Confessions of an Israeli traitor

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/10/23/confessions-of-an-israeli-traitor/?tid=pm_opinions_pop_b

Such sentiment has led to incidents like the death in East Jerusalem of Fadi Alloun, suspected of a knife attack but shot by police as they had him surrounded. Sometimes, it backfires: This month, a Jewish vigilante near Haifa stabbed a fellow Israeli Jew who he thought was an Arab. Late Wednesday, soldiers killed an Israeli Jew whom they mistook for a Palestinian attacker.

The low point (so far) was last Sunday night’s lynching of 29-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker Haftom Zarhum, mistakenly identified as a perpetrator of a terrorist attack in Beersheba. Zarhum was shot by a security guard then beaten to death by a mob of passers-by in a predictable response to the incitement from our own politicians to kill as revenge. And the increasingly intolerant, boiling, racist tone of the Israeli conversation is — there is no other way to put this — a result of 48 years of occupying another people: of Israelis receiving a message (or at least understanding it as such) that we are superior to others, that we control the fate of those lesser others, that we are allowed to disregard laws and any basic notions of human morality with regard to Palestinians.

The cumulative effect of this recent mindless violence is hugely disturbing. We seem to be in a fast and alarming downward swirl into a savage, unrepairable society. There is only one way to respond to what’s happening in Israel today: We must stop the occupation. Not for peace with the Palestinians or for their sake (though they have surely suffered at our hands for too long). Not for some vision of an idyllic Middle East — those arguments will never end, because neither side will ever budge, or ever be proved wrong by anything. No, we must stop the occupation for ourselves. So that we can look ourselves in the eyes. So that we can legitimately ask for, and receive, support from the world. So that we can return to being human.

Whatever the consequences are, they can’t be worse than what we are now grappling with. No matter how many soldiers we put in the West Bank, or how many houses of terrorists we blow up, or how many stone-throwers we arrest, we don’t have any sense of security; meanwhile, we have become diplomatically isolated, perceived around the world (sometimes correctly) as executioners, liars, racists. As long as the occupation lasts, we are the more powerful side, so we call the shots, and we cannot go on blaming others. For our own sake, for our sanity — we must stop now.

[shira]

1. Really bad, naive argument...

No, we must stop the occupation for ourselves. So that we can look ourselves in the eyes. So that we can legitimately ask for, and receive, support from the world. So that we can return to being human.

Endangering hundreds of thousands of Israeli lives by having Hamas and their lunatic friends just meters away from civilians is something the vast majority of Israelis do not want - and for good reason. No population would want al-Qaeda, ISIS, or Islamic Jihad just meters from their doorstep - even if they only incited people to throw rocks & stab women & children.



And the world will not support Israel at all given an end to the occupation.

The same nasty hatred, BDS, and anti-Israel sentiment would only increase once Israelis are attacked from so close. The Jews will still be blamed for provoking or starting it. For committing even more "genocide"....

Being "human" (by inviting more war & death) doesn't trump staying alive.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

2. The illegal colonistas shouldn't be there, shira.

But you say they should.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=116372

Very telling. ROR for them, but the road for the Palestinians.


Oh, you...

[shira]

3. Even if they were illegal colonistas (which they are not), your solution is more war/death....

You see, clear-minded good people want a peaceful 2-state solution, not one in which there'd be more war and death.

But you say they should.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=116372

Very telling. ROR for them, but the road for the Palestinians.

I believe Jews should be able to live anywhere within their historic homeland.

You're against that. Sounds like something from the old racist south, when many good people (who were also demonized as the other) were denied living among the white folk. I expect better on a liberal forum.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

4. You embody the works of Bibi Netanbooboo so well.

If excuses were fished you could open an aquarium.

[Israeli]

5. :).....nt.