25 feb 2018
by Khalid Amayreh
Zeev Sternhell is a Polish-born Israeli historian, political scientist, commentator on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and writer. He is one of the world's leading experts on fascism. Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Last week, he convincingly argued in an article published in Le Monde that Israel today resembled to a large extent the early years of Nazi Germany.
The mostly jingoistic Israeli media ganged up on the man, accusing him of crossing all red lines. One Ynet commentator called Sternhell “an auto anti-Semite”. Others called him a self-hating Jew.
In his article, Sternhell argued that non-Jews in Israel, especially Arabs, feel they are living under a monster, given the racist laws continually promulgated in order to promote and enforce “the Jewishness” of Israel and also make non-Jews, especially Arabs, feel they are unwanted.
Israel’s Arab citizens constitute more than 20% of Israel’s population, and Israeli leaders, such as the current Minister of Defense, Avigdor Lieberman, have repeatedly called for expelling them to a would- be Palestinian state. Arabs in Israel and the occupied territories are not immigrants. They are the original inhabitants of the country. Hence comparing them with Arab expatriates living in Europe, who are recent immigrants, is outrageous to say the very least.
Critics of Sternhell’s treatise argued that it was grossly unfair to compare Israel with Nazi Germany. They regurgitated the usual hasbara items invoked by Zionist circles to deceive ordinary people who probably have no time to dig further for the truth. They pointed out that Israel’s Palestinians were full (not equal) Israeli citizens, that Arab students were studying at Israeli universities by the thousands and that many Arab doctors were working at Israeli hospitals. In short, the usual arguments intended to give a rosy outlook and hide the hard core-shell of Israeli racism and fascism. Interestingly, Sternhell critics carefully avoided any mention or allusion to some 5.5 million Palestinians languishing under a harsh military occupation in the West Bank and a draconian siege in the Gaza Strip, as if these thoroughly tormented people were a legitimate target for racism, occupation, repression and constant persecution.
To be sure, no one accuses Israel of sending Palestinians to concentration camps, although some rabbis like the rabbi of Safad had called for sending the Arabs to the ovens see my article: the Rabbi of the Devil.
However, Nazi Germany was about much more than just concentration camps, which appeared at the final stages of the Third Reich.
Indeed, Auschwitz, Mauthauzen Bergen Belsen, Dachau and Treblinka were the ultimate outcome of Nazism, not its modus operandi.
Nazism’s core modus operandi was the lethal, insidious and venomous racism against Jews and others which eventually produced the death camps.
Now, let us ask ourselves the following question: Doesn’t Israel has such a modus operandi?
I don’t write about the brutal treatment meted out to the Palestinians by Israel from a distant country so that I could be accused of being misinformed. I actually live this unrelenting agony 24 hours a day. I am in the heart of the fray. This is why I can accuse Israel of using the dishonest lawyer’s tactics to obfuscate the truth and create an alternative virtual truth based on lies and fabrications.
It is true that Israel allows Arab students to study at its universities and Arab doctors to serve at its hospitals. But it is also true that Israel has a systematic and institutionalized policy of insidious discrimination against Arabs in Israel, in addition to the manifestly brutal repression meted out to the Palestinians in the occupied territories. Needless to say, narrowing the Arab’s horizons for the purpose of prompting to immigrate has always been and continues to be Israel’s de facto policy toward the Palestinians.
Israel routinely demolishes Arab homes for a variety of reasons that are mostly disingenuous.
In the West Bank, the Israeli occupation army routinely (nearly on a daily basis) deploys bulldozers throughout the West Bank to demolish the family homes of Palestinians convicted of killing Israeli occupation soldiers or paramilitary Jewish settlers. Have you ever heard of Israel demolishing the home of a Jewish terrorist even if he committed the most hideous crime under the sun!
In Jerusalem, Israel demolished thousands of Arab homes under the pretext that these houses had been built without a valid building license. Just ask an East Jerusalemite and him or she would at yell you that obtaining a building license for Arabs is an extremely hard task, even next to impossible.
On 25 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish doctor who had emigrated from New York, Murdered 29 innocent Palestinian worshipers and seriously injured many others. His home was never demolished and his family continued until today to receive financial benefits from the Israeli state!
A few months ago, a group of Jewish hooligans, including adults, ganged up on an African refugee in Petah Tikva, beating him to death! This week, the Israeli media reported that the court reached a plea bargain with the defendants which would enable them to serve only a short period in jail.
Now, wouldn’t Jewish circles vociferously protest, and rightly so, if a court anywhere in the world treated the murderer of a Jew similarly leniently?
