic state.”

Herzog and his ilk, suggested Levy, had better work to end the occupation if they expect writers like Levy to stop writing about it.

26 August

Herzog turned the tables in his second response to Levy within a week, calling the writer a fear-mongering messianic closer politically to the likes of Uri Ariel (or even Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh) than the Israeli left.

“In his article, Levy suggests that we turn out the lights on the Zionist project,” wrote Herzog. “Levy doesn’t have to join Habayit Hayehudi. He can easily skip over the party headed by Naftali Bennett and land straight in the lap of Uri Ariel’s Tekuma. Ariel wants the same thing — one state from the Jordan to the sea and one man, one vote, and may the best man win.”

The pragmatic camp that Herzog represents, alternatively, aspires for security for Israel as well as for Palestinians.

“And today there is a window of opportunity for an agreement, both regional and vis-a-vis the Palestinians, that must not be missed,” he wrote. “It’s an opportunity not only for negotiations, but for a real agreement.”

27 August

In the last installment of the open correspondence so far, Levy wrote to Herzog that the only thing he himself has in common with Ariel is “the vast gulf between us,” noting that the agriculture minister’s vision of a united Israel is anything but democratic. It is Herzog, Levy wrote, who stands on Ariel’s side of the line.

“If you scrape off the layers of makeup, you’ll find within him the same nationalist foundation; the belief that in this land there is one nation with inborn privileges that exceed those of the other nation living here,” wrote Levy. “It starts with the Law of Return, which is for Jews alone; and winds through “security needs,” which are always only the security needs of the Jews, and ends with the demand that the Palestinian state be demilitarized; it all screams of privilege.”

The choice, says Levy, is simple: Israel can choose to be a democracy first or a Jewish state first – everything else is petty bickering.

Only a Radical Change in Direction Can 

Prevent Next Intifada

Apparently there is no chance that the left-center will be weaned off its way of doing things; let it ask itself: Why is there Palestinian terror, and what is Israel Defense Forces activity if not terror?

Gideon Levy Aug 19, 2015 6:28 PM

Isaac Herzog returned from Ramallah loaded down with impressions, and hastened to write a nice composition, with good penmanship and without his parents’ help. “Don’t worry, don’t be afraid. Be daring,” was the title of the manifesto.

The rest was even more embarrassing and childish (the only thing missing was “we returned home tired but happy,”). But within the sea of cliches, one sentence stood out: “We must prevent a third intifada. That means an uncompromising war against terror, and on that issue I’m even more extreme than [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

Aha, the “war against terror.” Herzog will be “more extreme than Netanyahu.” He will prevent a third intifada.

Herzog owes an accounting for his cliches: What did he mean when he said that he would be even more extreme than Benjamin Netanyahu? Even more violent? Netanyahu is responsible for killing thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, and he will kill tens of thousands? During Netanyahu’s tenure there are 400 administrative detainees, and with Herzog there will be a thousand? Netanyahu is evicting thousands of people from their homes in the blazing sun, and Herzog will evict tens of thousands? Herzog roared on the way from Ramallah – who will not be afraid.

That’s not what he meant, the spokespeople will explain. Herzog only wanted to say that he will be tough in the war against terror, because without that it’s impossible to win elections – and besides, he’s in favor of “the process,” after all. But terror will never be eliminated with force, and the left-center will never learn anything and never forget anything.

The next intifada will not be prevented by means of anyone’s threats, including Herzog’s, but only through a radical change in direction, which won’t take place here of itself.

Herzog’s “process” certainly doesn’t fit that description. Cancelling administrative detentions, for example, would prevent terror more it can be prevented by elite army units. But Herzog and his friends have nothing to say about that. Is the Zionist Union in favor of administrative detention? Against? Again they are only looking for the strong man who will convince the Israelis that he will defeat terror and the Arabs in general, and once again they’re banging their heads against the wall.

Apparently there is no chance that the left-center will be weaned of its way of doing things; let it ask itself: Why is there Palestinian terror, and what is Israel Defense Forces activity if not terror? It can’t let go of the old notion that it must convince the public that it will screw the Arabs the way the right does.

