Time to boycott the hell out of Israel

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If anyone thought the Israeli government wants peace with Palestinians and is prepared to share the Middle East with them then they were surely disabused of this by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments last week as Israeli voters went to the polls.

Netanyahu unequivocally ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state and vowed to strengthen construction of Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem.

Israeli politicians have often referred to Palestinian citizens (20% 0f Israeli citizens are of Palestinian origin) in derogatory terms and Netanyahu didn’t disappoint the racists. On polling day, as a way to galvanise his supporters to get out and vote, Netanyahu told the country “Arab voters are advancing in large numbers towards voting places”.

Just think for a minute if a New Zealand Prime Minister warned Pakeha voters on election day morning that “Maori voters are advancing in large numbers towards voting places”. It would be called for the vile, racist reference it is.

All the decades long sophistry of wanting peace was swept aside and Israel’s real agenda exposed in all its ugly racism.

Netanyahu’s comments reflect the typical comments of apartheid South Africa’s white leaders towards that country’s black majority. Within Israel, Palestinians who are Israeli citizens are denied nationality of the country and hence are subject to an Israeli apartheid whereby they are second class citizens in all aspects of life.

So what are we to make of all this? The response from the US and Western governments has been predictably muted but these things are absolutely clear:

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· Israel does not want a two-state solution (A Jewish state and a Palestinian state side by side)

· Israel does not want a One-state solution where Jews and Palestinians live side by side in a shared country

· Israel intends to continue its occupation of Palestinian land and theft of Palestinian land for more racist Jewish-only settlements on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem in defiance of UN resolutions and international law.

We can’t expect our government to stand up against the vile racist ideology of Zionism or mouth more than platitudes in support of Palestinian human rights. John Key’s guts don’t extend further than opposing human rights abuses by enemies of the US.

So it’s ordinary New Zealanders who must make the stand. Along with Palestinian solidarity groups around the world we must step up our campaign to isolate the racist Israeli regime.

Just as we did in the case of South Africa we must boycott the hell out of Israel.

45 COMMENTS

  1. Well said John, Israel needs to shown the error of there racist ways. They if any race should know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of racism.

  2. Maybe not racism John just a takeoverof Palestine, and they are backed by America who are the biggest takeover merchants in the world ,they don’t care who people
    are they just want what they have,everything is never enough.

  3. I see there is an arab party of the left in the Israeli elections and the knesset.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_members_of_the_Knesset
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knesset

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_List
    “The party supports the creation of a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital; and equal rights for Arab citizens of Israel”

    Can you please show me one party representing jewish interests in syria, lebanon, jordan, egypt? Iran?

    The presence of dissenting voices in the highest realms of power in israel kind of goes against the facists, totalitarian picture you paint above beholden to zionisms secret power.

    • @ ‘ Tightyrighty ‘ ? Firstly , what a silly nom de plume . Should change it darling . Really .
      Secondly . What ? Make some sense for Gods sake .

      The Jews can’t be invited to take up a bit of post WW2 space on a sandy shit hole of a place and not get all uppity and start with the murdering and the rampaging and the bullying and the slaughtering and the shooting and the rocketing and the bombing and the profiting off the human misery-ing and the pleading with the ‘we didn’t do it-ing’ . They did it first-ing and expect to get away with fucking it-ing ? WTF ? Are you fucking crazy ?
      The Jews are plopped onto some poor Arab bastards spot then they start taking over ! What’s not to get pissed off about that ? Jeeesus Christ !

      Show some fucking respect you Jews ? Have some compassion ? The Arabs were trying to extend a hand of friendship and you spat on it . Then , then you tried to take it over and morph it into your own bleak , miserable reality . And that is of the noble art of suffering and misery Oi vey ! Oh ! ? How we suffer !?
      Fuck off ! look around , you dicks ! We’re all fucking suffering .

      Look . Try this . Ring up someone you know in Arab-land and say … Hi . My name’s Mert . And we’re having a VEGETARIAN barbecue ( Surely , no offence there . Unless some fucking dick is carrot-ique )

      Honestly ? I don’t believe it . You guys need to get a fucking life .

