Global, Identity, Israel, Mishegas, Politics

Orwell adds new terms to Doubleplusgood dictionary

Obama promotes ethnic cleansing.
Settlements no impediment to peace.
Stunned to learn this new information? Well, don’t worry, rush right over the the Israel Project (supported by the usual suspects: ADL and AIPAC, who respectively announced in an ad that “The problem isn’t settlements, it’s Arab rejection,” and wrote a letter praising Netanyahu for taking “concrete measures” to advance peace), which as reported in the Guardian:

says that those who back the removal of the settlements should be told they are supporting ethnic cleansing and antisemitism. The guide offers what it describes as “the best settlement argument”.
“The idea that anywhere that you have Palestinians there can’t be Jews, that some areas have to be Jew-free, is a racist idea. We don’t say that we have to cleanse out Arabs from Israel. They are citizens of Israel. They enjoy equal rights. We cannot see why it is that peace requires that any Palestinian area would require a kind of ethnic cleansing to remove all Jews,” the guide says.

I completely agree, but am rather surprised that an organization such as this would consider taking down the separation wall and integrating Palestinians into the beautiful Jewish settlement communities that have things like running water, electricity, sewage treatment, swimming pools, gardens and the like. Still, never let it be said that I opposed a good idea no matter where it came from. I fully support them in their quest for integration. Let the integration begin.

Oh, wait,

The Israel Project document advises its supporters to argue that “settlements are necessary for the security of Israel” while also urging them to mislead Americans over the important role of religion in land seizures.

Wait, so they want settlements for the sake of security, and to argue that asking Jews to leave the settlements is an issue of ethnic cleansing?
So let me get this straight: It’s not ethnic cleansing if we enclose the entire state in a wall to exclude Palestinians, but it is ethnic cleansing to remove settlements from the other side of that wall. And it is okay to send young Israelis to guard those settlements, creating more and more situations in which they are placed at risk for the benefit of a few folks’ nice houses – houses and amenities which Palestinians are blocked from having, while their orchards are uprooted, settlers can attack them more or less with impunity, their children are abused by settlers’ children on the way home from school…. Do these people have any connection to reality? Can they please sit down and watch one of the films taken by the soldiers in Shovrim Shtika?
No, I think we should support the non-ethnic cleansing idea. Let’s take them at their word. Let’s agree with the Israel Project that Jews and Muslims can do fine together. Let’s take down the wall, let’s integrate all the settlements. Jews and Muslims should live there together in those lovely suburbs. Let’s fling the doors open now. If you don’t actually believe that that can happen, then let’s hear no more about “ethnic cleansing.”
This is the something that makes me crazy reading the Jewish press at least once a month. There is the idea that it’s about people’s perception, rather than about an objective situation that needs to be addressed. There is ongoing discussion, constantly about how we can spin our words to provide a perception that things are all okay, and if those other people would just allow us to talk faster, everything would be okay: the world would see that the situation is all the Palestinians’ fault and we have no role in it, young Jews would all of a sudden rush to connect with Israel because they would see how meaningful it is to be part of a country that is so progressive. Except that those perceptions which are getting in the way are not false. If we really want people to support Israel, we have to admit that we have a stake and some contribution o the current situation; if we want young Jews to connect to Israel, then stop telling them that any critique they make of what’s gong on shows that they don’t care, or that they have no connection, or that they are self-haters.
If the majority of the community can’t get beyond this problem of trying to spin the perception instead of trying to address the problem; if we can’t see that the laundry is already hanging out there, and we have only the choice of whether to wash it or let it remain filthy, not whether to let the neighbors see it; then we will never move forward, we will never solve the problem, and the young Jews will continue to drift away. Because Emet me’eretz titzmach. The truth always springs up from the earth – whether you like what is says, or not.

21 thoughts on “Orwell adds new terms to Doubleplusgood dictionary

  1. So let me get this straight: It’s not ethnic cleansing if we enclose the entire state in a wall to exclude Palestinians, but it is ethnic cleansing to remove settlements from the other side of that wall
    To the Zionists who support the settlments in the territories: this is what you’ve brought upon our heads.

  2. They’re right, ethnic cleansing is wrong.
    I’m gonna start suggesting a intra-Jewish population transfer… send the settlers to the Hebrew City and the central coast.
    Then ship a few hundred thousand Lefties up to Judea & Samaria. Assuming the Palestinians behave better than we have, I wouldn’t mind being a law-abiding Jewish national of Palestine.
    Right now we’ve got all the wrong people in all the wrong places for this concept to ever play out right.

  3. That’s a lovely thought, cW, but there’s no reason whatsoever to believe that a Palestinian state would treat Jewish residents any better than Israel has treated its Palestinian residents.

  4. Why is it that Jews can’t live in the Palestinian territories? There’s still Jews in Iran, after all.
    I’m not saying I’m pro-settler or even that I think they’re acting in Israel’s interest, but if a fully autonomous Palestinian state were declared tomorrow in Gaza and/or the West Bank, and Israel and the world recognized it, Jews wouldn’t be allowed to live there.
    Israel may not treat its Arab citizens well, and treat its administered population worse, but it isn’t exiling them to an ‘Arab country’. I think, that as a starting point, that’s a fundamental difference. However Israel tries to reconcile being a Jewish and democratic state, non-Jews can still live there and vote.

