It's always been painfully clear that Israel, and Netanyahu in particular, have always wanted and needed Hamas to use as a foil to point to as evidence of how unreasonable Palestinians are. To that end, Israel has made an ongoing concerted effort to kill or jail any moderates and peacemakers since such people undermine Israel's manufactured narrative that these "Arabs" only goal is to kill Jews for being Jewish.
Peter, your proposal here is well established by Israel’s history & practices since 1947. Ilan Pappe has demonstrated this very effectively. However, there are many gymnastics since 1947, explaining away this history, by claiming each situation is new and must be addressed as new. Oct 7th was not a new shocking & surprising event. It was predestined, predictable and should have been expected just as Israel’s response was predestined, predictable and expected, and so is this pretend cease fire. As many honest historians have said “nothing changes” just time.
There were plans made before that Hamas attack on 1948 or 1967 or later Israeli territory, plans of an accelerationist nature. I think the new leaked information about the bombing parameters settings from the beginning was of the genocidal intent (acceleration of the 80-year ethnic cleansing program, not good with exact dates). Well, for me they did not just pop up within 2 days. The minutia over 2 years, the internal chain of command justifications for the parameter choices resulting in 10:1 civ-to-mil ratios a priori or above, the urgency to use as many bombs per day as possible, and the AI system itself. 2 days?.
And there is the question of who we are talking about: the whole population being surprised or the genocidal planners? Questions of group psychology might be useful.
For his own sake and for the sake of his family and all who love and respect him I hope Marwan Bargouti is released. But I hope the yoke of leading the Palestinian resistance is not placed on his shoulders.
There’s no denying that Israel’s present governing coalition, in keeping with its motley stew of annexationist, Jewish-supremacist, messianic, and political goals—in short its vision of “Greater Israel”—has no intention of allowing a Palestinian state to come into existence. Netanyahu and his gang openly and proudly shout their intention from the rooftops—while insisting that Hamas is the reason. And, yes, the coalition’s counter-intuitive clandestine support of Hamas and public vilification of the PA despite the valuable security cooperation in the West Bank the PA has provided, as well as the refusal to release the more moderate two-state advocate Marwan Barghouti from prison as discussed by Peter, testify to the far right’s ideological commitment to denying any shred of legitimacy to the Palestinian national-liberation movement and to preventing—even at the cost of strengthening its enemy—the establishment of a Palestinian state and the emergence of a diplomatic process undertaken with that end in mind.
Nor did this aversion to and sabotaging of the prospects of Palestinian statehood start with this government, though this government has certainly flaunted it more publicly and unapologetically than ever before.
But the present abhorrent coalition isn’t “Israel”—the complex, deeply divided, aways evolving country, society, and people. Yes, a majority of Israeli voters indirectly elected this coalition for a variety of reasons, most of them reflecting uncertain and rapidly changing conditions. But “Israel”—the people, the country, the abstraction—doesn’t formulate policy, doesn’t wage war, doesn’t have a single, unifying vision of its future.
Isn’t it precisely “Israel”—the mass of confused, uninformed and disinformed. traumatized, frightened, enraged, more or less brainwashed, desperate people, along with “Palestine,” “Israel’s” equally unsettled, evolving, problematic, and enormously hard-pressed mass of ostensibly antagonistic people—isn’t it this contested human mass that’s the field would-be peace-and-justice seekers are called to encourage, persuade, cajole, show a credible path to a sustainable just peace to, even as they work globally to create conditions more favorable to such a shift?
My issue with Peter’s analysis is that it misleadingly conflates Israel the country and people with the thuggish gang of fanatics and haters who have managed to hijack the apparatus of the state to accomplish their fiendish agenda, in the same way that belligerent discourse in Israel conflates the fanaticism and inhumanity of Hamas with the people and future country of Palestine.
Yes, terrible crimes have been and continue to be committed by the State of Israel under its present and many if not most of its previous leaders. These crimes must be exposed and acknowledged. And yes, I’m aware of Heschel’s well-known dictum that in a democracy, some are guilty but all are responsible. Even so, I’m writing to suggest that it might be more useful to the cause of a just peace to condemn supremacist, annexationist, hateful visions, policies, and actions that create hell on earth for both peoples rather than judging a whole country and people—“Israel,” perhaps even the Jewish people as a whole—guilty of those crimes. Can we find a way to say No to the ethno-nationalist program that at the same time invites rather than closes down Jewish Israelis’ ability to rethink their future with Palestinians?
Thank you again for clear and very helpful analysis.
I believe that Israel's leaders are incapable of recognizing any claims of justice on the part of Palestinians. They will back opposition parties that mix politically just claims with religious elements because this necessarily weakens the movement's politics. They prefer fundamentalists for this reason, because the fundamentalists are more extreme.