In fact, I myself continue to have unresolved grievances against Israel. On 27 Feb., 1953 (4 years before I was born), Israeli troops murdered my three paternal uncles: Hussein, Mahmoud and Yousuf. They were totally innocent shepherds who harmed no one. Until today, I have not received an acknowledgment of responsibility from Israel, a country that continues to berate Poland for restitution and indemnification for lost Jewish property going back to WWII.
You see, all these stories and events have one thing in common. It is the racist Zionist Jewish view of non-Jews as goys, children of a lesser God, and untermenschen! Was not this the defining feature of Nazism? Isn’t this the defining feature of Israel?
It is this affronting and highly revolting racism that Zeev Sternhell had in mind when he compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
Finally, I would like to ask the guardians of the Golem: what is so un-Nazi about occupying a country and tormenting, savaging and brutalizing its people for over 50 years in order to compel them to immigrate? Or does Israel think that its 50-year occupation of more than 5 million Palestinians is an act of charity rather than an act of rape?
- Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist and political analyst living in Occupied Palestine
Zeev Sternhell is a Polish-born Israeli historian, political scientist, commentator on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and writer. He is one of the world's leading experts on fascism. Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Last week, he convincingly argued in an article published in Le Monde that Israel today resembled to a large extent the early years of Nazi Germany.
The mostly jingoistic Israeli media ganged up on the man, accusing him of crossing all red lines. One Ynet commentator called Sternhell “an auto anti-Semite”. Others called him a self-hating Jew.
In his article, Sternhell argued that non-Jews in Israel, especially Arabs, feel they are living under a monster, given the racist laws continually promulgated in order to promote and enforce “the Jewishness” of Israel and also make non-Jews, especially Arabs, feel they are unwanted.
Israel’s Arab citizens constitute more than 20% of Israel’s population, and Israeli leaders, such as the current Minister of Defense, Avigdor Lieberman, have repeatedly called for expelling them to a would- be Palestinian state. Arabs in Israel and the occupied territories are not immigrants. They are the original inhabitants of the country. Hence comparing them with Arab expatriates living in Europe, who are recent immigrants, is outrageous to say the very least.
Critics of Sternhell’s treatise argued that it was grossly unfair to compare Israel with Nazi Germany. They regurgitated the usual hasbara items invoked by Zionist circles to deceive ordinary people who probably have no time to dig further for the truth. They pointed out that Israel’s Palestinians were full (not equal) Israeli citizens, that Arab students were studying at Israeli universities by the thousands and that many Arab doctors were working at Israeli hospitals. In short, the usual arguments intended to give a rosy outlook and hide the hard core-shell of Israeli racism and fascism. Interestingly, Sternhell critics carefully avoided any mention or allusion to some 5.5 million Palestinians languishing under a harsh military occupation in the West Bank and a draconian siege in the Gaza Strip, as if these thoroughly tormented people were a legitimate target for racism, occupation, repression and constant persecution.
To be sure, no one accuses Israel of sending Palestinians to concentration camps, although some rabbis like the rabbi of Safad had called for sending the Arabs to the ovens see my article: the Rabbi of the Devil.
However, Nazi Germany was about much more than just concentration camps, which appeared at the final stages of the Third Reich.
Indeed, Auschwitz, Mauthauzen Bergen Belsen, Dachau and Treblinka were the ultimate outcome of Nazism, not its modus operandi.
Nazism’s core modus operandi was the lethal, insidious and venomous racism against Jews and others which eventually produced the death camps.
Now, let us ask ourselves the following question: Doesn’t Israel has such a modus operandi?
I don’t write about the brutal treatment meted out to the Palestinians by Israel from a distant country so that I could be accused of being misinformed. I actually live this unrelenting agony 24 hours a day. I am in the heart of the fray. This is why I can accuse Israel of using the dishonest lawyer’s tactics to obfuscate the truth and create an alternative virtual truth based on lies and fabrications.
It is true that Israel allows Arab students to study at its universities and Arab doctors to serve at its hospitals. But it is also true that Israel has a systematic and institutionalized policy of insidious discrimination against Arabs in Israel, in addition to the manifestly brutal repression meted out to the Palestinians in the occupied territories. Needless to say, narrowing the Arab’s horizons for the purpose of prompting to immigrate has always been and continues to be Israel’s de facto policy toward the Palestinians.
Israel routinely demolishes Arab homes for a variety of reasons that are mostly disingenuous.
In the West Bank, the Israeli occupation army routinely (nearly on a daily basis) deploys bulldozers throughout the West Bank to demolish the family homes of Palestinians convicted of killing Israeli occupation soldiers or paramilitary Jewish settlers. Have you ever heard of Israel demolishing the home of a Jewish terrorist even if he committed the most hideous crime under the sun!
