Could pariah status spell the end for Zionism?
In Aluf Benn’s analysis, Netanyahu now has “to choose between the ideology he was raised on and which is part of his internal belief system, and the duties of the leader of a small country entirely dependent on international support.”
A short and fairly accurate description of the ideology Netanyahu was raised on is something like this. “The world will always hate Jews. Zionism must therefore do whatever is necessary to build and secure Israel as a refuge of last resort for Jews everywhere. And if that means telling the world to go to hell, so be it.” (That’s actually why David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan and others insisted that Israel should possess nuclear weapons – to have the reinforced ability to tell the world, not just the Arabs, to go to hell if necessary).
At the time of writing Netanyahu is preparing a damage limitation strategy which he will launch shortly with an “historic speech” announcing a new peace initiative. According to the leaks it will propose negotiations to set up a Palestinian state with “provisional (meaning temporary) borders” on about half the West Bank. (Roughly the same as Sharon was prepared to offer). Presumably the other half, including East Jerusalem, will remain stuffed with illegal Jewish settlements which control the West Bank’s main water resources. (Sharon once said the 1967 war was really all about water).
Netanyahu knows that even a quisling Palestinian leadership would not be able to negotiate on that basis, but peace with an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians is not his game. With its verbal re-commitment to a Palestinian state, his new peace plan will be a marketing exercise to assist the Zionist lobby in America and supporters of Israel right or wrong everywhere to rebrand him – to have him perceived as a leader who is misunderstood and even wronged, and who really is committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. It’s by no means impossible that he will make some token withdrawals from the West Bank, in order to provoke a containable clash with settlers, in order for him to be able to say to the world something like, “Look, I really am serious but you must appreciate my difficulties.”
As ever the bonus will be that Netanyahu can blame the Palestinians for the failure of another attempt to get negotiations going. This is, in fact, the oldest trick in Zionism’s book. It was Ben-Gurion who invented it. Offer the Arabs something you know they can’t accept and then blame them when they don’t. (Two days after announcing that he was formulating a new peace initiative, at a press conference after his meeting with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera in Jerusalem, Netanyahu rehearsed his blame the Palestinians intention. He said that it was Israel which was willing to take “many steps to promote peace and make compromises.” He added: “The Palestinians are the ones refusing to take similar steps, instead preferring to take advantage of the international community’s Pavlovian reflex in their favour.”)
It’s possible that a marketing exercise by Netanyahu will buy him and the Zionist colonial enterprise time, but in the longer term it’s unlikely to halt and then reverse the rising tide of anti-Israelism. Beyond the short term it could even be counter-productive (as almost everything Zionism does is) and reinforce the notion of Israel as a pariah state.
What then?
Is it possible that a global perception of them as citizens of a pariah state and the possibility of real sanctions will alarm enough Israeli Jews to the point where they will take to the streets in significant numbers to demand that their leaders be serious about peace on terms virtually all Palestinians and most other Arabs and Muslims everywhere could accept? (Tunisia and Egypt – let’s not say Libya – on the streets of Israel?!)
I don’t pretend to know the answer to this question but for the sake of discussion I think it is worth asking.
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John Smith:
March 7th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
“Is it possible that a global perception of them as citizens of a pariah state and the possibility of real sanctions will alarm enough Israeli Jews to the point….”
I live in Israel, and can assure you that the only thing Israelis are likely to be alarmed enough to do is to create/stage a sufficiently dramatic act of terror/distraction that all ideas of Israeli compromise will once again be shelved. As a people,they are, in a word, intractable. Normal expectations regarding behaviour and responses do not apply, I’m afraid
Fahed:
March 8th, 2011 at 5:36 am
Dearest Alan,
You’ve summed up the whole Israeli strategy so well:
“Offer the Arabs something you know they can’t accept and then blame them when they don’t.”
That strategy seems to pre-date the creation of Israel as a state and continues till today.
truthseeker:
March 8th, 2011 at 5:44 am
This is a brilliant analysis of Bibi’s tactics in response to internatiaonal censure of Israel’s poliices. The US has isolated itself increasingly from the world community and, in the process, removed itself from reality. It continues to display a case of delusion and disorientation, as its skewed political system and mass media ensure that its elected representatives – from the president to congressmen and senators, to state governors and legislators – are held hostage to the zionist lobby. It is unlikely that the US public will challenge their government’s stance or that Isrealis will ‘come out on the streets’ in protest against their state’s anti-Palestinian actions.
Ivan Himmelhoch:
March 8th, 2011 at 7:40 am
In short, yes.
I will respond at some length to this terribly important issue, but need to re-read Hannah Arendt. Also I need to refresh my memory of what de Klerk, the PM of Apartheid South Africa, and especially its foreign Minister, Pik Botha, said, not during the time when Mandela was released, the ANC and SACP un-nbanned (sic) et al, but in the years when they were trying to convince the world, but really I feel themselves, that South Africa was not a pariah state. I see through ‘Hasbarah’ (Jewish israeli Propaganda – self admitted as such by the UIA, JNF etc] a parallel process as to what occurred in South Africa in the final decade or so of Apartheid.
Would be interested what others feel here before I respond further!
Ivan Himmelhoch
Vera Gottlieb:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:05 am
If anti-Semitism (not to be confused with anti-Israelism) is on the rise around the world, Israel – and Israel alone, must blame itself and no one else. Not even a dog is treated the way Israel treats Palestinians. Why must the world always stand by, do nothing, waste time…just waiting for the US to take any action? The US has done enough damage, so why wait for it? We are grown-up people who don’t need someone’s treacherous hand to hold on to. Bravo to Mr. Baruch – for recognizing the writings on the wall and having the courage to say this, which has needed saying for a long time. Hopefully, the right-wing Zionists will have the courage to listen and realize what their odious actions entail.
