Palestine/Israel Crisis Resolved!

As awareness of the Palestinian crisis grows and empathy for the Palestinian people increases, organizations search frantically for a solution to Israel’s continuous theft of Palestinian lands and oppression of the native peoples. Justice looks to establishing a single state, where Israelis and Palestinians live as equals and in harmony. The single state solution arrived with improved understanding of the perilous situation, which changed the perspective from a conflict to a crisis of settler colonialism. Displacing Zionist control of the situation and dismantling the fabric of settler colonialism are prerequisites before assembling a new society  ─ a single state for all ethnicities.

Israel’s Game Plan

Before proceeding, two questions should be asked and answered:

(1)        What is Israel’s game plan, and
(2)        How does that affect the Palestinians?

Israel’s game plan is obvious — incorporate all of the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Jerusalem into a Greater Israel without regard to the fate of the Palestinians. If there is no consideration given to their presence, what will the effect be on the Palestinians? Without a land to cultivate or stand upon, they will be forced to leave; if not, they will be denied the basic rights that guarantees survival.

Coupled with the ethnic cleansings in 1948 and 1967, the ongoing crisis has potential of being one of the greatest catastrophes visited upon a people. We hesitate to mention the word genocide, but must remember, it is not termed genocide until it is all over

The Critical Eye

Reality faces strategists ─ recommendations to resolve the crisis are not arising from those who have control of the situation or have sufficient power to institute radical changes. From the unimpeded manner in which Israel has seized Palestinian lands, constructed settlements, and oppressed the native population, it is apparent that Israel has the power to control the situation. Israel’s declared preference – a “no-state,” a state without borders, without a constitution, whose citizens are not Israeli nationals (nationality is defined by ethnicity), and allows indefinite expansion and incorporation of world Jewry into the “no- state,” contradicts arguments for two states, one-state, federation of states, or a bi-national state.

Characterizing the situation as settler colonialism gives it the proper perspective, with a twist. A more accurate description of the Zionist adventure is that of a small enterprising band of discontented and idealistic Jewish outliers who organized themselves as a business enterprise. Their Histadrut, the General Organization of Workers in Israel, became one of the most powerful institutions in the British mandate and turned into a state sponsored enterprise. The word “small” needs emphasis; the mass of the Jewish community neither approved nor played any role in the original Zionist adventure. As an enterprise, the marauding Zionists closely resembled the Puritans and their sponsor ─ Massachusetts Bay Company. The early years of the development of the nation of Israel parallels the Puritan experience in America.

A small congregation of Puritans refused to reconcile their independent organization with the established Church of England. Desiring to preserve their identity and feeling constantly persecuted, they sought new places to live their unique social and communal life. In the year 1621, they concluded Europe would never accept them and sought an opportunity in America. The Massachusetts Bay Company sponsored the Puritan settlements and constructed the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose fatal encounter with the local native population set the stage for the settlement of the entire coast-to-coast American territory and the decimation of the native peoples.

The Zionist Jewish narrative closely follows the Massachusetts Bay Company Puritan narrative, and the early years of the development of the nation of Israel parallel the Puritan experience in America. The experience is not being detoured and, because the result may be the same ─ decimation of the native population ─ it is important that the crisis be accurately characterized.

Summarizing

Placing the narrative in context, we have

• The ambitious one-state solution is preferred, but Israelis will not accept it until they must accept it.
• Because internal critics of Zionist polices are easily deposed, critics within Israel cannot depose Zionism.
• The Zionist adventure is best characterized as an enterprise, which became criminal in its manifestation.
• The ultra nationalist aspect attached to Zionism has invigorated white supremacist movements and served as a model for them.

To these postulates, we can add

• Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians is leading to genocide.
• Events are leading to a conflagration that could be more punishing than the previous wars. Because of Israel’s military might, Iran is arming itself with missiles and nuclear weapons.
• The U.S. electorate is beginning to recognize that Israel is a burden and not a satisfactory ally of the U.S.
• The Jewish community is beginning to recognize that Israel is a liability and not an asset to its existence.
• As of July 29, 2021, 130 (72 %) of 193 United Nations’ (UN) members recognized the State of Palestine. Leaders indicate that most nations acknowledge the oppression, but are unable to act against it. Russia and China, as examples, have voted for almost all UN Security Council Resolutions condemning Israel and have not moved their embassy to Jerusalem, but still maintain excellent relations with Israel.
• Illegal seizures of Palestinian lands and destruction of their homes occur with no regard to the excessive harm inflicted on established families. This brutal “throw them into the streets and let them be homeless and starve” moves the oppression to the catastrophic level.
• Because International terrorism always has one excuse ─ western support for Israel ─ the west should be aware of the consequences it faces by supporting a state that inspires terrorism. On Sept. 19, 2009, Agence French Press provided a video in which Al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, tells Americans that their support for Israel prompted him to launch the September 11, 2001 attacks.
• Only U.S. vetoes have prevented the Palestinians from winning significant victories and gaining advantages. Will U.S. vetoes continue forever?

