Israel's Failed-State Strategy: Cole in Salon
My essay on the crisis between Israel and the Gaza Palestinians is out in Salon.com.
Excerpt:
The actions of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seem intended to create a failed state in Gaza and the West Bank, thus rendering the Israeli claim that "we have no one to talk to" a self-fulfilling prophecy and allowing Israel to continue with its unilateral, annexationist policies, free of the need to even pretend to negotiate.
This shortsighted "strategy," which both the United States and, to a slightly lesser degree, the strangely docile Europeans have signed off on, is a recipe for continued hatred, extremism, bloodshed, injustice and festering grievances. Unless Israel and its patron summon the wisdom to take the long view and hammer out an agreement that will give the Palestinians a viable state, rather than simply trying to smash them into submission, the world's most dangerous conflict will continue to rage, with dangerous consequences for all.
All the metrics I have for measuring these things find that my readers mostly aren't very interested in Arab-Israeli issues, certainly as compared to how interested they are in Iraq or in US party politics.
I think ignoring it is a big mistake. It is part of what got the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon bombed, and it came into the Fallujah crisis in Iraq in 2004. A lot of Iraqis think of US troops in their country as essentially Israelis and call them al-yahud, "the Jews." Like it or not, this conflict helps shape our lives and our image in the world. I know that rightwing Zionists are typically ruthless in trying to squelch any discussion of the topic, and I've had lots of readers write me that they are afraid of being labelled "anti-Semites" for speaking out. But if you aren't a bigot, why be afraid of being called one? The charge would be self-evidently untrue to anyone who knew you, and why should we care what people think of us, who don't know us? The irony is that the virulence of the racism of most rightwing Zionists toward Arabs is mind-blowing.
Anyway, I know-- all too well-- that taking a position on this matter is costly in American society. But after 9/11, we cannot continue to go on allowing ourselves silently to be caught in the cross-fire between the followers of Jabotinsky and the followers of Sayyid Qutb. So please read the article. And do progressive people a favor and subscribe to Salon.com. Not very many magazines in the US would have been willing to publish this essay.
In the course of commenting on the Mearsheimer/Walt controversy, by the way, Philip Weiss makes some fascinating comments on how the internet is replacing the book as a nexus of public debate. He points out that Stephen Walt had published in a book many of the same points he made in the "Israel Lobby" paper that went up on the London Review of Books web site, but the book went unremarked while the online version provoked a fire storm.
PS: See Robert Bryce in Counterpunch on the Israeli destruction of the Gaza power plant and its dire consequences for the Palestinians there.
See also the discussion of the silence of the blogosphere on this issue by Robert Wright and Matthew Yglesias at bloggingheads.tv.
And here's a link to Vermonters for Just Peace in Israel and Palestine.
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/07/2006 12:35:00 AM
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24 Comments:
Armed with just the barest list of facts on Israeli-Palestine relations, even a ten year old could identifity which was the bully. After constantly, violently crippling the other side's government for 40 years, they use the lack of law and order there as an excuse to cripple their infrastructure further? I wonder, is there a Talmudic equivalent to "sow the wind;reap the whirlwind"?
So many similarities to our own "we had to dismantle your government and source of employment so you would be more secure" policy in Iraq.
This country needs an honest discussion of Israeli brutality towards its Palestinian subjects. All taboos need to be shelved during this period. First to go would be "antisemitism" because it is used to cover brutality and because, even if the person were prejudiced, facts are not.
The second would be the diatribe about how "Israel has the right to defend itself." Since when does the aggressor have the right to self defense? Since when do squatters have superior rights over landowners? Since when does an invader have a claim to status as victim?
Third, it needs to recognized over and over, and loudly, that Palestinians are being asked to pay for European antisemiticism. Palestinian resistance to foreign occupiers is not anti-semiticism, it is resistance to foreign occupation.
Our problem, as Americans, is that our failure to show the courage to accept the phony label of "anti-semite" has been used against us in an sleazy, decades long plot to trick usd into supporting a nation which is less friend than parasite and which encourages the corruption of our nation's ethics in order to support the wrong side in this atrocity.
Israel is no friend.
