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Israel Knows That Peace Just Doesn't Pay
Successive Israeli governments since 1993 certainly must have known what they were doing, being in no hurry to make peace with the Palestinians. As representatives of Israeli society, these governments understood that peace would involve serious damage to national interests.
Economic damage:
The security industry is an important export branch - weapons, ammunition and refinements that are tested daily in Gaza and the West Bank. The Oslo process - negotiations that were never meant to end - allowed Israel to shake off its status as occupying power (obligated to the welfare of the occupied people) and treat the Palestinian territories as independent entities. That is, to use weapons and ammunition at a magnitude Israel could not have otherwise used on the Palestinians after 1967. Protecting the settlements requires constant development of security, surveillance and deterrence equipment such as fences, roadblocks, electronic surveillance, cameras and robots. These are security's cutting edge in the developed world, and serve banks, companies and luxury neighborhoods next to shantytowns and ethnic enclaves where rebellions must be suppressed.
The collective Israeli creativity in security is fertilized by a state of constant friction between most Israelis and a population defined as hostile. A state of combat over a low flame, and sometimes over a high one, brings together a variety of Israeli temperaments: rambos, computer wizards, people with gifted hands, inventors. Under peace, their chances of meeting would be greatly reduced.
Damage to careers:
Maintaining the occupation and a state of non-peace employs hundreds of thousands of Israelis. Some 70,000 people work in the security industry. Each year, tens of thousands finish their army service with special skills or a desirable sideline. For thousands it becomes their main career: professional soldiers, Shin Bet operatives, foreign consultants, mercenaries, weapons dealers. Therefore peace endangers the careers and professional futures of an important and prestigious stratum of Israelis, a stratum that has a major influence on the government.
Damage to quality of life:
A peace agreement would require equal distribution of water resources throughout the country (from the river to the sea) between Jews and Palestinians, regardless of the desalination of seawater and water-saving techniques. Even now it's hard for Israelis to get used to saving water because of the drought. It's not difficult to guess how traumatic a slash in water consumption to equalize distribution would be.
Damage to welfare:
As the past 30 years have shown, settlements flourish as the welfare state contracts. They offer ordinary people what their salaries would not allow them in sovereign Israel, within the borders of June 4, 1967: cheap land, large homes, benefits, subsidies, wide-open spaces, a view, a superior road network and quality education. Even for those Israeli Jews who have not moved there, the settlements illuminate their horizon as an option for a social and economic upgrade. That option is more real than the vague promises of peacetime improvements, an unknown situation.
Peace will also reduce, if not erase entirely, the security pretext for discriminating against Palestinian Israelis - in land distribution, development resources, education, health employment and civil rights (such as marriage and citizenship). People who have gotten used to privilege under a system based on ethnic discrimination see its abrogation as a threat to their welfare.
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72 Comments so far
Show AllBOYCOTT, DIVEST, SANCTION THE TERRORIST STATE OS ISRAEL!!! IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT WILL STOP THEM FROM CONTINUING TO COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND WAR CRIMES. WELL, IF THE US STOPPED BEING PARTNERS IN CRIMES AND STOPPED FUNDING THEM WITH BILLIONS EVERY YEAR AND STOPPED GIVING THEM WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION THEN THAT MIGHT STOP THEM AS WELL!!
So why don’t you give an example by starting with boycotting Israeli press and Israeli reporters and boycott the article above?
Because painting such a broad brush is self defeating.
I will boycott Israel's goods except those that promote peace and understanding.
Will you boycott your computer? (Which most likely uses Intel and Microsoft components that were developed in Israel?) Or does your computer promote peace and understanding?
Letto:
Give it up. Everyone laughs at argumenta ad absurdum.
Do you even listen to yourself? You Zionists will say anything, no matter how ridiculous or untruthful?
I agree with you that boycotting Israel is ridiculous. Just like boycotting the US.
You can’t do it properly unless you live in a cave.
The only hard thing about boycotting the US is that almost nothing is manufactured there but dollars.
Were major oil producers to sell in, say, euros, that would cause a stir, wouldn't it?