Barriers to solution exist.

• Israel has already prepared for retaliation by cleverly subduing all opponents – Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Jordan, and Iraq. Iran is the last man standing and clever propaganda has isolated Iran into a despised nation.
• By obtaining close relations with China, Israel has acquired a bargaining tool with the United States.
• Recognitions by the Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as a possible defense against Iranian intrusion in their affairs, indicate that Israel is becoming useful for Middle East nations.
• Israel has powerful allies in extreme right movements in the entire western world.
• Israel has a powerful ally in a sector of the Jewish community, whose blind sympathy with Zionism acts aggressively and effectively to counter verbal, financial, and political actions that detrimentally affect its patron.
• Israel has become a military equipment supplier and a highly valued producer of spy hardware and intelligence gathering for several nations. These nations need Israel, but not necessarily the present Israel.
• Infiltration – One overlooked reportage, which needs exposure, is migration of Israelis to foreign nations. According to Newsweek, 05/10/18, at https://www.newsweek.com/2018/05/18/israel-brain-drain-technology-startup-nation-religion-palestinians-economy-919477.html, “at least one million Israelis reside in the United States…. And in addition to the Israelis now living stateside, according to the country’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, hundreds of thousands have moved to Europe, Canada and elsewhere” Among the emigrants is a cadre of weaponless soldiers, who behave benign, but are propagandists who seek to align foreign institutions in accord with Israel’s interests. With most living in New York, California, and Florida, enough dual citizen American-Israelis can shape the ballot in those regions, and may have done that in the disputed 2000 presidential election.

Crisis Resolved

What is the solution?

Simple! Israel’s power must be diminished and its exclusive control of the situation eliminated.
Then it must be forced into becoming a single state, in which the Palestinians have the right of return and share power. Impossible, no, just very difficult, but entirely possible.

The first step involves seizing the narrative and maintaining the high ground, an excruciating balancing act. Overcoming Israel’s lies, fabrications, deceits, dirty tricks, and use of jargon to play victim, disturb the public, and falsely label its critics — anti-Semite, anti-Semitic tropes, blood libel, Holocaust denier, pogroms, terrorist, and others — jars the mind.

Begin with anti-Semitism

Is the term anti-Semitic, which literally means being against those who speak a language of the Semites — Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, or Arabic — correctly used, and has it been sidetracked to highlight actions only against Jews, giving them a special significance in comparison to attacks against other ethnicities? Has this domineering position led to misuse of the term anti-Semitism, leading it to become a contentious pejorative, a word that generates hate, rather than subdues it, that causes undue violence to innocent persons, a confusing word that is used as a catch-all expression to represent harm to the Jewish people, which can range from prankster to physical violence?

Let’s get to basics. The League of anti-Semites, led by Wilhelm Marr in 1879, prompted the more general use of the word anti-Semitism. Note that the word “anti-Semites” is only a name for an organization, which did not want to use a label, such as Jewish, in characterizing its thrust. They could have called themselves “The League of Super Patriots.” If they had a different name, the word anti-Semite might have never been used, and there would be no persons called anti-Semites.

Most anti-Semitic incidents, which analysis indicates are greatly exaggerated, can be traced to revenge for perceived Jewish support of Israel. Acting as if it is the sole haven for Jews against anti-Semitism, it is in Israel’s benefit to enhance and exaggerate attacks on Jews. Because the Anti Defamation League (ADL} reports every harm to Jewish persons, no matter how slight or unverified, as an anti-Semitic statistic, the exact damages to Jewish psyche and interests are difficult to place in context and evaluate. In 2017, the ADL identified 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents perpetrated throughout the United States. Included in the totals were 1,015 instances of harassment, many by mischievous students in schools. The subjective term “vandalism” accounted for 952 incidents, most of them being the tumbling of cemetery tombstones and posting of Swastika drawings, mainly by trouble-making juveniles, and which may not have been specifically directed against Jewish persons.

The ADL 2017 report had 19 assaults against Jews and certainly more than one is alarming. However, the statistic is less alarming when only six were considered as serious, and the two most serious were (1) Jewish family harassed at a local Target, and (2)  A 12-year old boy was attacked on his way home from outside a synagogue after Friday night prayers (no detail of injuries or if attacked because of being Jewish).

