May 05, 2004

Jonathan Freedland carefully picks up the wrong end of the stick

Hard to pin down Jonathan Freedland sometimes. Here he argues that Israel was held to account over Jenin and that therefore Britain and America should be held to account over Falluja. He also says that the US and Britain are occupiers too. Two problems here. First, Israel has never been held to account over Jenin. Second, Israel is not just an occupier; it is an apartheid state based on ethnic cleansing. Further, he subscribes to the "blow to Sharon" school referring to the Likud's rejection of his "disengagement plan" but Zionism always deploys its hard right to make any offer to the Palestinians look like a concession. I remember when Rabin won an election quite narrowly on a "peace ticket", the late Chaim Bermant said that "Rabin did not do as well as he feared"! Nothing has gone badly for Sharon so far and this Likud vote is no exception.

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