Between Dome of the Rock and a Hard Place
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A number of my readers have asked me about the difference between a settlement and an outpost. This distinction is typically made, in the minds of Israelis, as the difference in formal recognition by the government versus the informal establishment of small caravans, often by the most radical fringes of settler society.
This [...]
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Where to begin? Regular readers of this blog will undoubtedly know about the severe problem of Israeli racism against Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. But this story leaves even me incredulous.
After Ali Abunimah posted a wonderfully sarcastic comment to his Twitter feed (@avinunu) about how much settlers love to [...]
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Presume (incredulously, I know) that Netanyahu or some other Israeli leader truly wanted peace. Further, in order to arrive at peace, they would be willing to accept the basic framework for two-states that has formed the international consensus for 42 years. This would require giving up more than 95% of the West Bank [...]
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Torched religious sites, burnt holy books, genocidal graffiti, notions of ethnic purity and the legitimate murder of enemy babies. Am I talking about the rise of Nazism in 1930s Poland?
Nope, I am talking about the West Bank, this week, late 2009.
In recent posts (here and here), I have described how [...]
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An outrageously large number of Israeli politicians express violently racist sentiments in public. What must they say in private?
Today’s case study in Israeli racism toward Arabs/Palestinians/Persians/Muslims (aren’t they all the same anyway?) comes from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who is the spiritual leader of Shas, a right-wing, religious party in Israeli with 11 [...]
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There might have been a window for a two-state solution, which was open for a brief period decades ago. Israelis as a collective chose instead to allow—indeed, to aid—its most extremist elements in destroying the two-state framework. And because we allowed the settlers to do it, because we gave them our money, the [...]
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There exist strong domestic political reasons for Netanyahu to get down on his knees to beg the settlers to allow him to kiss their ass. What brown-nosing do I mean? I mean Netanyahu’s sycophantic efforts to bring his own version of global warming to the very temporary, very partial settlement freeze, all the [...]
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Ephraim “Effi” Eitam is no marginal figure in Israeli politics, even if he relatively right of mainstream opinion. He is a decorated Brigadier General in the Israel Defense Forces, having won a Medal of Distinguished Service during the Yom Kippur War. He commanded the Givati Brigade during the first intiffada (1988–1993), a unit [...]
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How can Israelis argue in public or private that they want peace? They can’t even adhere to their sickeningly weak “partial settlement freeze”, which is already far less than the entire world (and international law) demands.
From Haaretz:
Defense Ministry officials denied that an announcement on Wednesday that 84 new buildings [492 housing units] [...]
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Israel panders to racist, terrorizing, fundamentalist colonizers on a daily basis. This is now a commonplace notion. For example, Didi Remez of the excellent Coteret blog publishes the following translation of a column written by Yaron London, a widely respected Israeli journalist with a “reputation for saying what other [Israelis] think”.
The [...]
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