McLoughlin Post editorial
Robert Wright's breakthrough NYT article, 'Against 'Pro-Israel' (and why I
think he is right.)
by Diane V. McLoughlin, March 24, 2010
main website http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
I applaud Robert Wright for his strong and forthright opposition to the policies of Israel. Like him, I
disagree with the strategies of her apologists. Wright argues in the New York Times, that calling
critics of Israel's policies anti-Israel (or, more threateningly, anti-Semitic) actually works against
Israel's best interests. Without our continued efforts to point out where Israel is failing in other
words, Israel will never be a success.
It seems to me that one of the biggest elements of the picture with the Israel-Palestine conflict is that
Israel clings to the racist notion that it exists to the exclusive benefit of Jews.
Over 20% of Israel's citizens are Palestinian. No solution is going to be able to account for this sad
reality for almost two million people who languish under constant oppressive and demeaning
treatment as second-class citizens unless it is faced head-on.
This is one of the most important aspects of the problem that must be illuminated. Ynet News, the
largest daily on-line Israel news site, and as far as I know a conservative publication, ran an article
about the Mossawa Center's annual report on racism that shares that the Knesset is the most racist
'since the establishment of the state... [the report] reveals a 75% increase in discriminatory and racist
bills submitted to the Knesset in the past year.'
Jonathan Cook writes in The National about a Jewish family who wanted to rent a home to their
Bedouin friends. Three of their dogs were poisoned, vintage cars they owned were burned, their
children are harassed at school; the municipality fights tooth and nail to find legal ways to keep the
Bedouins out. Municipalities throughout Israel are adopting codes to keep Palestinian Israeli citizens
out by forcing them to swear loyalty oaths pledging allegiance to: “Zionism, Jewish heritage and
settlement of the land”, the very system that seeks to ethnically cleanse them out.
IPS reports from East Jerusalem of nightly IDF raids into family homes for the arrests of children: '...
accelerated attacks by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers inside Silwan in particular, directed towards
the community's youngest and most vulnerable population. Since January, at least 33 children from
the area have been arrested, detained and interrogated by Israeli forces as home demolitions and
settler takeovers continue apace. Muslem Odeh, [aged] 10, tells IPS that he was taken by Israeli
forces on Mar. 11 at 3 am, after police broke into the family's home in Silwan's Bustan
neighbourhood and pepper-sprayed his father who attempted to protect him...'; in the area of Bustan
particularly we are told, the Arab children take their favorite toys and clothes with them to school
every day because they worry they will have no home to return to at the end of the day.
A brief scan at uruknet.info finds that 90% of Gaza's water is polluted; the Israeli Education
Ministry censors the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; more civilians killed in the occupied
West Bank, and more air strikes launched against Gaza; Egypt works to complete its monstrosity of
a steel wall that will cut off Gaza's last means of importing goods with which 1.5 million Gaza
inhabitants depend, half of whom are children. (uruknet sources: Palestinian Center for Human
Rights; Promised Land blog; www.rafahtoday.org .)
The apologists will tell you that Palestinian Israeli citizens have 'equal rights'; that Gaza had to be
attacked because of rocket fire - Gaza was in the middle of abiding by a mutually agreed upon cease-
fire (see CNN YouTube here) when Israel, rather than seizing the opportunity to work at
normalizing relations with Gaza and lifting the military siege, girded for total destruction of Gaza
instead.
In Canada, an unappointed group of Parliamentarians led by Irwin Cotler (the CPCCA) is busily
spinning quietly in back rooms to come up with ways to create legal chill against public criticism of
Israel - what they refer to as 'the new anti-Semitism'. Glen Greenwald is so right to refer to
Canada's so-called 'hate speech' laws as 'creepy'. I'd go further: it's a fundamental threat to
democracy and liberty. (So's the McCain-Lieberman bill, S.3081 - but that's a story for another day.)
Jewish Voice For Peace is asking everyone who abhors the current unmovable stasis of the situation
to sign their PETITION: Tell President Obama: No more unconditional aid to Israel;
support his demand for an end to settlement construction. It reads, in part: 'Please withhold US aid
to Israel until it agrees to abide by international law including ending settlement construction and
lifting the blockade on Gaza.'
Petition link: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org...
And editorials of mine can be found at http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
For now.
_________________________________________________________
Recommend at NYT
Commenting on Against 'Pro-Israel' - NYTimes.com
Comments on the above article may be left on my blog, here.
