Considering the usual racism, bigotry, and intolerance taken by Israel First dead enders ( I would also include the terrible antisemitism directed against non-zionist jews and pro-peace Jews by the majority of the Zionist establishment) in whitewashing and denying war crimes, Mr. Feit’s piece is a relief. However as far as concerns for “blatant distortions of reality” go this article is no less fundamentally deluded.

There would never be a Hamas or prominent eliminationist elements of the PLO for that matter, if in 1948 folks like Gurion and Dayan didn’t systematically conduct an ethnic cleansing campaign of Palestinian villages and than starting in 1967 wage an ongoing brutal colonization campaign maintained by a military occupation. It is impossible to take claims of wanting peace seriously from the Israeli government as long as it sponsors the colonization of the west bank and enforces it at gun point. No matter how much cynical Israeli politicians like Netanyahu deflect blame on the PLO, the dirty little secret is that the PLO has nearly no legitimacy among Palestinians and is basically just an American and Israeli sponsored security apparatus. The few times the PLO leadership does act in accordance with popular demands, such as the cynical bid for statehood it knew would fail, are reliably stopped by Israel and the United States.

Gaza is even more tragic. In Gaza today, where in fact Israel has never stopped deliberately strangling the economy so that the majority of the population is both insecure and under the age of 25, Israel has created the conditions for organizations like Hamas to arise- Violent resistance to the occupation, no matter how crude or tactically ineffective, is a logical consequence of oppression no matter what form it takes.

Equally troubling is Feit’s notion that Israel is a democracy. In reality, Israel is a Verrenvolk (master race) Democracy. It is a democracy for those it gives citizenship to (and even those rights are declining) and than a dictatorship for those who live in the territory it claims but are not granted the same political rights as those in Israel proper. Israel never stopped occupying Gaza or the West bank, and to claim otherwise is just to argue with physical reality.

My suspicion is that political parties in Israel, like Likud, in fact enjoy having the PLO and Hamas because they provide an effective foil for the tremendous failures of the Israeli state. No matter how big they fail they can always scare people enough by pointing to the ridiculously weaker military resistance put up by the Palestinians. In reality, the vast majority of Palestinians should know that they will never beat Israel at it’s own game: violence and terror. Crude homemade rockets will never kill as much as US donated F-15s. Especially considering Israel’s depraved willingness to use weapons like white phosphorus against population centers. This is why you can expect more and more Palestinians to be resisting in forms like BDS.

If Feith really cared about destroying Hamas and ending Palestinian extremism, you would join BDS in sanctioning the Israeli government until it stopped the occupation. During Apartheid in south Africa, many elements of the ANC resorted to terrorism against civilians. That did not DE-legitimize calls for sanctions against SA, anymore than Palestinian violence de-legitimizes the BDS campaign against Israel.

In the meantime, I would urge all those who are Israeli or think they have strong ties to Israel to re-consider the meaning of one individual’s relationship to a state. any state. And especially if it is healthy to identify yourself religiously or ethnically or whatever in the actions of a junta. There are many ways to develop and protect an identity and often it is modern states that destroy themselves and take the ideology down with them. It is disgusting and tragic when Palestinians do this, and it is even more humiliating when Jews do it because of our experience as a stateless people without rights.

Mr. Feit seems to be saying that after 64 years of genocide, Palestinians still cannot be free until they generate a leadership like Nelson Mandela in 1952, or Mahatma Gandhi in 1927.

Of course, under a genocidal occupation, Palestine has not been able to even generate a decent electrical/sanitation grid (Israel like to bomb Palestinian sewage treatment plants).

But I guess that too is the fault of the Palestinians. There is so much that is the fault of occupied, powerless Palestine, isn’t there?

They just deserve to be endlessly occupied, endlessly humiliated, endlessly expelled, and endlessly laughed at by Mr. Feit, the moral giant of Penn?

Boycott Israel and make sure Mr. Feit never gets the chance to tour it on a tank.

