"At a Munich security forum on Saturday, Kerry touched a nerve in Israel by pointing to "an increasing de-legitimisation" campaign building up against it internationally and "talk of boycotts" if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not end. "Are we all going to be better with all of that?" asked Kerry, who is seeking a framework deal soon that will set a path toward a final accord on peace and Palestinian statehood. Steinitz seized on the top U.S. diplomat's remarks as a threat against Israel that would only encourage the Palestinians to harden their positions in the six-month-old negotiations, which have shown few signs of progress. "The things … Kerry said are hurtful, they are unfair and they are intolerable," Steinitz told reporters." Reuters
———————————–
"They are intolerable." Ah! I see. At last! Kerry is now unmasked as an anti-Semite. Bibi has said something similar.
Seriously, Kerry comprehends, however belatedly that Israel is isolating itself by virtue of its continued negotiating trickery as a strategy, its heavy handed occupation of Palestinian lands and its snarling hatred of the non-Jewish world.
Kerry is undoubtedly correct in his statements regarding Israel's destiny as heritor of the worldwide attitude towards South Africa in the "bad old days."
Can Israel turn itself around and actually seek comity on the basis of equality with the Palestinians? I doubt it. The hyper-nationalist attitude of revisionist Zionism is now so deeply imbedded in the Israeli electorate that the die is cast. pl
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/02/palestinians-israel-usa-idUSL5N0L70AS20140202
Colonel,
How do you think the nationalist Zionists see themselves and Israel 20 years down the road? What’s their end game?
At some stage soon, in my opinion, the Israeli Government is going to get labelled as inflicting their own version of the Holocaust on Palestinians, and it is going to stick.
Bear in mind that the Endlosung was preceded by at least Seven years of systematic theft, robbery, discrimination and exclusion of German jews. Why would we not say then that only one thing remains – the gas chambers, a Palestinian Endlosung, that differentiates Israeli behaviour from their prior persecutors?
What then happens to the diaspora when asked by western democratic gentiles for their opinion?
http://www.nkusa.org/
Am sure Bill Kristol will have something to say about it next week at his new gig at the liberal ABC News.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/02/bill-kristol-joins-abc-news-182527.html
Colonel Clearly, the only conceivable motivation for any criticism of Israel is malice!
The one thing that makes the snarling hatred for anything goy even more galling is the absurd sense of perpetual victimhood in Israel. This picture captures it perfectly:
http://richards10.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/mysh-a-problem-of-self-image.jpg
Half a century ago, the Nazis massacred millions of Jews. That was horrible. Israel uses that crime committed against these people as a blanket justification for all their own excesses.
Nakhba? If it happened, it was necessary, because – holocaust. Rinse, repeat.
Jabotinski’s Iron Wall Zionism precedes the Holocaust. He wrote The Iron Wall (We and the Arabs) in 1923.
Some of Israel’s apologists ses in the Holocaust an ex-post justification for Jabotinski’s Zionism – a blanc cheque to take from the Palestinains what they can get away with, conscious that in face of such blatant injustice, there could be no accomodation with the Palestinians, and that the only means to retain these gains would be coercion.
Jabotinsky was quite prescient in 1923, and thankfully, under no illusions about what he was actually advocating – colonisation and expropriation:
“Every native population, civilised or not, regards its lands as its national home, of which it is the sole master, and it wants to retain that mastery always; it will refuse to admit not only new masters but, even new partners or collaborators
…
This is equally true of the Arabs. Our Peace-mongers are trying to persuade us that the Arabs are either fools, whom we can eceive by masking our real aims, or that they are corrupt and can be bribed to abandon to us their claim to priority in Palestine , in return for cultural and economic advantages.
…
That is what the Arabs in Palestine are doing, and what they will persist in doing as long as there remains a solitary spark of hope that they will be able to prevent the transformation of “Palestine” into the “Land of Israel.”
…
We cannot offer any adequate compensation to the Palestinian Arabs in return for Palestine. And therefore, there is no likelihood of any voluntary agreement being reached.