Compare these assaults to a Pew Research report of 127 assaults against other ethnicities in the same year. Some examples of many more:

• A man shot and killed an Indian immigrant engineer he thought was Middle Eastern and wounded two others after shouting, “get out of my country,” and opening fire.
• A man shot and injured a Sikh after shouting, “get out of my country.”
• A man beat an Arab employee of Al Aqsa Restaurant with a pipe, yelling “go back to your country terrorist” and “get out of America.”
• A Florida man, who attempted to set fire to a convenience store, told deputies that he assumed the owner was Muslim and that he wanted to “run the Arabs out of our country.”
• A man fatally stabbed two people and injured a third on a MAX Light Rail train, after he was confronted for reportedly “yelling a gamut of anti-Muslim and anti-everything slurs.”
• Bomb detonated in the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota.

No intent to underestimate attacks on American Jews and compare them with attacks on others; all forms of racial hatred should be exposed and combated. Nevertheless, proper perspective is required in order to give proper attention.

Attempting to show that the term anti-Semitism is improper in the situation and the number of incidents is exaggerated will add you to the ant-Semite list, so best to throw it back at them ─ Zionists are anti-Semites. If the word has usage, a revised lexicon of hatred places anti-Semitism in its proper perspective. Arabs are also Semites and suffer magnitudes more discrimination and serious attacks than Jewish Semites. In order not to have any group monopolize the term anti-Semitism it is preferable to use the term with more correct meanings.

Anti-SemitismA refers to discrimination against Arab Semites.
Anti-SemitismJ refers to discrimination against Jewish Semites.

Next time someone makes a racist remark against a Palestinian or another Arab, just call him/her an anti-SemiteA, an anti-Semite of the Semitic Arab people.

Holocaust

Continue with the use of the Holocaust, which brings us to the battle between the dead and the dying.

The World War II Holocaust is over, the dead cannot be reclaimed, and yet their lives are continually replayed. In Palestine, the destruction continues, lives can be reclaimed, and yet the threat to their existence is insufficiently discussed. The crisis started with Al-Nakba and the Palestinians have not been able to make the world react to the seriousness of the growing catastrophe.

Genocide is not broadcasted; it can be silent and stealth:

• breaking bones and imprisoning males to deny children their working fathers;
• preventing expansion of food, water and housing supplies so a population is economically deprived and exists at a subsistence level;
• confining families to limited areas to stifle education, knowledge and community interaction;
• restricting travel so that people are not able to contact others and learn the new tools and mechanisms for adaptation to a modern world;
• harassing and sowing fear to create psychological disturbances.

Recipients of Israeli government policies in the West Bank and Gaza have no means to protect themselves against these genocidal atrocities, except to leave the area or suffer until dead.
When Zionists talk Holocaust, remind the world that every night is Kristallnacht in Palestine.

The UN definition of genocide indicates that Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people can be termed genocide.

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Israeli forces have been continuously guilty of the first four acts.

Responsible agencies should be petitioned to turn Holocaust Remembrance Day from remembrance for only one ethnicity to universal recognition of the holocausts that affected other contemporary ethnicities:

• 1904–1908 extermination of Herero and Namaqua peoples in Africa;
• 19^th and  20^th century killings and displacement of Native American tribes in North, America;
• World War I destruction of the Armenian community;
• 1979 Cambodian genocide, part of the Cold War and Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia;
• 1981–1983 Guatemalan genocide, part of Guatemalan Civil War;
• Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis, which occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War;
• Rohingya genocide, perpetrated by the Myanmar military, which occurred from October 2016 to January 2017.

Publicly funded Holocaust memorial museums should grant equal exhibitions to other genocides. Using public funds to give special consideration to a particular genocide is racist, an insult to those who died in genocides, and a betrayal of public trust. Those who rebel against Israel’s followers’ use of the memories of their departed loved ones as sympathy for their cause should organize petitions and newspaper advertisements to air their displeasure and expose the hypocrisy.

Slogans

Israel’s adversaries, mainly Iran and Hamas, receive adjectives before their name, as if the adjectives and name are one word. Iran is often referred to as the evil regime of Iran, leading supporter of international terrorism…Except for a few revenge attacks on dissidents responsible for attacks within Iran, are there any confirmed terrorist attacks supported by Iran? Hamas is referred to as terrorist Hamas.

Throw it back at them. Attach adjectives before “Israel” and phrases after “Israel” such as done for “Iran.” One difference is that the adjectives pinned to Iran are spurious, while those that can be pinned to Israel are absolutely true.