      • so, after handing out over a million internet points (monopoly money?) to everyone who shares your views, the shit kicking anti Semite emerges from their rural hell hole to practise revisionism of history. Well, I assume that’s what you are attempting. It’s rather difficult to comprehend what you are attempting to prove after your first sentence actually adressing what I wrote instead of being somehow ironically homophobic about my nom de plume.

        Can you show me a nation, out of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, iran etc that allows for Jewish members of parliament to stand in democratic elections for their national house of government?

  4. Hehehe…I think its important to discern between the two extremes of ‘Zionism ‘.

    On the one hand …we have merely the advocacy of the continued state of Israel…using crude tactics such as Netanyahu….lethal though they might be….

    On the other hand…we have something completely different….something far more ‘intangible’ and difficult to perceive…

    And in the case of the latter…would take you back to the tenth century A.D…to the Kingdom of the Khazarks…sandwiched between both the Holy Roman empire in the form of Constantinople…and the Muslim world.

    These…Khazar’s were not Semitic Jews …but became Proselyte Jews…gentiles who chose to embrace the Jewish religion. It was purely for expediencies sake as this afforded them the best trade between both worlds..

    They oppressed the Slavs and later the Rus…Swedish Vikings who established Kiev…then Novrogod…In time these Rus allied with Constantinople and defeated them…

    The Khazar’s then migrated north into Poland, Russia,…and parts of east Germany…where they settled for century’s…it is where the Yiddish language comes from…

    Their point of origin is in the Caucasus mountains…this is where we get the modern term Caucasian…denoting a white , European.

    It is generally this group that underwent the pogroms of Russia..not the Semitic Jews as a whole.. and as they were forbidden to own land…they turned instead towards money lending and such like to eke out a living. In time , they prospered..

    With the outbreak of the first world war…many were displaced..and by 1917,…a delegation of these Khazar proselyte ‘Jews’ convened the Balfour Agreement….that if they could bring America into the war to defeat the Kaiser of Germany…the deal would be that the British would help establish the nation of Israel.

    And in the USA as in England…there were many of these people who had done exceedingly well financially…America came into the war despite Congresses reservations…and Germany was defeated.

    It is a fact Germany was winning the war until this point and had a huge salient into France…

    It is interesting that in the early 1960’s…JFK had as one of his advisers a man who was actually a part of the Balfour delegation as a very young man. And he goes on to say essentially that the state of Israel…was brought about by the descendants of the Khazark’s….not the Semitic Jews…

    We know the British went back on their promise and held many of these people in concentration camps…for years in Palestine as it was then called…

    Finally , with Hitlers war…being the catalyst ,…the state of Israel was established…in the late 1940’s..

    It might interest some to know that the old financial houses of Europe…names such as Rothschild , their american counterpart Rockefeller…are of Khazarkian origin…not semetic Jews…

    And it is here we start to get into the realms of Globalistic Zionism…more to do with control of nations than the small borders of Israel…however we also start to see the reasons why the USA has so much to do with Israel…the huge financial resources poured into it…

    And if in fact Israel is enacting an aggressive policy of displacement… it is only the minor edge of what the true definition of the word Zionism really embraces…on the one hand…explicitly the concerns of one small nation in the middle east…at the other extreme….far more to do with geopolitics…global finance, and global one world governance..

    • And as a point of historical reference…after the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D 79…most of the Semitic Jews..particularly the tribes of Judah spread into Spain…traversing the Mediterranean….whereas the proselyte Khazarks migrated north east in to Russia and Poland.

      Interestingly ,…..the Semitic Jews also spread as far as the west coast of India…St Thomas … and foundered a colony there…now it is near one of the richest states in India…the heart of their I T industries.

