The failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has inevitably stoked animosities on both sides. But recent acts of violence and ugly comments inside Israel reveal that a culture of hatred and bigotry is taking root, warns ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.
By Paul R. Pillar
Two incidents last week underscored how broadly and deeply in Israeli society runs a streak of hatred against Palestinian Arabs.
In one, seven Israeli teenagers, including two girls, one 13 years old, were arrested for what witnesses described as an attempted lynching in West Jerusalem of several Palestinian youths, one of whom was beaten unconscious and was still hospitalized this week. In the same hospital was one of the victims of the other incident: the Palestinian driver of a taxi that was firebombed near a West Bank settlement.
A map of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza
As with violent crimes elsewhere that involve hatred against particular ethnic, racial or religious groups, and for those eager to highlight commonalities between Israeli and American society, this unfortunately has to count as one of them, given the history of hate crimes in the United States, the specific manifestations of such hatred are varied. They range from full-blown terrorism to less violent actions.
The unofficial resort by Israelis to force and violence against Palestinians has in recent years been most associated with West Bank settlers. (For an excellent analysis of this particular brand of Israeli terrorism, see the recent article on the subject by Daniel Byman and Natan Sachs.) As the assault in West Jerusalem demonstrated, however, the problem is not limited to settlers or to the occupied territories.
Also as with hate crimes elsewhere, there are multiple causes and explanations. Large-scale violence earlier this year against African migrants in Tel Aviv demonstrated that Palestinians or Arabs are not the only targets of Israeli hatred. That in turn suggests that one of the roots of what we are seeing is a generalized bigotry not unlike what we unfortunately have seen in the United States.
But the very relevant and distinctively Israeli circumstance that has the most power to give rise to widely held hateful attitudes is the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians. As a conflict that dates back to before the founding of Israel and that has accounted for so much of the violence that has been inflicted both on and by Israelis, it could not help but have that power.
It is not just a few radical settlers or violent teenagers who have gotten into a habit of regarding all Palestinians as dangerous aliens, as the enemy or as terrorists. The rightist Israeli governments of recent years, by making it quite apparent that they see no place for free Palestinians in a peaceful picture with Israel, have reinforced a nationwide tendency to view Palestinians as something less than human beings with inalienable human rights.
And that tendency leads to a legitimization of violence against them. In speaking critically about the effects of such legitimization, Professor Gavriel Salomon of Haifa University notes, “Suddenly it’s not so terrible to burn Arabs inside a taxi.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly condemned the latest violence, as he has earlier instances of it. But serious questions remain about the official posture toward the unofficial violence. Israeli policing of anti-Palestinian violence has been at best spotty.
Former chief of staff of the Israeli Army Dan Halutz has stated that Israeli authorities have not done enough to crack down on the anti-Palestinian terrorists and vandals among West Bank settlers. “If we wanted,” said Halutz, “we could catch them and when we want to, we will.”
There also is incitement through inflammatory remarks by religious leaders associated with the Israeli government or governing parties. For example, the government-paid chief rabbi of settlements in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, in speaking at a conference last year, described Arabs as “wolves” and “savages.”
The chief rabbi of Safed, also paid by the Israeli government, told reporters last year that “Arab culture is very cruel,” that “a Jew should chase away Arabs,” and that “expelling Arabs from Jewish neighborhoods is part of the strategy.”
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas Party, which is part of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, has said in sermons that Palestinians are “evil, bitter, enemies” whom God ought to “perish from this world,” that “it is forbidden to be merciful” to Arabs, that Arabs are “evil and damnable,” and that “you must send missiles to them and annihilate them.”
One wonders what Israeli government officials think of such remarks when they or others attempt to call to account Arab leaders for anti-Israeli invective voiced by anyone in their constituencies.
Amid an atmosphere fed by such comments, one does not need to look, as some Israelis are in searching for explanations for the latest incidents involving perpetrators so young, at such things as deficient parenting.
