DOROTHY ONLINE NEWSLETTER

NOVANEWS

 
Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem
Chair of West Midland PSC
 

Dear All,

The 4 items below deal with the ‘way the wind blows’ subject of Israel’s present McCarthyist policies.  This does not mean that other things are not happening.  If you want to know, for instance, that Israel has grabbed 86% of the land in E Jerusalem, then go to http://www.theheadlines.org/11/06-01-11.shtml for what is additionally happening in the West Bank, E Jerusalem, and Gaza.  The subject of Israel’s present internal policies is for the present a serious matter, but it should not take our eyes and minds off of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Israel’s colonialism, and Israel’s ethnic cleansing.  These things exist daily, and every minute of the day.

The initial item below is a ‘new’ addition to the McCarthyist trend.  Ben Gurion airport authorities have blocked ‘dangerous’ websites, so that passengers awaiting a flight and using the time to scan the web are prevented from reading these websites—at present 4 left-wing and 2 right-wing sites.  The logic of this move escapes me.  After all, these sites are not blocked elsewhere.   So all this means is a delay for the individuals who might have wanted to scan the web while waiting.

Item 2 is the BBC take on Israel’s intention to investigate its human rights orgs.  At the bottom of the article are links to two additional international reports on the subject.

Item 3 posits the question “Is Israel on its way to becoming like Saudi Arabia or Iran?”—logical in view of what is taking place.  But Sefi Rachlevsky has a novel take on the subject.  The discovery of gas fields allows Israel to thumb its nose at the world and do as it will.

The final item is Gideon Levy’s bitter-sarcastic “When did it become illegal to be a Leftist in Israel?”  Levy had best watch his ps and qs.  He might become an object for investigation, too!

Well, at least the rains have come to drought stricken Israel and Palestine.  I guess that’s something good.

Dorothy

 

1.  Haaretz,

January 06, 2011

‘Dangerous’ political websites blocked from viewing at Israel’s airport

Barred sites include leftist organizations Breaking the Silence, Machsom Watch, Peace Now and Taayush and the rightist Legal Forum for the Land of Israel and World Headquarters to Save the People and Land of Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/dangerous-political-websites-blocked-from-viewing-at-israel-s-airport-1.335467

By Sefi Krupsky

Internet sites of political organizations, both left-wing and right-wing, have been barred from viewing at Ben-Gurion Airport, Haaretz has learned.

They are blocked by an information filtering company that classifies them as “dangerous.”

Barred sites include leftist organizations Breaking the Silence, Machsom Watch, Peace Now and Taayush and the rightist Legal Forum for the Land of Israel and World Headquarters to Save the People and Land of Israel.

Sites operated by parties and other groups with political affiliations were easily accessed.

The Airport Authority provides wireless Internet services to passengers at Ben-Gurion International Airport through the 012 Internet provider.

Asked whether any site could be accessed from the terminal, an 012 official admitted that some sites may have been blocked.

The “error” notice appearing on the political groups’ sites directs surfers to the Fortinet information protection company’s web-filtering system.

Netanel Davidi, CEO of the Altal information security company, said the filtering system “can trace sites with offensive content and block access to them, after users worldwide mark and categorize them. The system also blacklists hostile sites and prevents access to them.”

“The general instructions to 012 is to allow free surfing to all except bandwidth-heavy sites that stream video, music and the like. This is to enable most passengers to surf uninterruptedly. Porn and gambling sites have also been blocked, as is customary,” IAA said.

It added that 012 is using a technological filtering device that “categorizes controversial sites.”

The IAA said it would examine the goings on and make changes if necessary.

012 refused to comment due to customer confidentiality.

“The IAA is responsible for what takes place within its boundaries and cannot shift responsibility onto some provider,” said Breaking the Silence director Dana Golan.

“This is an extremely absurd and stupid policy, because whoever wants to block Internet access to people at an airport will ultimately have to consider preventing them from traveling abroad,” Golan added.

Peace Now secretary general Yariv Oppenheimer said “it’s regrettable that people leaving Israel should be made to feel as though they were leaving China or North Korea. Only backward countries bar Internet sites expressing political opinions.”

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2. BBC,

January 06, 2011

Israeli MPs back ‘McCarthyite’ probe on rights groups

The bill was proposed by the hard-line party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12127090

Israeli MPs have voted to establish a formal inquiry into the foreign funding of human rights groups, in a move critics describe as “McCarthyite”.

The bill accuses local rights groups of damaging the legitimacy of Israel’s military by “branding IDF soldiers and commanders as war criminals”.

It was sponsored by the hard-line party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

It follows other recent initiatives from the Israeli right, like requiring an oath of loyalty from non-Jews.

The motion to establish the commission of inquiry will now go to parliament’s House Committee for debate, ahead of a full vote before the Knesset.

MK Fania Kirshenbaum – of Mr Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party – who submitted the proposal, accused human rights groups of branding Israeli soldiers as war criminals.

