Israeli state power and its liberal alibis

Eqbal Ahmad , ‘Pioneering in the nuclear age: an essay on Israel and the Palestinians’, Race & Class(Vol. 25, no. 4, 1984), p. 6.

Eqbal Ahmad with David Barsamian , Confronting Empire(London, Pluto Press, 2000), p. 30.

William B. Caldwell et al, ‘Learning to leverage new media: the Israeli Defense Forces in recent conflicts’, Military Review(Vol. 89, no. 3, 2009). See also, for example, Natan Sharansky, talk delivered in session ‘From the outside, looking in: international perspectives on the Middle East’, The Eighth Annual Herzliya Conference (22 January 2008), <http://web11.media-zone.co.il/media/idc/LIVE/2008&gt;, reiterating points made in Natan Sharansky with Shira Wolosky Weiss, Defending Identity: its indispensable role in protecting democracy (New York, PublicAffairs, 2008), p. 175; and Gerald M. Steinberg, ‘Taking back the narrative’, Jerusalem Post (30 May 2009).

Walid Khalidi , From Haven to Conquest: readings in Zionism and the Palestine problem until 1948 ( Washington, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1987), p. xxi.

Theterm‘Zionist’canpotentiallyrefertoarangeofpoliticalcurrentsnotappropriatelytarredwiththesamebrush.Itmaybenotedthattherehaveexistedformsof‘Zionism’opposed,forexample,toJewishstatehoodandtoexclusionarydemographicgoals.However,‘politicalZionism’,fixatedonJewishstatehoodasdefinedinpartbyattainmentofaJewishdemographicmajority,fromearlyonbecamemorethanjustonevarietyofZionism.‘Followingthepatternofeverysuccessfulhegemonicmovement’,EphraimNimniwrites,‘politicalZionismitselfbecamethemovement,andthedistinctionbetween"Zionism"and"PoliticalZionism"ceasedtohaveanymeaning.’Withoutventuringtoofarintothisdiscussion,sufficeittonotethatitistheZionismwhichinthismannercharacterisedthepoliticsoftheWorldZionistOrganisationbefore1948andoftheIsraelistatesincethatisbeingreferredtointhisarticle.EphraimNimni,‘FromGaluttoT’futsoth:post-ZionismandthedislocationofJewishdiasporas’,inEphraimNimni,ed.,TheChallengeofPost-Zionism:alternativestoIsraelifundamentalistpolitics (London,ZedBooks, 2003 ),p.120.

Chaim Weizmann , Trial and Error(New York, Harper & Brothers, 1949), pp. 178-9, 182, 192.

In 1946, for instance, the ‘Jewish Resistance Movement’ - an alliance of the three Zionist paramilitary organisations: the Hagana, the Irgun and the Lehi - submitted a memorandum to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine that ‘discussed the future security of the country and adjacent states, and stressed that a Jewish state, equipped with appropriate weaponry, could militarily and politically "contribute our humble share" to the strategic interests of the Anglo-Americans in the Middle East and defend Christian and other minorities while policing the area. This could be done without the help of a "single American soldier".’ Amikam Nachmani, Great Power Discord in Palestine: the Anglo-American committee of inquiry into the problems of European Jewry and Palestine, 1945-1946(London, Frank Cass, 1987), p. 114.

Khalidi , From Haven to Conquest, op. cit., p. xviii.

Ibid, p. xxxiv.

See Yosef Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, 1882-1948: a study of ideology (Oxford , Clarendon Press, 1987); and Nur Masalha , Expulsion of the Palestinians: the concept of ‘transfer’ Zionist political thought, 1882-1948 ( Washington, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992).

David Hirst , The Gun and the Olive Branch: the roots of violence in the Middle East ( London, Faber and Faber , 1977), p. 193.

Nira Yuval-Davis , ‘The Jewish collectivity and national reproduction in Israel’, in Khamsin collective , ed., Women in the Middle East( London, Zed Books, 1987), p. 61.

Ilan Pappé , ‘The square circle: the struggle for survival of traditional Zionism’, in Nimni, ed., The Challenge of Post-Zionism, op. cit., p. 58.

The outcome of the 2009 Israeli elections, in which the ‘Left’ (Meretz, Labour) was decimated and the right-wing bloc strengthened, is illustrative.

For analysis of the implications of this model, see Jonathan Cook, Blood and Religion: the unmasking of the Jewish and democratic state (London, Pluto Press, 2006); James Ron, Frontiers and Ghettos: state violence in Serbia and Israel (Berkley, University of California Press, 2003).

Notably, the decision to deploy troops against the densely populated Gaza Strip in early 2009 behind a ‘rolling fire-induced smokescreen’ showcased an evolving model of Israeli warfare that is ‘almost universally supported by the Jewish public’, as strategic analyst Roni Bart observes. ‘Warfare - morality - public relations: proposals for improvement’, Institute for National Security Studies Strategic Assessment (Vol. 12, no. 1, 2009), p. 19.