Nimrod Aloni of the Institute for Educational Thought in Tel Aviv notes that a teenager acting as a member of a lynch mob “cannot just be an expression of something he has heard at home.” Aloni continues, “This is directly tied to national fundamentalism that is the same as the rhetoric of neo-Nazis, Taliban and K.K.K. This comes from an entire culture that has been escalating toward an open and blunt language based on us being the chosen people who are allowed to do whatever we like.”
Although the non-resolution of the conflict between Israelis and Arabs is the biggest single contributor to hatred on both sides of that conflict, Israel also has a built-in vulnerability to exhibiting ethnic and religious intolerance, as a state that is defined in ethnic and religious terms.
The line between zealous patriotism and ethnic or religious bias is in greater danger of becoming blurred. And so Rabbi Yosef of Shas can say, “The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews. . . . Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world, only to serve the people of Israel.”
Nearly all of the rest of the world, including the assembled leaders of Arab states, has accepted Israel, and its status as the primary homeland of Jews, as legitimate. Hatred emanating from Israel will, of course, not be accepted as any more legitimate than hatred emanating from anyplace else.
As with other conflicts, the bigots, haters and terrorists on both sides will, tragically, play off of each other.
Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, rose to be one of the agency’s top analysts. He is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security studies. (This article first appeared as a blog post at The National Interest’s Web site. Reprinted with author’s permission.)
Israels blaming US imperialism for their problems of bigotry instead of taking responsibility for what they do themselves. Always the US now-it’s the US that has imperialistic ideals thus we are the bully’s in the middle east-Again, Israels blame game it is shown throughout the Torah-always blame everyone else never take responsibility and never give credit to anyone not even God. What a pack of BS.
Hasn’t anyone ever considered that Baruch Goldstein and his ‘fame’ instigated the 9/11 assault on the US? I think so! And it is sick that Jewish bigotry and hate has as it’s roots in the US. Israel to me is an extremely dangerous country. It has shown all of us that it will prefer to kill, rape, and plunder for it’s own excesses. The lies told in the religion about peoples is ab example of the hate. And then jews in this country act like they don’t know who they are or where they came from. Everyone else is aware of where they came from and what they have done why can’t they get it together and recognize that their bigotry has bred bigotry against them. Seems like what is lacked by Israel is common sense and it is offensive to all of us to have to cope with it.
Typical paid-jew-troll tactic.. ie pollute the comments section of an article with with nonsense that has nothing to do with the original text as some kind of cheap and desperate attempt to divert people’s attention away from Israel’s crimes.
Out of curiosity, which lie in the original article are you trying to counter with this post?
your an antisemitic jackass period.
Israel has always been considered the middle eastern ‘bully on the block’ period. Even the Torah shows this. The Israelites are Hyksos/Phoenicians. They were the hired mercenaries and involved with slave trade which is why the Torah has much to say about it. The slavery resulted in the slaves children being burned alive in front of the slaves. Jezebal is a Phoenican (Israelite) and fast forward low and behold we have Esther and mordecai (the representations of the Phoenician -sidonian specifically) reincarnations. Basically the descendants of Jezebels line. This is the Phoenician revolt against the Persians in the 350’s BC era in which the Phoenician king ordered the attack on the PErsians (he was called a Persian king-he was a satrap and os phoenician/Hebrew extract). That king betrayed Sidon then to Artaxerxes III who was coming to wipe out sidon in punishment for their onslaught. Sidon was burned to the ground by themselves! The Sidonians burned their own city to avoid Persian punative damages. And the jews believe themselves about this Torah lie. They also believe that they are the ones who worshiped the one true God-got to tell ya we all know the Israelites were mono-idolators period. And they worship their own king line. This entire history in the Torah still can’t get across to the Jews of today that it is commonsense-you oick fights with people and enslave them they fight back. no one but jews are descended from their Adam and they lie lie lie throughout time-then float this fable as fact and keep it floating in hsitory
Wise up folks! Those who are leaving pro-Israeli comments here, and just about everywhere else, are in fact paid agents. Let’s face it, no self-respecting human being would ever defend that country’s antics.