“Israel must… reject proposals that have the scent of McCarthyism”

Isaac Herzog Labour MP Israeli politics: A lurch to the right?

“These groups provide material to the Goldstone commission [which investigated the 2008-2009 Gaza offensive] and are behind the indictments lodged against Israeli officers and officials around the world,” Ms Kirshenbaum said.

A series of arrest warrants for Israeli politicians and military officials have been issued in the last few years, particularly by pro-Palestinian groups in European countries.

The 41-17 vote brought a storm of protest from local rights groups, including Acri, Btselem, Adalah and the Hotline for Migrant Workers.

“Persecution and attempts at silencing will not stop us. In a democracy, criticism of the government is not only legitimate – it is essential,” said a statement from Btselem, one of the organisations named in the decision.

The Welfare and Social Services Minister, Isaac Herzog, called it a “political witch hunt” suited to “shady regimes” that would damage Israel’s international standing, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Israel “must be a light unto the world in terms of freedom of speech and freedom to express beliefs, and reject proposals that have the scent of McCarthyism,” Mr Herzog said, referring to the 1950s communist witch hunt led by US Senator Joseph McCarthy.

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Additional international media reports on the subject:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/05/knesset-approves-investigation-israeli-human-rights-groups

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-parliament-backs-mccarthyite-investigation-into-human-rights-groups-2177179.html

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3. Haaretz,

January 5, 2011

Is Israel on its way to becoming like Saudi Arabia or Iran?

The discovery of natural gas off Israel’s coast is likely to escalate anti-democratic tendencies in the country.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/is-israel-on-its-way-to-becoming-like-saudi-arabia-or-iran-1.335300

By Sefi Rachlevsky

It is very possible that Israel is on its way to becoming Saudi Arabia or Iran.

The discovery of a store of natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea is likely to have significant implications for Israel. Two days before the discovery was reported, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – that hidden righteous one of the radical right – had already given a sign indicating the new concept. In an interview with Channel 10, Netanyahu wondered aloud why he was being bothered by such trivial matters as the chances for peace, when Israel under his leadership was becoming an economic superpower. Following reportage of the major discovery, people on the right now feel they can go even further.

Even before the gas was found, the prime minister was perceived as having cunningly clipped the wings of U.S. President Barack Obama, transforming him from a winged horse that could leap from Mecca to Jerusalem into a Democratic mule limping on his thigh. Now, with God’s gift of gas to his obstinate people, it is possible to move in the opposite direction: from Jerusalem to Saudi Arabia.

And the “gentiles”? They wouldn’t dare fly in the face of the racist superpower with its incipient natural gas.

Israel seems to have two great options to choose from: One is to be like Saudi Arabia, which has a religious and racist domestic regime that subsidizes messianists and government corruption and which maintains a foreign policy perceived as pragmatic; the second possibility, to resemble Iran, is more likely, as domestically its regime is similar to Saudi Arabia’s, while it maintains a more aggressive and adversarial foreign policy.

That either of these possibilities is on its way is underscored by the impending “balance of terror” – of the messianist-racial-nuclear variety – between Jerusalem and Tehran. Terror from abroad can easily penetrate a society. This is how J. Edgar Hoover initially used the American-Soviet balance of terror to instill cunning aggressiveness outwardly, accompanied by a domestic witch hunt that sought out “traitors” and “foreigners” (with the help of emissaries like Senator Joseph McCarthy).

But history is not a determinist process. Salvation that rises from the depths is not necessarily the best alternative, but the severity of our circumstances could help focus the mind like nothing else. It provides the individual and the society with an opportunity to fundamentally change habits that have become entrenched within them and seem impossible to transform. In the case of the current chasm over which we are poised, we have a three-dimensional opportunity.

First, like the heart cathaterization that is a smoker’s last warning, the recent letter issued by the wives of rabbis who are subsidized by the Netanyahu government illustrates how growing extremism can generate fundamental change. The fact that the subsidized Jewish establishment dares to use the same rhetoric as Der Sturmer – about “the daughters of kings” of the superior race, who are seduced by impostors from the inferior race – clarifies the depth of the chasm in Israel.

We cannot make do with dismissing the inciters from their posts, putting them on trial and halting subsidies to the messianist hothouse that’s taken control of the country’s religious education and, through it, threatens to take over all of Israel. A more basic repair is needed. The wives of the rabbis draw their strength from the laws of the state, which do not permit the “interracial” marriage of Jews and non-Jews inside Israel. This can serve as an opportunity to change marriage laws in order to educate society about the importance of freedom of marriage for all, regardless of their religion, race or gender.

Second, although Israel might be able to survive in the image of Saudi Arabia or Iran, this is not a certainty. The concern felt by most Israelis – that the balance of terror between two messianist powers cannot persist – can be used as a useful political tool in the hands of worthy leaders. Such a leadership would make clear that the unequivocal choice is between a country that is inherently democratic and a dictatorship based on race that is run by a criminal and corrupt leadership that threatens life in Israel.