      • That’s right WK, they are the Ashkenazi Jews they are converts to Judaism and not Semites.Jews of Semitic origin( Seraphic) have been of residents of Spain and the Mediterranean for centuries.And they comprise about 20% of the people who claim to be Jewish.Most genuine Semitic Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust.
        They are not the chosen people either this is just PR.Source of much Jewish racism. The Bible has a lot to answer for in brainwashing generations of people globally for countless centuries. Robert Fisk’s analysis of the Balfour Declaration in the The Last Great War for Civilization is worth reading for the historical detail of who the players were and still are who are driving this lunatic fascist aggression that fuels all of the world’s wars. Most so called Jewish traditions are of Khazar origin. e.g matriarchal lineage,orthodox hairstyles.
        I am happy to be Goyim.( non Jewish)
        Now just wait and watch for all the paid pro Israel trolls to start trashing this post.

      • You are very knowledgeable Wild Katipo. . .I was going to footnote your comment with a Rothschild reference but alas, you covered it all.

        Some might find ‘Operation Exodus by Gordon Thomas a good read although only tangentially relative. It is quite amazing how these ‘Philanthropists’ have been (inadvertently?) fulfilling prophecy.

        Truth is certainly stranger than fiction.

      • Seems to be mixed feelings among scholars about the Koestler thesis, albeit with the weight of opinion (and genetic findings) against. Ultimately, though, this focus on ancient Ashkenazi Jewish origins is utterly meaningless in terms of a solution to Israel’s current occupation.

        I’m also a bit concerned about WILD KATIPO’s “Globalistic Zionism” and “one world governance” theories. Borders on Far-Right anti-Semitic conspiracy territory.

        Incidently, Mike, Paul Eisen is a holocaust-denier, with anti-Semitic tendencies (notwithstanding his Jewish background). Prefer not to go to his site.

        • Very glad to see your critical comment from last night Swordfish. The thread took an unpleasant turn startlingly fast. It’s depressing to see the pseudo-history in a few of the comments above rearing its ugly head again

        • Paul Eisen is a Jew with anti- Zionist tendencies, and a wonderful breath of fresh air in a world full of Zionist control, propaganda and lies. There is a difference between Antisemitism and Anti Zionism. People like Paul Eisen and Gilad Atzmon are great ambassadors for the Jews because of their honesty.

      • To the contrary…it is exactly the opposite…Eastern Yiddish was a trade construct which contains many Polish ,Slavic and Khazar words – based on Hebrew and Aramaic….what you are referring to is western Yiddish…which does contain many Germanic words……and is far less common than the Eastern Yiddish.

        As for the Khazar being a myth ?…

        To say that would be to deny the historical facts of the Khazars political importance up until the 10th century A.D. The Holy Roman Empire were well aware and in fact traded with and encouraged their presence as it was a buffer against the Muslim world.

        The very fact there still exists to this day the country of Khazarkstan …from which the root word Khazar comes from…the Khazars being a tribe among many who were of Turkic origin….along with many other steppes dwelling nomadic people.

        Now…the significance of this may not have a direct bearing on the modern state of Israel…until one considers that in Europe at the time of the first world war….these distinctions were more widely known and accepted….

        For centuries the various Jewish groups had lived in relative peace amongst the European adopted country’s….there were of course , discrimination’s and pogroms…but nothing like the holocaust of world war two..

        It is important to realise that because of the Balfour agreement…and Germany’s subsequent loss when the USA was brought into the war……that this set the very feelings of bitterness amongst Germans …some blamed communism…(which was viewed by many as a Jewish plot ) some blamed dissensions in the military…

        But as we know….Hitler outlined not only Lebenscraum -living space by enslaving the Slavs and their lands and that included the Caucasus regions as well – but expulsion of the Jews from Europe.

        Why ?….primarily because of the fact that many of the banks and financial houses of Europe were run by Jews….moreover…that the war was lost by the signing of the Balfour agreement.

        This was the current thinking at that time.

        But the fact remains that Israel did not become a state until 1948. And while much of that had to do among other things with global wealth and political influence…..it is also a fact that many orthodox Rabbi’s opposed and still do oppose the concept of a nation state of Israel.

        So….it must be admitted that there are other players who support the concept of Zionism. And as stated before – there is a huge difference between Zionism concerned only with the maintaining of the nation of Israel….and another definition of Zionism that is extreme , cabalistic , globalistic and more concerned with having a powerful influence on global affairs.

