Friday, August 13, 2010
[The following, by Zach, is crossposted from Huffington Post Monitor here and here. I have combined both postings into one.]
Part 2:
This is the longer "fisking" of Ahmed Moor's "Israel Cannot Be Both Jewish and Democratic." There's a lot to cover so let's just jump right in shall we? Oh, for the purposes of this article I'm just going to cover the sections of interests, not including generic insults aimed at Israel or regurgitation of anti-zionist talking points. Anyway, here we go:
"Today, the Zionism which has destroyed so many occupied lives is turning inwards. Israel is being corroded by the ideology underpinning its existence. The Zionist state's latest victims are Palestinian-Israelis and migrant workers."
Ahmed Moor is another anti-Zionist who I would like to ask to define "Zionism." I'm not sure that he can, short of "pure evil." Again it's worth nothing his insistence that Israel is a "Zionist state," which is a little weird seeing as how he referred to Israel in his title as being "Jewish." Which is it, Mr. Moor, the "Zionist state" or the "Jewish state?" More than anything else his writing sounds like a collection of talking points that are simply thrown together.
Let's also talk for a minute about the term "Palestinian-Israelis." What does that even mean? Both "Israeli" and "Palestinian" are terms that indicate nationality. The reason why Israeli Jews have such a problem with Israeli Arabs calling themselves "Palestinians" is because that means they do not consider themselves to be part of the Israeli state. They might hold Israeli citizenship but they don't consider themselves to be part of Israeli society. Again I find it very funny that Mr. Moor cries and moans about discrimination in Israel but doesn't even flinch at the very real problem of citizens of Israel working to undermine it's society. Maybe Arabs can only be traitors to Arab governments and not Jewish ones? It makes me wonder how Mr. Moor would feel about the hanging and shooting of Palestinian "collaborators" with Israel.
"The Guardian's "Ethnic cleansing in the Israeli Negev," depicts a hulking mass of baklava-clad riot guards descending on Al-Araqib in the pre-dawn morning. The village's Bedouin residents were forcibly extracted from their homes while a bulldozer bulldozed their lives. Incredibly, the village was destroyed to make room for a national forest. It seems that against all morality, the desert will continue to bloom."
Okay we've already covered this story here, but it's worth repeating that Mr. Moor (like anti-Zionists before and after him) will simply ignore any facts that don't fit the story he wants to tell. The problem is that the Bedouins moved onto land that wasn't theirs and tried to take it. Isn't that "stealing land," Mr. Moor? Isn't that the excuse the legions of anti-Zionists have used to justify the killings of innocent Israelis? When Israel removed the settlers from Gaza were you there complaining that it was "against all morality?" I think not.
At this point Mr. Moor goes for an emotional punch, complaining about the activities of some Jewish Israelis who reacted joyfully to the Bedouins being removed. Of course, his source for that information is Max Blumenthal, so really the whole thing is suspect, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt this time. Moor may twist the facts but he doesn't usually make things up completely.
"Elsewhere in Israel, non-Jewish youths learned that they were unfit to remain in country of their birth. Four-hundred migrant children -- most of them born in Israel -- will be deported soon. Ironically, their expulsion has been spearheaded by parliamentarians from the rightwing Yisrael Beiteinu party, many of whom are Russian immigrants to Israel."
So right off the bat Mr. Moor gets his facts wrong. Children who are born in Israel are not in danger of being deported, period. That's what happens when you rely on Mya "Sue-Happy" Guarnieri for your information. Again, note the use of the race card. There are many requirements that the children need to fail to meet to be deported, including not learning the native language or being enrolled in school. Mr. Moor is implying that Israel is deporting four hundred children because they are not Jewish and for no other reason.
Secondly, here's something important to remember: Immigration is a tough issue. It's an emotionally loaded issue in America, for Pete's sake, and America is not a country defined by being a 'melting pot.' This is a problem in all the European countries, and it would be a problem for the Arab countries too, if they didn't close their borders to immigrants altogether. The point is that Israel is far from the only country having to deal with maintaining their national character and their democratic values, but that isn't stopping people who hate it from pretending that it is. Keep this in mind as we go through the rest of Mr. Moor's article.
"Many of Israel's staunchest supporters are baffled by what's happening in the small Mediterranean state. Regrettably, they fail to understand that Israel is following the natural evolution of a country founded on a race-exclusive basis."
Notice the strawman in the last sentence: Israel was never intended to be racially exclusive. If you look at the writings of early Zionist leaders they always expected that there would be non-Jews living in Israel, but they still needed Israel to remain a Jewish homeland.
