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>From http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j051702.html
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Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
May 17, 2002
ISRAEL'S TALIBAN
The rising tide of Israeli extremism
The Israeli Taliban had its national convention the other day, and the nutballs won
out: the Likud party went on record as declaring that it would never accept the
legitimacy of a Palestinian state. In a stemwinder of a speech, ultra-rightist Benjamin
Netanyahu gave voice to what has been, up to now, a largely unspoken sentiment,
advocated only by the most extreme fringe parties:
"In order to defeat terrorism, we must take three steps. First, we must complete the
purification of the area, and clean it out totally of all fighting forces and arms. The
Prime Minister and the government began this mission, but it has not yet been
completed."
Ah yes, "purification" � an ominous word choice.
To be fair, this translation is unique to the excerpt that appears on David Horowitz's
site: on the Netanyahu.org site, which offers the complete text of the speech, this
word is missing. But that is just nitpicking, for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine has
always been implicit in the Zionist program, in spite of the (public) protestations of
its
leaders � and is now becoming more explicit as the Middle East crisis reaches a
feverish pitch.
Today, 46 percent of Israelis support what even Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of
hard-line "revisionist" Zionism, explicitly ruled out � the forcible expulsion of 3
million
Arabs. Over 60 percent want the government to "encourage" Israeli Arabs to leave
the country, according to Ha'aretz. The growing respectability of these ideas is
symbolized by the entry of the fundamentalist National Religious Party into the
government.
Another Likud coalition partner is the Molodet party, which holds the Ministry of
Tourism: Benny Elon, the head of the ministry, recently launched a publicity
campaign on behalf of his party's main platform plank: "Only transfer will bring
peace," as the billboards emblazoned with the Molodet slogan proclaim.
According to the Zionist ultras, there already is a Palestinian state, it is located in
Jordan � and the Palestinians need to go back there. Sharon, during his tenure as
Defense Minister, once averred that "there is a Palestinian state. All that is needed
is
a headline." To say that the Jordanians, not to mention the US State Department,
oppose this on the grounds it would be destabilizing is a bit of an understatement. As
one wag put it: "Presumably the headline would be 'King Hussein dead. Arafat in
Amman.'"
To get a good look inside the Netanyahu mindset, check out Christopher Hitchens'
memorable piece posted four years ago in Salon:
"A few weeks ago, in this holy city, a public lecture was offered by Benzion
Netanyahu. It was in honor of a man named Abba Ahimeir. Neither of these two men
is, perhaps, as well known as he ought to be. Benzion Netanyahu, the 87-year-old
father of the [then-]Israeli prime minister, is a scholar at Princeton University and
the
author of The Origins of the Inquisition � Abba Ahimeir was a writer and activist in
British Mandate Palestine, and a zealous lieutenant of Jabotinsky. In the pages of the
magazine Doar Hayom, during the late 1920s and '30s, he wrote a celebrated
column titled 'From the Notebook of a Fascist." He hymned Mussolini, referred to
Jabotinsky as 'Our Duce,' and even went so far as to say that Hitler was on the right
track, except for his excessive anti-Semitism. � Ahimeir, said the elder Netanyahu,
had been his mentor."
Yes, but is the son responsible for the sins of his father? Hitchens informs us "it is
very well attested that Netanyahu the younger makes few moves without consulting
his revered papa, who also rose to be Jabotinsky's secretary and pallbearer." His
mentor, Ahimeir, headed a faction of Jabotinsky's Revisionist movement called Brit
Habirionim, or Alliance of the Strong, although birionim, in the contemporary
vernacular, has come to mean "hooligans." Netanyahu senior once told an
interviewer:
"It is obvious to me that there is no Palestinian people. Not in the past, nor in the
present. ... What we have here is simply a branch of the Arab people. The claim that
such a people exist is only being made so as to justify the call to liquidate the
Jewish
state. They [the Palestinians] are trying to create the illusion of a people that in
fact
has never existed."
Hitchens cites a March 21, 1998 article in Ha'aretz, by Shani Litman, reporting on a
talk given by Netanyahu to an audience of "right-wing retired officers and security
men in Tel Aviv." He assured them there would be no sell-out:
"We are making a constant effort to preserve the maximum, including territories I
would fight for even if they had no security value."
