Israel makes apartheid the law of the land
From the very beginning Israel had two classes of citizens - Arabs and Jews.
But it wasn't until recent years that the divide was noticeable from the outside.
In practice, Arabs in Israel have often been treated as second-class citizens. Their schools and healthcare institutions are more poorly funded, their roads aren’t always as well maintained. They’ve faced limitations on where they can live and buy property.
...
In recent years, Israeli right-wingers have sought to exclude Arab legislators from important votes and to require Arab citizens to take loyalty oaths or be stripped of their citizenship.
For those that were paying attention, this looked an awful lot like a different set of laws for an ethnic minority group. Which is nearly impossible to justify.
However, it wasn't until this past week that Israel simply stopped pretending it was interested in justice and democracy.
The Israeli Knesset on Thursday passed into law a bill designed to make a permanent underclass of Palestinian citizens. It threatens to set the country on a course to full-blown Jewish theocracy.The so-called “Jewish nation-state” bill formalizes in Israeli law the superior rights and privileges that Jewish citizens of the state enjoy over its indigenous Palestinian minority, who comprise roughly 20% of the population. It demotes Arabic from one of two official languages to a mere “special” status, deepens racial segregation by directing the government to “encourage and promote” Jewish settlement, and declares that the right to self-determination in Israel is “exclusive” to the Jewish people, denying the history and ancient Palestinian roots in this land. It also prioritizes the Jewishness of the state over its democratic character, omitting any reference to “democracy” or “equality.”
That article was written by Yousef Jabareen, a member of the Israeli Knesset from the Hadash party.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz had these headlines:
Jewish Nation-state Law Makes Discrimination in Israel Constitutional
The NBC headline was:
Israel 'nation-state' law prompts criticism around the world, including from U.S. Jewish groups
The Bloomberg headline was:
Israel Mocks Its Founding Ideals
The National was no less blunt:
There is now no denying the apartheid state that is Israel
Normally you must be Jewish to criticize Israel. Otherwise you are automatically considered anti-Semitic. And even being Jewish is often not enough to prevent you from being slandered.
On the other hand, there is literally nothing that Israel could do that would cause Washington to condemn it.
Intentionally killing children? Already done that.
Israeli snipers shot a 15-year-old Palestinian boy at Gaza borders for peacefully marching along the border fence. pic.twitter.com/BLZCyGGvVN
— Mustafa (@MustafAbuZir_E) July 14, 2018
Washington has completely abandoned the idea of approaching the Palestinian issue from a viewpoint of anything but the Israeli right-wing's perspective.
It makes me wonder if Israel's left-wing has forever vanished?
For the hard-right in Israel, they are going to need that unquestioning support because they fully intend to commit more horrendous crimes against humanity in the near future.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Friday indicated that Israel was prepared to go to war if the stream of incendiary kites and balloons and other forms of violence from the Gaza Strip did not cease.“We see in the newspapers that you don’t go to war over kites and fires. However, any reasonable person who sees a natural grove burned or thousands of dunams of agricultural fields scorched understands that this situation is unreasonable,” Liberman said at a press conference in the town of Sderot, just outside the Palestinian coastal enclave.
“We are trying to be considerate and responsible, but the heads of Hamas are forcibly leading us to a situation of not having a choice, to a situation in which we will need to carry out a large and painful military operation — not something that’s just for show, but a large and painful military operation,” he said.
“I think that the only people responsible for this are the heads of Hamas, but unfortunately all the residents of Gaza will be forced to pay the price,” Liberman added.
The defense minister said Israel was prepared to “carry out an operation that is of a much wider scope and much more painful than Operation Protective Edge” — the Israeli name for the 2014 Gaza war.
That 2014 conflict killed over 1,200 civilians by the most conservative of counts, and he's talking about a "much wider scope and much more painful".
And for what? Burning kites!?!
At least 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the Friday protests began, including dozens of unarmed children. More than 16,000 others have been wounded.
The Gaza people are protesting for a right of return. Israel is trying to disenfranchise and/or kick out the few Arabs that remain.
One side has the most advanced military in the world. The other side is children armed with burning kites.
Guess who is playing the victim here?
Comments
I read that this morning
I guess if you criticize Israel from now on you can't help but be anti Semitic.
Criticizing Israel
ouch!
This is really sad.
