Israeli Fascism is alive and kicking
RelatedRights org: Israeli settlers slay Palestinian shepherd
27 September 2008
It Can Happen Here!
By: Uri Avnery
THE GERMAN name Sternhell means bright as the stars. The name fits: the positions of Professor Ze'ev Sternhell indeed stand out sharply against the darkness of the sky. He warns against Israeli fascism. This week, Israeli fascists laid a pipe-bomb at the entrance of his apartment and he was lightly injured.
The choice of victim seems surprising at first. But the perpetrators knew what they were doing.
They did not attack the activists who demonstrate every week against the Separation Wall in Bil'in and Na'alin. They did not attack the leftists who mobilize every year - this year, too - to help the Palestinians pick their olives near the most dangerous settlements. They did not attack the "Women in Black" who demonstrate every Friday, or the women of "Machsom Watch", who keep an eye on events at the army checkpoints. They attacked a person whose entire activity is in the academic field.
The struggles on the ground are essential. But their main purpose is to influence public opinion. That is the main battlefield, and there the man of letters has an important part to play.
--MORE--
Comment
By Paul de Rooij
Uri Avnery's insight into Israeli society is usually worth reading, but sometimes he produces less than useful commentary. For example:
The fanatical settlers know that they have lost the support of public opinion in Israel, and that ordinary people consider them dangerous thugs. Their actions, as seen on television, arouse distaste, even abhorrence. The vision of "All of Eretz-Israel" has not only lost altitude - it has crashed on the ground of reality. The Zealots are acting out of weakness and frustration.
Israel is a colonial project - all of it - and Avnery is suggesting that the cat is changing its stripes. First, it is silly to suggest that the government is reducing its support for the settlers or is thinking of removing them. On the contrary, the settlement project continues with full government support. So much for the "weakness and frustration" of the zealots. This is not a realistic interpretation.
Avnery's interpretation of the wall is mistaken too, see:
The discussion about the borders is still going on, but the majority sees the Separation Wall as the future border. (As we made clear right from the beginning, the wall was not really being constructed in order to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers, as was claimed, but as a future border between the two states.)
One only has to listen to the architect of the wall (Gen. Ilan Paz), the intellectual "father of the wall" (Soffer) or the one determining its route (Tirza) to know that the wall is a temporary tool. The wall was built to suck out the oxygen from the Palestinian society, to fragment it, and to impose draconian military rule. The purpose of the wall is to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians and then to remove the wall. The Israeli leaders don't think in terms of "two states"; for the Palestinians they have Bantustans or reservations in mind. In other words, the settlers are religious fascists, and the current Israeli establishment are politico-military fascists.
27 September 2008
It Can Happen Here!
By: Uri Avnery
THE GERMAN name Sternhell means bright as the stars. The name fits: the positions of Professor Ze'ev Sternhell indeed stand out sharply against the darkness of the sky. He warns against Israeli fascism. This week, Israeli fascists laid a pipe-bomb at the entrance of his apartment and he was lightly injured.
The choice of victim seems surprising at first. But the perpetrators knew what they were doing.
They did not attack the activists who demonstrate every week against the Separation Wall in Bil'in and Na'alin. They did not attack the leftists who mobilize every year - this year, too - to help the Palestinians pick their olives near the most dangerous settlements. They did not attack the "Women in Black" who demonstrate every Friday, or the women of "Machsom Watch", who keep an eye on events at the army checkpoints. They attacked a person whose entire activity is in the academic field.
The struggles on the ground are essential. But their main purpose is to influence public opinion. That is the main battlefield, and there the man of letters has an important part to play.
--MORE--
Comment
By Paul de Rooij
Uri Avnery's insight into Israeli society is usually worth reading, but sometimes he produces less than useful commentary. For example:
The fanatical settlers know that they have lost the support of public opinion in Israel, and that ordinary people consider them dangerous thugs. Their actions, as seen on television, arouse distaste, even abhorrence. The vision of "All of Eretz-Israel" has not only lost altitude - it has crashed on the ground of reality. The Zealots are acting out of weakness and frustration.
Israel is a colonial project - all of it - and Avnery is suggesting that the cat is changing its stripes. First, it is silly to suggest that the government is reducing its support for the settlers or is thinking of removing them. On the contrary, the settlement project continues with full government support. So much for the "weakness and frustration" of the zealots. This is not a realistic interpretation.
Avnery's interpretation of the wall is mistaken too, see:
The discussion about the borders is still going on, but the majority sees the Separation Wall as the future border. (As we made clear right from the beginning, the wall was not really being constructed in order to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers, as was claimed, but as a future border between the two states.)
One only has to listen to the architect of the wall (Gen. Ilan Paz), the intellectual "father of the wall" (Soffer) or the one determining its route (Tirza) to know that the wall is a temporary tool. The wall was built to suck out the oxygen from the Palestinian society, to fragment it, and to impose draconian military rule. The purpose of the wall is to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians and then to remove the wall. The Israeli leaders don't think in terms of "two states"; for the Palestinians they have Bantustans or reservations in mind. In other words, the settlers are religious fascists, and the current Israeli establishment are politico-military fascists.