Occupation warps the occupier as well?
He's the hardline PM but staff say she's the real bully
JERUSALEM - It's been a taxing time for Benjamin Netanyahu. He has had to soothe fears of a possible war with Lebanon. He has made an uncompromising statement about the future of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. And then, of course, there's the knotty matter of his wife's domestic arrangements and the employees she is accused of bullying. First, an Israeli newspaper revealed in a front page story that Sara Netanyahu's former housekeeper, Lillian Peretz, was filing suit for 300,000 shekels ($114,000) damages from her ex-employer for "humiliating" her and paying her less than the minimum wage. Try as she did to brush the allegations off, the First Lady could not make them go away. Then, as if her reputation weren't in enough trouble, another publication claimed Sara Netanyahu had fired "an elderly Jew, about 70, a bereaved father who used to rake leaves and carry out basic gardening chores for less than the minimum wage". To fire a man whose son died fighting for his country would be considered harsh anywhere. But in Israel, where society's identification with fallen soldiers and their parents is at the core of its identity, what Netanyahu stands accused of doing is seen as unspeakably cruel.
Hmmm, maybe perpetrating a brutal 4 decade occupation, (where unspeakable cruelty is meted out to Palestinian people through a thousand daily humiliations from pregnant woman forced to give birth at checkpoints to the economic strangulation placed upon Palestinians for having the temerity of democratically electing a political party the US and Israel didn’t agree to), warps the occupier as well?
I mean you do this sort of heavy shit to a people for such a long time and some of that cruelty starts to seep in doesn’t it? Political corruption seems to go hand in hand with cruel actions by the state, and Israel has had its share of politicians accused of money laundering and fraud…
Israeli police recommend corruption charges against Avigdor Lieberman
Israeli police have recommended charging the country's hardline foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, with several counts of corruption as part of a bribery investigation ...Lieberman, head of a popular far-right party, is suspected of bribery, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering and obstruction of justice in a case dating back over nine years. If charged and convicted on all counts he faces up to 31 years in jail.
Ehud Olmert: Corruption allegations
Mr Olmert has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and concealing fraudulent earnings in connection with donations received from the a New York-based financier, Morris (or Moshe) Talansky between 1997 and 2005.
Perhaps ending the occupation would be as beneficial to the ethical soul of Israel’s political establishment as it will be to the well being of the Palestinian population?
Oh and don’t you love the map below? It really does make a very clear visual analysis of the brutal occupation and it’s results on the Palestinians.
posted by Bomber @ 9:12 am
17 comments
17 Comments:
There is a saying - conscription doesn't civilianise the military, it militarises the civil society.
Israel migrated from Democratic State to a Garrison State at least thirty years ago now, and United States is following them.
Your map is very misleading. Israel was established well before the dates you quote. What happened? The Assyrian Empire wiped them out.
But we cant have people knowing that can we?
Anonymous immediately above says:
" Your map is very misleading. Israel was established well before the dates you quote. What happened? The Assyrian Empire wiped them out. "
Anonymous , the map above is the map the Palestine front use. It is fundamentally correct.
However as you point out,
It is only recent history since Arab and jew did not live together peacefully.
Bomber is not a peaceful person.
he is a warlord.
Don't ask Bomber to present wise articles.
30/1/10 2:00 PM
What? Two comments and we've already got one idiot referencing Biblical history (which no reputable historian or archeologist supports), as evidence of a once glorious Kingdom. What he doesn't mention is that the Palestinians are not only the descendants of those "Israelites" but also the descendants of the Jebusites, Moabites, Hittites, Samaritans, and whatever-ites who occupied and governed the land that was not part of the small collection of hovels and goat-sheds that made up the Kingdom of Israel at the time.
Show us your map then anonymous.
A little off-topic but some anonymidiot is bound to bring up the Holocaust in defence of Israel's claim to the ownership anything they fancy in the Middle East so here's Norm Finklestein skewering Israel Charny, High Priest of the new Israeli Religion:
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/holocaust-exploited.html
If we had debates like this and moderators like Peter LaVelle on NZ TV I might buy one.
Peter LaVelle!
He is Putins mouthpiece.
LaVelle has as much authority to talk about Palestine-Israel relations, as Monckton does on climate change.
Sheesh brewer, you set yourself up for ridicule every time.
"LaVelle has as much authority to talk about Palestine-Israel relations, as Monckton does on climate change."
Pardon me if I do not take the ridicule of someone who does not understand the role of moderator very seriously.