They're going to be sorry
If they succeed in defining any criticism of the apartheid Israeli state as "anti-Semitic," they run the risk of cheapening the concept. This could cause others to erase the distinction between critics of the Israeli government and real anti-Semites. The more their government deserves criticism, the more they then open the door to normalizing what the country was founded to protect them from.
Please help support caucus99percent!
See also:
Democrats and rasicism, sexism, homophobia, etc.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
They have
already succeeded in brainwashing everyone to believe that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism.
dfarrah
Syria is going to save the Golan Heights
The western powers don't like the fact that Assad has chased out the white helmets. Once the highlands are free of the rule of the opposition, Israel is going to start shitting bricks. Or dropping bombs. They will not accept the return to original treaties of 1949, which is obvious by the provocations against Palestine. The Golan has never been their land. Taking by force by killing the survivors.
question everything
To me, this makes the
BDS movement more important. Maybe our Congress knew this was coming, which is why they are trying to outlaw the BDS movement. I haven’t kept up with it, so apologies if I misspoke.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Agree with you RA
Outlawing the BDS movement is only another example in the long list of the US legislators making laws to benefit their financial supporters
question everything
It's only natural.
They already outlawed Communism, Socialism or hell, even left political leanings in general. Unions in the United States were destroyed by the Supreme Court. The capitalist pigs now control all.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Even some states
have outlawed BDS activity.
dfarrah
That does not bode well
for us. We must fight this, as it is stripping us of the right to protest, the right to free speech.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
This kind of talk is what got me banned from dKos
So, I haven't looked but I suppose the Daily Kos paid bloggers are all in FAVOR of this? Anyone who dares take exception to the new apartheid will join our ranks... you know the Israeli's have the software to seek out and gang up on anti-Israeli commenters.
Peace
FN
"Democracy is technique and the ability of power not to be understood as oppressor. Capitalism is the boss and democracy is its spokesperson." Peace - FN
Fear, fear, fear...
Inflicting fear is the only way to control the masses. Speak bad of us and we will seek you out! Fear, fear, fear. We must stay strong against all opposition or allow the police state to succeed. I choose the latter.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Yeah
they have hall monitors, and if that doesn't work they send out the flying monkeys. Gotta protect the purity of the product.
Yes, at Kos,
I still recall posters saying that they would stand head and shoulders with Israel.
Really, if Jews in the US are so devoted to Israel and love it so much, they need to go live there.
What other group gets to live in a country while professing their devotion to another country? I'm sure most immigrants/refugees love their former countries, but most of them aren't expecting the US citizens (or citizens of the host nation) to arm their home country to the teeth and die for their home country.
dfarrah
And then there’s this sobering article about Taglit-Birthright
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-why-more-u-s-jews-will-walk...
It's an amazing flip
Half a century ago, Jewish people around the world were known for being leftists that always sided with the oppressed. For example, the white Freedom Riders were jewish.
This had been true for at least 1,000 years.
Now, in a brief period of time, Jews will be known for being rabid, racist right-wing kooks that won't shed a tear over killing unarmed children.
WFT happened? This is a disaster.
I don't believe
that the Jews were never racist (or bigoted against non-Jews) and they suddenly became racist.
The devotion to their own has always existed and supersedes other relationships.
The Jews have been so successful in brainwashing most of the US citizenry and buying politicians, that people simply don't perceive this side of the Jews.
dfarrah
Stereotype much? (n/t)
"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush
Nope.
I think it is safe to say that most races are racist against other races. And that includes the whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Jews.
And large groups of humans have other isms and bigotries, too. And some countries hate each other, too.
We've tried to alleviate racism in the US.
I am just facing the facts about humans and their isms.
dfarrah
Yeah as a people many were
the most learned of the citizens of the country they called home. In Germany during WW1 they were some of the most patriotic, serving in the army. That's part of why they couldn't believe the Nazi rise to power, it was their country, too. They fought and died for it. But it wasn't Israel. Sometimes I think just having borders make us crazy. You have to have all the shitty apparatus of running a country, military, secret police, flag waving loyalty, and the same human garbage that can't do anything but be a politician.
somehow i had come to understand that there
were such people as that tour guide out there, without ever having heard one brag about it. in the spirit of WWJD, i have to wonder, what would rabbi hillel make of such tribalism gone mad.
