I didn’t want the week to go by completely without noting the revealing interview given by Likud Party leader and former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the Financial Times and published in its October 7 edition. The interview makes clear that Netanyahu, who, according to recent polls, would be the front-runner in Israel if new elections were held today, has no interest in a two-state solution and would prefer to lead his country and the Palestinian territories under its control into a de facto apartheid state, bantustans and all. To quote from the FT:
“…Mr. Netanyahu wants to see the West Bank divided into a collection of disconnected economic zones with dedicated business projects.
“The ancient town of Jericho, for instance, should capitalise on its proximity to the Jordan River to attract Baptist tourists from the US — a location which the hawkish leader of the Israeli opposition says is ‘easily worth tens of thousands of jobs.’â€
“The Palestinians, Mr. Netanyahu adds, would be allowed to hold on to their population centres. Other parts of the West Bank, such as the Judean desert and the Jordan Valley, should not leave Israeli control. ‘These areas are very significant for us because they are our strategic security belt,’ he says.
“…’It is not so much that peace brings prosperity – it is that prosperity brings peace,’ he says.â€
All this sounds, of course, a lot like a recipe for setting up Bantustans. Instead of casinos in Sun City in Bophuthatswana, Netanyahu proposes Biblical tourism for Christian Zionists as a possible economic engine for Palestinian development.
Netanyahu goes on to offer his worldview, one that demonstrates clearly what the neo-conservatives have tried to do since 9/11 — subordinate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a “clash of civilizations†in which the U.S. and the West would naturally have to support Israel. Quoting again from the FT:
“Resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians …is a second-order issue for the Likud leader. ‘The issue for me is not the Palestinian problem. I think that conflict has been replaced by the battle between radical Islam and the western world,’ he says.†[Editor’s note: Is there any doubt that distribution of ‘Obsession’ in the U.S. and abroad serves Likud’s purposes exceptionally well?]
“Handing back control of the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal, argues Mr. Netanyahu, would strengthen the hand of Iran. ‘Any area we withdraw from will be taken over by Iran and its proxies,’ he claims, pointing to the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group, last year. ‘Both Lebanon and Gaza have become Iranian bases and they would get a third one if we retreat from the West Bank.’â€
So, if Netanyahu somehow regains the premiership and has sufficient political power (and U.S. backing) to follow through on his current views, the inevitable result will be a de facto apartheid Israel and, one way or another, the end of a state that is both Jewish and democratic. Indeed, the biggest threat to Israel’s existence clearly lies not with Iran and its allies, but rather from Netanyahu the Likud and those who support them abroad, particularly in the U.S.
Speaking of which, check out a bizarre story in the current issue of The Forward about a U.S. group called “Stand Up America†led by two retired U.S. generals who have retained a U.S. attorney to represent former Israeli defense minister Gen. Shaul Mofaz in any legal effort to reverse his defeat last month in the Kadima primary election by Tzipi Livni. Mofaz, of course, represents the right wing of the centrist party, although, historically, his views are virtually indistinguishable from Netanyahu’s, Mofaz’ former mentor in Likud. (It was Mofaz whose threats against Iran last spring contributed substantially to the biggest daily spike in the global price of oil in its historic rise through the summer.)
The two generals are Thomas McInerney and Paul Vallely who have long advocated a military attack on Iran and have been members of the Iraq Policy Committee, a group that has lobbied hard (and so far unsuccessfully) for taking the cultish Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MeK) off the State Department’s terrorism and for providing it with loads of assistance as leader of the “democratic opposition†to the theocracy. Stand Up America, according to McInerny, is to “protect America and let people understand the danger of radical Islam and the seriousness of global jihad.â€
“We do not want a government in Israel that will support appeasement,†McInerney told The Forward. “…We believe it is 1938 and everyone is going on, in denial.â€
The two generals’ last trip to Israel was sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Becoming apartheid? …And here I thought it was apartheid for the past 60 years. What’s the difference between Israel and pre-1994 South Africa?
A.: Israel enjoys wildly distorted good press in the U.S.
What’s the difference between Israel and pre-1994 South Africa?
Nothing really, except Bishop Desmond Tutu said palestine was actually worse.
What’s the difference between Israel and pre-1994 South Africa?
Israel has thermo-nuclear weapons.
Millions of Fighting Fundy Armegeddonites did not care about S. Africa.
Lester Ness
Kunming
China
So they want to go from apartheid-lite to apartheid-full. Big surprise – who didn’t see that coming? Republicans or Democrats in control of the US – it won’t matter for the Palestinians. And yet the Israelis will continue portray themselves as the perpetual victim as the Palestinians continue to resist and the US media will be their sounding board.
For as much as things change, the more the stay the same.
Contrary to what most people expect in ths country, the price of jet fuel ain’t gonna go down any time soon, and with the stock market crashing, even the most wild-eyed Christian zionist is going to be taking a hit in the pocket book as it is, without the cost of flying half-way around the world to the Middle East.
THe economic crisis is going to hit the Bible Belt harder than anywhere else in the counrty, because that is where all of the mortgage lending shenanigans were going out. Too many houses means housing prices plummeting means less equity to draw from to fund the 2 week vacation to the Holer land.
Israel better find some other scam to make its bred because this “religious tourist” scam has a very limited lifespan.