Hitchens also cites a piece by Israeli analyst Akiva Eldar that told of a "memorandum
of understanding" signed by the Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs, brokered by
the Americans, designed to combat underground terrorist outfits and arrange for an
exchange of intelligence. But there was a glitch, Eldar reported:
"Netanyahu forbade representatives of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to meet with
their Palestinian and American counterparts for the purpose of establishing a joint
monitoring mechanism that would supervise the implementation of the
memorandum. It is difficult to fathom how this very same individual, who swears
allegiance three times a day to the cause of the security of Israel's citizens, is
willing
to forego a formal Palestinian Authority. The reason for Netanyahu's position is that
he is opposed to a concomitant Israeli commitment to confiscate firearms in the
possession of Jews who plan, or support, terrorist actions."
That a man like Netanyahu wields such power in the governing party � and may even
be the next Prime Minister of Israel � is ominous enough. But that prospect takes on
an even darker hue in light of the arrest of Noam Federman and associates in
connection with a plot to bomb an Arab school for girls. Federman is a supporter of
the virulently supremacist Kach movement, founded by the late Meir Kahane. Israeli
authorities are now investigating to see if other terrorist attacks on Arabs are
connected to an extensive extremist underground.
What we can see in Netanyahu, and the radicalized Likud, is the Jewish equivalent of
the Taliban rising out of the fundamentalist, militant, and messianic currents roiling
Israeli society. Sharon is held captive to this constituency, and cannot govern without
them. Netanyahu's coup at the Likud party conference was but a prelude to the
coming challenge to Sharon's leadership.
The Likud has always stood for the idea of a Greater Israel � a concept that has
more to do with religious fundamentalism than any genuine concern for "security."
There cannot be a Palestinian state, in this view, for the simple reason that God
promised the Jews not only all the lands of Judea, Samaria (the West Bank), and
Gaza, but beyond, from the Nile to the Euphrates. Describing God's covenant with
Abraham, Genesis 15:18 proclaims:
"To your descendants I give this land from the River of Egypt to the Great River, the
river Euphrates."
Millions of fundamentalists the world over, both Christian and Jew, believe that:
what's more, they are willing to fight and die for it.
We are all-too-well acquainted with the scourge of Islamic fundamentalism, but the
Israeli version � with the help of Christian "Zionists" in the West � may pose a
deadlier danger in the long run. For the Afghan Taliban never even came close to
acquiring nuclear weapons: the Israelis are already nuclear- armed. No one knows
what a government beholden to a crackpot "spiritual advisor" like Rabbi Yosef is
likely to do, in a crisis � and do we really want to find out?
What's even more outrageous is that this upsurge of religious fanaticism and ultra-
expansionist sentiment has been fueled by a flood of US tax dollars, which fund not
only the settlements but the religious schools that promote political extremism.
In his speech to the Likud party conference, Netanyahu boasts that he was feted
during his trip to Washington, and that, in no small part thanks to his effort:
"The great American nation is not only not against us � it supports us, and by a huge
majority! And that is important, because in the final analysis, what determines the
position of the administration in the United States is public opinion � especially
since
the current administration � and primarily President Bush, knows perfectly well just
who Arafat is and what he is striving for."
But of course this last is nonsense. Or else what are we to make of the American
insistence on Arafat and the PLO as the only possible negotiating partners in a
Middle East peace agreement? Oh well, never mind, because even the President of
the United States is subject to political pressure. As "Bibi" puts it: "We have the
ability
to sway this public opinion."
The Israeli Taliban could easily be reined in, and nipped in the bud by US
policymakers � but for the exertions of Likud's American supporters. Ensconced in
both parties � allied with the Christian Right and the New Republic liberals �
uncritical supporters of Israel dominate the national discourse on the Middle East.
Wrapped in a protective shield, and subsidized to the tune of $3 billion a year by US
taxpayers, the worst elements in Israeli society are coming to the fore, and pose a
direct danger not only to US interests, but to the whole region.
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