one does feel the mischievous urge to start asking whether it matters at all to whom exactly the Jewish life in question might belong. is this Jew presumed to be some sort of canonical (cough) average Jew going about his or her daily Jewish life? what, I must ask, is the going exchange rate of Burmese children's lives per persistent vegetative state Jewish life? of wonderful Italian-American friends' lives per psychopathic Jewish life? and so on. does this guy value is own Jewish life so highly, that he would not risk it to save, say, a drowning Italian-American toddler ... or even a 100,000 drowing Italian-American toddlers?
when i hear talk about "Israel" being "our" "ally in the region", i wonder whether the talker understands that there are Israelis, including some/many that are in positions of power, who value an American life at approximately one Jewish pinkie fingernail; and worse, who seem okay with the idea (in principle) of annihilating every other human on earth to protect, not Jewish lives, but the Israeli state. such folk are not anybody's friends or allies, anywhere, ever. they're psychos, and they seem to be in charge of the Israeli government right now.
mind you, every tribe has its share of such loonies. Curtis LeMay supposedly opined that it would represent a "victory" if, in an all-out nuclear exchange with Russia, the survivor count came out at 1-0, US. Dick Cheney and John Bolton are obviously a bit confused in their thinking. And so on.
But still. Please.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
The Jews believe they
are the chosen people. Everything flows from that core belief.
(and no, not all Jews believe they are chosen or support Zionism)
dfarrah
Thank you Rabbi Dfarrah
for gentilesplaining Judaism to us ignorant Hebrews.
"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush
Give me a break.
Typical suppression effort.
That Jews believe they are the chosen people is not news to anyone.
Even the fundie Christians believe the Jews are the chosen people.
Even I used to believe that the Jews were the chosen people (and I'm Christian).
No more. I am done with that belief.
dfarrah
You can’t have Armegeddon and the Second Coming if
you don’t have a pure Jewish state. Christian fundamentalists expecting to be Raptured are all for this.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
@Lily O Lady Yeah, the Dominionists
Yeah, the Dominionists are pretty effed in the head. It's seems like a commonality (and personal experience too) that those who boast the most of their (xtian or other) faith will screw you over at the earliest opportunity.
Dominionists have to be behind all this. Radical
Israelies are getting support and access to US power with the goal of bringing about the Second Coming of Christ. These Christian fundamentalists think that they have to work to fulfill the Book of Revelations. A lot can get done when crazies band together.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
What that group of
Christians don't realize is that Jews have nothing but contempt for them. Non-Jews are supposed to be the slaves of Jews.
dfarrah
Bullshit
Please stop spamming this blog with your filthy racist lies.
"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush
Well, here are some
interesting interviews that show Jewish opinions across the spectrum.
I am assuming these people are real.
dfarrah
That crossed the line
It's time to step back
Have you read some
of the stuff Bibi has said? Or other Zionists?
I'm not saying that all Jews hold these beliefs. But Jews are no exception to isms and bigotry; they are no exception to this human condition.
dfarrah
You're talking to someone with Jewish relatives
So please don't tell me what they think
I don't know how much wrong can be stuffed into
two dozen words, but that was a pretty good job.
To the extent that most pro-Israel apocalypse-chasing fundamentalist Christians "know" anything about any Jews at all, they're unlikely to think very highly of them, or to suppose that very many are in their hearts anything but the enemies of Christianity. What's going on here is that two tribal elites (manifesting the very worst impulses and prejudices of the very worst elements -- quite literally the worst of the worst -- of the two tribes they each purport to represent/guide/promote/defend) are each cynically and hatefully exploiting the other elite's fears and delusions, in order to promote their appalling agendas.
Dominionists (elites and otherwise) mostly despise Jews (who are all going to hell, after all), though some have a weird grudging respect for them, and some feel straight-up sorry for them, because of the role God has assigned them in his grand plan. But, you know -- it's God's grand plan. What can you do?
Meanwhile, I don't have an adjective that describes the flavor of Zionism that clearly intends to establish the eventual border of Israel at the frontiers currently under Israeli military control, and apparently to make life there hostile enough to non-Jews that they will eventually all either die or choose to leave -- the flavor of Zionism that would nuke New York City (Jewish lives notwithstanding) to accomplish its aims -- but of course they have no illusions about their Christianist allies. Any Jew -- Zionist or not, extreme or not -- would be a fool to entertain anything but a mixture of contempt for and fear of the apocalypsers who support the Israel project. My presumption (supported by observation) is that both tribes (elites and otherwise) know that the other tribe are not their friends, and they just don't care because they're getting what they want.
