For the past few years there has been an attempt on both college campuses and in the churches to divest from Israel. The model for this policy is drawn from the struggle against apartheid. Carter describes Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories as “worse than apartheid”. Though he protests that he is talking about land acquisition in the occupied territories and not racial policy in Israel, the distinction has been lost on the general public.[....]
Carter has given those who support divestiture a needed imprimatur. No longer can supporters of Israel say that, whatever you think of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, it is ludicrous to compare it to apartheid. Carter has.
I predicted that:
So begins a new stage in the assault on Israel’s legitimacy. It is serious and frightening — and I don’t frighten easily. I have no doubt that it will soon migrate to these [UK] shores.
So it seems that this is already happening. According to the Canadian Jewish News, universities in Canada, Europe and the United States hosted “Israeli Apartheid Week,” a series of lectures on the topic “Zionist ethnic cleansing, colonization and occupation of Palestine.”
Jimmy Carter cannot get credit for these events. Some of them had been held prior to the publication of his book. But I am sure his book will give other universities the impetus to copy these events.
Lectures were held at universities in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, Oxford, Cambridge and London.
One of the speakers was Jamal Zahalka, a Palestinian member of Knesset who attended the gatherings in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa to present his lecture titled “Debunking the Myth of Israeli Democracy.”
And, little surprise, one of the other speakers was Norman Finkelstein.
2 comments:
"So begins a new stage in the assault on Israel’s legitimacy. It is serious and frightening — and I don’t frighten easily."
I'm frightened too.
Not only for Israel, but for my country America.
I don't get why our politicians have the *gaul* to make demagouge's analogies and tyrant's distortions about American foreign policy (concerning Israel or not) considering the fact that such politicians think that (in the words of the respect party):
"By refusing to accept that Britain’s(insert western nation of choice) foreign policy is the problem, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, the government will be unable to deal with the causes of terrorism"
That scares me really really badly, that politicians who we trust to represent us, who we trust to give us a fair shake, would go so far as to embellish/manufacture pretexts to launch terrorist attacks against our communities.
Look, to me this is the point that this isn't just politics anymore and that we need to step up and challenge these quacks with a bitter resolve.
What can we do?
It really is hard not to be pessimistic in view of such events. The so-called Left's main foreign-policy mission since the outbreak of the al Aqsa Intifada has been to delegitimize Israel as a country. This is the hallmark of the new anti-Semitism.
Add to the demographic changes within Israel proper (i.e. inside the Green Line) - something like half of all primary students in the school system are either Haredi or Arab, and you can guess what coalition mathematics are going to look like in another twenty years.
I'm purposely leaving Iran out of the mix.
Where do we go from here?
Post a Comment