About the strangely docile Europeans, as long as the US lets them off the hook, I suppose they will stay strangely docile. As soon as their passivitiy become too expensive, I doubt they will remain passive.
It is true that a few minutes of independent research will demonstrate that the conflict is one sided, that Israel is the bully, but this would require we Americans learn to think for ourselves. Ha!
A few days ago, while blogger was down, I posted the following. I hope it can be repeated.
Dr. Cole wrote:
"The ministers detained are members of a freely and democratically elected government. I can't imagine under what legal authority the Israelis have arrested them."
and FriendlyFire added:
"Israel is breaking Geneva Conventions. Where are the MSM?"
The simple truth is that Israel's activities all along have been illegal and in contravention of the principles outlined in the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
Rather than argue against the Zionist machine, let us try to defend it. It's more fun this way.
Israel can arrest duly elected officials of the Palestinian Authority because Nazis murdered millions of Jews in Europe.
It is acceptable for Israel to take land from Palestinians because several thousand years ago, God gave this land to all Jews. It is the Palestinians' own fault that they foolishly tried to live in a region where someday Zionist settlers would return to claim what is rightfully theirs.
When taking land and water from Palestinians who present resistance, Israel, regrettably, must sometimes kill them.
Israel also regrets the deaths of over a thousand Palestinian children who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, namely in a sniper's bulls eye centered on the child's head at the time or another regrettable juxtaposition.
The EU, the UN and the US should not criticize Israel for taking land from people who legally own it, farm it and depend on it for their livelihood, because it is only a small sliver of land and besides, Darfur and Rwanda happened and the EU, the UN and the US did not step in to prevent those instances of genocide. Israel should not be singled out for special adverse treatment until all other instances of genocide have been corrected.
Israel receives billions of dollars in direct and indirect aid every year because Israel has a special relationship with the United States.
Palestinians who carry guns are militants and may be shot on sight because Israel has no negotiating partner for peace on the Palestinians side.
Israelis who carry guns are righteous and honorable because Israel has the moral high ground.
Israel is an honest broker of the peace and the truth. Examples of cover-ups and distortions are brought to light by anti-Semitic extremists.
Palestinians can never be trusted to tell the truth, or when they expose the rare example of a media bias, it is overplayed. The repeated instances of over-reporting of Israeli deaths (where one death is reported repeatedly giving the impression of a higher death toll) and the under-reporting of Palestinian deaths (where they are simply not reported at all) are all singular events, and it is proof of anti-semitic press that this issue is even raised.
Even though our nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, we should overlook this idea when considering Israel because otherwise, we are being anti-semitic.
Besides, Palestinians do not exist (Golda Mier) and Palestinians must recognize Israel.
OK - satire mode off.
Really, this nonsense has to stop. Israel is a rogue nation and a failed state, undeserving of US support and it is past time to let Israel pass or fail on her own.
If we want peace in the Mideast, Israel must be held accountable.
Thank you Dr. Cole for providing this forum.
Regards,
Juan – if I might try to adjust your metrics slightly, I for one would welcome more on Israel-Palestine, and I’m sure many others would too.
There are a number of areas of the conflict that it’d be really useful to hear your assessment of. For my part I’d like to hear more about the historical background to the current situation; the conditions Palestinians have lived under since the creation of the state of Israel (of which I think there’s precious little appreciation in the west); the unilateral “settlement” Israel plans to impose and what it plans to expropriate as part of this; and a look at how the west supports Israel’s expansionist policies e.g. military aid, economic assistance, diplomatic support.
However, I think the most useful thing you could do would be to provide a “mythbuster” on the conflict: a resource that anyone wishing to write on or debate this subject could use to deal with the heat they will be subjected to by rightwing Zionists. Its instructive to see the extent to which these people rely on myths and distortions to advance their viewpoint. You’d be providing a great service if you helped arm people with the facts of the matter. A “Top Ten Myths about Israel-Palestine” article would be a good start. So would a guest editorial by Norman G Finkelstein, whose excellent book, “Beyond Chutzpah” achieves precisely that goal.
Finally, more comments from you on day-to-day events in Israel-Palestine –as you provide on Iraq – would be useful as well.