…
Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach.”
And behind that protective wall, live not only Palestinians but the Goy, neither of whom can be trusted.
What Jabotinsky described 90 years ago looks a lot like Israel today.
The absurdity here is that Jabotinsky, to escape the confines of the Ghetto, went to Israel – to build himself a larger one.
GulfCoast– I don’t think they have an endgame. They just hope that the Palestinians will someday magically disappear into thin air.
Of course, they haven’t thought this through. What would become of their holocaust theology if Palestinians were not there to remind them of their victimhood ever day? Could Zionism survive the disappearance of Palestinians?
GCP
I think they believe they can play this game forever. pl
CP said, “The absurdity here is that Jabotinsky, to escape the confines of the Ghetto, went to Israel – to build himself a larger one”. My two cents is maybe the Ghetto was always “self constructed” on a foundation of “Goy hatred” rather than…-cue violins.
Islamic Tradition holds that one mosque at the Temple Mont is the site of the Prophets ascension to Heaven during his Night Journey and the other the site of a prayer assembly of all the prophets lead by the Prophet during the same Night Journey.
I know that people and leaders in US and EU do not care one whit about this and will continue do what they have been doing for this semi-religion of Shoah.
But the Muslim belief and sentiment regarding those two mosques will never go away and Arabs or Palestinians or Jordanians cannot sign those sites away.
Now, as I established before, EU does not care about Arabs, their predicaments or their sentiments.
But I would suggest that EU may wish to reconsider a position that puts the European states at odds with hundreds of millions of other people on this planet.
The world is not inhabited solely by European and East Asian atheists acting like economic animals who are waiting for the next gadget to come out of the sorcerer’s shops.
And I think they can; they have US in their back-pocket (as it were) and they can always get something out of EU.
Col: Why not?
See http://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/framework-according-friedman.html
I love how the the framework will ask Palestinians refugees to give up the right to return, but Jewish immigrants/refugees from Arab countries would be “compensated.”
Our AIPAC-riddled “good-faith” broker team never misses an opportunity to drop a wet sh*t on the weaker party.
Col Lang
I see Secretary of State Kerry’s remark as evidence of the Likud /AIPAC ‘s erosion of its power over our Comity . I may wish to be unnecessarily optimistic about a shift in our stance on being the enforcer of Israeli will over Palestine . We shall see. (I wonder if an Israeli Botha will ever emerge ? ).
Yes indeed Israel could face international isolation if negotiations fail, except that the US won’t be part of any boycott, thanks to Congress. That’s what is “unfair” and “intolerable.”
Finklestein: “There ain’t no business like shoah business.”
The Israeli Politburo in action:
“N.Y. Senate passes bill penalizing schools for boycotting Israel”: http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/1.571667?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.216%2C2.217%2C
Senator Jeffrey Klein needs some education on ethics and International Law:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.571849
I have always thought that the whole thing could end quite quickly if all Palestinians (Christians, Muslims, etc.) under occupation would simply put a Star of David armband on and start going about their daily business.
(Alerting the news sources first, of course.) I don’t think Israel could handle the pressure or the visuals at all well.
Peaceful, in-your-face civil protest with cameras.
Colonel
Heard this on a French station whilst I was driving home. Just did a search on-line:
Kerry threatened Abu Mazem:
“Palestinian media reports Kerry told PA president that he would meet the same fate as former president Arafat if he did not accept US peace proposals”
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Fatah-wants-Kerry-prosecuted-before-ICC-for-threatening-Abbas-340127
Guess Obama’s deadline for an April deal must weigh hard on the “diplomat” shoulders.
Makes one wonder about his dealings with Morsi when , together with his hedge fund friend, he tried to pressure Morsi to accept IMF funding
Matthew,
And anyone around the world, even those who don’t even have ancestors in Palestine, who can prove that he has some Jewish blood in his vein can make Aliyah and become an Israeli.
confusedponderer
One addendum:
Vladimir Jabotinsky died in New York before Israel was created. However, he had a young and aspiring secretary who worked hard to make Jabotinsky’s vision come true: Benzion Netanyahu, the father of Bibi Netanyahu.
