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What is Israel`s "democracy" ?
What has been going on in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip is not only overtly tragic and deadly by all counts but is covertly an embodiment of Israel`s unique "democracy". Thanks to this unprecedented democracy, the entire Palestinian territories have been converted into a big prison where the sufferings of the Palestinian people are unbearable. So far, more than 3000 Palestinians have been killed, about 45,000 injured and over 10,000 arrested since the Palestinian Intifada started in September 2000 following the provocative visit by Ariel Sharon to the holy al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. Since then, Israel`s acts of mass genocide and brutal destruction have been at full swing against the Palestinian people. The anti-Palestinian bloodshed and destruction, maintained under the alleged banners of "combating terrorism", protecting Israel`s "security" and establishing "peace" continued unabated. Israel`s criminal and brutal acts were seen growing to make best use of the consequences of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.
The whole tragic state of affairs is the direct product of Israel`s "democracy" which is embodied in those criminal and inhuman acts against the Palestinians just because they want to resist the ugly occupation of a "democratic" state, to defend their own land and to achieve freedom and independence. This is virtually an integral part of Israel`s "alleged" democracy. This very democracy has been breeding terrorism and violence and successively producing racist and extremist Israeli leaders whose main pre-occupation is to perpetuate occupation and aggression, to expel -if not wipe out- the native Palestinian people and to set up a purely Jewish "Eretz Yisrael" state extending from the Nile to the Euphrates in the very heart of the Arab region. The "Jewish state" in the racist sense was explicitly expressed by US President George W. Bush and Israel`s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during the recent summit in Jordan`s Aqaba.
Premier Sharon, the well-known butcher and war criminal, topped the list of those racist and extremist leaders as he won the last "democratic" Israeli elections which were an embodiment of racism and extremism in Israel. Israel`s democracy continues to maintain anti-peace drive, support ultra-right Jewish groups, back racist settlers, terrorize the indigenous Palestinians and silence even Israeli pro-peace activists.
Nevertheless, the Israeli Zionists and their backers continued blatantly to describe Israel`s ruling system as democratic, parliamentary and politically pluralist. They continue to allege it is the only democratic system in the region and it is unique in its social equality maintained among categories of the Israeli society. But the course of events has irrefutably shown that the Israeli "state" is a system of a racist and settler barrack whose main function is to militarize the entire society, change it into a complete settler entity and attain expansion and hegemony. Reference should be made to the fact that the constitution of this state (and its borders) are still not fixed with a view to making the implementation of the expansionist project open and to validating its racist nature. The so-called democratic and pluralist course ran in the direction of bringing Jews from different corners of the world and settling them in Arab Palestine. Relative representation and voting for lists of certain political parties is to make power sustainable in the hand of leaders of those parties, namely the Likud and the Labour. Those two rival and biggest parties, which belong to the same ideology of the Zionist project and represent two faces of the same coin, have been sharing power in Israel for more than three decades ago.
Such democratic system moreover cannot hide its racist nature especially with regard to relations with the population. The political system`s relation with Jewish settlers who enjoy full rights and privileges is completely different from the relation with the native Palestinian Arabs. The indigenous Palestinians have been subject to racial discrimination, oppression, subjugation and a blockade and are deprived of their basic rights as "citizens". The Arabs are experiencing a state of apartheid reminiscent of Pretoria`s notorious system. Discrimination has also been at full swing between the Jewish "Ashkenaz" (known as Westerners) and the Jewish "Sevardim" (known
as orientalists). Furthermore, the Israeli legislation and laws, including the "law of return", the "lands law" and the "law of the absentees" are all racist since they are based on setting up a pure "Jewish state". This structural contradiction between Israel as a "Jewish state" and Israel as a democratic state has been conflicting among all the Israelis.