Considering the usual racism, bigotry, and intolerance taken by BDS dead enders ( I would also include the terrible antisemitism directed against non-zionist jews and pro-peace Jews by the majority of the BDS establishment) in whitewashing and denying war crimes, Mr. Feit’s piece is a relief. However as far as concerns for “blatant distortions of reality” go this article is outstanding.
There would never be an Urgun or prominent eliminationist elements in the pre-Israeli days for that matter, if in 1948 the Brits didn’t systematically conduct an anti-Semetic program. And than starting in 1967 the always aggressive Muslim people waged an ongoing attempt at military occupation. It is impossible to take claims of wanting peace seriously from any Muslim government as long as it sponsors Islam – a supremacist religion in which non-Muslims can either convert or face death instead. No matter how much cynical Palestinian politicians like Arafat deflect blame on Israel, the dirty little secret is that the PLO has nearly no legitimacy among rational people and the Palestinians basically just an Islamist apparatus cynically manipulated by Islamists in Saudi Arabia, Iran and in other cold-blooded Islamist nations. The few times the PLO leadership does act in accordance with popular demands this means another war or intifada because this is all Muslims know when it comes to non-Muslims.
Gaza is even more tragic. In Gaza today, where in fact Israel has never stopped delivering aid that Hamas diverts towards rockets so that the majority of the population is both insecure and under the age of 25, Israel has created the conditions for organizations like the UN to arise- but Violent resistance is all Muslims know, no matter how crude or tactically ineffective, is really all that Muslims know.
Equally enlightening is Feit’s notion that Israel is a democracy. In reality, Israel really is a Democracy while the Muslim nations are all repressive theocratic hellholes. It is a democracy. It is a democracy. It is a democracy and that drives the BDS people insane.
My suspicion is that political parties in Israel, like Likud, in fact enjoy having a democracy because it drives the BDS crowd insane. No matter how democratic Israel is it still drives the BDS absolutely crazy as bats. In reality, the vast majority of Palestinians should know that they will never beat Israel because Jewish culture and values are forward looking while Muslim cultrue glorifies the values of 7th century barbarians. Crude homemade rockets will never kill as much as US donated F-15s even though it is obvious the BDS crowd wished crude rockets would wipe out all the women and children of Israel – or, at least the Jewish women and children. Especially considering Muslims depraved willingness to use weapons like anything they can get their hands on against population centers. This is why you can expect more and more Muslim deaths as Muslims affinity for killing other Muslims seems insatiable.
If Feith really cared about destroying Hamas and ending Palestinian extremism, he would write more brilliant editorials like this one. During Apartheid in south Africa, many elements of the ANC resorted to terrorism against civilians. That did not DE-legitimize calls for sanctions against SA. But the BDS movement should call for sanctions against Saudi Arabia and ALL other Muslim nations where non-Muslims live in ghettos and live in fear for their lives.
In the meantime, I would urge all BDS’s to see psychiatrists and to take their prescribed meds for they need all the help they can get.

Right,

Mr. Feit would deny all day long that a brutal military occupation exists, and than if you by mere presentation of the facts force him to concede the reality of Israeli apartheid- he would than demand that if the Palestinians want an address of their legitimate social and political grievances they must be so non-violent that not one extremist Palestinian can exist otherwise Israel is justified in wanton killing (but they feel oh so bad about it!). And then when they are completely and utterly non-violent (BDS) he will whine and wail and say we should all give credit to Netanyahu because he gives rights to gay Israeli men that he denies to Palestinian children who he drops bombs on.

If there was ever an example of the banality of evil…

Mr. Feit seems to be saying that after 64 years of trying to get along with its suicidal neighbors, Palestinians still cannot get it through their thick skulls that their religion is the source of their problems and their endless wars. All their leaders are corrupt and become billionaires while they – the people – are pawns in an evil game.
Of course, under corrupt leadership that diverts international aid towards purchasing mansions in Europe, Palestine has not been able to even generate a decent electrical/sanitation grid, while their leaders finish out their European mansions with gold plated plumbing fixtures.
But I guess that too is the fault of the Palestinians. There is so much that is the fault of subservient, powerless Palestine, isn’t there?
They just deserve to be endlessly manipulated, endlessly humiliated, endlessly expelled, and endlessly laughed at by the all-powerful Muslims leaders throughout the Middle East who use them as pawns in their evil game against Israel.
Boycott Saudi Arabia and the BDS movement and make sure this endless Jihad becomes an issue in America through educating people about Islam.

Wrong
Mr. SAS11 would deny all day long that Islam is inherently aggressive and that a mere presentation of the facts forces him to concede the reality of Islamic apartheid- he would than demand that if the Israelis want an address of their legitimate social and political grievances they must be so non-violent that not one Israeli can exist otherwise Israel is justified in hosting LGTB events (but they feel oh so bad about it!). And then when they are completely and utterly non-violent (BDS) he will whine and wail and say we should all give credit to Abbas because he is complicit in killing gay Muslim men and he denies to Palestinian children their hope for a future by brainwashing them to hate, hate and then hate some more.
If there was ever an example of the banality of evil…

btw,

your Irgun and Stern gang- terrorist groups from whom the founders of the modern Israeli state and military are from- were instrumental in the ethnic cleanings of 1948 and had nothing to do with the British except when they were killing British civilians, collaborating with the colonial government or were in contact with the Nazis so they could help them kick the British out and establish a state where the Nazis could just send all their Jews to and expedite the fascistic dream of a ethnocentric military state on land that the modern Zionist project had nothing to do with until the 1890s.