If the leader of the opposition still thinks that a popular uprising is suppressed by force, that a “process” is sufficient to stop such an uprising, if he doesn’t propose a revolutionary change of values and perceptions – what do we need all this for? We’ve had more than enough of this species.

In order to “defeat terror by force” we have Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. To prevent the next intifada by means of foolish threats – “We’ll harm anyone who tries to harm us,” and “We’re prepared for any scenario” – Netanyahu will suffice. In order to explain to the Palestinians that they can achieve what they want only by force – with kidnappings, hunger strikes and Qassam rockets, never through negotiations – there’s no need for Herzog. They’ve known that for a long time.

And even in order to present a left with a security-oriented facade we don’t need Herzog – former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi is already warming up on the ropes, in the role of the most desperate hope that the left has ever invented. The general of Operation Cast Lead, the man without (known) opinions, who has never said anything about anything, he is the great and only hope of the moderate camp in Israel. Can you believe it? Why Ashkenazi? Because he’s the only one with a chance to bring down Netanyahu. And why bring down Netanyahu if we’ll get Ashkenazi?

And until the propitious time arrives and Ashkenazi hatches from the egg, Herzog will play Ashkenazi’s role. He will be the commander of the left’s anti-terrorism unit. He will threaten, he will eliminate enemies, he will promise “an uncompromising war.”

It sounds so funny, and it’s so sad.

Gideon Levy: The One-trick Pony of Israeli 

Journalism

Isaac Herzog Aug 21, 2015 2:05 PM

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog responds to criticism levelled against him by Haaretz's Gideon Levy, arguing that making peace also means fighting terror - not just accepting the Palestinian narrative hook, line and sinker.

Abbas and Herzog, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, August 18, 2015.Reuters

It’s always amusing to read Gideon Levy criticizing someone else for using cliches ("The left’s counter-terrorism unit," Haaretz, August 20). After all, Levy is the expert in the use of cliches. He has been singing For the same song for years, publishing the same article and the same text, twice and sometimes three times a week: "Occupation, occupation, occupation and once again occupation; only the Jews are to blame and only the Palestinians are right." Levy has been a one-trick pony since way back in the 1990s.

My meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) this week lasted for an hour and 15 minutes. We sat privately and conducted a penetrating, detailed and in-depth conversation. Too much time has passed since an Israeli leader sat with Abu Mazen and spoke to him directly and at length. He is afraid of the unbridled terror. He is doing quite a lot to combat it, but is very concerned by the fact that we may be on the brink of a third intifada, and that it is liable to erupt on his watch. Under his responsibility. He is particularly concerned by the stagnation and by the lack of hope on the diplomatic front.

I described my viewpoint to him; I explained that I want to take take my party back to the path of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which means a tough and uncompromising war against terror, and at the same time, a courageous diplomatic initiative. As I told Abu Mazen, in the war against terror I really am more extreme than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His policy of speaking to Hamas and isolating Abu Mazen will lead to Abu Mazen’s resignation and to Hamas taking control over Judea and Samaria. Hamastan five minutes from Kfar Sava. That’s not how to fight terror and its leaders.

On the other hand, I see a rare regional opportunity, with other countries in this region - which are also threatened by the ISIS crazies and the Iranian sweet talk - as well as Israel and Gaza, which want to continue the quiet and are willing to think about rehabilitation and calm, have a shared interest in moving towards direct peace negotiations between Israel and the PA. That’s the key, and that should be encouraged. We must not award a prize to Hamas, but rather foster calm and turn the PA into a partner - and there are plenty of means available of doing so.

Towards the end of the burning-hot summer there is such a moment, in which it is possible to restore hope to the region.

But people like Levy are stuck in the 1990s and fail to understand that it’s impossible today sit down around the negotiating table with the Palestinians and to emerge, locked in a brotherly embrace, moments later with a with full peace agreement that features a return to the 1967 lines and a division of Jerusalem. Levy writes as though he hasn’t been here in recent years. In a previous article he mocked me because my wife and I gave our blessings to the cadets in a pilots’ training course. Levy used to be a Zionist. I’m no longer sure that he is one.

