The Holocaust as a Pretext for Annexation
JVL Introduction
We need to be grateful to Israeli Zionists like Zeev Sternhell who say truths for which any member of the Labour Party in Britain might find themselves on a fast track to expulsion.
Sternhell pulls no punches. The Trump Plan “was leaked just as the memorial ceremony of the World Holocaust Forum was taking place at Yad Vashem. It’s hard to conceive of a more cynical combination: In Jerusalem, anti-Semitism was used to silence the expected worldwide opposition to the annexation plan.”
Furthermore: “Likud’s Israel has branded denial of the occupation and the apartheid in the territories as anti-Zionist and then equated this anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.” He see this as “the epitome of the cynical and shameful exploitation of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism for the Israeli government’s political needs”.
A Polish-born Israeli who survived the Holocaust as a young child, Sternhell is a historian, political scientist and writer. Formerly head of the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he is one of the world’s leading experts on fascism.
This article was originally published by Haaretz on Fri 31 Jan 2020. Read the original here.
The Holocaust as a Pretext for Annexation
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yes, quite shameful mobilisation of the holocaust industry to carry on the colonial project which has been criminal from the outset over the last century.
Is there a way of getting the guardian to publish this. It is so powerful.or am I being naive?
Well done JVL for helping to expose the false accusations of antisemitism for what they are. The key difference between the anti apartheid campaign and the campaign for Palestinian rights is the pole-axing use of feelings of guilt about the Holocaust. Emotional blackmail in other terms. It brings shame to honest thinking Jewish people, plus increased danger to everyone and, even if it takes over the whole of Palestine, Israel will never, ever, rest in peace.
In answer to Sarah Perrigo –
I’m afraid it is indeed over-optimistic to expect the Guardian to publish such as this.
Although the paper will publish accurate stories about Palestine, it shrinks from confrontation with the Israel Lobby. How much is actual complicity and how much is fear, it’s hard to say – both operate amongst the ‘liberal’ press (see the New Statesman’s and Private Eye’s acceptance of the confected ‘antisemitism’ myths – as well as the BBC.)
At best, there is a degree of schizophrenia regarding the paper’s ‘fearless journalism’, and complicity was certainly also there in the constant traducing of Corbyn on a political basis. You will note amongst Guardian journalists (as far as I’ve detected) a total acceptance of the Labour/antisemitism myths and absolutely *no* examination of the telling contrary evidence.
Even 10-12 years ago, (i.e before the current crisis of media honesty) the activity of the Israel Lobby, and the fear engendered, was well known, and detailed by, for instance, Peter Oborne in a ‘Dispatches’ documentary and Nick Davies in his book ‘Flat Earth News’.
Bottom line : even when their is no obvious complicity, editors and journalists are scared witless by The Lobby and won’t touch stories that highlight venality on the part of Israel. Get close enough, and you’ll see this fear in operation, and fear breeds dishonesty.
Of course, this took on a further dimension in the recent election and with the alliance with the wider right – but that has only strengthened the stranglehold.
Thank you for continuing to deliver the information necessary that actually helps when combating Fascism. We can only stick to the truth, to facts and hope that one day anti Semitism is no longer weaponised in a way that demeans the unimaginable crimes that were committed in the Holocaust.
There is a solution, the Israeli settlers can choose to stay in an independent Palestine subject to Palestinian law makers, or return to Israel.
Readers: please post a link to this on every possible mendacious mainstream media and JLM/BOD/CAA propaganda site in order to shame them with a dose of reality, and to highlight the irony that the coalition of the UK’s corporate neoliberal and ethnonationalist media collaborators have so far been more successful at censoring the UK media than Netanyahu himself has been at censoring the media of the Israeli apartheid state.
It does Israel no favours that nobody is allowed to say anything non positive. It is unrealistic to think any government are perfect. It is a dangerous precedent if people can not say what they think is wrong. We are all human beings and everyone should treat people the way they them selves would like to be treated. It will all come to a head soon and hopefully Israel will treat the Palestinians with friendship .
@ RH; I used to subscribe to the Grun. After the terrible way they treated Corbyn I stopped my subscription and came to understand just how “establishment” they really are. Yes, some fine journalists work there, but overall, only just on the political left. I’ve just bought a copy of Finkelstein’s ‘The Holocaust Industry’, which I have known about for years, but have always ignored, is now going to be read voraciously.