Third, and most important of all, even if we assume that Israel can survive along a Saudi or Iranian model, most voters do not want such a life. If they rise up now and join forces with a worthy leadership, they can write a different ending to the recurring story about those who came from the horrors of race and gas to the golden shores of the Mediterranean.

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4. Haaretz,

January 06, 2011

When did it become illegal to be a Leftist in Israel?

The police, the legal system, the Knesset, the Shin Bet, and the IDF have joined forces with the propagandists of the right to act as prosecutors without a trial.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/when-did-it-become-illegal-to-be-a-leftist-in-israel-1.335503

By Gideon Levy

It’s high time a legal ban on the Israeli left be instituted. Why do we continue beating around the bush? Why do we need such a taxing, exhaustive legislative process in enacting law after law? What’s the use of all these various proposals and amendments? In lieu of all the aforementioned, let’s just do one very simple thing: declare the left an illegal entity in the State of Israel. From then on, whoever thinks left, acts left, demonstrates left or tolerates left will belong in jail.

Let’s build another “holding facility” for foreigners, but this time for the foreigners from within – the leftists – thus purging and purifying our camp. Such a step would accurately reflect the zeitgeist that has taken hold among the majority of Israelis, and allow them to sketch a genuine portrait of Israeli democracy.

In the Israel of 2011, it’s no longer legitimate to belong to the left. It’s illegitimate to campaign for human rights or to oppose the occupation or to investigate war crimes. Such actions earn Israelis a mark of shame. A land-stealing settler is a Zionist; a warmongering right-winger is a patriot; an inciting rabbi is a spiritual leader; a racist who expels foreigners is a loyal citizen. Only the leftist is a traitor.

The nationalist loves Israel, while the leftist despises it. One doesn’t have to apologize for anything, while the other must disprove rumor and speculation. In the Israel of 2011, we can no longer speak of the sentiments expressed by the vendors of the open-air markets and bazaars. Now, a majority of government agencies and legal entities are taking part in this dangerous bonanza of delegitimization.

The Knesset has resolved to create a parliamentary committee of inquiry to look into the activities of left-wing groups “and their contribution to the delegitimization campaign against Israel.” Such a panel would make even Senator Joseph McCarthy blush.

Nuri el-Okbi, a Bedouin citizen and rights activist, was sent to prison for operating an unlicensed business by Judge Zecharia Yeminy, who wasn’t embarrassed to admit that he upped el-Okbi’s punishment solely due to the fact that he’d acted on behalf of the rights of the scattered Bedouin population.

Jonathan Pollak, a member of “Anarchists Against the Wall” and an anti-occupation activist that any healthy society would be proud of, was sent to jail for riding his bicycle on the road.

Mossi Raz, a former Knesset member who was innocently standing on the sidewalk during a protest against the killing of a Palestinian activist in Bil’in, was beaten by a police officer, handcuffed and arrested.

Peace activists are questioned by the Shin Bet security service and warned ahead of time against committing any violations. A physicians’ group is “on the extreme left,” a social foundation “despises Israel,” dedicated women who monitor checkpoints are “traitors” and an information center is considered “an accomplice to terrorism.”

Settlers who hurl trash at Israeli soldiers and their friends who set fire to Palestinian fields are not placed on trial, and yet Pollak is sent to jail. Soldiers who killed Palestinians carrying white flags have yet to be punished, but those who revealed such incidents are denounced. All of this is compounded by a plethora of bills – from the loyalty oath to the Nakba law. Everything blends together to form one horrifying picture: The left is an enemy of the people and an enemy of the state.

While all of this transpires, the real damage to Israel’s image and its international standing is being caused by its obstructionist policy and the government’s efforts to further solidify the occupation. It is caused by the violent activities of the Israel Defense Forces and the settlers, along with the racist actions of Israel’s legislators and rabbis.

One day’s worth of Operation Cast Lead did more to putrefy Israel’s stench than all of the critical reports combined. One torched mosque did more to drag Israel’s name in the mud than all of the columns and editorials criticizing Israel combined.

Yet nobody is demanding that any of these incidents be investigated. Very few people, if anyone, have been put on trial for such actions. What remains of the left, the only group who continues to preserve Israel’s moral standing? The lone few keeping the flickering flame of humanity burning are accused, convicted and punished while the true guilty parties are cleared of all charges. The police, the legal system, the Knesset, the Shin Bet, and the IDF have joined forces with the propagandists of the right to act as prosecutors without a trial, while the left is deprived of a defense attorney.

One single law could simplify matters: Let every Israeli know that it is forbidden. It’s forbidden to believe in a just Israel, forbidden to fight against any of its injustices, forbidden to struggle for its soul. Still, a bit of doubt manages to creep into the heart. Do all of those waging a fight against the left – from the heads of the Shin Bet and the police, to the judges and the right-wing lawmakers – really want a “democracy” without the left?