All Zionist immigration to Israel from than has happened under the protection of the British colonial gun and the modern Israeli state is the successor to this colonial legacy.

The same Irgun was assassinating secular Jews like Jacob Israel De Haan, as early as the 1920s-who were in touch with Arab leaders and were working towards building one multi-ethnic, democratic state. The Zionist movement has always been a violent, militant- ideologically uncompromising and proto-facist force whose introduction into the region begat the whole spiral of violence. I am not afraid to say this. It has it’s roots in 19th century ideologies that were developing in places like Germany and Greece around ethnic nationalisms and was not at all taken seriously by the diaspora until the Holocaust wiped out European Jewish life.

It’s especially ironic the calls to boycott Saudi Arabia from Israel defenders, considering that right now Israelis only friends int he region are dictators like the Saudis, and Mubarak before he got kicked out.

Unlike Hamas, these guys have nuclear weapons:

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/likud-leaders-go-al-aqsa-call-cleansing-jerusalem-and-building-jewish-temple

It’s hilarious that the best you guys can do to refute sas11’s arguments is posting mocking, childish, and baseless generalizations about Muslims. All of the students who are on the fence about this issue that are reading these comments will have to decide whether to side with the commenter who comes up with coherent and logical arguments, or the commenters who resort to Islamophobic and entirely inaccurate claims.

Well Wow,

Noah Feit did a superb job defending Israel from the charges leveled at it by the BDS crowd only to be met with inane comments by the likes of sas 11 and others.

We have tried to engage the BDS crowd with sincere and well reasoned responses only to be met with ridicule and hate-filled slurs. Attempting to reason with your crowd is like attempting to tell Joseph Goebbels his thinking is a bit skewed. It falls on deaf ears. Make that deaf ears and hate-addled minds.

So Wow, excuse me for responding in kind. For taking their words and changing their intent in an attempt to illustrate how disgusting their hate-filled rhetoric is. But I don’t expect you to acknowledge this or much less even hear it. For you are one of Goebbels’s loyalists who sees what he wants to see, hears what he wants to hear and ignores all facts because they get in the way of your insatiable prejudice.

Allahu Akbar!

Great job, Noah Feit. Sincerely. You expose the derangement of this movement well…. and the comments before mine are additional evidence.

Refuting you Israel haters is tiring but, unfortunately, necessary.

First, in 1948 the Arab/Muslim nations attacked Israel, not the other way around. Israel had to defend their country. This has happened repeatly since then.

Second, Israel has a military including nuclear bombs because it’s neighbors want to wipe them out. Israel needs checkpoints because otherwise, Arab/Muslim terrorists with bombs and other weapons would come into Israel and murder innocents. How do we know this – because it’s happened before and continues to happen, although much less than in the past since Israel beefed up security.

And no — I did not mean “W“s …. we must have been thinking along the same lines.

Paraphrasing Lincoln: you cannot hold even a reasonable conversation with someone who WILL NOT even agree with you that 2 2=4.

this takes courage and skill to write. all the heinous messages bashing you should be seen as evidence that you speak the truth.

re: Wow@all the Zionists: you say comments are inaccurate — would you mind specifying which? because if you don’t you are also generalizing, which is what you seem to be complaining about.

First of all Mr. Feit is to be applauded for an articulate essay. He is a fine leader and has helped lead an amazing response to the BDS hate-fest. In my own response to his essay: parts of which I disagree with, I do not represent Penn Friends of Israel or any one else. However, no one can support Israel more than I do. I strongly object to the last paragraph of his essay. The mis-named and fraudulent “peace process” is completely dead. It should now be given a not so decent burial. Israel under NO circumstances must not even discuss any more concessions with the PLO/PA or Abbas or any other phony “leader” or more accurately puppet of the real anti-Israel leadership: probably Khalid Mashel of Hamas, Farouk Khaddumi Of Fatah who is still in Tunis others lurking underground on various wanted list. Marwan Barghuoti is sitting in jail for murdering women. Convicted of numeruos atrocities after a fair trial, he is now serving FIVE life terms 40 years. Yet the “Palestinians “ want him and still consider him a leader. Some deluded Israeli “peace activists” like Amos Oz want him as some sort of “peace “ negotiator. This how utterly confused the whole “peace camp” is! Iam opposed to the peace process. Israeli’s sovereignty, required for its long-term survival, rests on the 1924 Mandate treaty calling for the creation of the “reconstitution of the Jewish National Home in [Mandatory] Palestine .” in the Mandate Treaty and the earlier San Remo Treaty the historic connection of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel was Internationally recognized and thus real International Law supports Israel’s rights to national sovereignty as a Jewish State. The Mandate Treaty was under the auspices of the League of Nation and continued under the United Nation Charter Article 80. It has never and can never be revoked. Israel MUST be a Jewish State. If it gives up that status through “negotiations” (really surrender to Arab terror and black-mail) it will invalidate the treaty and thus the basis of its existence. In no way whatsoever does its existence, security, or legitimacy depend on “peace” with Arab states. That is the goal of the 2001 Arab Peace Plan ( sometimes called the Saudi Arabian or Beirut Peace Plan ) to destroy the real League of Nations sovereignty as explained above— that is, that would be lost at a terrible cost in return for meaningless “normal relations” (that and $2.50 will buy you one New York Times newspaper). On top of all that the PLO/ Palestinian Authority has completely broken every last provision of the Oslo era accords by sponsoring terror ( cf. the Oslo Accords ) and incitement ( approving and celebrating the terror on PA TV ) and of course by unilateral actions forbidden by the Oslo accords like demanding “independence” from the UN. for all these reasons and more the “ peace process” must Not be pursued anymore.

