The Renewed Israeli Occupation
2 million Palestinians under curfew [lockdown] for 75 days!
thanks to Gush Shalom
The Return of the Dinosaurs
by Uri Avnery
This week the Chief-of-Staff of the Israeli army, General Moshe Ya'alon, gave an interview to Ha'aretz. Not two months have passed since he assumed office, but the country is full of his philosophical output. We have learned about his mental world, his intellectual capacity and his leadership pretensions. From these three viewpoints, his outpourings are rather frightening - especially since every word of them has been approved, at least post factum, by Ariel Sharon.
The mental world of Moshe Ya'alon is composed of a heap of hackneyed myths that are taught in Israeli elementary schools instead of history. He repeats them like a not-very-intellectual pupil. But his pretensions are those of a super-leader, who stands above the government, the Knesset and the people.
(...)
A military officer has an important profession. He learns to move forces, use weapon systems, command troops, plan battles. But nothing - nothing at all! - in his professional career prepares him for analyzing intricate political moves, understand international relations or delve into the depths of history. From these points of view, his "professional expertise" is as valid as that of a plumber, an engineer of an ear, nose and throat specialist. It certainly is less than that of a historian, an Arabist or a professor of international relations. [read more]
----------
Confronting Pro-Occupation Arguments
The Ideology of Occupation, Part II
by Ran HaCohen
I said almost - because meanwhile the American Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld has spoken of the "so-called occupied territories". The present American government seems determined to take us all to darkest barbarism, where Holy Wars, Crusades against the Heathen, Axes of Evil, and Spoils of War are legitimate political terms. If Rumsfeld’s conception is true and the occupied territories are not occupied, then Israel is one of the worst racist dictatorships in modern times, where millions of inhabitants are held without nationality and without any political rights for generations. If Gaza and the West Bank are for Israel what Texas is for the United States, just imagine all Texans having no American citizenship and no voting rights for more than 35 years, their lands systematically confiscated and given to American settlers from other states. Strange as it may sound, the concept of occupation is essential for Israel’s democratic image. This is why even settlers try to justify the occupation rather than reject the term. Let’s see how. [read more]
----------
Occupation without responsibility
----------
Peace Now: Eight outposts set up in West Bank last month
----------
Some articles on what the occupation and lockdown means to the Palestinians.
Back to 1869
----------
'Kill me, shut everything, but I want water for my children'
----------
Perfecting the Violence of Curfew |
