Digest 2 – Selected Additional Reading
JVL Introduction
A series of articles, focusing on the strains US foreign policy and its supporters are under from their gung-ho support for Israel come what may.
This digest links to the following articles
The Failure of Liberal Zionism by David Klion
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Courage by Peter Beinart
How the war on Gaza is turning Israel into a pariah state by Giorgio Cafiero
What’s really behind the war? by Moshe Machover
The Fall of Israel, by Scott Ritter
Arab states are coming together to prevent a regional war, will the U.S. listen?, by Mitchell Plitnick
Is the Israel-Hamas War Closer to Its Beginning or Its End? – a symposium in which Foreign Policy asks six experts to assess the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
RK
The Failure of Liberal Zionism
Israel has behaved exactly as its harshest critics predicted
David Klion, the Baffler, 8 Oct 2024
Liberal Zionism in the States still dominates the Democratic Party and mainstream media, despite its disconnect from reality
“Israel and its left-wing critics may be diametrically opposed in their goals, but they agree on some basic facts: that Israel is ruthlessly pursuing the destruction of the Palestinians of Gaza, with no regard for moral niceties or international law, and with the unapologetic belief that Jewish life is sacrosanct and Arab life is worthless…”
“But observers of the “liberal Zionist” persuasion insist that the situation is more nuanced. Liberal Zionism is exactly what it sounds like: liberalism’s general commitment to a more just and egalitarian society paired with Zionism’s commitment to a sovereign Jewish state on something like Israel’s current territory, usually with allowances, however slight, made for a form of Palestinian sovereignty…”
“Though it suffered criticisms from both left and right for years preceding October 7, the liberal Zionist worldview remains hegemonic in the Democratic Party, the mainstream media, progressive Jewish organizations like J Street and T’ruah, and Reform Judaism—the largest and most consistently liberal American Jewish denomination.”
David Klion is a writer and a contributing editor at Jewish Currents
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Courage
Peter Beinart, the Benart Notebook, Oct 09, 2024
Peter Beinart talks about the bravery of acclaimed journalist asnd writer Te-Nahisi Coates, knowing that writing
“unsparingly about Israel’s oppression of Palestinians— in full knowledge that doing so would turn many of his former admirers into adversaries— is among the most remarkable things I have seen an American writer do.”
“…to have achieved that pinnacle of celebrity and acclaim throughout mainstream liberal America, and then to take on probably the one subject in American politics, or one of the very few, that you know is guaranteed to lose you a lot of that, because many of the same powerful mainstream, liberal- or centrist-minded people who were very happy and fine to accept what you wrote about race, fine to accept what you wrote about reparations, and would have been fine to accept your writing about all kinds of stuff, that this was the subject, Palestinian freedom, humanity, Israeli oppression of Palestinians, the one thing you knew was going to sacrifice a lot of that. And yet Ta-Nehisi Coates walked straight into that, willingly, because of a sense of moral obligation.”
How the war on Gaza is turning Israel into a pariah state
Analysis: The war on Gaza has done irreversible damage to Israel’s international image, as well as the moral credibility of the Western-led international order.
Giorgio Cafiero, The New Arab, 09 October, 2024
“There has been a noted outpouring of sympathy for the Palestinians by the Global South in international forums, and on the streets of cities across the world, including in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Very little public support has been shown for Israel by the Global South,” explained Steven Gruzd, an analyst at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), in an interview with The New Arab.
Avi Shlaim, Israeli-British historian: ‘Netanyahu wants to drag the US into a confrontation with Iran’
Avi Shlaim interview, El Pais, 08 Oct 2024
The Arab-Jewish essayist claims that the current Israeli government is set on ‘the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the actual annexation of the West Bank’
“The Palestinian issue is the heart and core of the conflict. And without a resolution to this issue, there will never be peace, security or stability in the Middle East. Israel, since 1967 [the year of the Six-Day War], has had to choose between giving up territory for peace or keeping the land. Israel, through its actions, has demonstrated time and again that with the Palestinians, it prefers land to peace. Israel does not have a peaceful solution to the conflict, it only uses military force. There is an Israeli saying that if force doesn’t work, use more force.”
What’s really behind the war?
Moshe Machover, Weekly Worker, 10 Oct 2024
“The short answer is the essential, all-important, long-term strategic aims of Israel, so it is not just the present Israeli government. The first of these strategic aims is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the annexation of the remaining parts of the ‘Promised Land’. The second is establishing and reinforcing Israeli regional hegemony…”
“Will Israel succeed? We can certainly say what its strategic aims are, but whether it will succeed in achieving them is something I would not like to predict – there are all sorts of uncertainties, including the fragility of Israeli society itself. So I make no predictions about the possible outcome of this war, which is very much an open question. That is why I have stressed the need to focus on the large-scale and long-term nature of what is going on…”
The Fall of Israel
Scott Ritter, Consortium News, October 8, 2024
A year ago, Israel was sitting in the catbird seat. Today, it stares into the face of its demise.