Anyway, it’s part of these paid-trolls’ training to spring out the antisemitic label when they can’t reply with logic. As for Israel being a victim, I’m afraid that was conjured up at a brainstorming session in a PR company’s office (Israel uses PR companies all the time), and of course the claim has no basis in reality.
Sooo.. you can counter the lies by calling someone a moron..??
Anyway, isn’t that tactic number one of the paid-Israeli-trolls handbook?
Herr Borat, can’t handle it gotta whine go suck yourself off over it moron!
I know the solution of Palestine and Israel problem. Just married each others, now one don´t want to kill family member. Jews and Arabic people look alike, sound alike, they have nice and beautiful culture, art, music, etc. So mix the race, Middle East problem disappears!
And finally world does no more talk about Jews and Arabic. Then we can talk about nice people called Jebic living in area where bible stories has started to tell.
Who among us does not know that is Israel is nothing less then the Ugly Head of Semitism.
Perhaps its time to stop terrorizing critics of Israel and Zionism by labeling them as Antisemitic.
The Israeli State has the most powerful Nuclear Arsenal in The World ……..pro rata for a population of 7 million…170 Nuclear Missiles , plus 3 Nuclear Subs ( with 2 more in production ) , the Jerico 3 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile ( with a range of 5,000 KMs. )…..
The bloodthirsty history of Israel since 1948 , the contempt of Israel for International Law , the refusal of Israel to sign The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , and their refusal to halt their Illegal Occupation and theft of Palestinian Land …… makes the Israeli State a Menace to world peace.
A belligerant Israel representing 0.2% of the World’s Population which is Jewish blatantly holds the rest of the World to Ransom.
http://thesop.org/story/20120502/high-walls-and-a-secret-nuclear-arsenal-the-two-are-not-unconnected.html
hey go look at your pelvis like you always do so Hilary can kick you in your butt like you deserve you moron! Hitler was a jew and he killed more than 11 million other people other than jews! So stop your complaining and whining. Better yet go suck yourself off since that is always what a jew does! How dare you insult-again with your own family! You are disgusting-that is all you do is insult others bby calling them names of your family members what gross idiocy!
Herr Borat: Hile Hitler youi moron-that’s what you say to Hitler all the time you sit there and get your jolies off of acussing someone else of your jewish family lineage you are moronic. I am sick of abusive jews who suck themselves off this way in front of everyone It is disgusting-you are so proud of Your Hitler all you jews. Jews nadger and Badger til they get want they want and when someone stands up to them they call them Hitler what a pack of moronic BS. You caused and raised Hitler yourself. And, you sit on your lazy rear demanding money and don’t get and get told off about your moronic behavior you claim anti-semitism-go bend over and pay homage to yourself again. What a lowly idiotic moron! Making the anti-semitism statements agian. Oh yeah can’t get ennough money from everyone so you bully them-can’t see yourself as the lowlife you are. What moronic disgusting thing you say and I am dishing it back-go blow yourselves up after jacking off like you need to-no one wants to hear your disgusting whiney complainst about it. You lousy abusive morons-you are soo proud of yourselves for your disgusting bigotry it is unreal!