        It is this last group with its supporters that are of concern . And while you sit and scratch your heads wondering why and how ….yet you omit the fact that the Likkud party is a far right , neo liberal and aggressive group….And that Israels position is to fulfill a balance of power in that region . Nothing more, nothing less.

        An ideology.

        And some have accused me of anti antisemitism. In that you have totally failed to discern the difference between discussing ‘race’ and an ideological movement’.

        We are not talking about any ‘ race’ here – but an ideology.

        And it matters not whether a person is of Jewish or gentile ethnicity – as that has nothing to do with it. All manner of peoples and races are involved in any coming New World Order as George Bush Senior stated at the first Gulf war.

        Here’s another hint…E Pluribus Unum.

        It is about ideology ,the role of neo liberalism , and Global World Government.

      • Matters not …but what does matter is the motivating factors behind whats happening in Israel at the moment – and don’t forget- the Likkud party is a neo liberal party….

  5. Well if you are going to boycott Israel, make sure you have a comprehensive list of all the products made in Israel, including the Intel chip in your smartphone or laptop,

    Of course, we all want a Palestinian State on the West Bank. Iran says it will arm the people and therefore many many more people will die in conflicts similar to those of Gaza

    This is the ultimate aim, of course, the destruction of the State of Israel and the extermination, for ever, of the Jewish people

    So boycott the Intel chips and support the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jewish race.

    So proud of you Minto

    • Well, that’s business… I’m sure there is some entrepreneurial go-getter somewhere who will gladly take over the making of Intel chips.

      “the extermination, for ever, of the Jewish people” Now who has the capacity and will to do that world-wide? It failed in Europe, despite centuries of malevolent propaganda and slanted legislation.

      However, the excision of such predatory war-mongers, oppressors, and landgrabbers as Netenyahu and his ilk from politics would be a blessing for the world at large and the assorted religious followers in the region. (Jews, Muslims, Christians in all their many varieties.)

  6. Another great journalistic piece of work from John Minto. Thanks ! !

    America is way too close to Israel and they have failed in the middle east.
    Gaza is destroyed and there will be no Palestine with the racist Bibi in power. What a massive waste of space Netanyahu is and what a sad and racist leader in bed with the majority of the US republicans.
    The US are the war mongers, arms providers and resource grabbers and need to get out and let countries live in peace with their own self-determination and sovereignty.

    I just heard the term “Summit of Happiness” with healing dialog to work out the world problems and that sounds good to me. Most now agree that the US needs to stop violating human rights and get out of the countries that do not want them there – which I bet would be most of them.
    The zionist jews and Rothschilds and Rockefellas and all the corrupt
    arms dealing mega-corporations and their greedy psychopathic upper 1% on the top of the pyramid ARE the problem. They created most of the problems and they need to be put out to pasture. Then we can schedule a “Summit of Happiness” and stop all wars and injustice and move on to peace and human dignity and healthy sovereignty.
    Sounds great doesn’t it ? but much easier said than done.

  7. Hear hear John. Well said there.

    The Western world is so fickle, when it comes to Israel, which by the way is still one of only two countries blocking a lifting of the embargo on Cuba!

    The West is controlled by the strong and powerful Jewish influence in the international finance sectors. Hence, no Israeli backlash against that nation’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians. Ongoing aggressive assaults and land grabs against the people of Palestine will continue, until the West or another close middle eastern country deals seriously with Israel.

  8. Yep, just like South Africa, Israel needs sanctions to stop it’s apartheid.

    The Israel situation is poisoning the idea of fairness to all, under UN.

    You can’t have one power ignoring rulings and blowing up UN schools by Israelis and then preaching to other nations moderation. Needs to be the same rules for everyone. Including the US and Israel.

    As each nation breaks rules ‘getting away with it’ is causes others to follow, Russia, fractions in the middle East etc. You have to lead by example.

    I think the world is facing tough times, bizarrely corporations (and those who control them) seem to be considered more important than governments and people.