One could boycott specific companies as well. When one has to purchase products from from people one would not support, it's still possible for large groups of people to single out one company and boycott it. The company has the option of stopping the offensive policy, which would provide an opportunity to boycott the rest.
I never said that. Boycotting Israel is a step in the right direction, but frankly somewhat tame. Israel is an illegal invasion, and the victims have every right to defend themselves and push back the invaders.
If one writes to divest, the computer promotes peace and understanding.
I know a number of Israelis who are dead set against their government's policies. Unfortunately, the Israeli government is dominated by fear-mongers more often than in the USA. Public opinion polls in Israel, as in the USA, often reflect a majority opinion that would be happy to live in peace, side by side with the Palestinians. Unfortunately, in Israel, as in the USA, the mainstream media is manipulated by elites for the enrichment of those elites. The only long term solution to this problem is public education, both formal and by a free press. Unfortunately, we probably don't have enough time to ensure that enough of the public in either country will get enough education to see through the intentional divide and conquer strategies the elites play on us all: Social wedge issues, Fox vs MSNBC, which is effectively am implicit cooperation between two corporations, News Corp vs GE, if only the "vs" were real beyond ratings. In the US, we've got trust funders from wealthy and/or "old money" connected families and/or their Ivy league educated defenders hosting news programs (Anderson Cooper, Matt Miller, etc.) seeming to be neutral observers of the world scene until it comes to defending bank bailouts and corporate welfare. I have no idea what to do about any of it as nature is about to take its globally warmed course regardless of what any of us do short of stop participating at all by not voting, not paying taxes, not working, etc., which is ridiculous. Good luck Israel in avoiding being one of many ground zeros eventually.
"I know a number of Israelis who are dead set against their government's policies."
-- Unfortunately, this number is too small to be meaningful. Nice to know, tho.
"The only long term solution to this problem is public education, both formal and by a free press."
-- Well, as you alluded, we have a Zionist dominated press, so this isn't a long-term solution.
You might not realize what boycotting Israel actually means - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG9aeyTwxw4
risingdawn, the only way to stop the murdering zionists, is to vote the pimps and whores out of office in our country who give the zionists the billions of dollars, to murder and steal the land of the Palestinians.
That describes them alright! Describes the U.S.A. too!
Not true! Every single Israeli citizen receives full universal health care.
In America that idea is considered crazy. Why on earth would you ever distribute health care on the basis of need and without a profit margin?
Does Israel pay its medical bills with any of the $6.8 million/day largesse of the American people?
Do the Israeli people have free medical care courtesy of the US taxpayer?
No, US aid goes to the military. (To buy US made military hardware)
Ha-ha!
I'm referring to the tactics of repression.
It's illuminating that this piece, which would never be seen as "fit to print" in the US, could be published in Israel. Apparently Israelis are considered grownup enough to handle controversy, whereas our collective mind is still too impressionable, too easily manipulated by base emotional appeals.
A good point, though not one that speaks against a boycott.
Haaretz knows a time tested maxim well: follow the money.
What is described in this article sounds exactly like Aparteid to me.
The Darwinist "get it while you can" attitude that prevails in the most prominent corporatist countries like US and Israel is not just short-sighted, it runs against all ecological and sociological principles that separate humans from beasts and prevents us from ever achieving peace.
The reporter has very limited knowledge in economics.
War could benefit a few sectors. But for the general public, peace is always a better choice.
Like we do in the US, right? Israel is simply following our model. Since before Eisenhower's famous warning about the Military Industrial Complex we have been on a permanent war economy. Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark said a year ago that "the greatest threat to world peace is US military expenditure." Since when has the US government foreign policy ever been designed to benefit "the general public" or for that matter "peace?"
War is a (very profitable) business. Neither Israel nor the US are interested in peace. Amira Hass gets to heart of the problem. It's amazing that she was able to be so honest and direct.
A minor correction. Some sectors within the US and within Israel do not want peace.
The majority of the people want peace.
Yes, but the majority of people is too stupid to realize that they are just pawns in a despicable game of a ‘Few Good Men’.