  5. OJ – the residents of the occupied territories cannot vote. For anyone. If the Israeli citizens living in the territories would like to share that status, then that’s fine with me. So long as the Israeli Military grants Israeli citizens extra rights in a territory which is not Israel, on the back and at the expense of the local, disenfranchised population, it seems like apartheid to me.
    And the fact that you wrote any of what you did means you weren’t reading KRG’s post, you were just being pavlovian about it.

    1. If the Israeli citizens living in the territories would like to share that status, then that’s fine with me.
      Or, in the meantime, they should be treated like any other Israeli citizens living outside the State of Israel, and have to go to Israel to vote, rather than having polling places provided to them.

  6. >>That’s a lovely thought, cW, but there’s no reason whatsoever to believe that a Palestinian state would treat Jewish residents any better than Israel has treated its Palestinian residents.
    Yeah, Israel treats its Palestinian residents just awfully. That must be why they’re all clamoring to leave.
    The glibness of these kinds of throwaway lines never ceases to amaze.

  7. Amit, the residents of the occupied territories cannot vote for anyone? Who elected Mr. Abbas President and who gave Hamas the majority of seats during the 2006 elections?
    The biggest flaw with the apartheid argument is the failure to acknowledge the fundamental differences between the goals of Palestinians and South Africans. South Africa required a significant change in its society and laws, but not a traumatic division of land. Palestinians are not citizens of Israel (nor they wish to be) being given unequal treatment, they are people seeking their own statehood in disputed territories. The Palestinian leadership groups prefer to continue fighting against the much stronger opponent, hopping that international pressure will eventually sway Israel. The struggle for borders to be set at the 1967 lines, for the right of return, for East Jerusalem, and all the other unrealistic requests takes precedence over the well being of the people. I’m not arguing that Palestinians don’t have the right to demand all these things, but how realistic are these demands under the current situation? In order to achieve a peace that would satisfy the international community, Israel is expected to take an unprecedented step in History; to give in to the demands of a people it defeated 60 years ago and to put its strategic and demographic concerns below that of Palestinians. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. The conflict drags on, and both people suffer.
    I hope my English doesn’t get too much in the way of what I’m trying to say.

  8. Eric, the link you posted has nothing to do with what you write here. And let’s not confuse “residents” and “citizens.” Or Israel’s treatment of Palestinian residents within the green line vs their treatment of Palestinian residents in contested territory.

  9. Why is it that Jews can’t live in the Palestinian territories?

    Jews living in the Palestinian territories is not inherently a problem, but Israelis living there is.

    The biggest flaw with the apartheid argument is the failure to acknowledge the fundamental differences between the goals of Palestinians and South Africans.

    Your argument starts out flawed; the term “apartheid” has nothing to do with the goals of the oppressed, but rather the actions of the oppressors. As for seeking a traumatic division of land; had it been up to Palestinians it would have never been partitioned in the first place. I’d wager Palestinians would prefer unifying the land with equal rights for all, but pragmatically understand most Israelis have no interest in anything of the sort.

  10. Dlevy, did you read both of the links I posted? The first is about Israeli Arabs (“Israeli Palestinians”? take your pick) signing up in record numbers for IDF service. The second is the results of a survey showing that 81% of Israeli Arabs would encourage their children to live in Israel up from 56% previously. The suffering must be unbearable.

  11. Eric – “record numbers” of Arabic speaking citizens of Israel still accounts for a very small percentage of Palestinians in Israel, and when you exclude the Druze, Bedouin, Samaritans and Circassians (who have been serving anyway), you get even less.
    Arabs in Israel and the Territories do not want to leave. The political entity taking their taxes is secondary to the fact that they have been living on their land since the beginning of time, as far as they’re concerned.
    RE: elections. (1) The Palestinian government has no power outside the small urban areas we gave it. (2) Even in those areas, ISrael is still the supreme ruler. It’s sort of like elections for student council in school. It might affect the editorial line of the school newspaper, but not the homework policy.

  12. And by the way,
    note those record numbers are because they can’t get other kinds of work in Israel – which is an ongoing problem for non-Jews in Israel, even when the economy isn’t troubled.
    To be Arab in Israel means that unless you’re doing underpaid menial labor, you can have a doctorate and no one wants to hire you. Not really such a ringing endorsement of love of Israel.

  13. Even in those areas, ISrael is still the supreme ruler. It’s sort of like elections for student council in school. It might affect the editorial line of the school newspaper, but not the homework policy.
    This is the best analogy for this I’ve ever heard! Nice!
    The suffering must be unbearable.
    And Eric, if you’re in touch with any Israeli Arabs today (which I am, via my job) you hear nothing but anger at Lieberman campaigning on kicking them out of the country and deep anxiety that they’re about to lose all their rights. Israeli Arab already receive only 1/12 the public funding of Jewish citizens, now they’re going to lose freedom of speech too?
    Would you like a few email addresses of Israeli Arabs who do equality work in Israel? I can provide a more direct connection than articles. Please, I’d be happy to do this for you. For anyone, really.

  14. you hear nothing but anger at Lieberman campaigning on kicking them out of the country and deep anxiety that they’re about to lose all their rights
    Aren’t you proving Eric’s point, KFJ?

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