    It seems to be filtering down to a micro level now. Even so called ‘left wing’ (laugh) mayor Len Brown considers it ok to expand the ports of Auckland taking away amenity for Aucklanders without compensation or consultation to a council corporation. In his eyes it seems the ports of Auckland corporation is more important than the people who live there who he is supposed to represent and actually pay for Auckland through rates.

    This is a growing discourse. We can’t have public good or environmental good as this is against somebodies profit!

    The Israel situation is a similar bizarre situation that has been expanding. Again does not make much sense, but the discourse is very strong. You can not speak out against Israel, they are more important than UN and can break the rules.

    • Yes, talking of boycotts, your last attempt at boycotts hasn’t worked out so well, has it John?

      South Africa today may be nominally democratic (although you can be assured the ANC will never let go of the reins of power, regardless of who votes for what) but it has since slipped into a mire of corruption and incompetence from which it will never raise itself.

      So whilst your middle class guilt may be assuaged, your life’s work has helped commit South Africans, both black and white to a sad, sad future.

  9. Great article John and DLANZ totally tautoko / support your call for Boycott of Israel as like the old apartheid system of South Africa. ‘We’ support all methods of non violent protest and this would certainly impact if here and other countries followed the concept.

    DLANZ have gathered through research that those living with disabilities in Palestine (Gaza / West Bank) are not being able to access disability support services unlike the disabled citizens from Israel to the same level, if at all…so the discrimination encountered is also something the United States need to take responsibility for since George W Bush gave a right wing Israel a free hand, while the rest of the World are now burdened with the cost of repair and rehabilitation.

    In the long run it may need a complete redrafted redrawn Balfour Declaration, but in the short term USA should with-hold its Veto over outstanding UN Resolutions. This would be a good start and help call for Russia over Syria and the Ukraine.
    Waiata / Song…Dancing Days – Led Zeppllin

    All the best to Global Peace and Justice and keep miling

    Doug Hay
    Cordinator

  10. Why is my comment still in moderation????????

    [This site does not have full-time Moderators. All such duties are undertaken by volunteers, in their spare time. We could allow real-time posting, but the amount of spam and trolling would not make for a very pleasant debating environment. Otherwise, we do the best we can, Shona. – ScarletMod]

  11. Yep, we’re seeing the true face of the Israeli Electorate.

    All the analyses suggest that in the final days of the campaign, Netanyahu ran on two core messages – (1) No to a Palestinian State and (2) Racist fear-mongering about the need for Jewish voters to counter Israeli-Arab turnout. And that appears to be what swung the Election to Likud and its far Right allies in the last couple of days.

    We’ve been told for years and years that the people of Israel support the Two-State solution. But if you look at the Opinion Polls, more than 70% of Israelis (in some polls, close to 90%) support annexation of the major Settlement Blocs, roughly the same proportion support Israel’s retention of the Jordan Valley, keeping ALL of Jerusalem for Israel and nullifying the Right of Return. In other words, the overwhelming majority of Israelis utterly reject the Two-State Solution as defined by the long-term (post-67) International Consensus, firmly grounded as the latter is in International Law. (Two states on the June 67 border with a just resolution of the refugee question).

    Netanyahu has never, of course, supported two states and it’s good to see that his desperation to hold onto power has finally forced him to come out and admit it openly in front of the International Community.

    The thing, of course, that some liberals in the ‘West’ don’t fully understand is that the Israeli Labour and centrist parties (currently in the Zionist Union) have also taken a consistently rejectionist stance. The difference is that, while the Israeli Right reject ANY sort of deal with the Palestinians, the (supposedly “dovish”) Israeli Left and Centre favour the sort of “two-state solution” that would see Israel annex almost all of its major settlement blocs (including the critical water resources), keep Jerusalem entirely in Israeli hands, and bisect any putative Palestinian state into separate enclaves. A non-viable state on the bits and pieces that Israel doesn’t want. Essentially a legitimisation of the occupation and long-term ethnic-cleansing. And a complete negation of International Law.