After Gaza fell into the hands of Hamas, and the State of Israel was attacked with missiles, and tunnels were dug under dining rooms on kibbutzim in the south, it’s no longer possible to continue talking only about a bilateral agreement with the Palestinians. We have to talk about a trailblazing diplomatic move, supported by the moderate countries in the region.

Levy thinks that the Palestinians are always right. That the terror attacks against us are their natural right. That a boycott against the Jews is the imperative of the hour and that the time has come for U.S. President Barack Obama to impose the same kind of sanctions that he imposed on Iran on Israel. In effect Levy, like the messianic right, is leading to a state with an Arab majority between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.

In contrast, the huge camp that I lead loves Israel and wants a Jewish and democratic state, existing alongside a Palestinian state in security and peace. Only when I and the leadership of the huge camp I represent prove that in defense of the country, on security issues and in times of danger, we always side with the state, and only afterwards do we have time for debates and disagreements. Only then will we be able to win the trust of the majority in Israel and to bring these ideas to fruition.

I believe that leadership is always obligated, while adhering to its values, to make a tactical recalculation. Not to close its eyes in the face of what is happening - and always to be daring enough to confront a changing reality and to try to change the present and the future.

Isaac Herzog, Resign Now

The head of the Zionist Union comes across as someone who is not up to the challenge of fighting the most right-wing, nationalist government in the history of Israel.

Gideon Levy May 21, 2015 4:44 AM

An election campaign billboard shifts between images of Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, right, and Likud Party leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Tel Aviv, March 3, 2015.AP

From the outset, he shouldn’t have been the Zionist Union’s candidate for prime minister; like his counterpart Miliband, he should have resigned the day after his defeat. But even having come this far, he should quit his post – yesterday, today or tomorrow at the latest – in the wake of the documentary that exposed his conduct during the election campaign.

Anyone who believed before the election that he was the man, anyone who believed after the election that he should stay on and continue leading, ought to watch Anat Goren’s film “Herzog,” the first part of which aired two days ago on Channel 10’s “Hamakor” program. In order to truly understand that while Isaac Herzog may be a fine person, a pleasant, decent, intelligent and honest conversationalist, this is not the material from which another prime minister, leader or statesman will ever emerge.

The day after the election, or at the latest, the day after the screening of “Herzog,” this thing has to end. Herzog isn’t right for the job. He never was right for the job – as the film clearly shows.

The Herzog of “Herzog,” like the real-life Herzog, is not suited to be prime minister, or opposition leader for that matter. Some people reached this conclusion long ago, but even those who kept on believing couldn’t deny what they have been seeing on their television screen.

“So what do you want? Can you tell me where?” Herzog asks in one of the many low points documented in the course of his campaign. “Can someone come here and guide us? Can someone explain to us what’s going on?” he’s heard saying at another embarrassing moment, sounding so helpless it’s almost pitiful. Really, where should he stand? Next to the cedar tree his grandfather planted in Gush Etzion? But the sun is in his face and anyway you can’t see the monument from there. So what should he do? And what are we? Maybe he ought to mention Barack Obama in his speech? Or maybe not? And maybe there should be some water on the podium? Or maybe not? And maybe he should leave the speech on the podium? Or maybe not?

Ridiculous politicians who become puppets in the hands of their media advisors are nothing new around here. We’ve seen plenty of strutting and blustering media consultants before. But the combination of [media consultant] Reuven Adler and Isaac Herzog is the most farcical of all: The arrogant and euphoric statements that keep spouting from the mouth of the consultant-sorcerer, legs up on the table and overflowing with self-importance, juxtaposed with the utter helplessness of the puppet he is trying to manipulate with his supposedly magic strings, is just too much. Nothing good has ever come of combining a weak and desperate politician with a haughty personal advisor. When will we ever see a politician here who won’t listen to advisers?

The man who said, “I have the feeling that I am leading a large camp” and that he “sees steps ahead,” shouldn’t ever have been running for a job that was too big for him. But the statesman-prophet from Tzahala didn’t give up. That may be his tragedy, or that of his party too. Now it’s become a farce, and soon it will turn into a catastrophe.

