The Wolf Who Cried Wolf: Charging Anti-Semitism and Extending the Iron Wall [cp, self]

["M. Junaid Alam" <redjaguar@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks again for the title, Chris.
As always, looking for criticism/comments.
---
The Wolf Who Cried Wolf:
Charging Anti-Semitism and Extending the Iron Wall
by M. Junaid Alam



  "All colonization must continue in defiance of the will of the
  native population. Therefore, it can continue and develop only under the
shield of force which comprises an Iron Wall through which the local
population can never break through..To the hackneyed reproach that this
point of view is unethical, I answer, 'absolutely untrue.' This is our
ethic. There is no other ethic."
  -- Ze'ev Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall, 1923

A shadow follows the Palestinian at all times. Its shape reflects the
contours of the bombs, missiles and slabs of concrete dropped, deployed, and
delivered at the settler's whim. Instead of slipping away into the night or
vanishing with the passing of life, this shadow looms long after having
gunned down, crushed, devastated, and disinherited its target with deadly
precision. Its dark shade is imparted by gun-toting soldiers manning
checkpoints, tanks saluting children with raised turrets, helicopters
hovering above homes, and bulldozers raising their arms to embrace another
set of buildings.

For this is the shadow cast by the Iron Wall, Zionism's long-standing policy
towards the Palestinians, which has led to a half-century of systematic
expropriation, ethnic cleansing, massacre, torture, incarceration, and
occupation of the native. When Zionist theoretician Ze'ev Jabotinsky first
formulated the doctrine of Iron Wall in 1923, he laid the question of
colonialism bare. He understood that "The natives will always struggle
obstinately against the colonists," as they are bound up with their land
with the "true fervor that any Aztec looked upon his Mexico or any Sioux
upon his prairie." Given that the Palestinians "will struggle against
colonizers until the last spark of hopeis extinguished," Zionism must ensure
"there is no hope left, until we have removed every opening visible in the
Iron Wall." Force was to be not only a pre-condition but the condition for
Zionist success, via the Iron Wall. [1]

And so, ever since the West has shone its light of warm sympathy upon the
Zionist project-partly out of guilt for brutally murdering several million
Jews, and partly out of the need to brutally suppress several million
savages-it became necessary to build an Iron Wall, to contain and crush the
yearnings of the looted and disinherited within the confines of squalid
camps and ghettoes, to surround and divide them with settlers and soldiers.
The Palestinian native has now labored under military occupation for 36
years, and thus finds himself encircled, anguished, paralyzed, and in
poverty. He lives in the shadow of the Iron Wall, a shadow of shackles and
chains.

But the native never lost his "last spark of hope". The spark was not
extinguished in 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were terrorized, uprooted
and expelled, several decades after Moshe Sharret announced, ""We have not
come to an empty landbut we have come to conquer a country from people
inhabiting it"; several years after David Ben-Gurion declared, ""I support
compulsory transfer. I do not see anything immoral in it"; and several
months after Menachem Begin gloated over "a splendid act of conquest"-the
rape and massacre of 254 Palestinians at Deir Yassin. The spark was not
extinguished in 1967, when Israel grabbed the remaining 22% of Palestine and
began its military occupation as its war hero Moshe Dayan kindly informed
the natives, "You shall continue to live like dogs." The spark was not
extinguished in 1987, when the Palestinians mounted a civil disobedience
campaign, facing down tanks with rocks woven into slings, suffering a 25:1
death ratio inflicted by an army with orders to "break their bones." And the
spark is still not extinguished today, even as the farce of Oslo has come
and gone while Jewish settlements have consumed half the Occupied
Territories. [2]

Unable to transform their spark into a flame, but too courageous to let it
be extinguished, the Palestinians have been smashing their chains against
the silence of world conscience for decades. Their loud protestations have
now leaped over the Iron Wall, echoing across the Atlantic and reaching the
receptive ears of American activists fighting for social justice. Seeking
new ways to disrupt the brutal logic of the Israeli war machine, a group of
college students and professors at the University of California Berkley
began a campaign to pressure universities to divest from Israel two years
ago, basing themselves on the anti-apartheid movement aimed at South Africa
in the 1980's. Today, at least 40 campuses across America have initiated
efforts to force American universities to disassociate itself from companies
conducting business with Israel. The initiative brings attention to Israel's
brutal policies against the natives, and could force strong economic
pressure upon a nation which subsidizes settlements inhabited by religious
fanatics and thugs at the expense of the Palestinian people. [3]

But the settler has his champions, too. Among them stands the head of the
Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman. Decked out in the impenetrable armor
of moral purity, he recently intoned, "There is a greater tolerance on the
college campus than elsewhere for expressions of anti-Semitism," referring
to the divestment campaign. Raising his sword of self-certainty high into
the air, he then denounced the association of Israel with apartheid as
"odious" and "hideous". These comments came after Harvard President Lawrence
Summers proclaimed that 'anti-Israeli' attitudes are "in effect, if not
intent" anti-Semitic. This prompted the esteemed law professor of that
university, Alan Dershowitz, a self-proclaimed "advocate and practitioner of
human rights around the world," to comment-no, "confidently assert"-that
"Israel's record on human rights is among the best," adding that he, too,
considered divestment anti-Semitic. [4]