Israel will pay for that from US funds.
I suspect the Xtn Zionists will get ever more eager for the Rapture till they finally give up hope. Then they will blame everyone but themselves. Perhaps they will blame the Israelis, for not re-building Herod’s Temple (essential to their future history). Probably they will blame “sinners” in the USA for provoking the wrath of God. If they gain real power, say, under Pres. Palin, it could be a bad time for all non-Fundies in the USA.
Flee the wrath which is to come!
Lester Ness
Kunming
China
Wait. Jewish-only roads, Jewish-only housing, Jewish-only schools, wild discrepancies in per capita spending on health, education and municipal services, whole sale detention without charges of political, student and union leaders, extra judicial killings, and a national identity card that lists religion as one of the data fields all underwritten by US tax dollars and tax-free Israeli bonds sold to US investors…
Please, someone explain to me, how exactly does this system differ from apartheid?
South African apartheid was not funded by the U.S. taxpayer
thus it was not a just cause.
Clear?
US soon won’t have any “funds”, silly. Today was a sucker’s rally– everyone hold their stocks that they bought today and see what happens to them.
Dow 7000 here we come.
Vallely was the guy who oversaw the writing of Michael Aquino’s tract “From PSYOP to MindWar : The Psychology of Victory”, back in 1980. Sadly the title is more exciting than the content.
Hmmm…Michael Aquino…Michael Aquino? Do you mean US Army Special Forces Lt. Colonel Michael Aquino? The same Michael Aquino who left The Church of Satan because they we’re Satanic enough and went on to found a Satanic cult called The Temple of Set?! I remember the first time I saw him…hehe, he looked like Spock from Star Trek! XD
Hmmm…Major General Paul E. Vallely, Commander of the 7th Psychological Operations Group – and FOX News military analyst extraordinaire – collaborated with THE foremost Satanist in the world to produce a PsyOp document entitled MindWar…!
I’m sure there’s nothing to this…you Anti-War.com guys can go back to sitting on your hands.
Thanks for the heads up, Rowan!
corr: “…weren’t Satanic enough..”
The U.S. gains absolutely NOTHING from its ties to Israel.
That’s not true. Israel has amazing scientists, doctors, artists, musicians artisans etc who do and can contribute a lot. Also, not all Israelis are slick right-wing warmongers. They do care about Israel and her security but are also worried by the fascist trends coming from some very wealthy and powerful people. You have to understand that these people are connected across the Atlantic so they do initiate policies which are often to the detriment of ordinary people in both Israel and the U.S … this does not mean that all Israelis support it. Far from it.
According to the JPost, Mofaz has publicly pledged his submission to Livni’s leadership, whatever the US hawks may have hoped.
Whaaat? We have American citizens with an American lawyer trying to overturn an election in Israel? Here I thought America was only the recipient of such meddling, not an instigator.
Get the hubris of Generals Laurel and Hardy, by the way. They’re only trying to save Israel from itself. If only Israelis shared their wisdom!
One of the “talking points” of the Zionists is the falsehood that the “Arab Street” doesn’t really care about the Palestinians; concern about them just being a useful tool against Israel. About two years ago, I traveled to Bahrain on business. Reading the local English version newspapers from there and from the Gulf States, I was struck by how deeply the Arabs resent the treatment of the Palestinians. The editorials and letters-to-the-editor were impassioned and clear. I especially remember one classified ad for a yard sale to be held by some professional woman’s group for the benefit of “the suffering Palestinians”. These were not “camel-herders”, these were educated women. America, in its defense of this racist, criminal, land-stealing little country of Israel, is bringing the righteous indignation of one billion Muslims down upon us. This will all end badly for Israel and us.
Every decent humane should be disgusted by the treatments that the Palestinians have received from Israel for over sixty years from the ethnic cleansing, land grabbing, and not to forget terrorism which was the tool by which Israel came to be. But alas, alas; the west that never ceases to lecture about humane rights of all, dignity of all, compassion for, freedom for all, lecture against religious based states; have turned a blind eye to the Israeli actions and in many instants supported and approved.
That’s not surprising. It was many years, when I was in my 40s, that I finally learned of the true nature of the “State of Israel”, it’s terrorist birth and repulsive history. The true nature of Israel is not exposed by the MSM.
It’s only as we slowly throw off the blinders imposed by the Ministry of Truth at Fox, and enter the world through the Web, that we can finally learn the truth.
Even with this new and free medium available to us, by the time many people are exposed to the truth, the lie has been cast and they have no stomach for truth.
It isn’t that Anton LaVey wasn’t satanic enough, it is that Aquino’s task, which whether self-appointed or otherwise, he performed with distinction, was to take control of the Church of Satan, or, failing that, destroy and replace it via a process of internal splits and putsches, which to a great extent he managed to do, Lavey having made himself rather unpopular by basically just demanding money instead of ‘attainment’ from people who wanted fancy titles in the Church.
I am quite grateful to Aquino, despite the fact that his occult writings are really mediocre and dull, because his existence and activities remind me that, whatever else occultism may be, it is first and foremost a branch of psychological warfare, which is an applied science susceptible to empirical proofs and disproofs, and on this basis, armies and secret services throughout history have always invested in it.
You can download all of Aquino’s texts from his homepage, just google the word “maquino”