Israel needs sanctions, not appeasement

Sue Blackwell has an article in the Guardian's mortarboard section, criticising Gordon Brown for putting the sick in sycophancy by way of a speech to the State of Israel's parliament. Comments are open now and the zionist trolls are out in force. I've done the following comment that I'm saving here lest it disappears.

Just scanning through the comments that zionists make on these threads shows why an academic exposé of and pressure on Israel is so necessary. The idea that an ethnocracy that invites people of immediate Jewish descent from anywhere in the world to settle in the country from which most native non-Jews are barred can be in any way considered democratic is ludicrous and yet there must be many people who don't know about Israel's origins in ethnic cleansing, nor of its relentless aggression, nor of its current racist structure. But the tide of knowledge and opinion is turning.

Gordon Brown's sycophantic speech to the Israeli parliament, wasn't ignorant of itself. It was dishonest and it sought to promote and maintain ignorance about Israel. Yes, he said a word or two about the occupation but he didn't go far enough on that and of course, given Israel's racist structure, the occupation isn't the only issue.

I recall a survey some years ago now where people were asked who they thought was the biggest threat to peace in the world. 60% in the UK answered, Israel. Since then the zionist movement has pulled out all the stops in its propaganda war. Israel's crimes are glossed over, Palestinians' rights are ignored, victims of ethnic cleansing are blamed for their own ethnic cleansing and Israel's critics are smeared - usually as being antisemitic or something that amounts to pretty much the same thing. Apparently the percentage of people who see Israel for the threat that it is may have decreased since the original question was asked but the same question seems not have been asked, presumably lest the answer be the same.

The fact is that for the support of the EU and UK, Israel is relying on the democratic deficit whereby governments can do what they want irrespective of what their people actually want. When that happens we look to the opposition. In the UK's case the "opposition" are as supportive of the zionist conquest of Palestine as the government. So we look to the media. Oh dear, what do we see? Every UK paper has a resident zionist, the Guardian has at least two and the Telegraph seems to have recruited the Israeli ambassador as a commentator. Ok, so the government, the opposition and the mainstream media have all let us down by appeasing, in many cases lying for, Israel. This leaves the people whose job is to find and promote the truth. Enter the academic community.

It's quite shocking that there are academics who support such a grotesque project of colonial settlement, ethnic cleansing and finding ever more ingenious ways of curbing the indigenous Arab presence in Israel but whether the academics are discussing an academic boycott or just focusing on getting the truth into the public domain, the genie is out of the bottle. The antisemitism smear has been so over-used, it no longer works. Though curiously there now some Israeli and Jewish antisemites trying to worm their way into the Palestine solidarity movement of late.

The holocaust card has also lost its value given that it is now known that all of the great powers supported zionism from 1919, way before the holocaust, and that the Palestinians who had risen against British rule in Palestine in 1936 had been thoroughly routed by 1939 leaving the way clear for the ethnic cleansing of the Arabs and the declaration of Jewish statehood then. It was actually WWII that put it all on hold. Then of course there is the less than exemplary role of the zionist movement during the holocaust.

The last card of the zionists has also been played in this thread. It's yet another thinly veiled allegation of antisemitism dressed up as wondering why poor little Israel is being singled out. This charge is levelled by people who don't seem to know how states have actually been condemned by the UN, quarantined and even invaded and occupied for far less than Israel has done and continues to do. These people also don't seem to realise that whilst other states commit human rights abuses, Israel's existence is predicated on its human rights abuses. There is no other state that exists on the basis that it invites people who do not come from there whilst banning people who do come from there. It means that Israel acts as a foreign legion in the middle east for the highest bidder (lately but not always, the US).

The best part of the article was Ghada Karmi's contribution. "Israel needs sanctions, not appeasement". But appeasement is precisely what Israel gets time and time again. I well remember opponents of the war on Iraq being labelled appeasers but appeasement is where party A accedes to demands made by party B in breach of party A's professed principles. Given Israel's inherently racist nature, and the fact that its key western allies are democracies for all of their people, Israel is currently the world's biggest beneficiary of appeasement.

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