David, that is a lie. I’m not trying to be impolite but you are just not telling the truth:

http://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe/dp/1851685553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328892994&sr=8-1

@wow: That’s the plan, ;)

It’s great to see the kind of friends who come to Mr. Feit’s defense, isn’t it?

Oh yeah. Israel is a democracy. Its mission is to deliver snacks to Palestinian welfare Moms and the kiddies in Gaza.

Yet thousands of Arabs are fiendishly dropping white phosphorous on themselves and then making it look like Israeli soldiers did it.

Why? They hate our freedoms, I guess.

Boycott Israel and end the occupation (unless you believe Palestinians are faking the occupation too.)

sas11,

So you get your information from Ilan Pappe. Not surprising. No doubt 65 years ago you would have relied on Mein Kampf for your source material instead. Emin Kampf, Illan Pappe. No difference. Source material for the former Nazis and currently for the Nazi wannabes like sas 11 and Boycott Apartheid.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/03/benny-morris-owns-ilan-pappe.html

Oh yeah. Hamas is a democracy. Its mission is to deliver snacks to Israeli welfare Moms and the kiddies in Sderot.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/07/hey-kids-come-watch-a-dramatization-of-your-moms-death-by-suicide-bombing.html

ad-hominem, typical really

But if you bother to listen to What Morris actually says you will learn that does not disagree with Pappe on the facts. Instead Morris looks at the ethnic cleansing and says “well America Australia and New Zealand did it so it’s ok if Israel does too.

It’s all documented and there, either own ethnic cleansing like Morris does or reevaluate your position.

Either way you can count on me staying firmly in the anti-war crime side of the debate.

By sponsoring terror I meant the terrible “second Intifada” also known as “the Oslo War” or the “Palestinian Terror War.” Atrocities like killing Israeli Jews ( including many Holocaust survivors) at a Passover Sedar in Netanya, The S’borros Pizzeria bombing and the Dolphinium Night- Club attack that was specifically aimed at teen-age girls, since it was Ladies Night. The cruel Palestinian terrorists and ALL of their leadership ( including Abbas and PA PM Fayyad ) must be put on trial for Crimes Against Humanity. This obviously precludes ANY “negotiations with those monsters. It does not neccesarily preclude local Initiatives with non – PLO, non-Hamas, non-terrrists for economic or cultural development once the PLO and Hamas Terror groups are ( hopefully soon ) abolished. The innocent victims must never be forgotten The Palestinian Arabs must be sued and made to pay compensation to the families of their victims. Already as in the Aharon Bell case, the Pa and Plo was forced to pay Aharon Bell’s widow in an out-of court settlement. Aharon Bell was not Jewish but an African-American who learned to sing Russian Jewish wedding and Bar Mitzvah songs. He was killed in Israel by vicious Palestinian Arab terrorists for the crime of earning a living and bringing joy to the people he performed for.

sas11,

You keep leveling the “ethnic cleansing” charge at Israel despite reality flying in the face of this absurd claim.

The Muslim demographic in Israel totals 20% of the population and it IS the fastest growing demographic profile in the country.

If you want to understand ethnic cleansing study what has happened in Lebanon, Sudan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and other Muslim countries to their non-Muslim populations.

Put the victims on trial for being occupied?

The Palestinians did not ask for Zionists to come roaring through Palestine like Rommel.

Yet you want the Palestinians tried for crimes against the occupiers.

I guess this is what it would look like if Rommel had won. Nazi stormtroopers putting their victims on trial.

Boycott “Israel” and end occupation.