Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumFull interview..MKs Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka, Basel Ghattas..why they are angry at Israel's left
Full interview and shared passions declare MKs Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas they have no regrets and explain why they are angry at Israel's left and what country they dream.MK Ghattas: "The question is not fair. You create symmetry between minority elected official, he is the victim, who is fighting for the most basic things, they are privileges for you, even if you are the most militant anti-Zionist, causing damage to Zionism is a thousand times more than I do. "
It is a humane act. Monitoring Committee Chairman Mohammad Barakeh walked past the funeral of a Jewish girl who was killed in a Qassam rocket.
"Again I say to you: This is an unfair question. You do not judge me." "You judge. You ask: 'Why do not you go and express sorrow to the Jewish family that pays the price, as I'm going to a Palestinian family?' Symmetry does not work that way. I belong to a national minority, the victim pays the price every day. "
"This is a subject we do not refer to it.""Our society is not yet ready to deal with this issue," added MK Zoabi, "The truth is that it is not ready to engage in a more simple issues such as intermarriage between members of different religions. We are still fighting for social rights that should be obvious: creative freedom, women's rights. As a company, we are deteriorating. 30 years ago there were more freedom and progress. The hegemony of religious discourse is strengthened. "
http://archive.is/NiE6F#selection-5707.0-5754.0
This is what the "wonderful" BDS version of one "democratic secular state with equal rights for all" would look like - AT BEST - with a Jewish minority. These are SECULAR Palestinian MK's in Israel. So progressive....
No sympathy for murdered Jews. No LGBT or Women's Rights. No freedom of speech. And of course, Jews would be banned from their holy sites.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Fuck off... Don't replace wonderful hard fought rights in progressive tolerant Israel with your medieval culturally backward gay hating repressive LGBT hate.
Fuck you.... And you wonder why the Gay community doesn't support you....
FUCKTWIT !!!
Little Tich
(6,171 posts)They need to be genuinely concerned with equal rights as well, to get my support. If they don't, it will only be about two ethnic groups opposing each other, and there will be no moral grounds for me to take sides.
Interesting OP, thanks.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)Little Tich
(6,171 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)azurnoir
(45,850 posts)but thanks for your concern ps I can use Google translate too, but found that it rendered the article to near gibberish
shira
(30,109 posts)It's not that BDS leaders are naive, as if they don't know. They're all smoke & mirrors. A horrifically racist, thoroughly discredited pack of Liars.
What do you think of their advocacy now of one nice big "secular" state?
Feeling duped yet by BDS?
Little Tich
(6,171 posts)Their purpose is the "struggle to transform the state of Israel into a democracy for all its citizens, irrespective of national or ethnic identity", (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balad_%28political_party%29) which in itself makes Balad into a completely democratic party and fully eligible to participate in the democratic discourse. In contrast, all the Jewish parties (except Meretz, of course) from Labour to Yisrael Beiteinu have a racist platform which promotes privileges for Jews, both individually and as a people.
I'm not too fond of the idea of fighting for the people's rights on the barricades myself, it often leads to getting strange political bedfellows - just look at Jeremy Corbyn's friends for example. I also think it's fundamentally unfair to dismiss the victims of the opposing side - it's dehumanizing, and it's unseemly of Balad to lack proper sympathy for dead innocents.
In the end, it's the political views of the Jewish majority in Israel that's more troubling; 79% believe that Jews deserve preferential treatment in Israel, and 48% want Arabs to be expelled. (http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/#israeli-jews-united-on-need-for-jewish-homeland) That's not what a Jewish and Democratic state looks like. Nothing that Balad stands for, not even their support for Hezbollah can top that.
shira
(30,109 posts)Last edited Thu Mar 17, 2016, 07:01 PM - Edit history (1)
You punted, as I predicted you would.
in a situation where a "Yes" wouldn't mean support for racism.
Only supporters of racism could answer yes to a question like that. The nearest equivalent in the US would probably be: "Do white American deserve preferential treatment?", and I would consider a "Yes" to that question to be support for racism.
That's no equivalent when it comes to the safety and well-being of Jews worldwide. Over 90% of Jews believe Israel is vital for the long term survival of the Jewish people. Good luck finding 90% of Jews who agree on anything, which goes to show how important this is (not how racist we are).
Now how is it possible for decent people to NOT empathize with a people whose Holocaust is still within living memory? If Israel existed and was strong and proud back in the 1930's, that could have saved millions from the ovens & gas chambers. Israel is still vital today when Jew hatred and antisemitic attacks are spiking worldwide (worst situation for Jews worldwide in decades).