In any case, a basic characteristic of most tribalism is a sense of superiority over other tribes. In our modern world, that brand of tribalism is often associated with nationality rather than with ethnicity or faith. If you want to go in for sweeping generalizations of that sort, the Americans think "they" are better than everyone else, the English think "they" are better than anyone else, the French think "they" are better than anyone else, the Germans think "they" are better than anyone else, the Japanese think "they" are better than anyone else -- all without giving too much thought to who-all comes under that "they" umbrella. Such a sense of superiority lends itself to abuse ( as in "American Exceptionalism" ) -- to a sense of entitlement, particular with regard to the distribution of the planet's wealth -- but for the average modern person acculturated in Western Civilization, it's a long way from there to asserting that the Others deserve to be slaves of the Ourselves. For example, here in the US our oligarchs must go to considerable trouble to explain to us why it is natural and necessary for the people who make our cell phones, sneakers and thong panties to live squalid lives of constant drudgery. (It's something to do with free markets or something ...)
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Excellent reply. Wow! You covered it all so well. Thank you.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
I shouldn't
have generalized (which I wasn't doing in my head) when I was saying Jews. The problem is that I don't know how to quantify the prevalence of the beliefs. It is a fact that not all Jews believe the beliefs I cited. It is probably safe to say that many Jews in America don't hold the beliefs. Do many Jews believe,do some Jews believe?
So, that is why I used the word generally.
But clearly, the beliefs I cited are held by not a small number of Jews. So, I don't know how to quantify accurately. (and what exactly is "not a small number").
But I do find it curious that you can say this, to no one's objection:
To the extent that most pro-Israel apocalypse-chasing fundamentalist Christians "know" anything about any Jews at all, they're unlikely to think very highly of them, or to suppose that very many are in their hearts anything but the enemies of Christianity.
When I made a similarly broad statement about Jews and their attitude toward Christianity, I got criticized. (To me, there is quite a bit of bigotry toward Christianity on this site that I mostly disregard.)
Some posters cite personal anecdotal evidence in opposition to my comments, so I'll do the same with your comment: my brother and sister are fundies, they believe the Jews are chosen, they support Israel, they harbor no ill-will toward Jews at all, nor do they believe that the Jews need to be saved. (sadly, my brother dislikes Muslims; but when I say that is so un-Christian, he does soften)
dfarrah
Really?
You really can't see a qualitative difference between your statement that
versus my carefully constructed category of "pro-Israel apocalypse-chasing fundamentalist Christians"? Until reading about that looney tune tour guide, I'd never heard/read any Jewish person asserting such a directly loathsome exchange rate of gentile lives to Jewish lives, and I've still never heard/read any Jewish person asserting that "Non-Jews are supposed to be the slaves of Jews." I have, on the other hand, heard and read plenty of looney tune apocalyptic Christians saying all sorts of shocking things about Jews, despite the fact that a significant fraction of the American evangelical Christian population has literally never known a Jewish person, due to the distinct geographic distribution of both evangelical Christianity and Judaism. There really aren't very many Jews in the US, you know -- less than 2% of the population, and they are concentrated in those very places that American Evangelical Christians identify as the centers of sin in America, anti-Christian, anti-God, anti-Good, anti-Family, pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-sociamalism, pro-big-government: the Northeastern megalopolis, southern California, Las Vegas, southeastern Florida. The average southern baptist (sane, looney-tune, or wherever in between) is born, lives, and dies, without ever knowingly having a meaningful conversation with anyone who isn't a christian. Even Catholics are alien to many of them.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
okay, so i have in fact now seen some examples
of coocoo bananas jewish zealots asserting such concepts as goyim exist only to serve jews.
it would be funny, if it weren't so tragic.
i have no idea how many people take such ludicrosities seriously, but one hopes the number is small. very small.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
dfarrah...
tone it down, you're insulting a large group of folks here which is no different than a personal attack on an individual.
Ghandi on Palestine
(Found here)
Letter dated 1938:
Letter dated 1946:
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
History repeating itself
Israel did start bombing Gaza today, but they have stopped. For now.
Israel & Hamas agree to ceasefire in Gaza – Hamas spokesman
The people who are thinking that they will be raptured might be in for a big surprise if that ever happens. I doubt that Gawd would look kindly on people who stayed silent when Israel was constantly slaughtering and keeping people in an open air prison for decades and stealing their land.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Israel is a horribly racist country.