In Jerusalem, Israel demolished thousands of Arab homes under the pretext that these houses had been built without a valid building license. Just ask an East Jerusalemite and him or she would at yell you that obtaining a building license for Arabs is an extremely hard task, even next to impossible.
On 25 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish doctor who had emigrated from New York, Murdered 29 innocent Palestinian worshipers and seriously injured many others. His home was never demolished and his family continued until today to receive financial benefits from the Israeli state!
A few months ago, a group of Jewish hooligans, including adults, ganged up on an African refugee in Petah Tikva, beating him to death! This week, the Israeli media reported that the court reached a plea bargain with the defendants which would enable them to serve only a short period in jail.
Now, wouldn’t Jewish circles vociferously protest, and rightly so, if a court anywhere in the world treated the murderer of a Jew similarly leniently?
In fact, I myself continue to have unresolved grievances against Israel. On 27 Feb., 1953 (4 years before I was born), Israeli troops murdered my three paternal uncles: Hussein, Mahmoud and Yousuf. They were totally innocent shepherds who harmed no one. Until today, I have not received an acknowledgment of responsibility from Israel, a country that continues to berate Poland for restitution and indemnification for lost Jewish property going back to WWII.
You see, all these stories and events have one thing in common. It is the racist Zionist Jewish view of non-Jews as goys, children of a lesser God, and untermenschen! Was not this the defining feature of Nazism? Isn’t this the defining feature of Israel?
It is this affronting and highly revolting racism that Zeev Sternhell had in mind when he compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
Finally, I would like to ask the guardians of the Golem: what is so un-Nazi about occupying a country and tormenting, savaging and brutalizing its people for over 50 years in order to compel them to immigrate? Or does Israel think that its 50-year occupation of more than 5 million Palestinians is an act of charity rather than an act of rape?
- Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist and political analyst living in Occupied Palestine
23 feb 2018
Israel's military said Thursday that it has begun deploying forces across the country as part of the preparations for a large-scale joint exercise with the U.S. military next month.
According to Israeli news outlets, the military exercise, code-named "Juniper Cobra 2018," will take place from March 4 to 15, with the participation of 2,500 U.S. troops routinely based in Europe and 2,000 Israeli army troops, logistics units, medical forces and other military units.
"This will be the largest Israeli military and USEUCOM (U.S. European Command) joint exercise taking place this year," an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement.
"The aims of the exercise are to strengthen the cooperation and coordination between the two militaries, promote bilateral learning and enhance aerial defense capabilities," the statement said.
The drill would simulate a scenario in which U.S. forces are deployed to Israel to aid the Israeli occupation forces.
"Together they will perform computerized simulations of a variety of rocket threat scenarios in different regions," said the spokesperson.
The simulations will include testing of the anti-ballistic missile system Arrow, Iron Dome anti-rocket system, the medium-range interceptor Patriot missile system, and David's Sling, which was allegedly designed to intercept medium-range missile from southern Lebanon's Hezbollah militants and became operational in April 2017.
"The exercise demonstrates the strategic and fundamental cooperation between the Israeli army and the U.S. Armed Forces," Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich, the commander of the Aerial Array, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark, the commander of U.S. Air Force Third Air Force, also praised the strong military alliance between Israel and the United States.
"The U.S. and Israel enjoy a strong and enduring military-to-military partnership built on trust that has been developed over decades of cooperation," Clark said.
"The Juniper Cobra exercises continue to strengthen this relationship, providing us with the opportunity to bolster interoperability and develop seamless integration with our Israeli partners," he said.
It will be the ninth time the Juniper Cobra exercise has taken place with Israel since 2001.
According to Israeli news outlets, the military exercise, code-named "Juniper Cobra 2018," will take place from March 4 to 15, with the participation of 2,500 U.S. troops routinely based in Europe and 2,000 Israeli army troops, logistics units, medical forces and other military units.
"This will be the largest Israeli military and USEUCOM (U.S. European Command) joint exercise taking place this year," an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement.
"The aims of the exercise are to strengthen the cooperation and coordination between the two militaries, promote bilateral learning and enhance aerial defense capabilities," the statement said.
The drill would simulate a scenario in which U.S. forces are deployed to Israel to aid the Israeli occupation forces.
"Together they will perform computerized simulations of a variety of rocket threat scenarios in different regions," said the spokesperson.