Thank you so much Peter. Sometimes you say something so bleedin' obvious (forgive my Englishism!) that it is absolutely brilliant. I think we should also ask why the release of Barghouti is not top and centre of campaigning for Palestinian rights. Is it because he doesnt suit the ideological position that only one state can be contemplated? As far as I, as an old Jewish lady am concerned, what matters is that he is way the most popular Palestinian by miles. I am campaigning for his release to be a major part of British pro-Palestinian campaigning. It would really be good to know that it was matched by a similar campaign priority on your side of the pond!
There might be others in jail with the same potential, putting all this future potential pressure on only one, might help understand issues that are being hidden by the bullshit or gaslighting industry over decades (and our countries collaboration using the same tropes back and forth with the lazy media). But it does put a torture and other harm target on that person. And it is not clear that he is intact or even want what people of good will might project onto him. But I understand shedding light on the behavior around his symbol.
Cheeto And the Nazi Economic Game: Screw Everybody Except The Wealthy
It has been clear since the 1980’s and Reagan that the main economic policy was to hand their wealthy donor class tax breaks and make the rest of the electorate pay for it It’s the story of the privileged class, superior genetics(RFK Jr and his eugenics crap), and “we deserve to rule” kind of policy that led eventually to the political strategy of “trickle down economics(TDE)” Give the wealthy a bunch of money out of the pockets of the middle class and then that money will be distributed to the inferior human beings “below them” The Republican gambit has always been “we’re better than everyone else” so join us….we’ll elevate your game
A couple of studies have now shown that TDE doesn’t work and that the wealthy just become wealthier with an ever increasing wealth gap as a result and as a result everybody else gets poorer It’s now clear that that Cheeto and the Nazis are living Greed/Power Corrupts, and Absolute Greed/Power Corrupts Absolutely
Yes, the protests over the weekend in my view are about saving the democratic Republic but that societal unrest has underpinnings in the economic inequality that is being foisted on the American people by the current Nazi regime in the guise of inflation WE the People have had enough and it’s French Revolution 2.0(21st century style) and the way to screw the wealthy is to tax them and level the playing field(in the 1950’s the effective tax rate for top 1% was 42 to 45% and now 26 to 28%!!!)
It's always been painfully clear that Israel, and Netanyahu in particular, have always wanted and needed Hamas to use as a foil to point to as evidence of how unreasonable Palestinians are. To that end, Israel has made an ongoing concerted effort to kill or jail any moderates and peacemakers since such people undermine Israel's manufactured narrative that these "Arabs" only goal is to kill Jews for being Jewish.
Peter, your proposal here is well established by Israel’s history & practices since 1947. Ilan Pappe has demonstrated this very effectively. However, there are many gymnastics since 1947, explaining away this history, by claiming each situation is new and must be addressed as new. Oct 7th was not a new shocking & surprising event. It was predestined, predictable and should have been expected just as Israel’s response was predestined, predictable and expected, and so is this pretend cease fire. As many honest historians have said “nothing changes” just time.
Just time? And pace.
There were plans made before that Hamas attack on 1948 or 1967 or later Israeli territory, plans of an accelerationist nature. I think the new leaked information about the bombing parameters settings from the beginning was of the genocidal intent (acceleration of the 80-year ethnic cleansing program, not good with exact dates). Well, for me they did not just pop up within 2 days. The minutia over 2 years, the internal chain of command justifications for the parameter choices resulting in 10:1 civ-to-mil ratios a priori or above, the urgency to use as many bombs per day as possible, and the AI system itself. 2 days?.
And there is the question of who we are talking about: the whole population being surprised or the genocidal planners? Questions of group psychology might be useful.
So important. Thank you. I will share widely.
I knew nothing about this but the case you make is pretty convincing.
For his own sake and for the sake of his family and all who love and respect him I hope Marwan Bargouti is released. But I hope the yoke of leading the Palestinian resistance is not placed on his shoulders.
There’s no denying that Israel’s present governing coalition, in keeping with its motley stew of annexationist, Jewish-supremacist, messianic, and political goals—in short its vision of “Greater Israel”—has no intention of allowing a Palestinian state to come into existence. Netanyahu and his gang openly and proudly shout their intention from the rooftops—while insisting that Hamas is the reason. And, yes, the coalition’s counter-intuitive clandestine support of Hamas and public vilification of the PA despite the valuable security cooperation in the West Bank the PA has provided, as well as the refusal to release the more moderate two-state advocate Marwan Barghouti from prison as discussed by Peter, testify to the far right’s ideological commitment to denying any shred of legitimacy to the Palestinian national-liberation movement and to preventing—even at the cost of strengthening its enemy—the establishment of a Palestinian state and the emergence of a diplomatic process undertaken with that end in mind.
Nor did this aversion to and sabotaging of the prospects of Palestinian statehood start with this government, though this government has certainly flaunted it more publicly and unapologetically than ever before.
