Stop Feeding the Beast.

August 17, 2009 8:07 AM

Israel's state-sponsored injustice.
Seth Freedman in The Guardian: -
Watching the criminal collusion of settlers and the army in Susiya, it's clear this is a microcosm of an indefensible situation.
Tony Judt writes in the NYT of Fictions on the Ground the illegal communities have nothing to do with Israel’s defense, much less its founding ideals of agrarian self-sufficiency and Jewish autonomy. They are nothing but a colonial takeover that the United States has no business subsidizing. Meanwhile a U.S. group invests tax-free millions in East Jerusalem land, seeming to violate the organization's tax-exempt status. ( Judt previously)
posted by adamvasco (17 comments total)

An awful situation made even more awful by the presence of armed forces. Yuk. So many choices which just feel wrong to me, but I'm greatly distanced from it emotionally (not Jewish nor Eschatological Xian).
posted by hippybear at 8:26 AM on August 17, 2009

Perhaps the media can stop calling these things "settlements" and start calling them Israeli Urban Sprawl or something. Politics aside, they hardly resemble the rustic frontier connotation that the world "settlement" tends to elicit.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:30 AM on August 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

The main point of these articles is dead-on, but the tone to me seems decidedly inflammatory. I have really never seen an article on israeli-palestinian settlements that wasn't horribly lopsided one way or the other. On the other hand, I agree that settlements are wrong and a disaster for the interests of peace (which, ostensibly, should be synonymous with the interests of Israel), and the behavior of the state and of America in letting them continue is indefensible.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:33 AM on August 17, 2009

The correct term is 'Jewish neighbourhoods'.
posted by gman at 8:36 AM on August 17, 2009

Someone I know recently went to Israel on a charity mission. A government official led her to this short, miserable-looking bit of fence, with what appeared to be people coming and going through it in a rather free manner. "This is the 'security wall' they talk about," he says to her. She comes back and tells everyone she knows, "Eh, the security fence, not such a big deal."

You'd think a Holocaust survivor would know the taste of propaganda, but I guess it always comes in a flavor calculated to be the one you find most palatable.
posted by adipocere at 8:51 AM on August 17, 2009

It's next to impossible to not sound like and advocate when reporting Israeli-Palestine issues due to the massive disparity in resources and political backing that the US affords the Israelis.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:06 AM on August 17, 2009

Someone needs to get their your own f*ing blog.
posted by caddis at 9:09 AM on August 17, 2009

Jewish Israeli politician Uri Davis elected to Fatah Congress.
posted by gman at 9:10 AM on August 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Someone needs to get their your own f*ing blog.

Here you go!
posted by Burhanistan at 9:11 AM on August 17, 2009 [3 favorites]

Jewish Israeli politician Uri Davis elected to Fatah Congress

Although he converted to Islam last year.
posted by PenDevil at 9:22 AM on August 17, 2009

Thank you. They didn't mention that on the BBC broadcast.
posted by gman at 9:25 AM on August 17, 2009

Can it be said enough times? No side covers itself in glory in the Israel-Palestine conflict/war of attrition. But as the senior partner in the relationship, and the only functioning democracy, more is expected of Israel.

What I don't understand is what a poor long game Israel plays. Israelis know demographics are on the Palestinians' side. They know their teflon status in the UN is dependent both on a strong America and a strong lobby within America - neither of which is guaranteed. In short, they know the misdemeanours of the past will be held against them. Memories in the Middle East are, to say the least, not short.

And yet Israel seems intent on making a set of tactically good plays - the lobbying, the bargaining, the framing of the issue - that seem to me to weaken its case, and the case for a Zionist homeland, in the long term, to feed the blood libels, the anger, the injustice and, above all, the idea that this is what happens if you let the JEWS take an inch.
posted by MuffinMan at 9:26 AM on August 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

[Bunch of metacommentary removed. Whether a post lives or dies, snarky shit right out of the gate isn't a good way to vote.]
posted by cortex at 9:29 AM on August 17, 2009

No Health Reform for Gaza; But Death Panels they Have
posted by homunculus at 9:40 AM on August 17, 2009

How Israel became South Africa

Israel can be condemned for many things, including bad judgment, botched military campaigns, unnecessary harshness and occasional brutality. So can lots of other countries. But Israel is often characterized as uniquely awful – scarcely better than the Nazis who ran Hitler's Germany. And so, when someone like Naomi (No Logo) Klein says “Israel has been steadily escalating its criminality” and recommends a global boycott such as the one that brought an end to apartheid in South Africa, I feel like running to the store and buying all the Jaffa oranges I can get.

I never thought I would agree with Margaret Wente about anything, but, there you go.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:41 AM on August 17, 2009

A global boycott of Israel will not be including any US companies, at least for the short term, thanks to the
Office of Antiboycott Compliance
posted by the Real Dan at 9:51 AM on August 17, 2009

KokuRyu - perhaps one of the reasons people find it is so easy to make the Israel/Apartheid allusion is the links between the two countries in the 70s/80s and the overt references to apartheid in Israel/Palestine made by black South Africans like Tutu.
posted by MuffinMan at 9:52 AM on August 17, 2009