    The PLO (and more recently Palestinian Authority) has been desperately trying to negotiate a two-state settlement to the conflict for almost 40 years, starting in 1976. Over the last 15 years, Hamas has made it clear*** that it, too, will accept the International Consensus as long as Palestinians receive their full rights under International law.

    [*** In various international forums, in a series of guest editorials in leading European and US newspapers and by joining the PA in a government of national unity implicitly grounded in an acceptance of the two-state solution]

    In the 2008 Annapolis negotiations, the Palestinians bent over backwards, surrendering many of their fundamental rights under international law. They offered a proposal that allowed Israel to keep 60% of the illegal Settlers in place in 2% of the West Bank, while still allowing for a viable Palestinian State. Israel’s “centrist” leaders – Olmert/Livni – rejected the offer outright. Similarly, Netanyahu rejected the latest Kerry initiative outright. Kerry had basically sought to foist Israel’s preferred terms of settlement (based on their consistent Official position) upon the Palestinians. And still Netanyahu rejected the offer – essentially repudiating his country’s own long-standing bottom-line demands.

    The current phase of the so-called “Peace Process” was initiated at Oslo in 1993 when there were 250,000 illegal Jewish Settlers / now the figure’s 550,000. So, judging by the results (rather than all the theatre and rhetoric) there has been an absolutely relentless Annexation Process that uses the never-ending “Peace Process” as a façade.

    There’s no doubt that Israel is the obstacle, it has always been the rejectionist party to the talks. And that’s largely because it has no incentive to obey International Law – it enjoys an almost entirely cost-free Occupation of Palestinian Territory. The EU pays the bills in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority does the dirty work (providing “security” for Israel by imprisoning Palestinian activists – an adjunct to Israel’s own massive imprisoning (and on-going torture) of a significant segment of the Palestinian population), and, meanwhile, the US fully protects Israel diplomatically at the UN and other international forums, while also, of course, providing huge financial and military support.

    And so there’s no incentive for Israel to obey international law and undertake a full withdrawal. They get to have their cake and eat it too. They get to illegally build these luxurious Jewish-only communities in the Palestinian West Bank (where Israelis can relocate with the most generous Government subsidies), they get to steal the Palestinians’ most precious water resources, their most arable land, they get to build Settler-only highways that criss-cross the West Bank and they essentially lose nothing. Cost-free. Possibly the first-ever cost-free occupation of someone else’s land.

    The only way to force Israeli elites (and the wider population) towards obeying international Law is, as John Minto has rightly argued, to make the State of Israel pay the price for this immoral, illegal, inhuman 48-year occupation. Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions.

  12. Great stuff.

    “John Key’s guts don’t extend further than opposing human rights abuses by enemies of the US.”

    • You go too @ ScarletMod ! I must be saved from myself sometimes , as must we all . Thank fuck for moderators is all I can say .

  13. So if we’re boycotting Israel for whatever sins they’ve committed, are you considering boycotting:

    Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yeman, China, Pakistan, and a host of other nations for committing similar offences?

    Or are you just anti-semitic….?

    It’s a sad day for Socialism when it shows the same level of bigotry as Hitler 🙁

    • Or, Andrew, you are simply trying to justify one, by pointing to others as a feeble excuse, thereby creating paralysis? Taken to an end conclusion, no one can do anything good because something else will be bad, and we shouldn’t focus on one, and ignore a billion others… Have I got it right?

    • @ Andrewo ( Where’d the ‘ O ‘ come from by the wayo ? )
      Aw don’t try the old Hitler shit . Is that your range as a Thinker ? Why am I even asking you that ? I’m embarrassed for me .

    • No Andrew not for ‘whatever sins’, but for the sin of occupying another people’s country and disenfranchising those people with the ongoing aid of the U.S.

      Read some history, see what actually happened, what they were ‘given’ and what they now have, and please don’t bother with all that other bullshit about all the other nasty things being done in other countries. Israel practices apartheid it is plain for all of us to see except those with blinkers on.

      Zionism is what we are opposed to and many of those opposed are Jews.