The Wolf Who Cried Wolf:
Charging Anti-Semitism and Extending the Iron Wall
by M. Junaid Alam



  "All colonization must continue in defiance of the will of the
  native population. Therefore, it can continue and develop only under the
shield of force which comprises an Iron Wall through which the local
population can never break through..To the hackneyed reproach that this
point of view is unethical, I answer, 'absolutely untrue.' This is our
ethic. There is no other ethic."
  -- Ze'ev Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall, 1923

A shadow follows the Palestinian at all times. Its shape reflects the
contours of the bombs, missiles and slabs of concrete dropped, deployed, and
delivered at the settler's whim. Instead of slipping away into the night or
vanishing with the passing of life, this shadow looms long after having
gunned down, crushed, devastated, and disinherited its target with deadly
precision. Its dark shade is imparted by gun-toting soldiers manning
checkpoints, tanks saluting children with raised turrets, helicopters
hovering above homes, and bulldozers raising their arms to embrace another
set of buildings.

For this is the shadow cast by the Iron Wall, Zionism's long-standing policy
towards the Palestinians, which has led to a half-century of systematic
expropriation, ethnic cleansing, massacre, torture, incarceration, and
occupation of the native. When Zionist theoretician Ze'ev Jabotinsky first
formulated the doctrine of Iron Wall in 1923, he laid the question of
colonialism bare. He understood that "The natives will always struggle
obstinately against the colonists," as they are bound up with their land
with the "true fervor that any Aztec looked upon his Mexico or any Sioux
upon his prairie." Given that the Palestinians "will struggle against
colonizers until the last spark of hopeis extinguished," Zionism must ensure
"there is no hope left, until we have removed every opening visible in the
Iron Wall." Force was to be not only a pre-condition but the condition for
Zionist success, via the Iron Wall. [1]

And so, ever since the West has shone its light of warm sympathy upon the
Zionist project-partly out of guilt for brutally murdering several million
Jews, and partly out of the need to brutally suppress several million
savages-it became necessary to build an Iron Wall, to contain and crush the
yearnings of the looted and disinherited within the confines of squalid
camps and ghettoes, to surround and divide them with settlers and soldiers.
The Palestinian native has now labored under military occupation for 36
years, and thus finds himself encircled, anguished, paralyzed, and in
poverty. He lives in the shadow of the Iron Wall, a shadow of shackles and
chains.

But the native never lost his "last spark of hope". The spark was not
extinguished in 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were terrorized, uprooted
and expelled, several decades after Moshe Sharret announced, ""We have not
come to an empty landbut we have come to conquer a country from people
inhabiting it"; several years after David Ben-Gurion declared, ""I support
compulsory transfer. I do not see anything immoral in it"; and several
months after Menachem Begin gloated over "a splendid act of conquest"-the
rape and massacre of 254 Palestinians at Deir Yassin. The spark was not
extinguished in 1967, when Israel grabbed the remaining 22% of Palestine and
began its military occupation as its war hero Moshe Dayan kindly informed
the natives, "You shall continue to live like dogs." The spark was not
extinguished in 1987, when the Palestinians mounted a civil disobedience
campaign, facing down tanks with rocks woven into slings, suffering a 25:1
death ratio inflicted by an army with orders to "break their bones." And the
spark is still not extinguished today, even as the farce of Oslo has come
and gone while Jewish settlements have consumed half the Occupied
Territories. [2]

Unable to transform their spark into a flame, but too courageous to let it
be extinguished, the Palestinians have been smashing their chains against
the silence of world conscience for decades. Their loud protestations have
now leaped over the Iron Wall, echoing across the Atlantic and reaching the
receptive ears of American activists fighting for social justice. Seeking
new ways to disrupt the brutal logic of the Israeli war machine, a group of
college students and professors at the University of California Berkley
began a campaign to pressure universities to divest from Israel two years
ago, basing themselves on the anti-apartheid movement aimed at South Africa
in the 1980's. Today, at least 40 campuses across America have initiated
efforts to force American universities to disassociate itself from companies
conducting business with Israel. The initiative brings attention to Israel's
brutal policies against the natives, and could force strong economic
pressure upon a nation which subsidizes settlements inhabited by religious
fanatics and thugs at the expense of the Palestinian people. [3]

But the settler has his champions, too. Among them stands the head of the
Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman. Decked out in the impenetrable armor
of moral purity, he recently intoned, "There is a greater tolerance on the
college campus than elsewhere for expressions of anti-Semitism," referring
to the divestment campaign. Raising his sword of self-certainty high into
the air, he then denounced the association of Israel with apartheid as
"odious" and "hideous". These comments came after Harvard President Lawrence
Summers proclaimed that 'anti-Israeli' attitudes are "in effect, if not
intent" anti-Semitic. This prompted the esteemed law professor of that
university, Alan Dershowitz, a self-proclaimed "advocate and practitioner of
human rights around the world," to comment-no, "confidently assert"-that
"Israel's record on human rights is among the best," adding that he, too,
considered divestment anti-Semitic. [4]...

REST: http://www.counterpunch.com/jalam1026.html


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