Saturday, January 26, 2013

How to Read Israeli Politicians

"Mr Bennett told supporters the party had returned to the centre stage of Israeli politics and that it had become a new home for those wanting 'a proud, non-servile Zionism." (Coalition key to Bibi holding on, John Lyons, The Australian, 24/1/12)

A proud, non-servile Zionism? The adjectives here are, of course, redundant. There's no such thing as a cringing, servile Zionism. When it comes to the colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine it's only ever been a matter of pace tempered these days maybe by the presence or absence of Western journalists and cameramen.

"'You don't come to negotiations only with an olive branch, the way the Left does, or only with a gun, the way the Right does,' [Yair Lapid] said in a speech in the Ariel settlement deep in the West Bank. 'You come to find a solution. We're not looking for a happy marriage with the Palestinians, but for a divorce agreement we can live with.'" (No coalition figleaf role: Lapid, AFP, The Australian, 24/1/13)

The only time a Zionist has an olive branch in his hand is when he's vandalising a Palestinian olive orchard. And if he's not actually holding a gun, he's got a soldier holding one for him.

Note that the preferred platform for an Israeli 'centrist' politician these days is an illegal Israeli colony deep in the occupied West Bank.

Rapists don't marry their victims, so what's this nonsense about "a divorce we can live with"? Moshe Dayan at least had the rape bit right when he told the Palestinian poet, Fadwa Tuqan in 1967:

"The situation between us is like the complex relationship between a Bedouin man and the young girl he has taken against her wishes. But when their children are born, they will see the man as their father and the woman as their mother. The initial act will mean nothing to them. You, the Palestinians, as a nation, do not want us today, but we will change your attitude by imposing our presence upon you."

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