(as you can see, I’m working on the assumption that you’ve got all the time in the world)
The Internet is much more powerful than books due to the Search Engines.
The Western democracy relies heavily on the short memory of the public. The politicians openly use "it will soon be forgotten" to defend corruption and stupidity. Now, we Google and it comes back up again.
Ronald Reagan is successfully betrayed as a great statesman who defeated communism single-handedly and spread freedom, democracy, and well being all around. This is because their was no internet then. He was in fact a major moron who plunged the world in the longest and deepest recession since the 1930s. He armed and supported Saddam to the hilt, and fueled the Iran/Iraq war which killed a million people. Not to mention Lebanon, Iran-COntra, and other calamities. He also promoted the neo-cons who came back to hit the entire world with their World Domination lunacy.
BTW Communism died asthe Soviets ran out of money because of their heavy military spending, the occupation of Afghansitan, and heavy public borrowing: rings a bell?
>All the metrics I have for measuring these things find that my readers mostly aren't very interested in Arab-Israeli issues, certainly as compared to how interested they are in Iraq or in US party politics.<
For the same reasons we are not much interested in World Cup soccer -- the players run around and kick the ball back and forth, but nothing much ever happens, and the "winner," if any, may be decided by some disputed call by biased referees, or random shots after everyone is exhausted.
In the last 40 years I have seen amazing, remarkable and unexpected changes in most parts of the world. In Israel, I have wasted my time reading about the same old thing. I don't expect anything to be accomplished for another couple of generations. Wake me up if there is ever anything new. I would like to subscribe to a magazine that updates developments there every five or ten years, because that's about how much time is needed to notice any progress.
Glaciers are melting faster than the bitterness in Israeli and Palestinian hearts.
Juan is 100% correct. The Israeli issue is paramount. The western democracies are hypocritical in the extreme.For their selfish interests they support a tyrannical state- Israel- the government of which rules society to maintain the supremacy of one ethnic group. In principle this is the same as white or Aryan supremacy. The Arab and Muslim world rightly finds this intolerable.
The problem with an asymmetrical war is that we are not fighting nations, alliances or even charismatic leaders. We are in a war with ideas and the problem we have in seeing this is that the ideas, stripped of religious trappings, are not so different from each other. Radical rabbis or NeoCon preachers or fundamentalist Wahabbi clerics all agree on the basic structure of reality; they just disagree on who is the Chosen Ones.
Israel has been very successful in elimination any Palestinian leader who seemed able to actually lead the Palestinians (ignore Arafat; the Israelis castrated and emasculated his PLO so effectively that in the end he was incapable of leading and was overwhelmed by corruption and temptation)
However, with each assassination, a new leader arises, each one more radical than the last one. Imagine if South Africa had executed Mandela or if the British had taken out the Continental Congress.
In an asymmetrical war, when you kill the leaders, you only clear the path for the next, more radicalized leaders. Compare the Tsar's attempts to control the moderates in Russia, only to enthrone the extreme radicals or compare the Allies' attempts to moderate Germany under the Weimar Republic, paving the way for Hitler.
While this is an oversimplification, still Mao was wrong that power comes from the end of a gun; bullets will never defeat ideas, even if you are willing to wipe your opponents off the map, such as Putin's attempts to control Chechnya.
It is difficult with the Israel/Palestine issue since most of the MSM (NPR included!) is so biased toward the US-backed Israeli policies that informed discussion is nearly impossible. Also dissenters are often tarred as anti-Semitic (even if we support security for Israel within its '67 borders). Alas...
Can a Palestinian state even be viable at this point?
Isn't pushing a two-state solution asking for the same result we have now?
What if Israel just goes ahead and annexes Gaza and the West Bank? Then we can apply the South African example for reconciliation. Eventually there would be equal protection for all citizens, but first the bigots have to speak up for the record.
Juan you are da mensch!
Matt Yglesias Where None Dare Blog
Hodgrid's onto something (above)
I think that's what they call - Right of Return.
I wonder, is there a Talmudic equivalent to "sow the wind;reap the whirlwind"?