But the present abhorrent coalition isn’t “Israel”—the complex, deeply divided, aways evolving country, society, and people. Yes, a majority of Israeli voters indirectly elected this coalition for a variety of reasons, most of them reflecting uncertain and rapidly changing conditions. But “Israel”—the people, the country, the abstraction—doesn’t formulate policy, doesn’t wage war, doesn’t have a single, unifying vision of its future.
Isn’t it precisely “Israel”—the mass of confused, uninformed and disinformed. traumatized, frightened, enraged, more or less brainwashed, desperate people, along with “Palestine,” “Israel’s” equally unsettled, evolving, problematic, and enormously hard-pressed mass of ostensibly antagonistic people—isn’t it this contested human mass that’s the field would-be peace-and-justice seekers are called to encourage, persuade, cajole, show a credible path to a sustainable just peace to, even as they work globally to create conditions more favorable to such a shift?
My issue with Peter’s analysis is that it misleadingly conflates Israel the country and people with the thuggish gang of fanatics and haters who have managed to hijack the apparatus of the state to accomplish their fiendish agenda, in the same way that belligerent discourse in Israel conflates the fanaticism and inhumanity of Hamas with the people and future country of Palestine.
Yes, terrible crimes have been and continue to be committed by the State of Israel under its present and many if not most of its previous leaders. These crimes must be exposed and acknowledged. And yes, I’m aware of Heschel’s well-known dictum that in a democracy, some are guilty but all are responsible. Even so, I’m writing to suggest that it might be more useful to the cause of a just peace to condemn supremacist, annexationist, hateful visions, policies, and actions that create hell on earth for both peoples rather than judging a whole country and people—“Israel,” perhaps even the Jewish people as a whole—guilty of those crimes. Can we find a way to say No to the ethno-nationalist program that at the same time invites rather than closes down Jewish Israelis’ ability to rethink their future with Palestinians?
Thank you again for clear and very helpful analysis.
I believe that Israel's leaders are incapable of recognizing any claims of justice on the part of Palestinians. They will back opposition parties that mix politically just claims with religious elements because this necessarily weakens the movement's politics. They prefer fundamentalists for this reason, because the fundamentalists are more extreme.
Peter - As usual, you deliver the bad news that no one wants to hear, but needs to hear.
Thank you so much Peter. Sometimes you say something so bleedin' obvious (forgive my Englishism!) that it is absolutely brilliant. I think we should also ask why the release of Barghouti is not top and centre of campaigning for Palestinian rights. Is it because he doesnt suit the ideological position that only one state can be contemplated? As far as I, as an old Jewish lady am concerned, what matters is that he is way the most popular Palestinian by miles. I am campaigning for his release to be a major part of British pro-Palestinian campaigning. It would really be good to know that it was matched by a similar campaign priority on your side of the pond!
great point, super helpful overview thanks
Totally makes sense. Thank you.
My issue with Peter’s analysis of
Peter, please invite Rabbi Elliott Cosgrove on to defend his sermon about the NYC mayor’s election.
So interesting that Hamas, the organization that launched the October 7th bloodfest, wants Marwan Barghouti released. That, in itself, is chilling.
There might be others in jail with the same potential, putting all this future potential pressure on only one, might help understand issues that are being hidden by the bullshit or gaslighting industry over decades (and our countries collaboration using the same tropes back and forth with the lazy media). But it does put a torture and other harm target on that person. And it is not clear that he is intact or even want what people of good will might project onto him. But I understand shedding light on the behavior around his symbol.
Cheeto And the Nazi Economic Game: Screw Everybody Except The Wealthy
It has been clear since the 1980’s and Reagan that the main economic policy was to hand their wealthy donor class tax breaks and make the rest of the electorate pay for it It’s the story of the privileged class, superior genetics(RFK Jr and his eugenics crap), and “we deserve to rule” kind of policy that led eventually to the political strategy of “trickle down economics(TDE)” Give the wealthy a bunch of money out of the pockets of the middle class and then that money will be distributed to the inferior human beings “below them” The Republican gambit has always been “we’re better than everyone else” so join us….we’ll elevate your game
A couple of studies have now shown that TDE doesn’t work and that the wealthy just become wealthier with an ever increasing wealth gap as a result and as a result everybody else gets poorer It’s now clear that that Cheeto and the Nazis are living Greed/Power Corrupts, and Absolute Greed/Power Corrupts Absolutely
Yes, the protests over the weekend in my view are about saving the democratic Republic but that societal unrest has underpinnings in the economic inequality that is being foisted on the American people by the current Nazi regime in the guise of inflation WE the People have had enough and it’s French Revolution 2.0(21st century style) and the way to screw the wealthy is to tax them and level the playing field(in the 1950’s the effective tax rate for top 1% was 42 to 45% and now 26 to 28%!!!)