The simulations will include testing of the anti-ballistic missile system Arrow, Iron Dome anti-rocket system, the medium-range interceptor Patriot missile system, and David's Sling, which was allegedly designed to intercept medium-range missile from southern Lebanon's Hezbollah militants and became operational in April 2017.
"The exercise demonstrates the strategic and fundamental cooperation between the Israeli army and the U.S. Armed Forces," Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich, the commander of the Aerial Array, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark, the commander of U.S. Air Force Third Air Force, also praised the strong military alliance between Israel and the United States.
"The U.S. and Israel enjoy a strong and enduring military-to-military partnership built on trust that has been developed over decades of cooperation," Clark said.
"The Juniper Cobra exercises continue to strengthen this relationship, providing us with the opportunity to bolster interoperability and develop seamless integration with our Israeli partners," he said.
It will be the ninth time the Juniper Cobra exercise has taken place with Israel since 2001.
20 feb 2018
The South African government is intending to cut diplomatic ties with Israel in protest of its treatment of the Palestinian people, the country’s Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor announced yesterday, the Middle East Monitor reported on Tuesday.
Pandor informed parliamentarians of the government’s resolution during a ten-hour joint debate on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) that he delivered last week.
“The majority party has agreed, that government must cut diplomatic ties with Israel, given the absence of genuine initiatives by Israel to secure lasting peace and a viable two-state solution that includes full freedom and democracy for the Palestinian people,” she said.
The comments were made in response to opposition leader Kenneth Meshoe, who had argued that it was disappointing that national and provincial authorities in South Africa had refused help from Israeli companies to address the country’s current water crisis.
However, the proposal was applauded by parliamentarians and Pandor, who is expected to be appointed vice president in Ramaphosa’s new Cabinet, was given a standing ovation as she left the podium.
South Africa has been a staunch ally of the Palestinian struggle and regularly spoken out against the atrocities committed by the Israeli government.
Last month, the South African representative to the UN told the Human Rights Council that Israel is the “only state in the world that can be described as an apartheid state”, just days after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party called for government ministers to strengthen the country’s visa restrictions with Israel.
Last year, the government also resolved to downgrade the South African Embassy in Israel to a liaison office, and cautioned Tel Aviv for blacklisting supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which included prominent figures of the ANC.
The BDS South Africa campaign has witnessed significant support from the nation’s public, with universities and churches backing a cultural and economic boycott of Israel affiliated organisations.
Pandor informed parliamentarians of the government’s resolution during a ten-hour joint debate on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) that he delivered last week.
“The majority party has agreed, that government must cut diplomatic ties with Israel, given the absence of genuine initiatives by Israel to secure lasting peace and a viable two-state solution that includes full freedom and democracy for the Palestinian people,” she said.
The comments were made in response to opposition leader Kenneth Meshoe, who had argued that it was disappointing that national and provincial authorities in South Africa had refused help from Israeli companies to address the country’s current water crisis.
However, the proposal was applauded by parliamentarians and Pandor, who is expected to be appointed vice president in Ramaphosa’s new Cabinet, was given a standing ovation as she left the podium.
South Africa has been a staunch ally of the Palestinian struggle and regularly spoken out against the atrocities committed by the Israeli government.
Last month, the South African representative to the UN told the Human Rights Council that Israel is the “only state in the world that can be described as an apartheid state”, just days after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party called for government ministers to strengthen the country’s visa restrictions with Israel.
Last year, the government also resolved to downgrade the South African Embassy in Israel to a liaison office, and cautioned Tel Aviv for blacklisting supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which included prominent figures of the ANC.
The BDS South Africa campaign has witnessed significant support from the nation’s public, with universities and churches backing a cultural and economic boycott of Israel affiliated organisations.
18 feb 2018
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday lashed out at remarks by his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki, who said the Holocaust had involved Jewish perpetrators.
Netanyahu, who like Morawiecki was in Munich for a global security conference, in a statement claimed the latter’s remarks stem from "an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people".
"The Polish Prime Minister's remarks here in Munich are outrageous," he said, adding that he intended to speak to Morawiecki "forthwith" about the matter.
Appearing at the Munich Security Conference, Morawiecki was questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbors were planning to denounce them.
The journalist, Ronen Bergman, asked if by recounting this, "I am a criminal in your country?"
Morawiecki responded: "It's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."
He reiterated that the point of the law was to defend Poland's honor by making clear that people knew "there were no Polish death camps... There were German Nazi death camps."
"But we cannot agree with mixing perpetrators with victims, because it would be first of all an offence to all the Jews and all the Poles who suffered greatly during the Second World War."
