Comments on: Can J14 turn the tables for the progressive cause within Israel?

By: Nick (Klaus) Veltjens

Nick (Klaus) Veltjens — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:13:17 +0000

No dictatorship lasts for ever, and the more restrictive it becomes the closer it is to its end. In the future, a Levantine Union ( like the EU, will be formed by the peoples of the Levant (http://on.fb.me/aDxFyp)!!!

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:45:55 +0000

The tent city demonstrations are entirely Israeli. They are not about the occupation at all.

Even the genuinely cross-cultural egalatarian and social statements of sympathy for Arab Israelis is limited to what is occurring within Israel.

It is a fantasy to consider the movement itself as likely to jump fire from one forest to another. The sentiment is not there.

What is there is the commonality across color, culture, that there is more in common than differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardi, Jewish Israeli and Arab Israeli. Each struggle to make ends meet. Each pay high taxes. Each horribly frustratingly deal with bureaucracies. Each watch factions benefit at the majority’s expense.

The change is in attitude, in hearts and minds. From regarding Arab Israelis as a “fifth column”, to regarding them as colleagues.

There is then an equation of “if they live just like us, have very similar aspirations – respecting differences rather than abusing differences, most likely civil Palestinians do as well”.

That is NOT advocacy for BDS, NOT acceptance of terror (or even rock-throwing) as a valid means of dissent, NOT advocacy for a single state, NOT condemnation of liberal flavors of Zionism.

If the values of comradery are encouraged, and not dismissed because they don’t mention the occupation, they will result in the end of the occupation as the mutual sympathy will spread. Hearts and minds.

If negativity is introduced, it will in fact hinder the process of development of sympathy, and then deter the liberation of Palestine.

By: Engelbert Luitsz

Engelbert Luitsz — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:15:35 +0000

There is change. Let’s at least enjoy that, since it means that people are not merely robots in the hands of power. Peace simply means that you can kill them and they can’t kill you; that’s the only outcome of a Zionist peace with the Palestinians. But change can mean that an ennemy becomes a human being, just as vulnerable and temporary as you. Peace is a function of acceptance, not a goal to be achieved.

By: Deïr Yassin

Deïr Yassin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:42:42 +0000

Ben Israel is in fact using the strategy of “if I throw shit on people all the time, at least some of it will stick”.

He pretends to be a religious man….

By: Ben Israel

Ben Israel — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:23:24 +0000

Naftali-
Actually, I heard that Amira Hass was being held hostage and a large ransom was paid. Is this true? I do know that before this happened she was writing articles quite critical of HAMAS, but since then she avoids this. So much for journalistic ethics?

By: Naftali

Naftali — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:12:52 +0000

Let us know when demonstrations for peace take place in the WB and Gaza. Let us know when ANY of you so-called peace activists stands in front of the offices of Hamas protesting their decades of terror, their firing of thousands of rockets against civilians, and anti-tank weapons against a school bus. When that happens, I might begin to believe in peace. It has never happened and never will. Even Amira Haas had to flee Gaza

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:12:33 +0000

I’d love to be as optimistic as you seem, Haggai, but I think you’re reading too much into people pouring in to join the protests. People are having a hard time economically, so they join. The slogan “the people demand social justice” is very contagious and sounds very logical. But to what extent? Will Israeli Jews be willing to become an equal to all the Arab citizens (inside and outside the Green Line)? The same citizens they have been trained and brainwashed into thinking of as the enemy, into mistreating them? (and does that not render the definition of the state as Jewish obsolete?)
Some of the people, I agree, already think this way. But I think that many couldn’t care less, as they couldn’t before, about the hardships of the Arab citizens. For many, I believe the demand for social justice stems from “I’m not getting as much as I should” (rather than, at least, “almost everybody’s not getting as much as they should”).

But let’s hope I’m wrong.