enough of this anti semitic anti isreal pure crap…… there are only 0.o2 of the world population around 15 million…… 130 nobel prize winners for there contributions to the betterment of the world….. chemistry, medicine literture ect…… only 4 arabs received this reconition and they are holders of the largest population of the world…… Einstien considered one of the worlds formost genuises …. dr salk who came up with a vacine that prevented polio…. some of you anti smitics could be walking in canes or wheel chairs if it was not for this jew and before you continue with your ant semitic bull I suggest you check your history books and see what happened to the countrys in past history that persecuted there jewish population…… what i keep reading on some of these blogs sounds like the nazi propaganda…….. and 85 million people were killed during the war that followed … seems like a hard price to pay…. there is really nothing new in history we just keep making the same same mistakes….. i suggest you anti semites sitting in your little ivory tower… may get your wish.. but you might not like it
Excuse me-Israel has a brain? If that is the case then get some common sense. You haven’t figured out that people are sick and tired of your slavery of others-you want your land and the oil for free and you want slaves and you never give back a damned thing. After you hate, warmonger, and kick some ass for gaining your extra land in Israel you blame everyone else for fighting back and I am finding that greed disgusting!! You don’t pay anyone for what you own you take and use people then blame them and you lie lie lie-like the lies in the Torah. Correct yourselves-no other people has ever been so full of hatred than jews-no one-Hitler was a jew and so were alot of the lousy communists and Israel refused to do anything about it. Again you don’t give anyone else credit-you think and act like your God and then you can’t tolerate anyone pointing out to you how miserable you are and how miserable you make everyone else. Blow yourselves up I would rather you did that and Israel. You want to run around and have everyone pick your butt for you-get a clue-and stop your bullying attitude and hold your own people accountable and stop whining your lazy butts when you won’t do it and someone else has to. You are a warmongering loathsome trolls.
oh and BTW-stop bragging-it’s not that you deserve all those things-everyone else felt sorry for you and helped your stupid brains to get something after all your whining-your true colors have shown-you get some help and you don’t give credit to those who have helped you. For example-I saw a theft by a jew of a hurrian piece of music-the oldest music. The person who wrote it is not a jew and he’s charging opthers fore his rendition. Star wars is not based upon Jewish heros tales it is based upon the heros tales of the indo-iranians. Everything you get you stol and do not give credit for.. Waht a piece of crap you are-AS I SAID HITLER WAS A JEW AND HE KILLED A LOT MORE PEOPLE THAN JEWS. What is wrong with you??!! People feel sorry for you cause you whine all over the place abot what you did and you never give any credit then the moment your people recognize that others are doing things too you start wars pitting everyone against each other. What Great brains!! More like messed up controlling bigots!
Oh! Persecution my rear. You charged a color tax to the blacks-of course that occurred after you brought them in your slave ships from Africa to the US to begin with and told everyone that GOD PERMITS SLAVERY and then took white slaves to sell as well. Don’t give me persecution-use some brain of yours if you claim you have it-get a clue-you act like disgusting bigots then peole get abgry then you complain about ‘persecution’ you cause your own persecution and EVERYONE ELSES. You are disgusting!
And by the way -moron-everytime someone tells your people to give homage and thanks to God and for anyone else all you do is look down at your genitals and expouse about the ideaology that you were promised not to be wiped out. What morons. Next time show some gratitude for your lives and stop looking down at your moronic pelvis. Someone should kick you in the butt when you bend over like that idiot!
Herr Lawrence calling people names by your own seed again. Hitler is a jew you mess up! and so were the Communists-oh and you’re a bigot! Heil Hitler! go bend over like the rst of your lousy ilk and look at your pelovis while you keep saying you were promised not to be wiped out. What a lousy mess you people are. Jews-people who don’t know where they originate, caniot figure out where they’ve been and are making a nuisance out of themselves to everyone else in the process. Hiel Lawrence!! what an idiot!
Like i said you keep bending over and looking at your own dicks and you keep calling us names by what came out of it! What idiots!
Heil Lawrence-part of the business of your ancestors was slave trade. You also were in the mercenary business. You keep floating the disgusting slave trade histories and bought it lock stick and barel. That’s why you keep looking at your genitalia everytime someone mentions God because what your ancestors did was wrong and you distanced yoursleves. You were further bigoted because the slave trade you did was taken away from you. All the Human sacrifice done by Israel was part and parcel of burnign the lsaves children-that kept your slaves and others in line and totally demoralized them-apologetics not necessary-you keep doing it over and over again everytime you have your own land and scream anti-semitism over the facts. The tophets document it and so does the Torah. The selebrations of passover and Purim are nonsense and done repeatedly to keep up your hatred for not being able to have your excesses-slaves etc. It is disgusting to me and agian you could never figure it out. And you continue to blame everyone else. Look down at your seed and pass the bigotry on.