Morawiecki's remarks about the Holocaust's perpetrators came amid an unprecedented diplomatic row with Israel sparked by a law passed by Poland's senate this month.
The law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".
Netanyahu, who like Morawiecki was in Munich for a global security conference, in a statement claimed the latter’s remarks stem from "an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people".
"The Polish Prime Minister's remarks here in Munich are outrageous," he said, adding that he intended to speak to Morawiecki "forthwith" about the matter.
Appearing at the Munich Security Conference, Morawiecki was questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbors were planning to denounce them.
The journalist, Ronen Bergman, asked if by recounting this, "I am a criminal in your country?"
Morawiecki responded: "It's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."
He reiterated that the point of the law was to defend Poland's honor by making clear that people knew "there were no Polish death camps... There were German Nazi death camps."
"But we cannot agree with mixing perpetrators with victims, because it would be first of all an offence to all the Jews and all the Poles who suffered greatly during the Second World War."
Morawiecki's remarks about the Holocaust's perpetrators came amid an unprecedented diplomatic row with Israel sparked by a law passed by Poland's senate this month.
The law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".
15 feb 2018
Israel must safeguard Jewish majority even at the expense of human rights, the country’s justice minister Ayelet Shaked has said.
On Monday, Shaked proposed this in a speech defending a bill that would legally define Israel as the “national home of the Jewish people” for the first time, according to Days of Palestine.
Shaked said that Israel must maintain both a Jewish majority and democracy, but stressed that keeping the state’s Jewish character may come “at the price” of human rights violations.
“There is place to maintain a Jewish majority even at the price of violation of rights,” Shaked told a conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, Israeli media reported.
In her speech, Shaked, a member of the far-right Jewish Home party, defended the so-called Jewish Nation-State Bill, which would constitutionally define Israel as the national home of the Jewish people for the first time.
“There are places where the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish state must be maintained, and this sometimes comes at the expense of equality,” Shaked said, as reported by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
Shaked said that Israel must administer equal civil, but not national, rights.
“Israel is a Jewish state. It isn’t a state of all its nations. That is, equal rights to all citizens but not equal national rights,” she said.
‘Highly dangerous’
The contentious Nation-State Bill, which still needs to be approved by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a preliminary reading last May. It is expected to be brought to a first reading later this year.
The bill states that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people”.
It also demotes Arabic from an official language to a language with “special status”, even though it is the mother tongue of approximately 1.7 million Palestinian citizens of the state.
Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinian citizens of Israel, said [PDF] that, because the bill would become a Basic Law in Israel, i.e. constitutionally binding, “its enactment could be used to justify through law widespread discrimination” against Israel’s non-Jewish citizens.
For that reason, it is “highly dangerous”, the group said.
The bill would also force all citizens of the state, regardless of their religion, to comply with Jewish civil law, often without legal precedent, explained [PDF] Mossawa, an advocacy centre for Palestinian citizens of Israel, in a position paper.
The legislation “clearly denigrates the non-Jewish, Palestinian Arab minority to the status of second-class citizens”, Mossawa concluded.
On Monday, Shaked proposed this in a speech defending a bill that would legally define Israel as the “national home of the Jewish people” for the first time, according to Days of Palestine.
Shaked said that Israel must maintain both a Jewish majority and democracy, but stressed that keeping the state’s Jewish character may come “at the price” of human rights violations.
“There is place to maintain a Jewish majority even at the price of violation of rights,” Shaked told a conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, Israeli media reported.
In her speech, Shaked, a member of the far-right Jewish Home party, defended the so-called Jewish Nation-State Bill, which would constitutionally define Israel as the national home of the Jewish people for the first time.
“There are places where the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish state must be maintained, and this sometimes comes at the expense of equality,” Shaked said, as reported by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
Shaked said that Israel must administer equal civil, but not national, rights.
“Israel is a Jewish state. It isn’t a state of all its nations. That is, equal rights to all citizens but not equal national rights,” she said.
‘Highly dangerous’
The contentious Nation-State Bill, which still needs to be approved by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a preliminary reading last May. It is expected to be brought to a first reading later this year.
The bill states that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people”.
It also demotes Arabic from an official language to a language with “special status”, even though it is the mother tongue of approximately 1.7 million Palestinian citizens of the state.
Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinian citizens of Israel, said [PDF] that, because the bill would become a Basic Law in Israel, i.e. constitutionally binding, “its enactment could be used to justify through law widespread discrimination” against Israel’s non-Jewish citizens.
For that reason, it is “highly dangerous”, the group said.