“Prior to Oct. 7, 2023, Israel was able to disguise its true character to the outside world, convincing all but a handful of activists that its actions in targeting “terrorists” were proportional and humane.
“Today the world knows Israel as the genocidal apartheid state it really is.”
A probably over-enthusiastic analysis of how close Israel is to economic collapse, especially as, in his view, “The Cold War is long gone, and the geopolitical benefits accrued in the U.S.-Israeli relationship are no longer evident.”
“The perfect storm of global rejection of genocide, sustained resistance on the part of the Iranian-led “axis of resistance,” economic collapse and realignment of American priorities will result in the nullification of Israel as a viable political entity… it could happen in a year, or it could unfold over the course of the next decade.
But it will happen.
The end of Israel.”
Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD.
Arab states are coming together to prevent a regional war, will the U.S. listen?
As Israel expands its war to Lebanon and is threatening Iran as well, there are important signs that Arab states in the region are finally stepping in to prevent a broader regional war. Will the Biden administration listen?
By Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss, 11 Oct 2024
A consistently insightful critic of US foreign policy, Mitchell Plitnick is the president of ReThinking Foreign Policy. He is the co-author, with Marc Lamont Hill, of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. Mitchell’s previous positions include vice president at the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Director of the US Office of B’Tselem, and Co-Director of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Plitnick reports that,
“in a welcome, but under-reported, development last week, Arab states from the Gulf Cooperation Council reportedly “sought to reassure Iran of their neutrality” in the brewing conflict between Iran and Israel.”
He explores the dynamics that have led to this, the bankruptcy of U.S. policy in the region and possible future implications. He is not optimistic: “There should be no higher foreign policy priority than changing this outlook for the next American administration, as unlikely as that may seem to be right now.”
Is the Israel-Hamas War Closer to Its Beginning or Its End?
A year on, FP asks experts to assess the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
October 3, 2024, 7:24 AM
By Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, M.L. deRaismes Combes, Dana El Kurd, Marwan Muasher, John Nagl, Amit Segal, and Hagar Shezaf
Trigger warning: the argument advanced in at least one of these is likely to turn your stomah…
- Chaos Is Spreading Because Washington Has Learned Nothing, Dana El Kurd, senior nonresident fellow at the Arab Center Washington
Gaza has been destroyed, Palestinians have been displaced en masse, and the impact on Gazan society will take years to heal. But Palestine is larger than Gaza. With no deviation from the current path, the tragedy will only continue.
- It Will Take More Time for Israel’s Enemies to Get the Message
By Amit Segal, chief political analyst for Israel’s Channel 12 News and Yedioth Ahronoth
“Only when Israel’s neighbors internalize the futility of trying to destroy it through missile attacks on civilian centers and invasions aimed at mass slaughter will this war end. It will take time. Unfortunately, the plumes of smoke billowing over Gaza and Beirut are a necessary part of that process.”
- The End of the Beginning?
By M.L. deRaismes Combes, assistant professor of national security, and John Nagl, professor of warfighting studies, both at the U.S. Army War College
“While the Iranian government is certainly in a precarious position, since it does not seem to want an all-out war, Israel’s hard hand toward the population of Gaza has essentially fed into Iran’s revolutionary narrative as the voice of the downtrodden. If and when the dust in Gaza settles, Iran could emerge stronger than before, propagating the same permissive dynamics that led to the attack in the first place.”
- Netanyahu’s Stubbornness Will Lead to Endless War in Gaza
By Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative
“Such attrition would serve the goals of Israel while allowing Hamas to hold on just enough to stay relevant and active. Military experts have agreed that it is difficult for Israel to achieve a decisive victory; therefore, without world pressure to end hostilities, the people of Gaza will not know peace or security for the foreseeable future.”
- Israel’s Perpetual War Puts Jordan in a Bind
By Marwan Muasher, former Jordanian deputy prime minister and foreign minister
“Once the war is over, Jordan will be faced with two difficult choices. Resuming economic and security cooperation with Israel will pit the government against a very angry population, demonstrated by a huge win for the Islamist parties in the Sept. 10 elections. Maintaining the current tough, anti-Israel rhetoric will be unpopular with the United States. Jordan will have to walk a tightrope after the war.”
- The Worst May Be Yet to Come
By Hagar Shezaf, West Bank correspondent for Haaretz
“All wars end eventually. But in the current political constellation, Israel’s most powerful actors have an interest in extending this one indefinitely. For Palestinians in the West Bank, the worst may be yet to come.”
Avi Shlaim interview, El Pais, 08 Oct 2024
The Arab-Jewish essayist claims that the current Israeli government is set on ‘the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the actual annexation of the West Bank’
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