If we are to believe Ari Shavit article of 27/5/2010, Israel has caused herself such immense damage in the last ten to fifteen years that she is on the verge of a great catastrophe. According to Shavit her situation is so dire there is no hope for a future.
All of his information, by the way, is based on either post-Zionist thought or outside sources that are far from friendly towards Israel.
Ari Shavit basis his OPINION on four different events: the full U.N.-accepted withdrawal from South Lebanon; the unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza strip, made in coordination with the United States and the EU; the Nashralla/Tehran Lebanon war of 2006; the Meshal/Tehran Gaza war of 2009.
Shavit also opines that the founding leaders of Israel knew exactly when the right time was, politically, to proclaim the creation of the state of Israel, while today’s leaders of Israel lack all concept of political timing. He blames this all on the Right, as if the Left has done nothing but great things for the state!
Shavit would do well to dig deep into Benny Morris’ book, 1948. Although partition was passed by the UN, it was not widely accepted by the world or by the rulers (England) of the then mandate of Palestine. The Yishuv was constantly fighting an uphill battle for political acceptance of the Jewish State; after all they were up against the whole of the Arab world and their enormous oil resources.
Shavit blames Israel and her leaders for what he calls “the four lamentable events,” but he cannot be more wrong. It is the UN and the international community who have behaved shamelessly since Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, not Israel’s leaders.
It was the UN that recognized, okayed and accepted Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon. It is the UN and the International community that let Hezbollah and Lebanon spit in the face of UN laws.
Not only did Hezbollah totally disregard international law, it then flaunted this when it attacked Israel twice, the second time leading to the war of 2006. Although I would have loved to have seen a complete and total IDF victory, the army still fought and beat Hezbollah on its own soil. Again Israel cannot be blamed for the UN’s and international communities’ sick acceptance of Syria and Iran rearming Hezbollah once again after the war of 2006. Shavit sounds almost as if he wants Israel to occupy South Lebanon again -- as though the international community would just be fine with that!
Shavit complains on one hand about Israel’s withdrawal, but offers absolutely no remedy for what should have, or what should be, done. He completely overlooks the inept, arrogant, one-sided and racist policies carried out against Israel by the UN, Red Cross, Amnesty International and other International Communities when dealing with Hezbollah’s criminal behavior.
Shavit then castigates Israel for her unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Again he should be turning his attention not towards Israel, but towards the heinous behavior of the Palestinian population of Gaza and the shameful behavior of the international community.
Israel’s withdrawal from the whole of the Gaza strip was a gift to the American government, the EU and Palestinian Authority. The leadership of Israel removed communities that had been in place since 1967 and handed over this land to the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people. Granted, Israel was doing this also for her own benefit diplomatically, but it was also given to Mahmoud Abbas as a peace offering indicating Israel’s seriousness for reaching a peace agreement.
What was given to Israel as a gift in return?
Voted in through a corrupt sham of “democracy,” Hamas took over governing Gaza almost the minute after Israel withdrew. Hamas is a terrorist organization that did not and does not accept Israel’s right to exist. Picture the reaction of the American Government and Americans if they woke up one morning to Canada denying her right to be?
Or, picture world opinion if an Israeli government not only denied Palestinians the right to statehood and advocated the transfer of all Arabs in Israel, Judea and Samaria into Jordan. The world would go berserk.
But the international community accepts a Hamas-run government that advocates the same policy directed at Israel’s Jews. On top of this, the “new and friendly” Hamas government in effect ripped up all the agreements penned by Israel, America, the EU, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. As an extra, added bonus, Israel was given 8,000 rockets rained down on her southern communities.
Shavit omits mentioning that the players of the international community the EU, UN, Amnesty International, etc., etc.,sat back and watched as the new Hamas government carried out war crimes by shelling civilian centers indiscriminately.
When Israel decided to defend herself, a world that is hateful towards Israel solely because she happens to be the Jewish State started to scream bloody murder. Plain and simple, there is no other explanation for the international Community’s behavior towards Israel.
While Shavit dwells on the world’s reaction -- which would be anti-Israel no matter what she does -- he fails to recognize the victory that the IDF achieved in Gaza; especially after the promises Hamas made when they opted to reject a renewal of the Gaza ceasefire.
Before the Gaza war, Hamas promised to send the IDF back in one big body bag. Instead, the IDF, performing as it has in the past, fought and won a lighting quick victory against Hamas. This victory, when one looks at the harshness of what war is, was won with very little civilian damage. The Gaza strip is populated by 1.3 million people, Hamas intentionally used these people, the whole of Gaza’s population as human shields. The fact that 1,300 Palestinians were killed, the majority of them Hamas militants, is a tiny amount in the numbers of war. Shavit blaming Israel for the world’s ridiculous and insane condemnation of her actions in Gaza is like blaming the victims of the Holocaust for being sent off to concentrations camps.
Then there is the occupation of Judea and Samaria (which most of the world knows as “The West Bank”). Shavit again lays the blame at the feet of Israel, as if he were clueless to all Israel has done to empower the Palestinians. As if numerous Israeli Prime Ministers have not lost their jobs and one his life because of the Palestinians’ sick need to continue the Occupation.
That’s right, Palestinian leadership wants to continue the infamous Occupation. How else to explain the Palestinian refusal to accept partition, or for their refusal to accept peace, statehood and an end of conflict in 2000 at the Camp David and Taba talks.
Instead of lambasting Israel, Shavit should be pointing his finger in the direction of the world community for continually accepting the Palestinians’ refusal to accept responsibility for all the Wars and pain they have caused their own people and the citizens of Israel.
But no, in Shavit’s Cracker Jack world of journalism, the occupation continues not because of the Palestinians refusal to accept Israel as the Jewish State, but because Israel just wants to continue the occupation. Of course this happens to run contrary to every Israeli government since Rabin and Peres signed the Oslo accords.
People like Shavit and Gideon Levy are prime examples of why the left is not in power. Labor and Kadima would do well to take a look at Haaretz as a daily reminder of how to regain their power. Something people like myself hope for.
Haaretz and its writers are no longer part of a newspaper, a newspaper actually has news in it. Haaretz is an opinion rag that leans heavily toward negative, self-hating leftists, with a post-Zionist take on the situation between Israel and the Palestinians.
This is not a democratic point of view, nor does it come close to representing even a tenth of Israel’s population. For Labor and Kadima to regain the faith of people like myself and the majority of Israelis, they must distance themselves from these elitist, self-destructive, post-Zionist concepts that blame Israel for all the wrongs the Arab world is causing. Furthermore and worst of all, none of them has a constructive alternative to offer as a substitute for Zionism or a firm belief in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish nation.
The Shavits and Levys of Haaretz have become pawns and mouthpieces for an outside world that has and always will be hostile towards the Jewish state. IT WILL BE THIS WAY UNTIL A REPLACEMENT FOR OIL IS FOUND.
The majority of Israelis want Peace and are ready for compromise, but we are not going to accept responsibility for a world that will find us guilty no matter what we do. After all, Ari Shavit, it was David Ben Gurion who said “Let me first tell you one thing: It doesn't matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive.”
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