Israel disgusts me.

[jsteele]

The Israeli Press appears to have a problem on its hands. Yesterday, I linked to two Times of Israel blog posts calling for the genocide of the Palestinians (one explicitly and one using "allegory"). Today, an op-ed calling for ethnically cleansing Gaza is being run on the Jerusalem Post website:

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Into-the-fray-Why-Gaza-must-go-368862

"The only durable solution requires dismantling Gaza, humanitarian relocation of the non-belligerent Arab population, and extension of Israeli sovereignty over the region."

"Former US President Herbert Hoover, dubbed the 'Great Humanitarian' for his efforts to relieve famine in Europe after WWI, wrote in The Problems of Lasting Peace: 'Consideration should be given even to the heroic remedy of transfer of populations...the hardship of moving is great, but it is [still] less than the constant suffering of minorities and the constant recurrence of war.'

"How could anyone, with any degree of compassion and humanity, disagree?"

I understand that side side has extremists who say crazy things. But, these things are being published on major Israeli media sites. The second Times of Israel blog post is still online and, apparently, acceptable to the editors who removed the earlier post.

[Anonymous]

Again, it shows that the mainstream Israeli media has no problem with ethnic cleansing in Gaza that, at a minimum, is on par with what the Serbs hoped to accomplish in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The only thing they seem to object to is an explicit call for genocide, for obvious reasons, but that is not exactly a line that should be tough to draw.

[Anonymous]

This article is very disturbing to me as an American Jew and supporter of Israel. I'm not sure what else to say.

[Anonymous]

Would it be inaccurate to say that Israelis have been brainwashed much in the way that Hitler did to Germans?

[Anonymous]

He is exactly correct. There are civilians caught in the crossfire who want nothing to do with Hamas, who has stated they want Israel gone, and Jews dead, which would be ethnic cleansing. The author recognizes that there are benign, kind Palestinians and wants to help them. That's not ethnic cleansing. Israel cannot leave these tunnels intact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would it be inaccurate to say that Israelis have been brainwashed much in the way that Hitler did to Germans?

I don't think anything constructive can ever come out of expressly comparing Israel to Germany, given both the unmatched horror of that holocaust and the fact that it continues to be viewed as justification for a Jewish state that apparently believes it was granted a permanent license to do whatever it wants territorially and military.

Personally, I think it's fair to say Israel is now controlled by right-wing fascists who view other human beings as inherently inferior and have no qualms about murdering innocent children. That is a heavy enough burden for anyone with any ties to Israel to confront.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would it be inaccurate to say that Israelis have been brainwashed much in the way that Hitler did to Germans?

I don't think anything constructive can ever come out of expressly comparing Israel to Germany, given both the unmatched horror of that holocaust and the fact that it continues to be viewed as justification for a Jewish state that apparently believes it was granted a permanent license to do whatever it wants territorially and military.

Personally, I think it's fair to say Israel is now controlled by right-wing fascists who view other human beings as inherently inferior and have no qualms about murdering innocent children. That is a heavy enough burden for anyone with any ties to Israel to confront.

OK, but keys terms of yours: right wing, fascists, controlled, inferior human beings, all sound familiar.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:He is exactly correct. There are civilians caught in the crossfire who want nothing to do with Hamas, who has stated they want Israel gone, and Jews dead, which would be ethnic cleansing. The author recognizes that there are benign, kind Palestinians and wants to help them. That's not ethnic cleansing. Israel cannot leave these tunnels intact.

You may want to read again. He doesn't help the benign, kind Palestinians. Rather, he want to relocate them outside Gaza.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would it be inaccurate to say that Israelis have been brainwashed much in the way that Hitler did to Germans?

I don't think anything constructive can ever come out of expressly comparing Israel to Germany, given both the unmatched horror of that holocaust and the fact that it continues to be viewed as justification for a Jewish state that apparently believes it was granted a permanent license to do whatever it wants territorially and military.

Personally, I think it's fair to say Israel is now controlled by right-wing fascists who view other human beings as inherently inferior and have no qualms about murdering innocent children. That is a heavy enough burden for anyone with any ties to Israel to confront.

OK, but keys terms of yours: right wing, fascists, controlled, inferior human beings, all sound familiar.

Perhaps because the conduct in question does not lend itself to being described as progressive, democratic, open or respectful of the humanity or dignity of others who happen to have been born Palestinian.

[Anonymous]

You are debating merits of op eds? Do you know how many awful op eds are written in mainstream media (not just Arab media) against Israel? Not to mention the horrendous rhetoric for Arab leaders. I really don't see how an op ed (one person's opinion!) is cause for concern. Someone wrote asinine, so what. Terrible rhetoric comes daily from the Arab and European media and we don't say a peep.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:You are debating merits of op eds? Do you know how many awful op eds are written in mainstream media (not just Arab media) against Israel? Not to mention the horrendous rhetoric for Arab leaders. I really don't see how an op ed (one person's opinion!) is cause for concern. Someone wrote asinine, so what. Terrible rhetoric comes daily from the Arab and European media and we don't say a peep.

We don't provide Arab governments $3+ billion a year or go on endlessly about having shared values with them. Any time that you want to start treating Israel the way Arab countries are treated, just let us know.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are debating merits of op eds? Do you know how many awful op eds are written in mainstream media (not just Arab media) against Israel? Not to mention the horrendous rhetoric for Arab leaders. I really don't see how an op ed (one person's opinion!) is cause for concern. Someone wrote asinine, so what. Terrible rhetoric comes daily from the Arab and European media and we don't say a peep.

We don't provide Arab governments $3+ billion a year or go on endlessly about having shared values with them. Any time that you want to start treating Israel the way Arab countries are treated, just let us know.

Actually, we do provide Arab countries military aid, including Qatar, who is funding Hamas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would it be inaccurate to say that Israelis have been brainwashed much in the way that Hitler did to Germans?

a spoiled brat is more like it . . .

our fault, however

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are debating merits of op eds? Do you know how many awful op eds are written in mainstream media (not just Arab media) against Israel? Not to mention the horrendous rhetoric for Arab leaders. I really don't see how an op ed (one person's opinion!) is cause for concern. Someone wrote asinine, so what. Terrible rhetoric comes daily from the Arab and European media and we don't say a peep.

We don't provide Arab governments $3+ billion a year or go on endlessly about having shared values with them. Any time that you want to start treating Israel the way Arab countries are treated, just let us know.

If we did provide the Arab Governments with 3 plus billion a year, not one of us would be here having this discussion-we all would have been nuked a long time ago-regardless of what side we are on.

[Anonymous]

But we do provide the arabs with more than three billion....how much oil are we buying? How much do we spend to protect the persian gulf stants?