The bill would also force all citizens of the state, regardless of their religion, to comply with Jewish civil law, often without legal precedent, explained [PDF] Mossawa, an advocacy centre for Palestinian citizens of Israel, in a position paper.
The legislation “clearly denigrates the non-Jewish, Palestinian Arab minority to the status of second-class citizens”, Mossawa concluded.
14 feb 2018
Seven Israeli soldiers were injured on Wednesday afternoon after driving over a landmine in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, Walla website reported.
The Israeli army banned the publication of any further details on the incident.
The army later said in a statement that the soldiers were on a mission to do some repairs in a minefield near Jericho when their jeep struck a landmine.
The statement noted that the soldiers, who were slightly injured, were transferred to nearby hospitals to receive treatment and that an investigation was opened into the incident.
The Israeli army banned the publication of any further details on the incident.
The army later said in a statement that the soldiers were on a mission to do some repairs in a minefield near Jericho when their jeep struck a landmine.
The statement noted that the soldiers, who were slightly injured, were transferred to nearby hospitals to receive treatment and that an investigation was opened into the incident.
6 feb 2018
Following an Israeli outcry over a bill criminalizing any references to Poland's involvement in the alleged Holocaust, the Polish undersecretary for tourism announced a delegation of top tourism officials headed by him would not be participating in the tourism market expo in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
The Polish tourism minister canceled his planned participation in the touristic event due to a crisis in his country’s relations with Israel following a bill over the Nazi concentration camps in occupied Poland during World War II.
The Polish officials were slated to arrive in Israel to promote touristic links between the countries and to increase Israeli tourism to Poland, but the visit was aborted, according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
The Polish senate approved the Jewish detention camp bill last Thursday, according to which any statements attributing culpability to Poland and its citizens for crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany will be considered a criminal offense.
The legislation has been referred to Polish president Andrzej Duda to sign it into law.
The Polish tourism minister canceled his planned participation in the touristic event due to a crisis in his country’s relations with Israel following a bill over the Nazi concentration camps in occupied Poland during World War II.
The Polish officials were slated to arrive in Israel to promote touristic links between the countries and to increase Israeli tourism to Poland, but the visit was aborted, according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
The Polish senate approved the Jewish detention camp bill last Thursday, according to which any statements attributing culpability to Poland and its citizens for crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany will be considered a criminal offense.
The legislation has been referred to Polish president Andrzej Duda to sign it into law.
5 feb 2018
The Israeli security and military authorities are preparing for the possibility of a powerful earthquake that would cause mass casualties and extensive damage to infrastructure and property, according to Haaretz newspaper.
Among options the authorities are examining is the building of a number of temporary residential compounds in various areas of the country that could hold more than one million evacuees for up to three years. These compounds would include community services, like emergency clinics and temporary schools.
Israel’s war ministry recently requested information from suppliers on the feasibility of operating a wide-ranging absorption scheme for coping with an earthquake, which indicates the scenarios the ministry is planning for.
The ministry has asked for information on residential compounds that can be erected within one to three months. The compounds must include infrastructure including access roads, electricity, water, sewerage and firefighting services. The ministry is considering a series of such compounds that, if needed, could provide housing for 230,000 families.
The ministry is also preparing for the possibility of a large number of evacuees needing medical care after an earthquake. The ministry also asked suppliers for information on erecting 200 prefabricated clinics that could serve 150,000 people.
The ministry is also seeking information on erecting 200 additional structures to serve as police stations, offices of government ministries and community centers that would also serve 150,000 people.
The ministry believes that in the event of a devastating earthquake that has consequences that could last years, there will be a need to build schools and preschools to be used for up to three years.
Last June, the home front command conducted an exercise on responding to an earthquake, which simulated the security establishment’s perception of the possible damage that could be caused in such an event. The exercise posited an earthquake of 7.1 on the Richter scale that caused thousands of deaths and the evacuation of 150,000 people.
Among options the authorities are examining is the building of a number of temporary residential compounds in various areas of the country that could hold more than one million evacuees for up to three years. These compounds would include community services, like emergency clinics and temporary schools.
Israel’s war ministry recently requested information from suppliers on the feasibility of operating a wide-ranging absorption scheme for coping with an earthquake, which indicates the scenarios the ministry is planning for.
The ministry has asked for information on residential compounds that can be erected within one to three months. The compounds must include infrastructure including access roads, electricity, water, sewerage and firefighting services. The ministry is considering a series of such compounds that, if needed, could provide housing for 230,000 families.
The ministry is also preparing for the possibility of a large number of evacuees needing medical care after an earthquake. The ministry also asked suppliers for information on erecting 200 prefabricated clinics that could serve 150,000 people.