Israel Shahak, Open Secrets: Israeli nuclear and foreign policies (London, Pluto Press, 1997), pp. 41-2. For more on this strategic rationale, see Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle: the United States, Israel and the Palestinians (Montreal, Black Rose Books, 1999); Jonathan Cook, Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the plan to remake the Middle East (London, Pluto Press, 2008).

See, for example, Eqbal Ahmad , ‘Political culture and foreign policy: notes on American interventions in the Third World’ , in Carollee Bengelsdorf et al, eds, The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad (New York , Columbia University Press, 2006 ), pp. 205-218.

Weizmann , Trial and Error, op. cit., pp. 179, 376-7.

Nachmani , Great Power Discord in Palestine, op. cit., p. 112.

Maxime Rodinson with Brian Pearce and Michael Perl, Israel and the Arabs, Second Edition ( New York, Penguin Books, 1982), p. 119.

Noam Chomsky , ‘Israel and the new left’, in Mordecai Chertoff , ed., The New Left and the Jews (New York, Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1971), p. 211.

Ibid.

See Norman Finkelstein , Beyond Chutzpah: on the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2007).

Jane Hunter , ‘Israel: the contras’ secret benefactor’ , NACLA Report on the Americas (Vol. 21, no. 2, 1987), p. 21.

For discussion of the scholarly aspects of this development, see Ilan Pappé, ‘Introduction: new historiographical orientation in the research on the Palestine Question’, in Ilan Pappé, ed., The Israel/Palestine Question: a reader (New York, Routledge, 2007), pp. 1-7.

See Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Abigail B. Bakan, ‘Palestinian resistance and international solidarity: the BDS campaign’, Race & Class (Vol. 51, no 1, 2009), pp. 29-54. The BDS framework has encouraged both an action-oriented focus on institutional linkages with Israel and, through its association with anti-apartheid analysis, a renewed inclusion of issues of Palestinian refugees and citizens of Israel in the analysis of the core aspects of Israeli state discrimination. These are crucial contributions. Ongoing discussion is required regarding how the ‘sanctions’ objective can be most strategically pursued in relation to contemporary western state policy. There are grounds on which the tendency towards counter-productive polarisation in certain of these discussions among allies can be overcome and existing gains built upon.

Ron Prosor , talk delivered in session ‘Israel’s legitimacy under attack: new tools for advocacy’, The Ninth Annual Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel’s National Security and Resilience (3 February 2009), < http://web11.mediazone.co.il/media/idc/LIVE/2009 >.

Amnon Rubinstein and Alexander Yakobson, Israel and the Family of Nations: the Jewish nation-state and human rights (New York, Routledge, 2009), p. 2. For an earlier polemic pursuing a similar line of argumentation, see Ben Halpern, ‘Jewish Nationalism: self-determination as a human right’, in David Sidorsky, ed., Essays on Human Rights: contemporary issues and Jewish perspectives (Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979), pp. 309-35.

Rubinstein and Yakobson , Israel and the Family of Nations, op. cit., pp. 96, 88.

Cook, Israel and the Clash of Civilizations, op. cit., p. 130, citing Aluf Benn , ‘Legislation seeks to hinder citizenship for Palestinians, non-Jews’ , Ha’aretz (5 April 2005).

Rubinstein and Yakobson , Israel and the Family of Nations, op. cit., p. 71.

Ibid, p. 73.

Ibid, p. 125.

Ibid.

Ibid, p. 15.

Ibid, p. 18.

Ibid, p. 3.

Ibid, p. 138.

Ibid, p. 93.

Ibid, p. 94.

Ibid, p. 158.

Abu-Laban and Bakan , ‘Palestinian resistance and international solidarity’, op. cit., pp. 32, 42.

Ibid, p. 49.

Incidentally, there is reason to suggest more generally that the ‘national’ qualifier on self-determination creates more problems than it solves. See Omar Dahbour, Illusion of the Peoples: a critique of national self-determination (Lanham, Lexington Books, 2003).

See, for example, Nimni, ed., The Challenge of Post-Zionism, op. cit.

The reality frequently identified by Israel advocates as cause for concern - that there are limits to how long ‘the Jewish organizations will be able to pretend that the Jews are really behind them’ (‘Eventually, people will see through this’) - can help facilitate the process of stripping these organisations, and with them much Israel advocacy, of political credibility. These particular passages are taken from Shmuel Rosner (paraphrasing concerns voiced by an associate of his in the US), ‘Another study, more proof: younger American Jews are alienated from Israel’, Ha’aretz / Rosner’s Blog(6 September 2007), <http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=901587>. Rosner expresses hope that broader US support will compensate for this trend within the Jewish community.