      • Michal no-one in the nation of Israel is occupying another peoples country. Israel is a sovereign nation, recognised by the UN and virtually every nation on the planet. Now of course there is the small matter of what are commonly called the occupied territories. It is doubtful Israel will ever relinquish those. They have very long memories, and the last time they handed back territory, it didn’t end well. Remember?

        • It seems EB that you’ve “forgotten” that Israel is occupying the West Bank, Golan Heights, and blockading Gaza.

          Nice bit of selectivity you’ve got going there.

          • The areas you refer to are what are commonly described as the ‘occupied territories’ – I did mention them. My point though is that Israel only occupies those areas as a result of aggression by it’s Arab neighbours. The history of the Gaza withdrawal is a recent illustration to the world of how little the Palestinian leaders can be trusted.

            • ” the small matter of what are commonly called the occupied territories. It is doubtful Israel will ever relinquish those.”

              Oh well. So much for possession being nine tenths of the law.

              If that was your olive grove or vineyard, in the family for long and long, and some fanatical American-flavoured settler decided s/he had more right to your livelihood than you do – would it still be a ‘small matter’?

              Aside – and related: is there no better/more accurate word to label this endless seething in the Middle East than ‘racist’?

              ‘Xenophobia’ seems to fit better, but perhaps it’s too long to spell and isn’t as super-chargered as good old ‘racist’?

              • That’s funny Andrea, because most of Palestine given to the nation of Israel was a wasteland, but you enjoy the little fantasy olive groves if you like. Your history is also a little off. The nation of Israel was conceived many years before the US came to military and political prominence, and perhaps the first formalised notion of such a thing came in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Israel belongs to the Israelis. The only racism is that of her 50 million Arab neighbours who won’t honour her existence.

    • Actually, there are those who would advocate boycotting Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yeman, China, Pakistan, etc for human rights violations. You just can’t be bothered learning about it, in your rush to defend Israel.

  14. In case you were thinking of boycotting via the barcode number (729) on goods, read this:
    http://www.mecsw.com/specs/ean_cc.html

    Summary:
    EAN Country Codes
    The first two or three digits of an EAN-13 barcode identify the country in which the manufacturer’s identification code was assigned. They do not necessarily indicate the country in which the goods were manufactured.

    In short, check the label..

  15. To castigate the Israeli prime minister over his rejection of a two state solution is fine, as long as you recognize what it is he is rejecting.
    What he is rejecting is a state like present day Gaza, a hotbed of terrorism and fundamentalist Islam, where kids are taught to murder Jews, girls are forced into child marriage, honor killings are condoned, UN hospitals are commandeered as army bases, and journalists ate threatened.
    No world leader in their right mind would want a state like that near their country, and Bibi is no different.

    Now let’s look at the state Israel hoped for, and what they got instead.
    The Gaza strip was given to the PLO in 2004 to give them a chance to create a blossoming, peaceful, productive Palestinian state. Most of the greenhouses that has been worth millions of dollars in exports to the Israeli economy were left intact.
    Long story short, Hamas took over, and began making war on Israel, who continues to this day to provide electricity and aid to the same people who want their children dead.

    I also hear people like John Minto complaining about Israel’s blockade of the Gaza border. It’s necessary to prevent explosives and weapons being smuggled into Israel to murder civilians. Israel won’t do what Egypt did on the Gaza border – namely, bulldoze everything within a few kms of the border, to prevent tunnels. If Minto was so concerned about Gazans, why doesn’t he protest the actions of Egypt?

    In short: I cannot take John Minto seriously, until he –
    Protests the fact Egypt bulldozed Palestinian homes to create a border
    Protests the multiple human rights violations of Hamas, against their own people
    Protests the Hamas charter that calls for the death of all Jews
    Acknowledges that Israel has full human rights for women, and had a female prime minister long before America or NZ
    Acknowledges that Israel has full citizenship for Arabs, even the ones that want to destroy it
    Acknowledges the fact that Israel is the only middle east country with free democratic elections

    Is he honest enough to recognize the complexity of the situation, or will it always be a case of “Palestinians good, Israelis bad”?

    • I have been thinking for some time about how to respond to John, and Acuity you have just summed it up beautifully.

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