The unpunished: how extremists took over Israel
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
An extraordinary article in the New York Times documents the takeover of the Israeli state by Jewish extremists. It is essential reading.
More than 100 former and current Israeli government officials were interviewed by the reporters, including four former prime ministers, and many secret government documents consulted.
It is too long to reproduce here, over fifteen thousand words, but you can read it online.
We provide the authors’ outline of their argument below and a few very brief extracts.
RK (h/t IS)
This article was originally published by the New York Times on Thu 16 May 2024. Read the original here.
The unpunished: how extremists took over Israel
After 50 years of failure to stop violence and terrorism against Palestinians by Jewish ultranationalists, lawlessness has become the law.
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There must be real concern in the UK that persons sympathetic to if not participants in such extremism are set to take control of the government and security forces.
I haven’t read the full 3-part article. I wonder what importance the authors give to the arrival of Russian immigrants. After all, the political changes are likely to reflect changes in the demography.
NYT trying to redeem itself. The Western media knew perfectly well what was going on but go along to get along was the smart career-minded thing to do. Whilst never missing an opportunity to righteously posture over cost-free causes elsewhere in the world. What kind of friends encourage you to lie ? You’ll find out when it gets so ludicrous no-one believes you anymore and you’re next under the bus.
Not just ‘set to take control’. They already are in control.
Look how extreme they are daring to step foot in their ancestral homeland.
Look how extreme Palestinians are for daring to have been born in their ancestral homeland. Up the dosage.
It is very very worth reading the full article which is a comprehensive indictment of Israel’s decades-long lawlessness in the West Bank. It should be stuffed down David Cameron’s throat, and also Keir Starmer’s.
The notion that this is something new is a whitewash. Ethnic cleansing, terrorism, and racism are inherent in Zionism, even if once concealed by the dulcet tones of an Abba Eban.
On ancestral homelands: one can argue both ways depending on when one thinks history began. In 1920, per a British census, there were 15 times more Arabs in “historic Palestine” than Jews. But the Hasmonean (Israeli) kingdom stretched across much of the same land, with very few Arabs around. And the ancestral lands of the USA belonged to Indian tribes. An “ancestral land” argument makes no sense to me
The article by Bergman and Mazzetti clarified much of the recent history of Israeli politics, i.e., how the ultra-right, ultra-religious factions grew in strength, numbers and influence in recent decades, so much so that callous, dangerous radicals like Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, now hold critically important government positions. I only hope this informative, damning, worrying piece finds its way into the hands of the Israeli electorate, the only ones with the power to rid their government of Netanyahu and its criminal band of idealogues, before it’s too late.