And you think preferences for Jews (Law of Return, keeping Israel a Jewish state) in their historic Jewish homeland - that these preference for Jews over non Jews whether Arab, Muslim, Christian, White, Black, French, or Chinese - is racist? You can't be serious.
And here you are making the same, hateful arguments again where 80% of Israeli Jews are racist in your mind for wanting to keep Israel a Jewish state. Jews are no more racist than French, Greeks, & Icelanders who want to keep their countries French, Greek, and Icelandic.
On top of that, you believe those 80% of Israeli Jews are worse than Hezbollah supporters with neo-Nazi agendas. That's not just ignorant or hateful, it's evidence of a broken moral compass.
BTW, I don't expect you to respond or fully engage with the content in this post. Just like that last one. At best, you'll deflect but I'd love to be proven wrong. If your position is as progressive & moral as you contend, you'd have no problem defending your positions that 80% of Jews in Israel are racist, or that there are no BDS'ers who support terror acts against random innocent Jews. Your evasions and deflections here demonstrate that you cannot honestly defend your positions on I/P. It shows you're actually embarrassed, not proud of, the positions you hold on I/P.
shira
(30,109 posts)Yes or No:
1) 80% of Israeli Jews are racist for wanting to keep Israel a Jewish state?
2) ...and racist for favoring Jews over non-Jews WRT the Law of Return?
3) Finally, the 2 positions above are worse than that of Hezbollah supporters with neo-nazi agendas (supporting the murder of random Jews)?
Little Tich
(6,171 posts)It would be more in line with your reasoning if the issue was only about giving rights to Jews, perhaps that wouldn't even be racist, as there would be no victims. The main reason why I'm arguing that the attitudes revealed in the poll are racist, is because they show a preference for discriminating against and even mistreating a definite group of people. The two poll questions that I consider to be actively racist against non-Jews are these:
"Most Israeli Jews (79%) say Jews deserve preferential treatment in Israel"
Source: http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/pf_2016-03-08_israel-01-07/
Please note that this question is about Jews deserving preferential treatment in Israel, not about receiving citizenship or retaining a Jewish majority. It's about one Israeli citizen having more rights than another Israeli citizen due to ethnicity only.
"Majority of Haredim, Datiim agree Arabs should be expelled"
Source: http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/pf_2016-03-08_israel-01-10/
There is no way a desire to expel Arabs can be anything than racist under any circumstances, whether it's Israeli Arabs or those living in East Jerusalem, Gaza or the West Bank.
OTOH, there are two questions in the poll that you've brought up to prove that the poll doesn't reveal racist attitudes. I don't think that the answers to those questions reveal racist attitudes either, they're OK. I just don't think they do anything to mitigate the racist attitudes in the two poll questions above.
"Nearly unanimous share agree all Jews should have the right to citizenship in Israel"
Source: http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/pf_2016-03-08_israel-01-05/
I don't know if I would disagree either...
"Most Jews say Israel necessary for long-term survival of the Jewish people"
http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/pf_2016-03-08_israel-01-06/
Tricky one, but not racist...
Anyway, this OP is about Balad, and if you have more specific dirt on them than just accusing them of being "Hezbollah supporters with neo-nazi agendas (supporting the murder of random Jews)" please show me...
shira
(30,109 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 18, 2016, 04:21 AM - Edit history (2)
Neither one of us can really conclude anything from the preferential treatment question. Jews deserve some kind of unspecified preferential treatment. What kind of treatment? I could be right, you could be right, who knows? I think Jews deserve preferential treatment in America. In Europe too. How about that? But it's WRT safety/security. Jewish gatherings, whether at synagogues, schools, or other events, require security Jews are currently responsible for (way, way, way more than any other ethnic or religious group). I think either federal, state, or local governments should cover those costs. Therefore I'm racist.
See what I mean?
As to the 48% favoring transfer or expulsion, that question is also flawed...
Do Israeli Jews really want to expel Arabs? The (huge) holes in the Pew survey
http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/analysis/154329/do-israeli-jews-really-want-expel-arabs-the-huge-holes-pew-survey
Did they respond in relation to all Arabs, as one would gather from the way results have been presented? Or were they thinking about specific cases, such as Arabs who sympathise with terror or as-per the policy that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently having checked by state lawyers to move the families of terrorists who carry out attacks out of Israel?
...The Israel Prize-winning sociologist Sammy Smooha of Haifa University, who compiles a regular survey on Jewish attitudes towards Israels Arab minority and vice-versa, has called the question misleading and vague.
But beyond a general fluffiness with the question, there was a deeper problem with the concepts that it probed. The meaning of expulsion was clear, but what was meant by transfer? The leading Israeli pollster Camil Fuchs, who was not involved in the Pew research, said he understood the word haavara transfer to refer to a process by which nobody leaves their homes.
