An excellent column from one of the very few excellent Israeli columnists, Gideon Levy, who is unsurprisingly a target of the Israeli far-Right.
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| people-hold-hands Bataclan |
His message is a simple one. There is no connection, as the Zionists are trying to make between the bloody murder in Paris by the barbarians of Isis and the children who wield knives in Hebron or Jerusalem because they see no other way of gaining their freedom. The Paris murderers are fighting against any concept of freedom, as we are seeing with the mass graves being uncovered in Sinjar city. Palestinian youth are fighting in the only way they know, to achieve freedom from the Israeli military state that dominates and rules over their lives.
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| