Monday, May 31, 2010

Burston on Israel: A Special Place in Hell

Bradley Burston, Haaretz: We were determined to avoid an honest look at the first Gaza war. Now, in international waters and having opened fire on an international group of humanitarian aid workers and activists, we are fighting and losing the second... Here, in Israel, we have still yet to learn the lesson: We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege...

We explain, time and again, that we are not at war with the people of Gaza. We say it time and again because we ourselves need to believe it, and because, deep down, we do not... We, unable to see ourselves in any clarity, are no longer capable of stopping ourselves.

Rebranding Israel as a state headed for fascism
Bradley Burston, Haaretz: No one knows fascism better than Israelis. They are schooled, drilled in the history, the mechanics, the horrendous potential of fascist regimes. Israelis know fascism when they see it. In others... It would take denial, inertia, selective memory, a sense that things -- bad as they are -- can go on like this indefinitely, for fascism to be able to gain its foothold in a country founded in its very blood trail...

Wrote Boaz Okun, the legal commentator and a retired Israeli judge, 'I'm not speaking of the stupidity of supplying ammunition to those who claim that Israel is fascist... rather, of our fear that we may actually be turning that way.'

Also:
The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa's post-apartheid government declassifying the documents.
Image source here.