Am 14.10.23 um 07:32 schrieb Rahul Goswami via nettime-l:
Yes, I have picked out aspects of the post-1948 period. Historical
events and eras anterior to the formation of the state of Israel are a
subject too voluminous for a discussion in this forum.
The immediate and recent facts remain:
1. What happened on 7 October 2023 was a terrorist attack. The death
toll from that attack is now at least 1,300 which is an enormous
number. The number of injured is much higher. This was an organised
and deliberate terrorist attack.
Language is very important. What is Gaza? What is the name of its
government? Par in parem not habet iudicum. A states are equal.
2. The modes of killing and savage humiliation by Hamas terrorists
against Israeli citizens (and other citizens) have gone far beyond
what the world has come to associate with terrorism in recent decades.
These cannot and must never be sanitised.
First of all, it was an act or war. They knocked the state of Israels
down with one drone. While the IDF was busy to protect looting. And then
they showed what that did mean. The attackers are all dead. What does
this mean for the right of self-defense?
3. In a number of cities in Europe, North America and Australia, later
on 7 October and during the days following, 'celebrations' for the
attack were on public display by supporters in those cities of Hamas,
the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian "resistance". This
points to the globalisation of the support for terrorism of this
nature. That this has happened is a concern serious enough for those
in the West, but that it has yet to be recognised academically signals
a blind spot that is already deadly.
You have to distinguish between the fact of some action, the knocking
down of the state of Israel, and what they did later. They liked the
action nobody said: I love the killing of civilians. And see their
logic: No citizen of Israel is innocent. The Germans and the holocaust.
Who was innocent? Again: All states are equal.
4. Media and commentary about the Israeli armed response to the 7
October terror attack has been generally one-sided. The Israeli
Defence Force has been criticised. However the IDF's methods have not
changed. As before, it warns civilians before an attack.
Everybody knows this. They dont have to go but then they are dead. The
question of propoprtionality is the same. War in cities is hell. The
Ukraine is a kindergarten. Aleppo comes to mind. Where does self-defense
end and where does punishment begin? Regimechange, is it justified?
What has escaped even passing comment by the Western media is the
wretched development track record of the Palestinian Authority and
Hamas (in Gaza), which collect huge sums every year (a) by taxing
Egyptian business in and with Gaza, (b) taxing Gazans who commute to
work daily to and from Israel, (c) from Qatar which has for the last
several years paid upwards of USD 200 million a year. To what uses has
this money been put?
Gaza is a state and needs a lot of money.
5. The Palestinian Authority and its supporters demand the right to
the existence of a Palestinian state. However Mahmoud Abbas has not
only repeatedly vowed never to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, but
in March 2014 lobbied the Arab League to issue a statement expressing
its "absolute and decisive rejection to recognising Israel as a Jewish
state." This symbolises the growing Islamism within Palestinian
society, and its apparent acceptance by particularly Western
supporters of the PA, which is as serious a matter as point 3 above.
This is the basic question. This is not Islamism but liberalism. States
should be neutral.
Israel has not many options. (a) Kick all Pals out again, (b) the two
state solution with the boerders of 1967 and Eastern Jerusalem aas the
capital of the second starte of trhe P?als or (c) a one state solution
with equal rights fof all. If you want to have a Jewish state you have
the options (a) and (b). (b) means that the settlers in the westbank
would have to live in the state of Palestine or have to go. Like they
left Gaza. The option (c) would be a neutral state with Hamas in the
parliament.
My 2 cents,
Best, H.
Rahul Goswami
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