The two party oligarchy that manages the profit and wealth flow for a small elite has been able to keep the voting masses in a state of acquiescence and convenient ambivalence. Common lifestyle was provided by loan and debt, education is geared around producing useful subjects rather than freethinking citizens, the masses are kept occupied with inane entertainment, silenced by welfare payments, engaged in shock doctrines, manipulated by corporate controlled mass media and preoccupied by hope-inducing wishful hogwash that we have a choice under this system.
Democracy, in it’s current form, is the tyranny of a cunning class with controlling and omnipotent lobbies and mass media propaganda, that use the ignorant majority ‘mandate’ of the voting masses for their treacherous agenda. There is no difference between Israel and the USA. They are run by the same bunch.
Care to look behind the curtain?:
Read Collateral Damage part I and II.
www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner
But _ L E T TO _, _ c o r p o r a t i o n s _ are _ " p e o p l e " _ too !
¿ How could you go and just ignore their "personal" rights to imprudently manipulate and extract unrestrained profits upon billions of people's suffering and death ?
¿ How could you go and just ignore their rights to imprudently manipulate and extract unrestrained profits up¿ Have you no concern for their feelings in this ?
¿ How could compare the majority thinking of mere human beings ( about "wanting peace" ), to the crushing, inexorable, and sinking destiny of our titanics of corporate industry and finance ( the really "smartest" people in the room ) ?
Your befuddlement may pass, if you just start breathing again …
Namaste
"Some sectors" is not equal to "all the people who work for all corporations".
"Majority of the people" is not equal to "all the people,"
Hope that helps.
There's no majority of people in Israel that want peace. Never have been.
There's no majority of Jews in general that want peace. Never have been.
That's the reality starting point here...
Wanderer : “There's no majority of people in Israel that want peace. Never have been. There's no majority of Jews in general that want peace. Never have been.”
First of all, you’re wrong.
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/05.22/08-peace.html
You are saying that most Jews, for thousands of years, always wanted war. This is a hard core anti-Semic comment.
Thank you for revealing the true face of Wanderer
90% of Israeli Jews polled indicated they supported the Gaza massacre.
Given the electoral choice, Israeli Jews voted in the most right-wing and racist government possible.
So, stop with the bullshit about peace-loving Israeli Jews.
Notice the Anti-Semetism trope again. Zionists have no integrity.
Not any help at all, not that it matters, as you appear to quote me for things I said not.
Your inability to respond at all to the corporatism issue, bodes poorly for you and Israel.
Your opinions are as nothing compared to those of the corporate personhood
Tom Larsen was blaming Israel and the US for wanting wars.
I said that he should be more accurate and blame only some sectors in Israel and the US for wanting war. Not all Israelis and not all Americans.
Looking for moral cover, are we? You can't hide behind a straw, which is all you have left when you put out straw men (like claiming someone said "all").
I am amazed. My zombie-ized American friends haven't the brains or vocabualry to respond to the article, which is thoughtful and well-written. I am slowly being convinced that our problem is not so much Zionism-Nazism, with all the awfullness that monicker implies, but our own lack of vocabulary and dearth of discourse amongst and between ourselves. The writer made many valid points. Argue the merits or lack of merit. Let's have some useful dialogue. Let's talk like adults... American adults.
.
This description of today's State of Israel is similar to the Nazi State of Germany 70 years ago.
A nation without a moral soul.......hell bent on building an empire at the expense of racially and ethnically inferior peoples. Their lives, property, and labour destroyed for the new order...the Chosen.
The world stoodby while the mighty military state grew. True, lies and propaganda hid or distorted the horrors and crimes of the Germans...for a while.
Today, the Jewish State of Israel is far worse than those Nazi of the 1930's.
And yet, the Leaders of the Nations of the World pretend to not understand the Criminal and Immoral Terrors that the State of Israel is guilty of.
Israel is the greatest terrorist, and threat, on this planet Earth...today
,
JAM4 “State of Israel is similar to the Nazi State of Germany 70 years ago”
JAM4, you still have much to learn, my friend.
The article above was written by an Israeli reporter and published in an Israeli newspaper. Nazi Germany didn’t have the same level of free press. I’ll bet you won’t be able to find a single country in the Middle East with similar level of free press, where a reporter can condemn the army and the government, without risking losing his job, jail or execution.