• Apartheid Israel, oppressor of Palestinians…Amnesty International released a report, Feb1, 2022, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/, describing Israel’s apartheid.
• Ultra nationalist Israel, leading human rights violator.
• include Israel in discussions of white supremacist movements

Legal Support

The ADL has been successfully sued for false charges of anti-Semitism and forced to pay fines in two prominent cases. Descriptions of these cases are at: https://www.jweekly.com/2000/05/12/judge-fines-adl-10-5-million-in-colorado-defamation-suit/ and https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-28-me-15044-story.html. Bringing suit has merits, but pitfalls must be carefully regarded — it can be costly, time consuming and, if lost, can give more ammunition to the deceitful slanderers.

Already existing are the European Legal Support Center, established in 2019 in Amsterdam to defend and empower the Palestine solidarity movement in Europe and Campaign Against BOGUS Antisemitism, a British a volunteer-led group “dedicated to exposing and countering bogus antisemitism.” Equivalent legal support centers should be established in every major country.

Seizing the narrative, coupled with worldwide massive demonstrations and bludgeoning media reports (don’t let Israel’s supporters breathe or have sufficient resources and time to respond) that daily expose Israel’s crimes to the world’s seven billion people, will, hopefully, move western nations to finally take decisive action against apartheid Israel.

The Belly of the Beast

Attacking the Israel government is wounding; attacking enterprise Israel can be fatal.

One word summarizes the taking of another person’s property, livelihood, and dignity – theft! A specific type of theft, known as Raubwirtschaft, German for “plunder economy,” describes enterprise Israel.

In Raubwirtschaft, the state economy is partially based on robbery, looting, and plundering conquered territories. States that engage in Raubwirtschaft are in continuous warfare with their neighbors and usurp the resources of their conquered subjects, while claiming security objectives and defensive actions against defenseless people.

Israel has gone further than Raubwirtschaft, using it as a springboard for transnational corruption — having its citizens extend the illicit activities to global networks of money laundering, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and general crime. A broad brush of Israeli international criminal activities in past decades is described.

• Haaretz, Oct. 19, 2013 ─ In its annual report for 2012, the International Narcotics Control Board listed Brazil and Israel among the “countries that are major manufacturers, exporters, importers, and users of narcotic drugs.”
• The Times of Israel, Dec. 10, 2018 ─ Fourteen Israelis are suspected by Colombian authorities of running a child sex trafficking ring, which marketed tour packages from Israel to the Latin American nation. Eight suspects are in custody, including two Colombian nationals, with international arrest warrants issued for the remaining individuals.
• Hadassah Magazine, March 2020 ─ In 2001, the country (Israel) had been listed as a Tier 3 nation by the United States, the lowest ranking in the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report. During the late 20th through early 21st centuries Sex traffickers were smuggling in Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan women, mostly non-Jews, circulating them as prostitutes among the brothels of Tel Aviv and Israel’s other major cities. A Knesset inquiry found that between 2001 and 2005, 3,000 to 5,000 women were smuggled into Israel each year and forced into prostitution, with the industry bringing in more than a billion dollars annually.
• U.S. Dept. of State 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report: Israel ─The Government of Israel does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.
• The Times of Israel, Nov. 16, 2021 ─ Yitzhak Abergil deemed responsible for deaths in a 2003 bombing that targeted a rival; judges find he was head of international crime organization that funded itself with drug trade.
• BBC, Apr. 21, 2018 ─ A Palestinian professor and member of the Hamas militant organisation has been killed in a drive-by shooting on the streets of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian officials said the suspects are believed to have links to a foreign intelligence agency (Israel).

A seriously embarrassing record for a nation that was created to be “a light among all nations,” and claims to represent world Jewry.

BDS

Start with BDS and greatly expand it to all of Israel. Supporters of the apartheid enterprise will claim this is a reminder of the German boycott against Jewish establishments. The counter claim is that it is similar to Jewish and other boycotts of Nazi Germany products. Successful implementation of the worldwide supported BDS endeavor serves as a springboard for future endeavors. BDS importance is apparent — it has been able to gather those who sympathize with the Palestinian cause and those who oppose Israel’s actions into a common activity that has captured worldwide attention. BDS is a beginning and a changed Israel is its ending.

The Israel economy is more vulnerable than realized. The “economic miracle” was a desperate survival in an economy subsidized by Holocaust reparations, German economic assistance, U.S. aid that built an Israeli armaments industry, institutional and facility constructions by a host of sympathetic nations, donations from Religious Right groups, billions of shekels from worldwide Jewry, scientific advancements from Soviet immigrants and research facilities supported by foreign firms. Add the theft of Palestinian land and use of cheap Palestinian labor. Imagine the problems the Israel economy would have had if it could not house its immigrants in dwellings stolen from the displaced Palestinians, many completely furnished with living room curtains.

