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August 24, 2006
Israeli Left Takes a Hard Right
I've quoted William Lloyd Garrison before, and I'm going to do it again:
"With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plea; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost."
A while back I wrote about a group of Israeli peace activists whom the recent war in Lebanon has changed into hardliners convinced that Israel is now in an existential war against an implacable enemy dedicated to its destruction.
Well, it's not just an isolated peace activist here and there; it seems to be a trend. Allison Kaplan Sommer offers a piece that appeared in the British Daily Express by Michael Diamond, telling of the shift to the right on the part of a great many Israelis who had previously considered themselves members of the "sane left."
Diamond speaks for many who once considered the Palestinian position to be a case of a reasonable grievance against an injustice. Believing that "with reasonable men I shall reason," these Israelis therefore advocated the return of the territories and the 2000 pullback from southern Lebanon, strategies they predicted would be met with a softening on the part of Israel's enemies.
But it didn't work out that way, although it seemed to the left as though it should have. Instead, the pullout from Lebanon six years ago, and the more recent withdrawal from Gaza, led to a moment of clarity that crystallized as the Katushas rained down on Israel and the press of the world mourned the plight of the Lebanese and ignored the context of what was actually happening there.
The intent of the enemy was exposed, and it turns out it was not the end of the "occupation;" it was the end of Israel...
To read the rest of neo-neocon's fine article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at August 24, 2006 11:29 AM
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The intent of the enemy was exposed, and it turns out it was not the end of the "occupation;" it was the end of Israel...
Indeed: They hide and move men and materiel behind human shields and also behind "linguistic shields" (tying in to a recent post here about Darfur and language). Every utterance by Islamic militants and their apologists - Muslim, Jewish, Christian, treedwellers or whatever - is suspect.
Posted by: Jeremiah at August 24, 2006 01:20 PM