Col. Lang,
I think so, too, and Uri Avnery, an Israeli who has worked for peace with the Palestinians since the nineteen-sixties, has pointed out that this belief is at least partly rooted in the history of Zionism and the state of Israel.
As Avnery said in the book he wrote just after the 1967 war, every one of its successive partnerships with great powers (imperial Germany, imperial Britain, the USSR, France and the U.S.) has left Israel stronger whereas its partners have mostly ended up weaker, for various reasons. The U.S. is the obvious exception. The USSR is perhaps a partial exception as it was quite strong for another couple of decades after Stalin’s nursing of the new-born state of Israel.
Anyway, Israel’s ability to leverage its own power through partnerships with great powers has been remarkable. Another amazing feature is how it has managed to maintain its unique relationship with the U.S. since 1967 in spite of the deep changes that have occurred in the U.S. (politically and demographically), in Israel (ditto and ditto) and in its Arab neighbours.
“I don’t think they have an endgame”
To the likes of Bibi, kicking the can down the road while improving their own position – be it by creating ‘facts on the ground’ or by expanding their already existing military superiority, is proven strategy.
In fact, to them it is probably tantamount to a policy, just like Iran’s theoretical capability to build a nuke based on their existing know how is tantamount to them having already build and tested one.
That’s an awesome idea!
John,
IMHO, this “holocaust mentality” & “Wailing Wall self-pity” may be what’s preventing Jewish hoi polloi from being able to live with the rest of the world.
They are unable to look forward to a Future that truly benefits them.
Guess these age-old antagonisms/hatreds & settling of scores may be what prevents the whole cursed region from enjoying “Peace”…
JohnH – I don’t see how Zionism survives no matter what happens to the Palestinians. At some point the rest of the world is going to pull the plug on their nonsense.
Babak Makkinejad – so when are the rest of the Arabs going to do something to help the Palestinians? The Jordanians, for one, are getting paid off by the US. Won’t they end up doing what they are told?
Colonel,
Thanks. That’s what I was afraid you were going to say.
And now this rage of the establishment that affects the freedom of speech at the very heart of western civilization:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-move-to-muzzle-dieudonne-mbala-mbala-the-bete-noire-of-the-french-establishment/5366249
The Israeli-firsters are lunatics that would tear apart, with tribal viciousness, the invaluable principles that support western democracies. So sad, so tragic. Truly, “There ain’t no business like shoah business.”
“East Asian atheists”
Nice one, Monsieur…
Babak Makkinejad:
I have long wondered when the Israeli religious nationalists will copy the BJP’s demolition of the Babri Mosque (Ayodhya) in 1992. Once the mosques are gone how long will Muslim belief and sentiment last…
JohnH — I worry about how far they might go. The lunatic fringe in Israel becomes ever more mainstream and the type of fear they are carrying around could justify almost any overreach.
Anna-Marina,
of course they overdo it, but they are so partisan to be blind to that, or so haughty to be indifferent.
All they want is the power to bludgeon their opponents with the full power of the law where smearing them as antisemites, harassing them with lawsuits or pushing them out doesn’t work or suffice. It is to them just another arrow in the quiver.
Erosion of freedom of speech? Why, not for them! They wouldn’t dream of doing anything so vile as to criticise Israel! They appear to me to be that mindless.
I think the urge to criminalise dissent with Israel betrays a truth about them: They don’t just have a different opinion than the BDS crowd – they have seen the light, and to them the BDS crownd are criminals. There is only black and white.
I see a point in criminalising hate speech, but criticising Israel over the settlements and calling for a boycott isn’t any different than doing the same with South Africa over Apartheid. Nobody in his right mind would have come up with that being hate speech.
It is clear from that, that to them a different standard applies for all things involving Israel.
Any criticism is beyond the pale, and the only acceptable position is complete deference.
