Monday, June 11, 2007

This is to Mr Walton Pantland

Make Israel history

Israel's victory in the Six Day War is the single biggest cause of conflict in the world today.

It's the fortieth anniversary of the Six Day War, and the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This war, probably more than any conflict, has poisoned world politics ever since. I would argue that it's probably the single biggest cause of conflict in the world today, which is why I blog about it so much.

Here is an Amnesty International report about the devastating effects of 40 years of occupation.

I am as disturbed by the rise of militant Islam as anyone, but I think that it is the injustice done in Palestine that is the cause, and only creating a just solution will take away the Islamic fundamentalists reasons for existing. We are facing a so-called 'clash of civilisations', between Islamic and Western values.

But its Western hypocrisy that Muslims are rejecting, and the Israeli occupation - and US support for it - is what has made Islam the enemy of the West.

I had a scrap on the Zionist blog today. The readers of the blog find it impossible to concede that I can criticise Israel without being an anti-Semite. "This Palestinin crap is just another stick to beat Jews with", as Gary puts it.

They paint me as a rabid anti-Semite, who won't rest until every Jewish child is murdered. You just can't debate with Zionists, because when you write "Israeli troops target Palestinian civilians", they read "kill the Jew". There's just a total shut down, and inability to engage. Any media report about Israeli atrocities is down to media anti-Semitism, Palestinian lies, or both.

Most of the comments on the blog are written by hysterical ninnies, who claim that any attempt to establish a single, secular state will result in 'a second holocaust', that the Palestinians are this minute sharpening their knives for Jewish throats.

One of them claims that the occupied territories are being ruled by Israel through a UN mandate! And this is some one who wants me to 'read more on the topic' before I deign to have a say.

What other fantasies are lurking in the minds of the Zionists?

Well, a popular one is likening Palestinian fighters to the Nazis. One comment mentioned Arab collaboration with the Nazis before World War Two.

Yes, that's true, and it's a particularly unedifying bit of history. But guess what? The Zionists collaborated with the Nazis too!

There was even a medal struck to commemorate this:

The hypocrisy of it is nauseating too. The blog post was condemning COSATU's call for a boycott of Israel. But Israel has called for a world wide boycott of the elected leadership of the Palestinian territories, just because they don't like the outcome of the election.

I don't like the outcome either, but you can't claim to be a democrat and then refuse to accept the results of a democratic election.

When I likened Israel to apartheid South Africa - and their hysteria to Swart Gevaar - they assumed I was comparing the ANC to Hamas.

Do I need to spell it out? Criticism of Israel does not equal support for Islamists.

It's at times like this that anti-Zionist Jewish voices are important, whether they are Marxists like Yossi Schwartz, anarchists against the wall, religious groups or just Jews sans frontieres.

1 Comments:

Blogger Walton said...

A couple of points:

Yes, I have been to Israel, in fact I lived there for a year and speak Hebrew - though it's getting rusty. I arrived in Israel more or less a Zionist, but quickly changed my mind when I realised Israel was just like apartheid South Africa. Quite frankly, I am fairly confident that I know what I am talking about.

But go ahead and call me anti-semitic if that's the only way you can confront my arguments. That is a typical Zionist tactic: discredit your critics by calling them anti-semitic, debate semantics (is it really occupation?), or point to how bad other states in the Middle East are.

As for Israel targetting civilians, this is widely reported in media such as The Guardian and BBC, though I am sure you will just denounce these as pro-Palestinian anti-semites. I am sure you are aware that Israel has also murdered a number of peace activists, such as Rachel Corrie.

I didn't leave South Africa because I was 'scared of the blacks', in fact I joined the ANC in 1992 and I have been fighting for broad-based Black empowerment ever since.

You say:

"I am under the impression that Israel captured Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights fair and square so where is the occupation? It is Israel's property, and in my eyes up to the government and referendums to do with it as they please, is this not right?"

Uh, no. I don't accept that conquest gives Israel a right to land in the Middle East, and neither does the UN, so saying Israel won the land 'fair and square' is pretty pointless. If I come and beat you up and take your house because I have a bigger gun than you, does it become my house because I won it 'fair and square'? If so, where do you live?

The fact that other states in the Middle East are as bad as Israel is not a justification of Israeli tyranny. Being an enemy of Israel doesn't make me an friend of Syria - I am an enemy of both, if you can understand the complexity of that nuance.

Quite frankly, I think we could do without Israeli arms, and Win XP.

The reason I compare Israel to apartheid has a lot to do with people like you - the kind of language you use is identical to that of pro-apartheid whites in the 1980s and early 1990s. You say "Israel has bent over backwards for the palestinians and the thanks in return are suicide attacks, home made rockets, road side bombs and the list goes on and on." That's exactly what white South Africans used to say about black people. They also used to point to the rest of Africa - the way you point to other Middle Eastern countries - as a reason for continuing apartheid.

And Its Almost Supernatural is another blog full of Zionist rubbish.

And by the way, if you are going to steal an entire post from my blog, please at least have the decency to link back to it.

June 11, 2007 at 6:15 PM  

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