...And so, a question that will have been for some and we cannot ignore this expelling all Arabs, for others will have been about expelling or physically transferring some individuals. Meanwhile, there will have been respondents who were just embracing land swaps. Dr Fuchs says that Pews sky-high figure resulted from that no-no of polling known as double barrelling.
This is where a question touches on two issues but allows just one answer and often creates a single impression about people who respond positively. You dont ask a question about two things together, said Dr Fuchs, suggesting that expelled and transferred are politically-speaking the opposites of each other but were squeezed together by double barrelling.
Dr Fuchs, a frequent pollster for Haaretz whose polls often tell hard truths about Israeli society, said: I don't presume that all or a great many of the people who answered yes want to move all the Arabs.
Flawed poll.
You have a good point at the end of your last post, so let's get back to Balad where their attitudes on practically everything make them extreme Rightwingers (on par with the Westboro Baptist Church lunatics). In a 1-state scenario, they're the best "secular" alternative to the PA or Hamas. As you acknowledge, they don't give a rip about Jewish victims of terror. That's racist. Apply that in reverse for I/P and you'd call it racist w/o any question whatsoever.
Balad also supports Hezbollah even though they know full well Hezbollah has racist genocidal intentions WRT Jews. Like supporters of Hamas (especially when they're attacking Jews). In your words, there's no way support for any organization dedicated to the murder of random Jews is anything but racist.
Now, if BDS supports 1-state with a Jewish minority and with Balad in charge - and I have no reason to believe otherwise since there isn't any other better, more organized "secular" Palestinian political party out there that BDS would support - then BDS advocates for a future government way, way, way more extreme Rightwing than Netanyahu & his cast of characters. There's you BDS movement in a nutshell. More Rightwing extreme than Netanyahu's gang. Netanyahu doesn't want to reverse rights for gays & women in Israel. He doesn't support the murderous Kahanists. Bibi would never react to the vile murder of a Palestinian the way Balad does.
How am I wrong?
But let's get go back to your statement in post #6 above:
Let's assume for a moment the Pew poll results constitutes real, genuine proof of racist intent. You believe 80% of Jews, based only on those question, are worse than the racists of Balad. Your moral compass is broken if you really believe that. Those 80% of Jews (minus the ugliest Kahanists) would never react as callously to the murder of Palestinians (think Abu Khdeir) as the Balad nut jobs. But you write that the Jews are worse. I think that's insane. Please justify that statement.
Back to expulsion. BDS wants that too, but in reverse. BDS calls for all Jews in the W.Bank to be expelled or transferred. You want that too, right? All Jews out of the future Palestine. Now how is that any less racist than the position of those 80% from the Pew poll?
Little Tich
(6,171 posts)For me, it's not right to support "armed resistance" that kills civilians and also is a franchise of a repressive regime under any circumstances. I must however recognize that it's not outside the normal democratic discourse to do so, and it happens even in the most democratic of countries. Just because Balad supports the resistance aspect of Hezbollah, doesn't mean that they are Hezbollah, but there will troublesome exchanges of ideology. I also bet that Balad supports IRA, ETA and Cuban socialism (but not the Polisario) in a similar way. What I'm trying to say is that I don't believe that Balad is an anti-Semitic party, and that there are similar political parties or factions in most parliaments in democratic countries, but I wouldn't vote for them.
As for what the political landscape would look like if the bi-national state became a reality, I think it's premature to guess, but I would suggest that there are currently a lot of Palestinians who support the PLO, far more than who support Balad. Not very reassuring.
About the poll, you just might be right with the question being misleading and not being as completely unambiguous as it is in the King's English. I suppose further polling would solve the issue.
Finally, I don't support transferring Jewish settlers back to Israel, the idea of evicting a family of one ethnicity so that another can move in isn't right under any circumstances. It's just that if the settlers stay where they are, the bi-national state is the only possible outcome. Building the settlements was a really bad idea, and now, 600,000 settlers later, demographic realities on the ground will decide the future.
King_David
(14,851 posts)shira
(30,109 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 19, 2016, 06:26 AM - Edit history (1)
Anyone advocating for that shit show is the polar opposite of being liberal/progressive.
It actually makes them Rightwing.
Extreme Westboro Baptist Church Lunatic Rightwing....
Israeli
(4,280 posts)I consider the Elder of Ziyon blog to be exactly that .
Shame shira did not give her real source for this OP , which is :
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2016/03/that-one-democratic-state-left-wants.html#.Vuz_1dJ95ki
King_David
(14,851 posts)The extremist right wing anti Gay ideology displayed by these MKs is worse than Donald Trump.