I do think that it is informative that Mr. Moor considers Jews to be a race, though. If they are a race and not merely a religion, then wouldn't that seem to indicate that their nationalist identity is bulletproof? It certainly makes the Jews more of a people than the Palestinians, whose only defining link to each other is that they all happen to live in the same place (or used to). I wonder if Mr. Moor thought that one through when he wrote that sentence.
This is getting long, so I think I'm going to continue this in the next post.
Part 3:
I'm continuing the fisking of Ahmed Moor's latest singling out of Israel for attack, "Israel Cannot Be Both Jewish and Democratic."
"Israeli pundits frequently insist that their state is both Jewish and democratic. They say that minorities in Israel have equal rights and representation in state apparatuses. That's not true, but it doesn't matter. What does matter is that roughly 20% of Israelis are not Jewish. And those non-Jews are meeting one another, falling in love, and having children. To borrow Netanyahu's words, it is these children that are a "threat to the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel."
First of all, do those "Israeli pundits" include Jimmy Carter, Mr. Moor? Because he says that minorities in Israel do have equal rights. No offense, but I'd be willing to believe even him over you.
Secondly, Mr. Moor's link to claim that "that's not true," is in Arabic (thanks a lot) but thanks to Google Translate I was able to read some of what they had to say. And what they have to say is mostly just complaining and calling for "justice" in response to what Israel has done this time, which includes demolishing unrecognized villages and policemen getting out of line. I admit that I didn't cover the website as thoroughly as I could have but nothing I found contradicted Mr. Moor's complaints that minorities (who aren't just Arabs, by the way) don't have equal rights and aren't represented. Maybe he was hoping none of us would actually look at his link.
"These people, Palestinian-Israelis and other native non-Jews, have no way of entering the mainstream of political and cultural life in Israel. The only reason they can't is because they're not Jewish."
Yes, I'm sure Mr. Moor is well informed about what "these people" can't do from a hundred miles away in Beirut. Let's take a look at some links:
The First Female Arab Combat Soldier in Israel
Arab Crowned Miss Israel
Ismail Khalidi Named to San Franscisco Consulate
Azzam Azzam's Story
Just more honest and constructive criticism from the Huffington Post blogger community, I see. But the fun doesn't end there.
"Is it possible for a non-Jewish person to become the Prime Minister of Israel today? And what about Minister of Defense? What does it mean for the Jewish state if the 20% minority grows to 50%, then 70%? Is it still the Jewish state?"
Here Mr. Moor, in trying to accuse Israel of racism, only succeeds in showcasing his own ignorance. Not only is it more than possible under Israeli law for a non-Jew to be Prime Minister (and Defense Minister), one actually was for a while when the PM was in the hospital. I forget the exact details, but you can look it up. Of course, the Arab politicians might be more likely to get elected if they stopped doing things like sailing on terrorist supporting flotillas. Just a thought.
As for the percentages, obviously Israel will have to deal with that as the situation arises. But until then, they remain the Jewish state and you will have to try another tactic, Mr. Moor.
"For too long Western liberals have engaged in willful denial about the true nature of Israel. Israel is the Jewish state -- of that I have no doubt. But can the Jewish state be squared with liberal and democratic values when one out of every five citizens isn't Jewish? I don't think so."
I thought Israel was the Zionist state? Anyway, somehow Ireland and England and Spain have all managed to maintain their democratic nature as well as their national character. In fact according to Gil Troy Zionism and liberalism reinforce each other. What do you have to say to that, Mr. Moor?
"Israel is already an apartheid state. The separation of the people -- their enforced apartness -- arises not out of security considerations, but racial ones. In short, Israel cannot be both the Jewish and democratic state. That's because Zionism is fundamentally anti-democratic in a mixed-race society. The important questions now are how will Israel prevent the growth of its non-Jewish minorities? And how long will Western liberals continue to pretend that Zionism is compatible with liberalism?"
Godddamn it, do you need to go through all this again? Here, let me link to the Israel and the apartheid analogy blog posts Matt and I did a while back. It's worth mentioning that not even Jimmy Carter and his team consider Israel to be an "apartheid state," because they don't consider the Palestinians to be Israelis or the territories to be part of Israel.
It's also funny that he is complaining about 'mixed-race societies,' seeing as how they are practically an anachronism in the Middle East. And yes, I know that Lebanon where Mr. Moor is located is the big exception to that rule. But if you look at the Middle East across the spectrum you will see that all the states are based on one ethnic group ruling and others just living there. All that Mr. Moor is doing here is singling Israel out for criticism while simultaneously pretending that it is the only state that have problems involving immigration, democracy and national character.
Hey, isn't that practically the definition of anti-Semitism?