The ministry is also seeking information on erecting 200 additional structures to serve as police stations, offices of government ministries and community centers that would also serve 150,000 people.
The ministry believes that in the event of a devastating earthquake that has consequences that could last years, there will be a need to build schools and preschools to be used for up to three years.
Last June, the home front command conducted an exercise on responding to an earthquake, which simulated the security establishment’s perception of the possible damage that could be caused in such an event. The exercise posited an earthquake of 7.1 on the Richter scale that caused thousands of deaths and the evacuation of 150,000 people.
4 feb 2018
When former Labour Mayor of London Ken Livingstone was asked by a BBC interviewer if what Hitler did was legal, his response included the historical facts about a deal between the Nazis and the German Zionist movement. Coming as it did at the height of the 2016 “Labour anti-Semitism” crisis concocted by the media, his comments caused outrage. He was suspended from the Labour Party, and remains so to this day.
Livingstone was referring to the 1933 Haavara agreement, between the German Zionist movement and the Nazi government. The agreement facilitated the emigration to Palestine of some Jews with their wealth in return for the World Zionist Movement calling off its boycott of Germany. The removal of Jews from Europe, of course, was a common aim of both Zionists and the Nazis.
In arguing that the Nazi expulsion of Jews from Germany was, in effect if not intention, supportive of Zionist aims, Livingstone was invoking uncontroversial historical fact. Nevertheless, right-wing Labour MP and Israel supporter John Mann stalked Livingstone with a Channel 4 News crew and slandered him as a “Nazi apologist” and a Holocaust denier in front of the cameras.
Livingstone has since been persona non grata in the Labour Party, with even former allies distancing themselves from him. He may be guilty of being a loudmouth and not knowing when to hold his peace, but he is not guilty of anti-Semitism.
It is worth comparing the fury of pro-Israel lobbyists and supporters over Ken Livingstone with their silence or active defence of Israel’s modern day alliance with fascists and neo-Nazis. It’s important to defend Livingstone’s right to talk about the historical facts relating to extreme right-Zionist collaboration, not least because an alliance with anti-Semites has been a crucial strategy of Zionist ideology ever since the late 19th century. It started with anti-Semitic Protestant Christian Zionists and later expanded to the Nazis.
Today, Israel is a key part of the global extreme-right alliance. Its greatest friend is the Trump administration, which has openly embraced the white supremacist “alt right” and staffed the White House with Nazi sympathisers. Even the leader of the Israeli Labour Party welcomed Trump’s ascension to the White House.
Most of the extreme-right groups in the world today are supporters of Israel, while the government of Israel is in cahoots with its right-wing counterparts in Poland and Hungary, which have encouraged Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.
Despite Israel’s claim to be a bulwark against anti-Semites, the historical and current reality is that the Zionist regime has never cared about anti-Semitism globally. Or more accurately, it actually encourages and benefits from anti-Semitism. When there were anti-Jewish attacks in France, Netanyahu visited the country, claimed to be the Prime Minister of all Jews and called for French Jews to “come home” to Israel. The Jews in the synagogue where he was speaking responded by singing the French national anthem. Netanyahu, it seemed, apparently wanted the “Islamic State” fanatics responsible for the anti-Semitic attacks to succeed in their aims of ridding France of its Jewish citizens.
The Jews of Iraq, who mostly left in 1950, claim that attacks on their community were actually a plot by Israeli agents to drive them out of the country and head for Israel. Iraqi-born Israeli historian Avi Shlaim once recounted that, despite the fact that he’s yet to find evidence in the state archives for this, all of his Iraqi relatives believe that the bombings were carried out by Zionist agents, not Iraqi Arabs. Whoever was behind the bombing campaign, Israel certainly benefited from it.
The anti-Semitic tendency stretches all the way back to the origins of Zionism. As Theodor Herzl himself predicted, “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” He could have been talking about the situation today.
Moreover, Israeli moves extend this trend. As writer Natasha Roth put it in +972 Magazine recently, the Israeli government’s blacklist banning 20 activist and human rights groups which support BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, means that Israel has banned Jewish leftists, while welcoming Nazi groups.
“While Jews who support the boycott movement are now barred from visiting the country,” she wrote, “members of Nazi-allied organisations and anti-Semitic political parties continue to be allowed into Israel — including at the invitation of government officials.”
Sebastian Gorka is one example; a sworn member of a Hungarian fascist organisation which was allied with the Nazis during the war, and a former Trump advisor, he was a keynote speaker at an “anti-terror” conference in Israel last year. He is only one of many such right-wingers welcomed to the Zionist state.