Hosea 8:1-14
I actually pay a lot more attention to what's going on in Israel/Palestine than I do for almost any other region of the world. And Juan, I read and reread EVERY word you write--you could post on the Reykjavik City Council elections and I know I'd be utterly enthralled! But I think we've all learned the hard way that posting about Israel/Palestine only gets you flamed, banned and/or troll-rated, depending on the blog. Moreover, you come to realize that nothing you write will ever change anyone's mind, let alone do any real good!
So I think the question we have to ask ourselves is why that's the case. My theory: the situation has grown so hopeless over the past few years that discussing it is like arguing about death or taxes or one of those huge asteroids that's wending its way toward us. It's a horrible disaster, and nothing good can ever come of it.
I actually pay a lot more attention to what's going on in Israel/Palestine than I do for almost any other region of the world. And Juan, I read and reread EVERY word you write--you could post on the Reykjavik City Council elections and I know I'd be utterly enthralled! But I think we've all learned the hard way that posting about Israel/Palestine only gets you flamed, banned and/or troll-rated, depending on the blog. Moreover, you come to realize that nothing you write will ever change anyone's mind, let alone do any real good!
So I think the question we have to ask ourselves is why that's the case. My theory: the situation has grown so hopeless over the past few years that discussing it is like arguing about death or taxes or one of those huge asteroids that's wending its way toward us. It's a horrible disaster, and nothing good can ever come of it.
"Hodgrid said...
Can a Palestinian state even be viable at this point?
Isn't pushing a two-state solution asking for the same result we have now?
What if Israel just goes ahead and annexes Gaza and the West Bank? Then we can apply the South African example for reconciliation. Eventually there would be equal protection for all citizens, but first the bigots have to speak up for the record."
What Hogrid proposes, Israel fears more than Yahweh.
All this talk of disengagement, a Roadmap, Partners for Peace etc., etc., drek, drek, is a smoke screen for Israel's one and only objective, so eloquently stated early in its history, "A land without people (no Palestinians) for a people without a land."
This statement exposes the underlying premise which invalidates Israel's very extistence, namely that Zionism denies the humanity of the Palestinians. According to well documented Zionist ideology, Palestinians either do not exist or they are not civilized.
The first premise is used to justify wholesale demolitons and displacements. The second premise is used to justify wholesale demolitions and displacements.
Israel's goal is to expel all Palistinians. If Israel could have done so before now without losing diplomatic status, Israel would have done so. The dessication of Gaza occurs too slowly for MSM to notice. The Serpent (my name for the wall) prevents cameras from documenting other atrocities.
Gaza exists to function much as a vacuole does in simple animals, to expel unwanted matter. To Zionists, Palestinians are unwanted matter.
The Serpent exists for the same purpose, only behind a barrier.
Israel has never wanted peace nor has Israel sought peace. Israel wants only to receive the good graces of Europe and America as if Israel was peaceful.
The two state solution is a sham designed to cover Israel's plans to expel Palestinians. Israel can be stopped by forcing it to annex all of Gaza and the West Bank and to give all its citizens equasl rights.
Personally, I would like to read more of your expert opinion on this issue on the blog.
Matt:
I sympathize with your "outrage fatigue". I don't know your age, but I've been reading about US support for injustice in Palestine since 1967. It's infuriating to realize that "your" government has been bought and is aligned against all the ideals we give lip service to as Americans.
But the real horror of US policy is that it gaurantees perpetual war in defense of injustice. This is something that the Israelis have come to accept. It seems to be the greatest triumph of the American neocons that they have brought our government, if not ourselves, to accept this as well.
But even if the US/Israeli Axis succeeds in occupying all of Palestine the perpetual war will continue, as will repressive government policies to silence opposition, to protect the war.
You and I may be weary now, but there is no rest for any of us until the injustice at the root of all our troubles is rooted out of the Middle East.
The Israelis are quite content to wage a war forever at no cost to themselves. They use US resources to fund their expropriations, assassinations, massacres, and Concentration Camps in the West Bank and now in all of Gaza and have convinced themselves that they can limit the numbers of Israeli civilian deaths that occur each year to an "acceptable" level.