I can't believe people are in hysteria over Russia and what little impact they might have on the US when Israel owns Congress and the US lock, stock, and barrel.
We're forced to pay taxes to support this racist country, and we don't even get the socialized health care they do.
dfarrah
The US Supported Aparthaid
in South Africa until it became politically dangerous to do so. Then suddenly, everybody runs to the shrine of Nelson Mandela and his High Priest Obama.
Yeah, they won't stop supporting Israel until it's politically dangerous to do so.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
a few more from the twittersphere:
... oooooooookkkaaayyyeee...
First there was a scared little woman and a scarred little man and they discovered that survival and raising kids is hard work.
So they looked out for others that were like them, who were also scared, and became friends with them to help each other and make daily survival a bit easier. The clan evolved. The clan grew larger and they carved out their little piece of land they happen to live on before they realized they are a clan.
Now others, who were not quite like them, also started to form their clans and carved out their little piece of land. Because they were not quite like the other clan for whatever reason, the clans evolved into tribes.
Then the piece of land may have gotten too small to sustain all their own tribe members. So the tribes started to compete and fight against each other to protect their own for survival. Tribalism lead to conflicts. Out of these conflcts evolved stereotyping of the other tribes and blaming the other tribes for all their own miseries. Customs and laws were made to allow for blaming and possible warfare between the tribes.
When tribes had visible ethnic differences and religious customs, tribalism evolved into racism. Laws were made to allow exploitation, oppression and warfare to be legal on the basis of ethnicity, religion and race.
That's how mimi's little brain explains herself racism and apartheit. At the beginning there was just a little scared woman with her little scared man and all they wanted is to survive a little bit easier.
So, blame yourself, may be?
Pretty sad comments along the road in this essay.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I understand and agree for the reason
for the creation of the state of Israel.
By 1945 mankind had proven itself incapable of not killing Jews. The Holocaust was just the last mass slaughter of Jewish people.
Jews needed a place to call their own, or be in danger of being wiped out entirely.
The problem is that Arabs and muslims were never the ones slaughtering Jews.
The people Jews needed to be protected from were Christians.
For instance, during the Spanish Inquisition, the Jews who fled for their lives generally fled to muslim North Africa.
In 1946 there were 150,000 Jews living in Baghdad. It was one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, and it was at least 500 years old.
The trouble between Jews and muslims is new and based on politics.
The danger for Jews is from Christians, and it is old and based on religion.
I am not that knowledgable about Christians and Christianity
but wasn't Jesus a Christian and a Jew? If the conflict and mass slaughter by the Christians of the Jews was just based on religion, how does that fit together with Jesus being a Christian and a Jew? I also believe that in Rome I saw an enclave of a Jewish community right aside the center of the Christian Church and power centers. I tried to search for it and ended up to read the history of Jews in Italy and gave up because it's too long and complex.
Also, my comment was meant to be generalized for any religion and any ethnicity and race.
I also can't help to believe that fearful and helpless people start to believe in any sort of religious-higher power related cults/groups. And from there they go into different directions and it is cause of conflicts between those groups. In addition I could imagine that the Jews were prosecuted and haunted more than other groups for their religion, because Jews define themselves over their religion AND over their belonging to a genetic tribe. This doubles the danger of being seen as "other" more than a religion that is not related by definition to dna-based groups of people.
It is really hard for me to get a grip on this issue. For example, I could ask myself, if black folks are more hated, as they are in addition to being black, they are also Jews. Which would mean there are dna-based black Jews. Which dna-based marker then is more important as cause of their prosecutions? The race defining dna or the religion defining dna among those who are black Jews? Are they more prosecuted for their religion or for their race? I have no idea. Usually I give up at this point to understand any of it and tell myself that when I am old I should read all the books I haven't in the hope before I die to understand all of it.
Peace.
https://www.euronews.com/live
no reaction to my response tells me
that I must have missed basic knowledge about something here. May be I sabotage myself to get into that subject thoroughly, because I just feel I will never - as a non-religious German Lutheran Protestant - be able to tackle and comment these issues without causing pain to someone out there.
So, I don't attempt more comments.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Background info — “Oddities of the Jewish religion” by Ron Unz
http://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-oddities-of-the-jewish-religion/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Unz
Many thanks, lotlizard, you just gave me
tons of material to read in the coming years with the Unz article. Wow, I scanned half of it and just thought "Oh boy", may be that is what I need to read.
https://www.euronews.com/live