Nazi Germany (And some middle eastern countries) execute gays. Israel is the most liberal country in the Middle East regarding gays’ rights. Same goes for woman’s right, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, rights of minorities.
Check Israel and compare it to Nazi Germany, or to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt or any other Middle Eastern country.
And yet the Nazi comparison remains relevant, even if not perfect. As it was the duty of all moral people to actively resist the Nazis, so be it with the Israelis.
Wanderer: ”the Nazi comparison remains relevant, even if not perfect. As it was the duty of all moral people to actively resist the Nazis, so be it with the Israelis.”
I’m not surprised when someone, who has the tendency to write anti-Semitic comments, insists, against all evidence, to compare Israel to Nazi-Germany.
( Wanderer May 12th, 2009 9:24 am “There's no majority of Jews in general that want peace. Never have been.” )
Tell me, Wanderer, what exactly did you have in mind when you said “resist” when referring to the six million Jews who live in Israel?
Ah, yes... the anti-Semetic meme. I stand behind what I said - there are no majority of Jews in general that want peace, or Israel ("the homeland of the Jews") would have already sued for peace. In fact, the majority of Jews are supporters of Israel, either tacitly or openly. So show me where I'm wrong, put up or shut up.
Responding to you is such a pain, but silence is consent, doing nothing only helps the oppressors.
Good article.
Let’s not forget and include following “national interests” of Israel:
Upholding the picture of being the eternal victim.
Maintaining racism and intolerance via fascist Zionism.
Defending the subjugation of the Palestine people.
Continuing to siphon off huge amounts of aid from the USA.
Preserving the influx of reparations via culpability and shame of the holocaust.
Securing Western allies by polarizing the Zionist-Islam fight.
Securing Western aid by stirring the Zionist-Islam fight.
Manipulating the populace into a permanent ‘shock doctrine’.
Misappropriating her citizens’ desire for peace by maintaining war.
Enabling money-laundering abilities for financial circles.
Providing channels for CIA operations.
Have I forgotten anything?
Oh yes, all this benefits the US warmongers and banksters as well.
It’s a huge dirty clandestine agenda. Read Collateral Damage part I and II
>>>>>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<<<<
An EXTREMELY DISTURBING picture evolves..........
The better question might be what does Israel mean by 'peace.'
Deuteronomy 20:11
"If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you."
To bow down and submit to Isrial's rule by 'iron rod' seems to be what they mean be 'peace' but that is not possible for a human being. To bow to anyone but God is forbidden. Perhaps the Jews will, by their own efforts, be driven out of Occupied Palestine yet again. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
So far all the world has seen for the last 60 years is the same cruelty and averice that Saint Thomas Aquainus wrote about in the thirteenth century. Some people never seem to change.
Read our own "Report from Iron Mountain"....OUR own reason for remaining a warring nation.
Peace to Israel is to occupy all the Arab land,-- Arabs be their slaves, and the Jews have proven it for 60 years, as to what they demand. Sorrow for the Jews of the Holocaust, but disgust for the greedy one since.
MADDY “Peace to Israel is to occupy all the Arab land,-- Arabs be their slaves, and the Jews have proven it for 60 years”
Have you heard about the Sinai Peninsula? (Israel gave this huge territory back to Egypt in 1978-1982, after a peace was signed)
Have you heard about the Oslo accord of 1993? How about Oslo 2 in 1995?
How about territories given to Jordan as part of its peace agreement with Israel?
Have you heard about the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000?
How about Camp David 2000? And Taba 2001? (Land concession in return for peace which were rejected by the Palestinians)
How about the disengagement from Gaza in 2005?
When was the last time you looked at a map? You might have noticed that Arab countries control a land mass 500 times larger than Israel.
Also, you seem to confuse Jews with Israel. Not all Jews are Israelies and not all Israelis are Jews.
Blah blah blah. We already know about that stuff, so listing it is meaningless.
You Zionists will throw anything against the wall and see if it sticks. No distortion or lie too big or small that a Zionist won't trot it out.
Thanks for the information in the last sentence - at least now we know you don't think of Israel as the homeland of the Jews.