On the other hand, such democratic system cannot hide the domination of the military establishment on all walks of life inside Israel as this establishment has proven to be the actual ruler. Most ruling political elites came from different Zionist-Jewish military gangs such as the "Stern", the "Hagana" and the "Irgun" and from the ranks of the Israeli army. The leadership of the army has proven to be the shortest way to reach the top of the political leadership. Since its foundation, Israel was ruled by military leaders including David Bin Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres. Most successive Israeli leaders were chiefs of staff who turned into political leaders including Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Mordechai Gur, Ezra Weisman, Yitzhak Mordechai, Ehud Barak, Shaul Mofaz and Ariel Sharon.
The Israeli democratic system cannot also hide the strong tie between it and the militarized Jewish society and the role this system play in serving the colonialist strategies of the American-Zionist imperialist centers in the entire Arab region and the world at large. Israel, whose lifeline is based on the unlimited US support, has been America`s strongest and unmatched ally and an advanced US base in the region.
Activities of the ruling "democratic" authorities in Israel, which have been fully backed by the US, have been concentrating on wiping out the Palestinian Intifada, on crushing the resistance of the Palestinian people by the use of brutal military force, on enhancing the Israeli military arsenal which includes weapons of mass destruction and targets the Arab and Muslim peoples, on agitating further tension in the region and
on blowing up a just and comprehensive Middle East peace based on ending all forms of occupation and aggression and on recognizing the legitimate Palestinians` right to liberation, freedom, self-determination and independence.
After all, how can Israel be democratic? And what kind of this democracy which is ruled by a military junta and is based on killing others, occupying others` territory, masterminding terrorism and racism and refusing the widely-recognized just ME peace?
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international |
anti-war / imperialism |
opinion/analysis
Thursday July 31, 2003 18:36
by Séamus
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Comments (17 of 17)
Jump To Comment: 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1There is little point in debating with the Zionists; they have no desire to acquaint themselves with facts or reality, but rely on the vast oceans of garbage spilled out by the western media and by western academics, who have spent the last 6 decades, being well paid in the process, arguing that this is somehow a 'complicated' issue, or one where issues of anti-semitism are involved.
It is neither. In fact the issue is very simple. And it has nothing to do with anti-semitism. The well-armed, US-backed Israeli state is wholly in the wrong, and, since its creation, has oppressed and tortured a largely defenceless people in a barbaric fashion. Zionists may not like to hear this but it is true, and until their state ends this oppression and torture, and allows for the creation of a genuinely independent, soverign Palestinian state, comprising all of its internationally-recognised territories, they will also continue to suffer the consequences, albeit not to anything like the same degree as the Palsetinians
Like everyone else has, the Jewish people have a homeland. That homeland is Israel, the ancient settlement of the Jewish people, as described in the Bible.
Jews, the Jewish people, (and now Israel) have been reviled by anti-Semites for centuries. However, I would like to tell the anti-Semites that Israel and the Jewish people will be here long after they are gone.
Israel is not above criticism, but critics must be even-handed; the terrorist actions of the Palestinian militias have long delayed the peace process. This should be discussed also in an article criticizing Israel.
The Palestinians say the same of the Israelis. There is one fundamental difference, however, the Israelis hold all the trump cards but still expect the Palestinians to play on equal terms. Sitting on the fence and waiting for the Palestinians to give up what little dignity they have left will only ensure the extremists within the ranks of the Palestinians hold sway, but of course that suits the right wing in Israel anyway. No risk, no reward!
What makes you think that if we give the Palestinians what they say they want, they will stop murdering us? Their track record demonstrates very clearly otherwise.
The fact is that defending yourself by the means Israel employs does not work. This evidenced by over a century of experience in guerrilla war since the Boer war where the British attempted, and failed, to win by inventing the concentration camp. Israel has gone half way to making peace by signing treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and has de-facto peace on its' borders with Lebanon and Syria.
Unfortunately, Israel is still held to ransom by its own military and the right-wing who are concerned about territorial integrity on the one hand and expansion on the other. This has resulted in a paralasis where the Israeli government has won the war, has a nuclear deterent and overwhelming military power. Israel is unsure of how to move forward even though it knows the US cannot continue to foot the bill economically and Israel will have to pay for its own defence eventually.
