An unwelcome intro to the binational state

[Little Tich]

Source: Haaretz
By A.B. Yehoshua

A binational state would not arise solely due to Israel’s doings; its establishment also would be abetted by the silent cooperation of Palestinians.

In his op-ed last week ("Now it's your turn," Haaretz, December 23), Avraham Burg posited a new thesis holding that the time has come to prepare for the possibility that Israel is moving with blind, irreversible certitude toward the establishment of a binational state in Eretz Israel.

Apart from the religious camp (owing to the structure of its religious identity), apart from the camp of the secular extremist right (owing to the violence of its fantasies), and apart from the post-Zionist left (owing to its humanitarian-cosmopolitan vision), all other political and ideological camps in Israel grasp and articulate the fact that a binational state in Eretz Israel is a dangerous and unfavorable possibility, both in the short term and (more particularly) in the long term.

Despite this fact, we stride, as though out of necessity, toward the establishment of a binational state, an entity which at some stages of Zionist history was viewed as a plausible possibility, and even as a laudable one in some circles.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/an-unwelcome-intro-to-the-binational-state-1.405013

[Little Tich]

1. Now it's your turn

By Avraham Burg
Source: Haaretz

There is a very reasonable chance that there will be only one state between the Jordan and the sea - neither ours nor theirs but a mutual one. It is likely to be ... patently not democratic, like the one that exists today.

I have listened very attentively to the contemporary discourse of the right. Some of the speakers express remorse, others wonder "What has happened to us?" while yet others lament: "They are going against us, these youth who riot."

They have one common denominator: the left, a terrible, shady enemy because of whom everything has gone wrong for them. A cunning and elusive devil that controls the media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau and world diplomacy. Were it not for the left, all their good would have been understood by everyone, the hooligans complain as they make themselves look wretched. It is interesting how long they will be afraid of this scarecrow which does not impress even itself any more.

For the better part of the past 30 years, the right has controlled the government. The Labor Party freed it from its grasp only for a very short time. The historical Labor Party never would accept the fact that Israelis preferred the Likud and its satellites. It never agreed to give up being part of the government in order to become a fig leaf par excellence, the kashrut certificate for the failures of the right in every sphere - and the chief purifier of all its vermin.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/now-it-s-your-turn-1.403059

[holdencaufield]

2. "A cunning and elusive devil that controls the media"

Why does that sound SO familiar?