The March for Israel Was a Hate Rally
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- Written by Peter Miller Peter Miller
- Published: 16 November 2023 16 November 2023
The Israeli public has embraced the Smotrich doctrine
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- Written by Orly Noy Orly Noy
- Published: 14 November 2023 14 November 2023
The internalization of the far-right minister's 'Decisive Plan' is evident in the popular support for a new ultimatum for Gaza: emigration or annihilation.
Six years ago, Bezalel Smotrich, then a young Knesset member in his first term, published his “Decisive Plan” — a kind of “endgame” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to the far-right lawmaker, who now serves as Israel’s finance minister and the government’s West Bank overlord, the inherent contradiction between Jewish and Palestinian national aspirations does not allow for any kind of compromise, reconciliation, or partition. Instead of maintaining the illusion that a political agreement is possible, he argued, the issue must be unilaterally resolved once and for all.
The plan makes only passing references to Gaza, with Smotrich seeming content with Israel’s encagement of the enclave as an ideal solution to what he calls the “demographic challenge” posed by Palestinians’ very existence. Vis-à-vis the West Bank, however, he calls for annexing its entirety.
In the latter territory, demographic concerns will be ameliorated by offering the 3 million Palestinian residents a choice: to renounce their national aspirations and continue living on their land in an inferior status, or to emigrate abroad. If, instead, they choose to take up arms against Israel, they will be identified as terrorists and the Israeli army will set about “killing those who need to be killed.” When asked at a meeting, in which he presented his plan to religious-Zionist figures, if he also meant killing families, women, and children, Smotrich replied: “In war as in war.”
Insofar as it has received any public attention at all, the Decisive Plan has been perceived since its publication as delusional and dangerous even among mainstream Israeli political commentators. Yet an examination of the current Israeli media and political discourse shows that, when it comes to the army’s current assault on Gaza, large parts of the public have completely internalized the logic of Smotrich’s plan.
In fact, Israeli public opinion regarding Gaza, where Smotrich’s vision is being implemented with a cruelty that even he may not have foreseen, is now even more extreme than the text of the plan itself. That’s because, in practice, Israel is removing from the agenda the first possibility on offer — of an inferior, de-Palestinianized existence — which until October 7 was most Israelis’ chosen option.
Read more at +972 Magazine: https://www.972mag.com/smotrich-decisive-plan-israeli-public/
A tribute to Vivian
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- Written by Samah Salaime Samah Salaime
- Published: 14 November 2023 14 November 2023
I know you will be greeted up above by your Palestinian and Israeli partners in activism, and the thousands of other victims of this pointless war.
Nothing prepared me for yesterday’s bitter news of Vivian’s tragic end. I felt deep despair, like a bottomless sink-hole had opened under the foundations of humanity, where thousands are already buried – men, women, children, innocent Palestinians and Israelis. People who had wished for peace, and did not live to see that wish fulfilled.
https://www.972mag.com/vivian-silver-tribute-peace-activist/
My life has been defined by genocide of Jewish people. I look on Gaza with concern
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- Written by Jason Stanley Jason Stanley
- Published: 11 November 2023 11 November 2023
The Left Is Not “Anti-Jewish”
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- Written by DAVE ZIRIN, The Nation DAVE ZIRIN, The Nation
- Published: 10 November 2023 10 November 2023
What we are witnessing is an effort to get people to see slogans like “Free Palestine” as anti-Semitic and the protests as threats to Jewish existence.