The resulting policy of containment operated against Palestinians has failed with grave consequences for civil life and the Israeli economy.
There is only one way out of Israels present predicament, a real peace on fair terms with the Palestinians by giving up territory occupied in the 1967 war in exchange for peace. Israel will then find itself in the enviable position of being the gateway to the Arab world for the West from which it will gain economically and in practical terms open borders and trade will secure peace.
So you think a democracy can defend itself against all comers by doing good deeds and then just hoping for the best, do you? No need for police, armed forces or anything like that?
If so, you are either just very naive or a complete idiot or both.
You are unable to produce a single word in defence of the nuclear armed Israeli police-state, and resort instead to personal attacks!
Israel if it were a real democracy would not have to intern Mordechai Vannunu and hundreds of Palestinians for the past 20 years or more stretching far back before the Intifadas and suicide bombing campaigns.
A sensible person would deduce that the Israelis have brought their current troubles upon themselves by locking up people without trial, based on experience in Ireland and elsewhere. For the moment Sharon and his government remain the best recruiter for the ranks of suicide bombers!
Your statements are anything but reasoned. In fact, they are a perfect definition of speciousness.
You are obviously unable to defend Israels actions by reasoned argument otherwise you would not have to cop out by playing the race card!
This vile stuff about Israel is all just Jew-hate. Why not just come out and say it? It's so obvious.
The only citizens resident in a first world democracy not entitled to full and equal representation are prisoners in jail, therefore it is clear given the treatment of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians that they are all incarcerated within their own country.
I suppose compared to a 3rd world dictatorship Israel might qualify as a "democracy" however it falls far short of accepted norms in the "western world" which it claims to be a member of.
Israel is a very long way from "Liberte, egalite et fraternite" and "freedom and justice for all".
Specifically it operates a policy of discrimination against both Arab Israeli citizens and Palestinians under its control.
It is interesting to note that notwithstanding its flouting of international law , UN resolutions and Nuclear Weapons proliferation to name but two, and absymal human rights record, that it is given preferential treatment by the EU whereas Turkey which is every bit as "democratic", is not!
If I understand this arguement it goes like this. People of country A are being harsh, evil, (doing something bad) to people B -- THEREFORE "A" must not be a democracy.
WHY? You seem to have little grasp of the concept. Democracy is a term used for a decision making process whereby "the people" more or less get to make the decisions, either directly or throuhg rperesentatives. NOTHING in that specifies that the decisions so reached will be "good", just that they will more or less represent the will of the people making the decisions. The only democracy you can expect to always make "good" decisions would be one populated by angels (assuming you believe in angels).
I suggest that perhaps you suffer from some sort of religious belief whereby you believe that "the people" only make "good" decisions. Such faith is touching, but please, allow us to use terms in the normal way.
Israel most certainly is a democracy regardless of whether you think actions of the Israelis are good or bad.
You're not very intelligent, are you, James?
typical ignorant remark to equate criticism of the nazi "state" of Israel with anti semitism.
This so called state is basically an american colony, just like the native americans were wiped out by mass genocide so too for the unfortunate Palestinians, who speaks for them? (also a semite tribe incidentally Fergus). How can I be a Palestinian supporter and be anti semite? Contradiction in terms.
James
Anti-semitism, as demonstrated throughout history and by most of the comments on this site, is the mark of the true inferior. Howling Jew hate thinly disguised as reason fools very few people.
I do believe that the above article is critical of Israeli Jews.
Everybody knows you cant critisize them or you are a nazi. You must be an evil person who loves Hitler. After all they are Gods chosen people so they cant do any wrong. I know it looks like they are killing palestinians and boxing them into ever decreasing concentration camps like jenin but this is for their own good because they shouldnt have been born there in the first place they were just minding it for a few centruries untill they conolised the new roman empire and needed somewhere to retire.
I hope this clears up any confusion.