This week's postings at JfJfP.com
This week, June 15th -June 21st, 2015, the stand-out issue is the consequences for Israel of OPE – Operation Protective Edge (the US-friendly English version of their assault on Gaza in 2014). It has not not been forgiven and forgotten. As the PLO’s Hanan Ashrawi says, it is the First time ever that Israel is being held accountable
(She doesn’t mention the Goldstone report.)
Getting their argument in first, the Israeli foreign ministry has issued a report exonerating the IDF of any war crimes:
Judge us by what we say not what we do
The body most persistent in holding Israel to account is the UN. We are waiting for a report from the UN Human Rights Council. Netanyahu has already declared it is picking on Israel (aka antisemitic).
Duty of all states to protect children
UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon has again identified Israel as a state which fails in its fundamental duty to protect children. PM Netanyahu is of course enraged, asking what about Hamas – as though they set the standard for moral rectitude. He ignores the facts: ‘the 557 Palestinian deaths in the UN tally were the third-highest death toll of any conflict in 2014, after Afghanistan with 710 child killings and Iraq with 679 — but ahead of Syria with 368.’ Given the disastrous effects on the health of people in Gaza, especially on children, there is a campaign to get into Gaza with medical aid.
Medical aid must lead the way in Gaza
And there is a dynamic move to highlight the siege of Gaza by Flotilla lll – the third flotilla to attempt to reach Gaza. At present assembling in Sicily.
Flotilla powered by hope
Anticipating a judgment against Israel from the UN, Amir Oren says the various branches of the security state are concerned about who will be held responsible. Everybody except the PM it seems.
Fall-out on who’s responsible for war crimes
The group which did most to reveal the orders in OPE is Breaking the Silence. They have received wide publicity – and a threat by Ayelet Shaked to introduce a new law to prevent any foreign donations to NGOs.
Israeli state musters forces to crush Breaking the Silence
Breaking the Silence say they have no position on boycott. Mitchell Plitnick says the effects of the BDS campaign are over-hyped by both Israel and the campaigners. Yet economic action HAS to be instituted because Israelis have no incentive to end the Occupation.
If occupation benefits Israel, why change?
The peculiarity of Israel’s politico-economics has been highlighted by the Rand corporation in a new report, and by Israel’s own finance ministry. Apart from the costs of the Occupation the Israeli system also excludes the Haredi and Palestinians – both growing populations – from economic production. Bankruptcy is forecast.
Mistreatment of Palestinians will bankrupt Israel
PM Netanyahu has an intractable problem – he is now dependent on the religious right wing, but the acts of the religious right wing are deeply offensive to, amongst others, American Christians. After ignoring much advice and many warnings from Shin Bet he has finally decided the perpetrators of sectarian (anti-Muslim, anti-Christian) acts should be tracked and treated as criminals.
Jewish vandals get away with acts of desecration
And Netanyahu also has to exercise some control over his minister of culture, Miri Regev, if he is to continue upholding Israel as the beacon of light and freedom in the Middle East. Ms Regev puts patriotism first in her criteria of who should receive state funding. Nothing that mentions Palestinians or the Occupation, or supports the Left she has said.
Culture minister to enforce anti-left national culture
The frequency of abduction as a political tool in Israel is retold by Adam Keller. He examines the different response of culture minister Miri Regev to the cultural representation of this live and potent issue by Israelis and Palestinians. She is also the cheerleader for a totalitarian culture in which only ‘patriotic’ endeavours deserve arts funding.
Double-think on abduction
After all this it may be a surprise to you to know that ‘the Left’ is hegemonic in Israel, if no longer in popular votes (facts speak) then through their command of NGOs. If Zionist Martin Sherman is right, there is reason for hope.
A Zionist’s analysis of the Left