Defunding the war in Iraq and cutting all aid to Israel are the necessary first steps to ending our policies of death as a way of life.
I've always thought that 60% of news headlines could be reduced to two:
"Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?" (credit Mandy Rice-Davies) and "Yeah, that worked so well last time." The current Israeli policy combines both.
I care about this issue very much, but see little hope of sensible action on it in this generation. It will probably take exhaustion on the part of both parties, agreements among their backers not to feed the monster, and at least a decade of not feeding the monster to let the animosities die down, before anything can be accomplished. It's a shame; an Arab-Israeli alliance could do wonders.
That said, the whole world is about to be drowning, in some cases quite literally, in climate and ecological issues. It is entirely possible that the backing for this war will collapse, as all parties suddenly find a need to spend their money at home. It would be best, of course, if a peace were concluded before then, but any end would be an improvement.
Like everyone else before me, I think Dr Cole is exactly right to point out the pivotal role of Arab-Israeli issues in US foreign affairs vis a vis the Middle East. Keep it up.
In particular, a couple of notes.
Dr Cole: "...I've had lots of readers write me that they are afraid of being labelled "anti-Semites" for speaking out..."
Personally--internetally, rather--I've been accused of everything from a "terrorist sympathizer" to the grand monniker "Adolf Hitler" and everything in between. All by the same individual. It really bothered me at first, and I suppose it irritates me to some extent even today, but mostly it's just silly.
Worth noting is the how the substance of these accusations have increased over time: first I was a "terrorist sympathizer", then a "jew-hater/anti-Semite", then "Nazi" and now Hitler. (I am left wondering what comes after Adolf Hitler) All because I refuse to back down from my criticisms of Israeli gov't policy, Likudnik fascism, and the influence of the Israeli lobby on US government policy.
More Dr Cole: "But if you aren't a bigot, why be afraid of being called one? The charge would be self-evidently untrue to anyone who knew you, and why should we care what people think of us, who don't know us? The irony is that the virulence of the racism of most rightwing Zionists toward Arabs is mind-blowing.
All quite true. Although it's disconcerting to repeatedly be called an anti-Semite, I'm over it now--it's merely a stupid ad hominem attack designed to squelch rational discussion, let alone argument.
Rather like mentioning Chomsky's "Fateful Triangle". Everyone piles on by labelling Chomsky a lunatic (or even better, a self-hating Jew), but every critic who make these charges, it turns out, has never read his book...or indeed, any of Chomsky's stuff.
John Francis,
I agree with almost everything you write, but I think we're both tilting at windmills if we honestly expect the U.S. to reduce -- let alone end -- its support of the Greater Israel Project. That's about as likely as Congress voting to make Gay Pride Day a national holiday!
I'm also discouraged by the history of so-called American "influence" on Israel. Eisenhower was the last president to dare to stand up to the Israeli war machine; every president since has failed miserably, both when they had the best possible intentions (Carter) and when they had the worst (Bush). We've always been in so far over our heads that I think it's naive to think we can ever do any good in the region.
It will never happen, but the American policy I'd love to see is instant asylum and citizenship for anyone, Jewish, Christian or Moslem, who wants out. I think that's the very least we owe as retribution for our sins of commission AND omission in the region.
I thought NPR was suppose to become more balanced now that they got that giant McDonald donation and don't have to worry about appeasing congress' complaint of their so called "extremely anti-Israel" views.
I guess their their Palestiniphobic views is an institutional bias after all.
Strange how those so called liberals are so critical on American soldier's treatment of Iraqis with their widespread "haadji" racism, wide scale torturing and illegal detention in Iraq and Guantanamo, "occupation" being the issue, the rediculous neo-con concept of remaking a government to your liking, etc. But when Israel having done the same thing before the US even stepped foot in Irag/Afghanistan, all those so-called libs shout out completely opposite answers not unlike what the republican lapdogs are saying in regards to American's actions.
"I think we're both tilting at windmills if we honestly expect the U.S. to reduce -- let alone end -- its support of the Greater Israel Project."
It's getting awfully expensive, and there's anti-semitism building up in the USA. I fear bailing out in the worst possible way.
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