And this is how it is: The most right-wing, nationalist and religious government in the state’s history just came into power by a slim majority. Its components are almost beyond surreal, its statements are already beyond bad taste. A government whose education minister explains that “Education is aspiring for every boy and girl to love the homeland” is one for the scrapbooks: This is the kind of talk that once was heard in Nicolae Ceaucescu’s Romania, maybe also in Enver Hoxha’s Albania. 

This government is being run by a prime minister whose agenda has expired: Iran is out of the picture, as is the chance for the two-state solution. All that’s left for him is to undermine the regime, as is the way with rulers who stay in power for too long.

And who do we have to contend with all of this? Isaac Herzog. Leader of the opposition. Grandson of the rabbi and son of the president. This farce has to end.

The Nazi tactics of the ‘most moral occupation in the world’

Israeli Border Patrol Threatens to Gas Palestinians in Aida Refugee Camp Until Everyone is Dead

Mohammed Matter

Israeli military vehicles invaded Aida refugee camp and used loud speakers to leave the Palestinians a message.. 

Watch, listen and share..
(English subtitles)

 

see Border cop suspended for threatening to ‘gas’ Palestinians - Probe launched over video of officer allegedly vowing to ‘slaughter’ families, children in Bethlehem if stone-throwing continues

Echoing Nazi Tactics, IDF Patrol Threatens to Exterminate Palestinian Refugee Camp with “Gas”

The 'most moral army in the world' in action - shooting detained protestors

Video: Israel lures protesters into trap

Below are 2 videos taken of the Israeli security forces instigating stone throwing and then luring Palestinians into doing the same before brutally arresting and shooting one of the Palestinians whilst he was detained.  Notice the eagerness of Israeli soldiers to put the boot in to Palestinians captive on the ground.

Tony Greenstein

Jonathan Cook

8 October 2015

This two-minute video, taken on October 7 in the West Bank near Ramallah, is worth studying carefully to understand how Israel has become so adept at managing the Palestinian population under occupation and at foiling their efforts at resistance.

We can see about 20 men, faces concealed, who look like they are Palestinian protesters throwing stones at the army. In fact, they are what are called “mistaravim”: Israeli security forces in disguise as Palestinian youths.

According to those who witnessed this incident (see update below), the mistaravim began throwing stones at the army in a piece of theatre to lure other Palestinians to the protest.

Then, as we can see in the video, when a few Palestinian protesters separate themselves from the main body of the crowd they are picked off by the mistaravim, like lions going after a gazelle.

Notice, once they have grabbed the main Palestinian in this video, they shoot him in the knee and take turns kicking him.

We can’t see what happens next, but the routine is well known.

He will be taken off to a Shin Bet interrogation (torture) cell, where he will be made to give up the names of anyone he can think off who was there (and very possibly those who weren’t).

Then the Israeli army will make night raids to grab those who were named, or arrest them when they try to cross one of the many checkpoints and roadblocks Israel operates in the occupied territories.

At some point later he will be released. The Shin Bet will use his “confession” as blackmail to get him to serve as an informer.

This has been going on for nearly five decades in the occupied territories. It has created an awful lot of Palestinians trapped in a vicious cycle of collaboration, and a very effective system of control for Israel.

Sam Bahour makes the point that the drama playing out here illustrates the way young Palestinians are being drawn not into an organised intifada but into futile bursts of anger against Israel.

He says it more eloquently than I can:

Israeli police kill Fadi Alloun in cold blood after lynch mob chases him

The two videos below speak for themselves.  A Palestinian teenager was chased by an Israeli Jewish lynch mob and the Police then executed him.  He presented no danger, he had no weapon, they simply took the word of the racist mob.  Only then did they ask if there were any injured and of course there wasn’t.

This Nazi like murder of an innocent Palestinian boy speaks volumes about the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’.

Fadi Samir Alloun in an undated image posted on Facebook.

