It's time to start paying attention to Israel

The politics and policies of Israel have a unique position in America for being almost completely above reproach.
However, that is not true within Israel itself, where political self-criticism is still tolerated, and lately there has been alarming developments and statements from the highest levels of government that require our attention.
This Salon article sums up much of this.

Israel’s ex-prime minister has warned that his country is “infected by the seeds of fascism.”
Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister and defense minister, said in an interview on Israeli TV on Friday night that fascistic, extreme right-wing politics are on the rise in his country, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
“What has happened is a hostile takeover of the Israeli government by dangerous elements,” he cautioned. “And it’s just the beginning.”
Barak’s comments come just weeks after Israeli Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan compared Israel to Nazi Germany in the 1930s, in a Holocaust Remembrance Day speech on May 4.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon resigned on Friday, after hard-line right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would be offering the defense minister position to Avigdor Lieberman, one of the most extreme figures in Israeli politics.
Lieberman was compared to ISIS in March 2015 after publicly calling for beheading disloyal Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Explaining his decision to immediately step down, Ya’alon, who is a fellow member of Netanyahu’s staunchly right-wing Likud party, warned that “extremist and dangerous elements have taken over Israel.”

Imagine a former president and defense secretary in the United States saying things like this. It would create an unprecedented firestorm of controversy. And yet Barak goes a step further.

In the interview on Israel’s Channel 10, Barak cited ultra right-wing legislation that is being pushed by members of the ruling coalition, adding, “This government needs to be brought down before it brings all of us down.”
“There are no serious leaders left in the world who believe the Israeli government,” the former Israeli prime minister said.

Those are amazing statements to make. Although he's wrong about "no serious leader" believing in the Israeli government, because American politicians sure do.
OTOH, now that you mention it, Barak used the term "serious" so maybe he's right after all.

Amazingly this criticism has managed to leak into the NY Times of all places, titled Israel’s Army Goes to War With Its Politicians.

IN most countries, the political class supervises the defense establishment and restrains its leaders from violating human rights or pursuing dangerous, aggressive policies. In Israel, the opposite is happening. Here, politicians blatantly trample the state’s values and laws and seek belligerent solutions, while the chiefs of the Israel Defense Forces and the heads of the intelligence agencies try to calm and restrain them.

For the sake of brevity, here is a summary.

–Israeli military leaders “detest” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, because he sought “belligerent solutions” to problems and is motivated not by the country’s interest but by “religion, ideology,” and his own political ambitions.

— Netanyahu launched one war these leaders opposed — the 2014 slaughter in Gaza that killed 500 children — and had a “plan” to launch another one, an attack on Iran six years ago, that was “illegal,” because he would have circumvented his own cabinet. “The military and intelligence leaders believed that the prime minister’s plan to attack Iran’s nuclear installations was politically motivated by electoral considerations and would embroil Israel in a superfluous war.”

–The man Netanyahu has lately installed as Defense Minister — Avigdor Lieberman — is “an impulsive and reckless extremist… known for ruthlessly quashing people who hold opposing views.” Lieberman has threatened to blow up the Aswan Dam.

–There could be a military coup in Israel, if Lieberman acts out. “[T]he possibility of a military coup has been raised — but only with a smile,” Bergman reports from his conversations with military leaders. “It remains unlikely.”

That all adds up to a political crisis and a "loose cannon" of a government. That's not the conclusions of Palestinians, but of Israel's own army and leading politicians.
Something is seriously wrong in Israel, but America's political establishment wants to pretend that everything is normal.

Why was it such a daring move by Bernie Sanders to say, “Netanyahu is not right all of the time”? Why does Hillary Clinton say that she would invite Netanyahu to the White House in her first month as president? And why, if Netanyahu’s judgment is so inflamed by personal ambition and “ideology”, was Clinton “swayed” by Netanyahu to oppose any dealings with Iran, back when American negotiations began?

Much like our inability to admit that we are losing the GWOT by every metric, will continue to lose the GWOT unless we make radical changes in strategy, we are blinded to Israel's turn down a political blind alley.

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since they are trying to steal the presidency? Hey, birds of a feather.

Tx. gjohnsit. Good to know, troubling to read, especially if we continue a blind support of Israel.

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Sea Turtle

Haikukitty's picture

"terror" - it was asinine from the beginning.

Especially given that any direct action you take within other autonomous countries and societies is only going to create more of what you are fighting.

But I also don't believe we ever had any intention of doing away with terrorism. Terrorism is just the cost of doing business the new American way.

I'm actually glad to see that someone within Israel is speaking out.

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PastorAgnostic's picture

I thought that Bibi had stepped in it with GOoPster love affair. Certainly AIPAC did. But, watch and Ds and Rs move to protect Israel and Bibi, no matter what.

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Steven D's picture

These are the nutcases with Nukes in the Middle East, not the nut cases in Iran, or Syria or ISIS.

Anything seems on the table now.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Ken in MN's picture

..."With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

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I want my two dollars!

Deja's picture

That's when I found out about blogs, using the internet for more than eBay, and was first ever called an anti Semite. Found out about defense secrets sold to China, and airplane parts sold to South Africa during the anti apartheid embargo.

It's only gotten worse, and I'm glad the military leaders have spoken up.

I get a little nervous when I share something like this story on Twitter because of spooks, but I feel I have to - and did so yesterday when I first saw it. Then I get nervous about the new "followers" I accrue afterwards.

But the truth must flow!

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tapu dali's picture

It'll create a firestorm, but won't that be fun?

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

tapu dali's picture

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

tapu dali's picture

that you have, or intend to, cross-post the essay "over there"?

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

Israel might be best described as an outpost of the Pentagon, a kind of giant US military base. And the historical record has much to teach us about Israel.
Israel has long played the crucial role of regional enforcer for US corporate interests in the Middle East and elsewhere, a strategic asset that serves as a staging ground for the deployment of American power. In the US war for global hegemony, Israel has repeatedly served as conduit and facilitator when US militarists wanted to bypass Congressional bans such as the Arms Export Control Act and provide weapons and other material resources to nations willing to further the interests of Western capitalist predators even as they engaged in horrific human rights violations. In fact, Israel has served as a US mercenary state for decades. Since the 60's, with CIA supervision and support, Israel has been used to train, arm, and provide intelligence to pro-US dictators and terrorist groups all over the world.

Israel was the primary contact and intermediary between the US and apartheid South Africa for years (where it also trained the death-squad security forces and helped develop their nuclear program). Israel has provided weapons and other military assistance to UNITA and RENAMO terrorists in Angola and Mozambique, to Papa Doc Duvalier, to Zaire during Mobutu's reign, to Liberia under Charles Taylor, to the Burmese generals, to Pinochet's Chile, to Somoza in Nicaragua, and to Argentina during the "Dirty War". Israel delivered military aircraft to Indonesia's Suharto during the massacres in East Timor and supplied the napalm dropped on impoverished peasant communities by the Air Force of El Salvador. In Guatemala, under the Rios Montt dictatorship, Israel taught terrorism techniques, assassination, and a "counterinsurgency" program based on the Strategic Hamlet operations that the US used in Vietnam. Israel sold arms to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war while the US armed Saddam Hussein of Iraq, a fiendish coordinated plan that meant to maximize casualties on both sides. In Rwanda, Israel supplied the Hutu butchers with small arms before and during the genocide, and began arming the Tutsis immediately afterwards. And this is by no means a complete list.

The USA and Israel share at least one core belief: human beings are nothing but disposable animate objects, and concepts such as morality and justice are useful for propaganda purposes only.

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