Just wondering Remat do you know if they can vote in election there?
But that’s a stupid two wrongs somehow correct things argument.
The notion that “hate†toward Arabs in general is a deep rooted widespread sentiment in Israeli society is absolutely ridiculous. I think there should be no association or confusion between Israelis and the current government. I’m pretty sure that the current ruling political coalition and its far-right agenda will be voted out by a landslide in the next general election.
And I have to agree with Borat on this one, I think it’s very unfair and getting tiresome to always point the finger only at Israel.
Darkest before the dawn.
These Israeli punks are bringing down the hard rain on their own people.
And the story of the ‘dancing Israelis’ will not go away.
Helen Thomas, where are you now that we need you?
Firing her was one of the biggest disgraces in media history. (Not to mention Rick Sanchez) Congrats Abe Foxman.
What goes around . . .
As a good follow up to Paul Pillar’s article, one might read Richard Silverstein’s discussion of these issues at:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2012/08/22/former-intelligence-officer-shin-bet-makes-fool-of-itself-and-israeli-democracy/
One can only infer that the terror is part of a larger government sanctioned policy to make life so intolerable for Palestinians and others that they will decide to leave- something that will in the end never happen.
Up to now there seems to have been a sense among the Likud and its supporters that they have had such influence over Congress and the Administration, that they will continue to be able to control and leverage US foreign policy and military aid for Israel’s own benefit, and do the same with Turkey and our other proxies. Moreover, Israel’s expansion into Central Asia (e.g., Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan) and its development of new oil wells on its own territory and natural gas reserves in its EEZ seems to have created an arrogance that among its people that it will become economically independent and be able to grow its own “empire”. There is huge wealth tying all of this together, all of which depends on U.S. and European support, but at the same time it is also a house of cards that could come crashing down, and neither situation is or would be in the best interests of the U.S. or Israel, or Israel’s neighbors- yet, maybe such an event will be inevitable and even necessary to reset the various relationships, and change the attitude of domestic terrorism and the governmental policies that foster it.
This couldn’t possible end well for the “chosen” tribe. I can only hope to live long enough to witness the evacuation of European settlers in Palestine. Of course Ben Gurion airport will be in ruins so they would be forced to flee either through Egypt or in ships.
Zionism is an ugly blot on our collective conscious and a anachronistic ideology which is undoubtedly headed for the junk-heap of history. Save Judaism from Zionism and save yourselves!
Besieged Palestinian Gaza is an experiment in provocation. Stuff one and a half million people into a tiny space, stifle their access to water, electricity, food and medical treatment, destroy their livelihoods, and humiliate them regularly…and, surprise, surprise – they turn hostile. Now why would you want to make that experiment? Because the hostility you provoke is the whole point. Now under attack you can cast yourself as the victim, and call out the helicopter gunships and the F16 attack fighters and the heavy tanks and the guided missiles, and destroy yet more of the pathetic remains of infrastructure that the Palestinian state still has left. And then you can point to it as a hopeless case, unfit to govern itself, a terrorist state, a state with which you couldn’t possibly reach an accommodation. And then you can carry on with business as usual, quietly stealing their homeland.
This excerpt from Times of India, June 18, 2012, may contribute to understanding of Israel’s behavior.
RABBI OVADIA Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is the former Chief Rabbi of Israel and the spiritual leader of the Shas party Israels “kingmaker†party . In a sermon given on Saturday on laws concerning what non-Jews are permitted to do on Shabbat, Yosef said: “Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel. Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.” According to Yosef, death has “no dominion” over non-Jews in Israel. “With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money. This is his servant… That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew.â€
MENACHEM BEGIN “Our race is the Master Race. We Jews are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves.”
Ya gotta source, beyond just a news paper says.
Exactly when and where were these purported statements made. And can you find a recording?