Mohamed Salem:
March 8th, 2011 at 10:07 am
The youth revolution in the arab street, the departure of Mubarak and the presence of iranian war ship in the Mediterrannee is the biggest reason for the zionnists to panic: I expect a civil war between extremist zionists and the non extremist zionists because the curent defiance of Israel to international community is not sustanaibale.
jolly:
March 8th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
It’s time for Israel to hold out that hand to the Palestinians. If the people of Israel are to know peace the people of palestine must live in dignity in a viable piece of land they can call their own .
Joyce Carmichael:
March 11th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Dear Alan,
What an interesting article with so much encouraging information. Good on Angela Merkel! I think the selling numbers in the Israeli peace camp proves that many Israeli Jews recognise that their country is already a pariah state. Perhaps as hard-core Zionists bow as we all must to old age and death the younger generation will ask more searching questions about Israel’s place in the scheme of things and show that Israel can only survive by bveing more honest and humane. I do live in hope. Joyce
Ivan Himmelhoch:
March 15th, 2011 at 1:10 am
Alan!
What an important issue you raised. And important one.
Whenever someone accuses people who call Israel a ‘Pariah State’ of being ‘anti-semitic’ ‘pro-violence’ or ‘anti’ anything they are now, it is a good idea to have the plethora of quotes from main stream Jewish Israeli Politicians who have expressed direct concern about Israel becoming or being a “Pariah’ State. Yes, the ‘P’ word is indeed used, not implied.
Even Tzipi Livni, then Opposition Leader, was quoted in Haaretz (3 March 2010) as saying in a debate in the Knesset on “Israel under the Leadership of Netanyahu” as saying directly:-
“Since you took control, Israel has become a pariah country in the world.”
Any good browser search – including http://printfu.org for pdf documents – will allow someone to rebuff instantly that the use of the term ‘Pariah’is racist or whatever. Rather it should be seen as a deep caring word for a non-violent wake up to the leaders in Jewish Israel.
But this is not all, You would also be aware Alan of the increasing number of generally pro-Israeli writers in mainstream Newspapers and academic peer reviewed Journals who have also used the ‘P’ word vis a vis Israel’s leaders.
In 2010 Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s work ‘The Unspoken Alliance – Israel’s Secret Reltionship with Apartheid South Africa’ [Pantheon, NY] came out. The writer as many would also know is no blazing radical. He is deservedly a senior editor at ‘Foreign Affairs’ and has an impressive academic background.
What he writes – I have a copy – is vital to be aware of when wishes to factor in the way that Israel saw nothing wrong, for far too long that is, in close cooperation with the Apartheid Pariah State. This nexus is deeply depressing of course – but I mention it here as moving on from what Sasha writes, I feel reading this also provides some insight into Israeli Zionist views on what relevance a ‘Pariah’ name tag has in foreign relations.’
In an area of research into ‘Hasbara’ I am trying to academically collect and assimilate just how many times ‘Pariah’ allegations have been made within the Zionist establishment as well as by outside writers who are non-violent and otherwise sympathetic writers to Israel.
My preliminary conclusion: More and more are using the ‘Pariah’ epithet.
This said, where do your readers feel it will lead? In Apartheid South Africa it became eventually a prickly issue and term. I am still analysing Israeli reaction(s).
And working further on it.
Ivan Himmelhoch
dolores:
March 20th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
I’m afraid I’m with John Smith on this one. Israel will sooner self-destruct than give up an inch. The hardy Perennial Victim Status has still much mileage in it. Dark times ahead. Well, darker. The latest little colonial venture in Lybia only shows what a useless bunch the UN and the EU are and what a sham is the Security Council. Don’t expect them to take a real dissenting stance any time soon.
jjj:
March 21st, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Questions:
1. Don’t the arabs want Israel to go to hell?
Maybe that’s what the nukes are for?
2. If Ahmadinajad had the bomb, wouldn’t he be using it?
3. What is the peace agreement the Palestinians can accept?
From all their demands,
the right of return means no more Israel, so what
is this “peace” agreement?
4. What if Israel cannot accept this agreement?
5. Though I agree the settlements are one of the worst disasters Israel
has ever made, isn’t this just an excuse?
I mean, if Arafat was willing to go all the way – wouldn’t there be
peace right now?
Mohamed Salem:
March 23rd, 2011 at 8:44 am
Comments to JJJ… comments
Don’t forget that Israel creation is a colonial fact following WWII: the palestinians are not part of the Holocaust they don’t have to pay for Hitler terrible acts. If justice was the dominating word today (and we are far from that) the zionists would apologize today for the cration of israel and beg the palestinians to give them less thant 10% of actual Israel land to establish hotels and resorts for tourist jews comming from abroad to visit the holly land.
Put this hangry comment aside and see how the arrogance of zionist extremist has put Israel in the satuation that Apartheid militants put South Africa: the nuks, agressions agains neiboring states, repression against black citizen, western military and political supports but nothing prevented this ugly system to collapse.
Jesse "The Mouth" Zimmerman:
April 3rd, 2011 at 6:01 am
Alan Hart, what do you think of the proposed March on Israel, or Third Intifada? The right-wing blogosphere is trying to portray this as a second Holocaust (BS). What do you think will happen? What are the possible outcomes? What will Israel do if the refugees start marching en masse?
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