Evil in the West Bank

nybooks.com

67 points·abdelhousni··5 comments

> dozens of heavily armed settlers under the protection of the police and the army invaded Ras al-‘Ain and stole at least a thousand, and possibly as many as 1,500, of the villagers’ sheep and goats

This is the issue: Israeli settlers are getting weapons and money from the government (backed by the US) to systematically infringe human rights, in particular of Palestinian families.

People should stop to think that Israel is a democratic and civil country: it is not. Proofs are plenty.

It was a democratic and civil country until the right-wing Israeli version of MAGA took over. Our right-wing takeover is only slightly behind them. I haven't yet figured out if our West Bank will be Greenland or Canada.

No, it never was. It had an important faction that believed in democracy, but that faction also held other beliefs that are fundamentally incompatible with it. The Haganah worked with Irgun and Lehi, because deep down the liberal Zionists knew they needed the hard right

https://archive.is/kfVOp

> Some people think that the present crisis was inevitable because of the flaws inherent in the Zionist program from the start.

Those people are correct. Kahane was right: a democractic Jewish state on territory inhabited mostly by non-Jews is an impossibility. Pick at most 2, but you cannot have all 3. If you wish to keep the Jewishness of the state (i.e. Zionism), you must either abandon democracy, change the population of the territory (ethnic cleansing/genocide), or both.

There are plenty of Israelis like the author—who are genuinely good people, who have no other land, and who love their country because any good person should strive to do so. Their attitude is understandable. They deserve a better country to love, one not built on Zionism.

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