The Neglected History of the State of Israel

[Celerity]

https://prospect.org/world/2024-02-21-neglected-history-state-of-israel/



I begin with fulsome praise: Isaac Chotiner of The New Yorker is the greatest interviewer alive. He asks the most terrible people alive, or sometimes just conspicuously dodgy people, the bluntest questions imaginable. They evade; he follows up—ruthlessly. They’re reduced to puddles of incoherence. We get to peer inside the mystery of moral failure—an accomplishment few other writers can manage. Just as valuable are his straightforward informational interviews, especially these past months in which Chotiner has been methodically flushing out all-too-shrouded facts of the inhumanity on the ground in Israel and Palestine, from all sides. One of Chotiner’s best interviews ran this past November. A leader of the militant West Bank settlement movement told him that Jews have a sacred duty to occupy all the land between “the Euphrates in the east and the Nile in the southwest,” that nothing west of the Jordan River was ever “Arab place or property,” and that no Arabs, even citizens, should have civil rights in Israel. Stunning stuff, and extremely valuable to have on the record, especially given the settler movement’s close ties to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

I praise Chotiner, however, as a bridge to a separate point: Even the most learned and thoughtful observers of Israel and Palestine miss a basic historic foundation of the crisis. Return to that November interview. Chotiner asked, “So rights are not some sort of universal thing that every person has. They’re something that you can win or lose.” The settler answered, “That’s right.” He followed up: “When you see Palestinian children dying, what’s your emotional reaction as a human being?” She replied: “I go by a very basic human law of nature. My children are prior to the children of the enemy, period. They are first. My children are first.” Chotiner responded with incredulity: “We are talking about children. I don’t know if the law of nature is what we need to be looking at here.” The settler, nonplussed, repeated herself: “I say my children are first.”

It’s a remarkable thing to hear such horrifying sentiments, unadorned. But it is also remarkable how surprised we are by them. I’ve been reading an outstanding 2005 study, The Jewish Radical Right: Revisionist Zionism and Its Ideological Legacy, by historian Eran Kaplan. You should too. One of the things you’ll learn: That settler is repeating almost word for word the doctrines of one of Zionism’s original political traditions—the faction that ended up winning, and whose foundations were literally fascist. I use the word “fascist” in the literal sense. Do not flinch from it. The founders of Revisionist Zionism certainly didn’t. Respect them enough to take them at their word.



In 1928, a prominent Revisionist named Abba Ahimeir published a series of articles entitled “From the Diary of a Fascist.” They refer to the founder of their movement, Ze’ev Jabotinsky (his adopted first name is Hebrew for “wolf”), as “il duce.” In 1935, his comrade Hen Merhavia wrote that Revisionists were doing what Mussolini did: “establish a nucleus of an exemplary life of morality and purity. Like us, the Italian fascists look back to their historical heritage. We seek to return to the kingdom of the House of David; they want to return to the glory of the Roman Empire.” They even opened a maritime academy in Italy, under Mussolini’s sponsorship, for the navy they hoped to build in their new Israeli state. “[T]he views and the political and social inclinations of the Revisionists,” an Italian magazine reported, “are absolutely in accordance with the fascist doctrine … as our students they will bring the Italian and fascist culture to Palestine.”

snip

[TheRickles]

1. An eye-opener. Thanks for posting.

[atreides1]

2. Talk about delusional

" Jews have a sacred duty to occupy all the land between “the Euphrates in the east and the Nile in the southwest,” good luck with that!

"nothing west of the Jordan River was ever “Arab place or property,”, talk about erasing history!

[Basic LA]

3. A vilified and traumatized population

flooded in after WWII only to vilify and traumatize another population.

[Goddessartist]

4. Thank you

for posting this.

You may know how the story of Revisionism and Israel now plays out. Jabotinsky had a close associate named Benzion, who begat a son, Benjamin Netanyahu, who as prime minister, Kaplan notes, is if anything closer to Jabotinsky’s original Revisionist vision. Begin focused mostly on Revisionism’s vision of territorial conquest. “To Begin,” Kaplan writes, “the Jews were in a constant battle against Amalek.”

The article is excellent in it's entirety.

[Celerity]

5. Amalek: Netanyahu's & American Right Wing Christians' Explicit Biblical Calls For Genocide

related:

Christian Right Cites Violent Biblical Amalek Trope to Justify Israel’s Tactics

Many Christian Zionists are backing genocide by likening Hamas to a biblical tribe that God promised to exterminate.

Published October 22, 2023

https://truthout.org/articles/christian-right-cites-violent-biblical-amalek-trope-to-justify-israels-tactics/



As the world witnesses Israeli leaders deploying genocidal language and attacks against Palestinians in Gaza, much of the global Christian right is mobilizing its base in unilateral support for Israel. Many forefront Christian Zionist organizations are preaching a decades-old trope likening Hamas to “Amalek,” an archetypal enemy tribe of the biblical Israelites whom God promised to exterminate in order to bring Israelites “peace.” This is not the first time that right-wing religious groups across the globe have invoked Amalek against those they oppose. For centuries, Christian leaders have used Amalekite language to justify genocide, including against Native Americans and against Tutsis in Rwanda.

Right-wing Jewish groups have also employed the Amalek trope. Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1994, likely influenced by Amalekite language employed by the far right Kahane movement of which he was a part. (Israel’s current minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is also associated with this movement, which has largely dissipated but is still technically outlawed in Israel as a terrorist group.) Now many on the Christian right, and some Jews as well, are continuing the tradition of employing Amalek language to justify genocidal tactics, this time employed by the Israeli state against 2 million Gazans, about half of whom are children.

Link to tweet

Several Christian Zionist groups, such as the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), Capitol Hill Prayer Partners (CHPP) and Reformation Prayer Network (RPN) are directly citing biblical passages to overlay the biblical story onto the current reality. The ICEJ — one of the largest global Christian Zionist organizations boasting organizational representation in 95 countries and a following spanning 170 countries — sent its supporters an email on October 14 claiming, “This attack is without a doubt rooted in the demonic realm as a manifestation of the Spirit of Amalek.” It referenced the Samuel 30:3 Bible verse that describes how in response, the Israelites “burned [the Amalekites’ city] with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.” It’s a passage that echoes Israel’s current “collective punishment” strategy against Gaza’s civilians.

Numerous U.S. congressional leaders have echoed similar calls for annihilation, mirroring their right-wing counterparts in Israel. Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted a clip in which he states: “We’re in a religious war…. Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.” Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley — referring to Hamas — issued a call to “eliminate them.” At least publicly, these leaders are calling for complete destruction of Hamas. Yet when congressmembers like Marjorie Taylor Greene equate anyone in solidarity with Palestine with being pro-Hamas, and when the Israeli government cuts off water, electricity and gas to Gaza’s civilians, the lines between eliminating Hamas and eliminating all of Gaza are blurred. In an email on October 8, the ICEJ employs Amalek rhetoric to distract from Israel’s ongoing brutal repression in Gaza, saying:



snip

[Goddessartist]

6. They are,

without doubt, genocidal maniacs.

Religion, the root of evil.