Home
Robert Wright's breakthrough NYT article, 'Against 'Pro-Israel' (and why I
think he is right.)
by Diane V. McLoughlin, March 24, 2010
main website http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
I applaud Robert Wright for his strong and forthright opposition to the policies of Israel. Like him, I
disagree with the strategies of her apologists. Wright argues in the New York Times, that calling
critics of Israel's policies anti-Israel (or, more threateningly, anti-Semitic) actually works against
Israel's best interests. Without our continued efforts to point out where Israel is failing in other
words, Israel will never be a success.
It seems to me that one of the biggest elements of the picture with the Israel-Palestine conflict is that
Israel clings to the racist notion that it exists to the exclusive benefit of Jews.
Over 20% of Israel's citizens are Palestinian. No solution is going to be able to account for this sad
reality for almost two million people who languish under constant oppressive and demeaning
treatment as second-class citizens unless it is faced head-on.
This is one of the most important aspects of the problem that must be illuminated. Ynet News, the
largest daily on-line Israel news site, and as far as I know a conservative publication, ran an article
about the Mossawa Center's annual report on racism that shares that the Knesset is the most racist
'since the establishment of the state... [the report] reveals a 75% increase in discriminatory and racist
bills submitted to the Knesset in the past year.'
Jonathan Cook writes in The National about a Jewish family who wanted to rent a home to their
Bedouin friends. Three of their dogs were poisoned, vintage cars they owned were burned, their
children are harassed at school; the municipality fights tooth and nail to find legal ways to keep the
Bedouins out. Municipalities throughout Israel are adopting codes to keep Palestinian Israeli citizens
out by forcing them to swear loyalty oaths pledging allegiance to: “Zionism, Jewish heritage and
settlement of the land”, the very system that seeks to ethnically cleanse them out.
IPS reports from East Jerusalem of nightly IDF raids into family homes for the arrests of children: '...
accelerated attacks by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers inside Silwan in particular, directed towards
the community's youngest and most vulnerable population. Since January, at least 33 children from
the area have been arrested, detained and interrogated by Israeli forces as home demolitions and
settler takeovers continue apace. Muslem Odeh, [aged] 10, tells IPS that he was taken by Israeli
forces on Mar. 11 at 3 am, after police broke into the family's home in Silwan's Bustan
neighbourhood and pepper-sprayed his father who attempted to protect him...'; in the area of Bustan
particularly we are told, the Arab children take their favorite toys and clothes with them to school
every day because they worry they will have no home to return to at the end of the day.
A brief scan at uruknet.info finds that 90% of Gaza's water is polluted; the Israeli Education
Ministry censors the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; more civilians killed in the occupied
West Bank, and more air strikes launched against Gaza; Egypt works to complete its monstrosity of
a steel wall that will cut off Gaza's last means of importing goods with which 1.5 million Gaza
inhabitants depend, half of whom are children. (uruknet sources: Palestinian Center for Human
Rights; Promised Land blog; www.rafahtoday.org .)
The apologists will tell you that Palestinian Israeli citizens have 'equal rights'; that Gaza had to be
attacked because of rocket fire - Gaza was in the middle of abiding by a mutually agreed upon cease-
fire (see CNN YouTube here) when Israel, rather than seizing the opportunity to work at
normalizing relations with Gaza and lifting the military siege, girded for total destruction of Gaza
instead.
In Canada, an unappointed group of Parliamentarians led by Irwin Cotler (the CPCCA) is busily
spinning quietly in back rooms to come up with ways to create legal chill against public criticism of
Israel - what they refer to as 'the new anti-Semitism'. Glen Greenwald is so right to refer to
Canada's so-called 'hate speech' laws as 'creepy'. I'd go further: it's a fundamental threat to
democracy and liberty. (So's the McCain-Lieberman bill, S.3081 - but that's a story for another day.)
Jewish Voice For Peace is asking everyone who abhors the current unmovable stasis of the situation
to sign their PETITION: Tell President Obama: No more unconditional aid to Israel;
support his demand for an end to settlement construction. It reads, in part: 'Please withhold US aid
to Israel until it agrees to abide by international law including ending settlement construction and
lifting the blockade on Gaza.'
Petition link: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org...
And editorials of mine can be found at http://www.mcloughlinpost.com
For now.
_________________________________________________________
Recommend at NYT
Commenting on Against 'Pro-Israel' - NYTimes.com
Comments on the above article may be left on my blog, here.
Home