LOL
Why shoul Isrealis hate Palestinians.
Whwn they have in their constitution the death of Isreal which means the death of their people.
For years they sent suicide bombers into stores, busses, and wherever civilians lived.
The indiscriminatly send missiles into Isreal.
They stood on the rooftops and cheered 911.
Lovely people. I think Isreal should erect statues in their honor.
Sidney Stern
Aren’t you forgetting the five Israelis (dressed as Arabs) who were found (and arrested) cheering, dancing and high-fiving each other, while filming the burning twin towers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw
Or perhaps you think that it is OK for Jewish people to celebrate the mass murder of Americans.
It was dancing Israelis who cheered 9/11 in NY on 9/11.
The dancing Israelies. These guys, all Mossad agents, where caught filming 9/11 events, celebrating and high-fiving while the WTC-towers were burning and people in death agony were jumping towards their death. One thing was clear: they were expecting the event and they liked the result. Due to angry residents who made an anonymous phone call to the police they were arrested.
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2004/12/17/israels-fifth-column-in-washington/
Borat; There are on police records, a fake call put in stating the van used by the ‘dancing men’ was using a bridge remote from the actual escape route. Fortunately they were stopped by a police officer for a driving infraction. And the head of the moving van business wanted for questioning, rapidly went to Israel and has been untouchable. Nobody is saying they had anything to do with 9/11, but Israeli intelligence sure knew about it. The big question is, how much did the neo-cons know ! And was this their hoped for opportunity to invade Iraq?
What is going on in Palestine is a copy of what happened to North American natives, South American natives and South Africans but in a time of rapid communications it makes it much more difficult to fulfill (each party saw the move as their Exodus). By international law and humanity as a whole, what is going on is unacceptable. And may I say, much of the anti Jewish rhetoric in the Arab world is because of what they see and hear about the treatment of Muslims in the occupied territories. That is just like the Jewish reaction when they hear of anti-Semitism.
North Americans should read up on the history leading to the ‘Trail of Tears’.
The real essence of relgion is often lost, each party thinks they have it right the others are wrong, and in the end humanity loses.
Sydney, Palestinians under Arafat did recognize Israel, and after Oslo Arafat in glee called Carter saying we finally have a country. But, Israel continued building roads and settlements and the Palestinian people saw nothing positive and in reality saw what it really was. Now Israel has this tricky word to replace ‘occupied’ with ‘disputed’ as if international law should be bound by trickery. It’s just like the UN242 conundrum, the Israeli document and the missing word or the world’s document.
Before the last Gaza war, Hamas had a truce with Israel and the incursion of rockets fell dramatically and a few, not fired by Hamas, did . On the day that treaty was signed, Israel began planning the Gaza escapade and began it just before Bush, their ally, was step down.
The suicide bombing began after American doctor Baruch Goldstein, Zionist, reserve soldier and a memeber of that friendly group :-) the Kach movement (terrorists in reality), killed 29 Palestinians at a Mosque.
Don’t forget The King David Hotel bombing in 48 killing Bernadotte, and the letter bonbs to people who disagreed with partition, and the Stern Gang, the Hagana and others, killing British soldiers trying to keep the peace. And then don’t tell me the Sabra and Shatila incident was an accidents. The Americans had warned Sharon what would happen, and Sharon was no dummy.
And why can’t Palestinians get building permits as easily as Jews? Why do Palestinians in the occupied territories not have equal access to water that Jews have. Why are Palestinian children heckled on their way to school? Why is little done to prevent Jewish KKK like groups from threatening Palestinian farmers? Why are Palestinian crops stuck at the exit gates of their big prisons? Why do settlers burn or remove Palestinian olive trees? (I say Jews rather than Israelis because the passport states whether one is a Jew or something else, it does not say Israeli.)
Neither side is free of the terrorist element. But, the situation in Israel is getting worse as far as religious fundamentalist racism and terrorism is concerned.
Every Palestinian? Have you met them all? Or are you being a blatant racist?