"If we had debates like this and moderators like Peter LaVelle on NZ TV I might buy one."
Brewer thinks that Hamas is moderate so go figure.
I am a little curious anon, while I don't think Hamas are moderate, they are a democratically elected reaction to a 4 decade long occupation. Look at that map again and see how Palestinian land has been robbed and they have been pushed to the edges, what are the Palestinians supposed to do Anon? Roll over and die? They aren't allowed to resist an occupation? Seriously, I really want to know, are Palestinians just supposed to accept occupation of their lands are they??
Anonymous posters rarely seem to display the sources that inform their bald assertions. This does not encourage me to change my assessment of Hamas. Certainly not when eminent persons, who deal with Hamas everyday are in agreement.
"In the five years that I have been visiting Gaza and the West Bank, I have met hundreds of Hamas politicians and supporters. None of them has professed the goal of Islamising Palestinian society, Taleban-style. Hamas relies on secular voters too much to do that. People still listen to pop music, watch television and women still choose whether to wear the veil or not.
The political leadership of Hamas is probably the most highly qualified in the world. Boasting more than 500 PhDs in its ranks, the majority are middle-class professionals - doctors, dentists, scientists and engineers. Most of its leadership have been educated in our universities and harbour no ideological hatred towards the West."
William Sieghart is chairman of Forward Thinking, an independent conflict resolution agency currently in negotiations with Hamas for the British Govt.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5420584.ece
"Everyone seems to have forgotten that Hamas declared an end to suicide bombings and rocket fire when it decided to join the Palestinian political process, and largely stuck to it for more than a year......
....These are not the conclusions of an apologist for Hamas but the opinions of the former head of Mossad and Sharon’s national security adviser, Ephraim Halevy. The Hamas leadership has undergone a change ‘right under our very noses’, Halevy wrote recently in Yedioth Ahronoth, by recognising that ‘its ideological goal is not attainable and will not be in the foreseeable future.’ It is now ready and willing to see the establishment of a Palestinian state within the temporary borders of 1967."
Rabbi Siegman is director of the US Middle East Project in New York, is a visiting research professor at SOAS, University of London. He is a former national director of the American Jewish Congress and of the Synagogue Council of America.
"Hamas has accepted Israel's right to exist and would be prepared to nullify its charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel, Aziz Dwaik, Hamas's most senior representative in the West Bank, said on Wednesday.
PLC Speaker Aziz Dwaik (right) meets UK millionaire David Martin Abrahams in Hebron, Wednesday."
http://www.davidmartinabrahams.co.uk/?page=articles&id=66
Listen also to Sir Jeremy Greenstock, former British Ambassador to the U.N:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7823000/7823746.stm
Now if these people are now saying the same things I have been saying for quite some time, I think it is time certain posters caught up with the play.
Germany and America were occupied for 4 decades? Really? Wow.
"So what is your point."
The point is :
Israel is slowly expanding.
And that's causeing problems.
Germany and America were occupied for 4 decades? Really? Wow.
Well, Germany was in a sense occupied for 30 years vis a vis the Treaty of Versailles.
The economic burden placed on them, effectively putting them in debt till 1988, was one of the major reasons of WW2.
Does the fact that Germany was so constrained give them a justification for War too?
You brought up Germany and America, but went quiet on the American example anon, why?
Before you answer that, let's go back to Germany, so Germany was occupied by an external military force and their state dismantled from effective decision making for four decades were they brave anonymous poster? That's incredible, I thought Germany had punitive economic sanctions placed upon them from the First World War, I had no idea an occupation was in effect, who were the occupiers Anon?
Oh and you still haven't explained exactly what it is the Palestinians should do in response to their occupation, are you saying resistance is not allowed?
"Does the fact that Germany was so constrained give them a justification for War too?"
Depends how good your marketing machine is.
(Gobbels, Joseph)
Depends how good your war machine is.
(The American-Israeli Military Industrial Complex)
2 things anon -
1: if you post anonymously, then you get accredited with the comments of anonymous posters, trying to wriggle out of America doesn't work.
2: Claiming the Rhineland equates to ALL of Germany as your example of occupation is pretty desperate. The Germany example isn't the same as Palestine because ALL of Palestine is under occupation, Germany wasn't. For you to bitch about my history is a little rich when your geography seems so poor.
j.r ewing
yer definition of a war crime is a tad bucolic for my liking, look it up as we thought we were the rural peasants and not you?
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