You see that attitude at work when some Israeli pol tells the World that only they, and they alone, understand the Middle East, and that thus, we should defer to their judgement, or when Bibi harangues foreign leaders, again.
I think it also reflects a persistent and delusional sense of perpetual persecution.
There you have the strongest military power in the region – and her partisans in Isreael and abroad speak every day as if the enemy hordes stood at the gates of Jerusalem, ready to push them into the sea.
The result is a violent bellicosity, and an underlying sense of self pity for having to do all these unpleasant things. To them Gaza was a tragedy, because Israeli soldiers had to kill, and, as the legend goes, they wept afterwards.
There is no second thought for whom they killed. That is not the problem, and if one asks the hardcore, they’d probably say it was not enough.
Here’s a thought: Maybe the Izzis are just what they do and not what they tell themselves and everybody else? People are as they do?
No they won’t; would Italy sell the “True Cross” to Muslims – had she have it?
Do you know the total figure of EU aide to Israel: cash, credit, weapons, and other subsidies?
Can you supply a break-down for each country?
And how much of the ostensible aide to Palestinians is really subsidy for Israel as the goods are supplied by Israeli firms?
Confusedponderer,
John Glubb has the best epithet for them, clever and unwise.
GCP: And what should the Arabs do? If you say “make the Palestinians citizens,” then you are asking the surrounding states to reward the Israelis for perpetrating the ethnic cleasning. BTW, the Arab states have done a lot. They permitted Palestinians to live there. Contrast with how Israel treats refugees.
Antoher example: My wife’s Palestinian family were allowed to have Jordanian passports even though they were not Jordanian citizens.
You don’t solve a refugee problem by blaming the people who accept the refugees. You solve it by punishing the ethnic cleansers.
A response to a growing threat to a baseline:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/opinion/friedman-the-third-intifada.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=1
In contrast, here is a pontification of Mr. Klein, a sponsor of the Anti-Israel Boycott Bill: “I will not allow the enemies of Israel or the Jewish people to gain an inch in New York.” What a cynical fool…
http://forward.com/articles/191932/new-york-senate-passes-anti-israel-boycott-bill/
As I said, not a cynic, just a mindless man who holds Israel über alles.
The people promoting a boycott against Israel because of Israeli policies engage in free speech.
Given the fact that even people as offensive as the Phelps family are routinely being tolerated in the US, I have a hard time seeing how the BDS people are so much more offensive that their conduct must be reigned in.
I also fail to see how a call for a boycott of Israel for her policies by her critics is any less protected free speech than the usual exuberant jubilation for everything Israel by the Israel firsters.
So Mr. Klein happens to strongly dislike the content of the BDS crowd’s free speech? So what. Tough luck. But sadly, the man is a legislator.
For folks like Mr. Klein’s, with Israel being sacrosanct, exceptions and adjustments must be made to the civil liberties of those people who do not share his views.
More, they must be punished, silenced.
This particular bill is one of the ‘Defund X’ bills so popular with the US right.
The clear intent is to either destroy the body that did something that he dislikes, or to compel that body to expel the people that he dislikes (i.e. destroy their carers) – or have the body face dire financial straits.
This is not about a difference in opinion but a game of scorch and burn. Kr. Klein and his folk are in for the kill.
“To the likes of Bibi, kicking the can down the road while improving their own position – be it by creating ‘facts on the ground’ or by expanding their already existing military superiority, is proven strategy.”
It’s worked well – they’ve incorporated many areas so deeply into Israel by settlements that they’ll be almost impossible to give up. And the effects on domestic Israeli politics are desired – as far as I can see, this has helped move things to the right.
All
The MSM is reporting that AIPAC is standing down regarding the Iranian nuclear deal . Senator Menedez is pulling the new Iranian sanctions bill he recently introduced. It may be misplaced optimism on my part again – but I really believe we see the contours of the Realist within the administration steering These United States away from R2P/neocon misadventures overseas -particularly with the Persians . We shall see.
A very large gorilla in a room:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/chase-madar/washington%E2%80%99s-military-aid-to-israel-fake-peace-process-real-war-process