Video: Death-chanting Israeli mob rejoices as Palestinian teen is executed

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 4 October 2015

This article contains graphic images of violence

Amid increasing violence in occupied Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, Israeli forces executed a Palestinian youth in cold blood early on Sunday morning.

Israeli forces have declared that the Old City of Jerusalem will be open only to Jews and foreign tourists for the next 48 hours. No Palestinians except residents will be allowed in.

In a further escalation, Naftali Bennett, the Israeli education minister who openly boasts about how many Arabs he has killed, announced he plans to spend Sunday night’s Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah in the Old City.

Bennett heads the Habeyit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party whose senior member, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, has openly called for genocide of Palestinians.

Execution

Fadi Samir Alloun in an undated image posted on Facebook.

Israeli authorities claimed that 19-year-old Fadi Samir Alloun was killed after a stabbing attack that wounded an Israeli teenager. They presented no evidence connecting Alloun to the alleged stabbing.

But videos posted online show that the youth was executed in cold blood as he was chased by a mob of Israeli Jews baying for his blood.

As the video above begins, voices can be heard in Hebrew shouting – apparently at police – “Shoot him! He’s a terrorist! Shoot him!” and “Don’t wait! Shoot him!”

Alloun can be seen backing away from the mob, along the tracks of the Jerusalem Light Rail.

The lights of a police car can then be seen and the sound of seven gunshots heard. Alloun falls to the ground. At no time in the video was he any threat to anyone.

Wattan TV says the killing occurred in the Musrara area, just outside the walls of the Old City, near the Damascus Gate.

Kill first, ask questions later

A police officer – apparently the shooter – can be seen approaching Alloun. Meanwhile celebratory voices are heard shouting “Yes! Yes! Son of a bitch!” and “Wow!” and “He’s an Arab!”

“Death to the Arabs!” others shout.

A police officer then asks, “Where are the injured?” This suggests that the police shot first and only asked questions afterwards.

It was a cold-blooded execution at the behest of a lynch mob.

This is confirmed by this second video of the same incident published by Alkhaleej Online.

It shows the mob clearly inciting for Alloun to be killed as they chase him. The Palestinian youth is trying to escape.

After police shoot him dead, an officer can be heard asking one of the mob, “Did he stab anyone?”

The Israeli youth answers that Alloun did not. While details about the alleged stabbing – and whether Alloun had anything to do with it – are disputed, what is in no doubt is what is visible in the video: he was shot dead in cold blood when he presented no threat to anyone by police who were answering to a mob.

Beautiful voice

Friends and family told the Quds news site that Alloun was gifted with a beautiful singing voice.

He often gave the call to prayer from the Martrys Mosque in the Jerusalem village of Issawiyeh.

Alloun’s family had long been victims of Israel’s occupation policies in Jerusalem. According to Quds, his mother had been a permit to return to Jerusalem from Jordan, where she had gone after her father died. Israel refused to allow the family to reunite, meaning Fadi and his father lived in Jerusalem, while his mother and brother Muhammad remained in Jordan.

Friends said Alloun was a sensitive and quiet person who never showed anger toward anyone.

Violence

The execution of Alloun comes as Israel escalates its violent attacks on Palestinians in the wake of recent killings of settlers in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.

On Thursday, two settlers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank.

On Saturday, 19-year-old Palestinian Muhannad Halabi fatally stabbed two Israelis in the Old City of Jerusalem. Nehamia Lavi, 41, was a rabbi in the Israeli army and Aaron Benita, 21, was a combat soldier. Lavi lived in occupied East Jerusalem and Bennett in the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit.

Palestinian and Israeli media have reported a sharp escalation in attacks on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank by Israeli occupation forces and settlers in recent days.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society declared a “state of emergency” on Sunday throughout the West Bank following the upsurge of attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

The society said it had faced 14 attacks against its medical staff and ambulances over the past 72 hours. It told Ma’an News Agency that 96 Palestinians had been injured by Israeli live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets and other weapons between Saturday and Sunday evenings.

In Burin village, in the northern West Bank, Palestinians had to defend their homes after Israeli settlers set fire to trees and plants in the village and threw stones and bottles at residents, Ma’an News Agency reported.