Take away the continuous western assistance, in forms of military aid and direct investment, and, if the average Israeli standard of living starts to decline, then he/she might no longer enjoy living by theft, oppressing others, and financing a lesser-working religious orthodox population, and might consider leaving for honorable and economically viable surroundings.

Allied BDS endeavors include:

Reducing tourism

Israel is a major tourist destination, with 4.55 million foreign tourists in 2019. Promoting the touring of the oppressed grounds and providing barriers to stepping on the oppressor’s grounds will shift shekels away from the oppressor to the oppressed.

Withdrawing foreign direct investment (FDI)

Several high tech multinational companies, mainly from the United States and Netherlands, have established Research and Development Centers (R&D) in Israel. Their purpose is to recruit Israeli engineers, many of whom have performed their military service with the Israeli intelligence services and are skilled in surveillance, cyber security, drones, and artificial intelligence, into developing products that align with their experiences.

Another investing vehicle is in the Israeli “startups,” which have been plentiful and seek takeovers by U.S. companies rather than having an initial public stock offering (IPO).

Convincing the most profitable companies in the universe to discard a mechanism that enriches their advanced developments in order to advance the Palestinian cause is a difficult task. They may feel the investments are worth more than their support of Palestinian liberation, but will a U.S. consumer, who is presented with the facts, feel the same? Will the buyers of tech gadgets be content with knowing that their companies are shifting high payment jobs and innovation to Israel and away from their own country? Other nations, such as India, entertain high tech R&D centers for U.S. corporations, but they do not have the characteristics of the militarist, nationalist, oppressive, and deceitful Israel. Buyer beware.

Diminishing trade

Apartheid Israel, oppressor of the Palestinians, is not a resource rich state and depends on imports for satisfying its raw material needs. Because most trade is with western oriented or faraway nations — China, India, Japan, South Korea — and Israel’s neighbors are not friendly, delivering goods by air and sea are the preferred methods. Limited means of transport for exports and imports make Israel vulnerable to enforced sanctions and reduce means to overcome sanctions by smuggling. Sanctions and more sanctions is a route to a prostrate Israel.

Diminishing trade begs reversing trade agreements. Israel is one of 38 western states in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and has free trade agreements with many nations.

Having these agreements reversed is a must for disabling enterprise Israel. If the world’s nations realize they are not making agreements with a nation, but with an enterprise encouraging genocide, they may consider the agreements from a more rational perspective.

Discouraging Investors.

International business leaders — Microsoft founder Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett, real estate developer and former U.S. President Donald Trump, and Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim — have invested in Israel. In 2006, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway bought ISCAR Metalworking, an Israeli company for $4 billion. Because this was conservative investing Berkshire Hathaway’s first acquisition outside the United States, a question arises ─ why Israel? Why are billionaires sending money out of their native country, supporting small foreign innovators rather than domestic innovators and making trivial investments that add little to their swollen portfolios? Certainly, they are showing contempt for the Palestinians and encouraging others to support Israel.

These shameful expressions from the financial elite, and from anyone investing in apartheid  Israel should be directly countered with regret at their behavior, assault at their loss of credibility, and accusations that their investments are contributing to a genocide.

Conclusions

Israel’s destruction of the Palestinian community occurred decades ago. While Israel continues the ugly oppression and enhances the agony, Palestinians struggle to reconstruct themselves. Their valor and ability to live in the harsh conditions have gained admiration from the entire world.

In Israel, West Bank, and Gaza, Palestinians have shown themselves as responsible citizens, and the overwhelming majority not prone to terrorism or radical Islam. Israelis have embraced terrorism to subdue Palestinians and become more prone to accept a violent orthodoxy that injures Palestinians with impunity. The Palestinians can live in a state composed of themselves and Jews. The Israeli Jews refuse to live with anyone but themselves.

The continuous crimes committed by Israel upon the Palestinian community and the continuous endurance to the suffering by the Palestinians indicates that Israel has not found a way to eliminate Palestinian aspirations for justice and freedom. The endless crimes committed by Israel upon the Palestinian community indicates that the world community is not sufficiently alert to the tragedy that is occurring. Time to change the western negligence to alertness and action, and prevent the ultimate destruction…of everyone.

Dan Lieberman edits Alternative Insight, a commentary on foreign policy, economics, and politics. He is author of the non-fiction books A Third Party Can Succeed in America, Not until They Were Gone, Think Tanks of DC, The Artistry of a Dog, and a novel: The Victory (under a pen name)