Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Tuesday 20 December 2011

"The Green Flag Of Jihadism Waving In Every Direction"; aka "Which Existential Threat Keeps You Awake At Night?" (video)

In this video Yossi Klein Halevi of the David Project  talks interestingly of the delegitimisation movement against Israel, and how delegitimisation should be countered by Zionists of the Left (who, he says, fail to take delegitimisation seriously) and of the Right.

He begins by talking of "a growing sense that many of us feel in Israel ... of growing siege,"  as terrorist enclaves (clients of Iran) take root on Israel's borders contrary to the past strategic policy of both Labor and Likud which has effectively collapsed.  At the same time, there is an increased sense of vulnerability on Israel's southern border, with Egypt, he notes.

Beyond that "inner circle of siege" is the "outer circle" of siege represented by a nuclear Iran and its newfound ally Turkey.  "It appears that our bag of tricks is empty" and that it's likely that only military confrontation will prevent a nuclear Iran. He also talks of the loneliness of Israelis and others who are wary of the so-called "Arab Spring" in view of the Islamism and antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric it has thrown up.

He cannot recall a period since May 1967  in which such "existential dread" has pervaded Israel, which nevertheless is far stronger than it was back then, except in one respect: the assault on Israel's legitmacy around the word, which he identifies as the biggest of all threats facing the Jewish people.

Debating the consequences of 1948 and denying the right of Israel to define itself as a Jewish State (a denial widespread throughout the Arab World) represent the essence of the delegitimisation of Israel and of antisemitism, he explains...

Jewish history in the region is being treated as myth, and all Palestinian groups, religious or secular, he laments, deny the peoplehood of the Jews,despite the fact that most Israelis have, however reluctantly, accepted the peoplehood of the Arabs of Palestine, and that denial is the obstacle to peace.

The aim of the delegitimisation movement in the West is to portray the return to Zion as "sinister" - a form of colonialism - and a "powerful motif" running through the delegitimisation movement in the West is to trivialise and misuse the Holocaust ...

But the fight against delegitimisation is "winnable"...

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. I posted at my blog. You might want a read.

    http://oldschooltwentysix.blogspot.com/2011/12/speech-by-yossi-klein-halevi-on-threats.html

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