These right-wing groups have not let go of their anti-Semitism, but are generally friendly towards Israel, because the existence of a “Jewish state” means that the Jews native to their own countries can be sent there, away from them.
The BDS movement, on the other hand, has made it clear that it is an anti-racist movement, opposed to all forms of bigotry, including anti-Semitism. That is why there are so many Jews in the movement, and why it continues to attract support, much to the chagrin of Israel and its right-wing support base.
- Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He writes a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor.
Livingstone was referring to the 1933 Haavara agreement, between the German Zionist movement and the Nazi government. The agreement facilitated the emigration to Palestine of some Jews with their wealth in return for the World Zionist Movement calling off its boycott of Germany. The removal of Jews from Europe, of course, was a common aim of both Zionists and the Nazis.
In arguing that the Nazi expulsion of Jews from Germany was, in effect if not intention, supportive of Zionist aims, Livingstone was invoking uncontroversial historical fact. Nevertheless, right-wing Labour MP and Israel supporter John Mann stalked Livingstone with a Channel 4 News crew and slandered him as a “Nazi apologist” and a Holocaust denier in front of the cameras.
Livingstone has since been persona non grata in the Labour Party, with even former allies distancing themselves from him. He may be guilty of being a loudmouth and not knowing when to hold his peace, but he is not guilty of anti-Semitism.
It is worth comparing the fury of pro-Israel lobbyists and supporters over Ken Livingstone with their silence or active defence of Israel’s modern day alliance with fascists and neo-Nazis. It’s important to defend Livingstone’s right to talk about the historical facts relating to extreme right-Zionist collaboration, not least because an alliance with anti-Semites has been a crucial strategy of Zionist ideology ever since the late 19th century. It started with anti-Semitic Protestant Christian Zionists and later expanded to the Nazis.
Today, Israel is a key part of the global extreme-right alliance. Its greatest friend is the Trump administration, which has openly embraced the white supremacist “alt right” and staffed the White House with Nazi sympathisers. Even the leader of the Israeli Labour Party welcomed Trump’s ascension to the White House.
Most of the extreme-right groups in the world today are supporters of Israel, while the government of Israel is in cahoots with its right-wing counterparts in Poland and Hungary, which have encouraged Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.
Despite Israel’s claim to be a bulwark against anti-Semites, the historical and current reality is that the Zionist regime has never cared about anti-Semitism globally. Or more accurately, it actually encourages and benefits from anti-Semitism. When there were anti-Jewish attacks in France, Netanyahu visited the country, claimed to be the Prime Minister of all Jews and called for French Jews to “come home” to Israel. The Jews in the synagogue where he was speaking responded by singing the French national anthem. Netanyahu, it seemed, apparently wanted the “Islamic State” fanatics responsible for the anti-Semitic attacks to succeed in their aims of ridding France of its Jewish citizens.
The Jews of Iraq, who mostly left in 1950, claim that attacks on their community were actually a plot by Israeli agents to drive them out of the country and head for Israel. Iraqi-born Israeli historian Avi Shlaim once recounted that, despite the fact that he’s yet to find evidence in the state archives for this, all of his Iraqi relatives believe that the bombings were carried out by Zionist agents, not Iraqi Arabs. Whoever was behind the bombing campaign, Israel certainly benefited from it.
The anti-Semitic tendency stretches all the way back to the origins of Zionism. As Theodor Herzl himself predicted, “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” He could have been talking about the situation today.
Moreover, Israeli moves extend this trend. As writer Natasha Roth put it in +972 Magazine recently, the Israeli government’s blacklist banning 20 activist and human rights groups which support BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, means that Israel has banned Jewish leftists, while welcoming Nazi groups.
“While Jews who support the boycott movement are now barred from visiting the country,” she wrote, “members of Nazi-allied organisations and anti-Semitic political parties continue to be allowed into Israel — including at the invitation of government officials.”
Sebastian Gorka is one example; a sworn member of a Hungarian fascist organisation which was allied with the Nazis during the war, and a former Trump advisor, he was a keynote speaker at an “anti-terror” conference in Israel last year. He is only one of many such right-wingers welcomed to the Zionist state.
These right-wing groups have not let go of their anti-Semitism, but are generally friendly towards Israel, because the existence of a “Jewish state” means that the Jews native to their own countries can be sent there, away from them.
The BDS movement, on the other hand, has made it clear that it is an anti-racist movement, opposed to all forms of bigotry, including anti-Semitism. That is why there are so many Jews in the movement, and why it continues to attract support, much to the chagrin of Israel and its right-wing support base.
- Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He writes a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor.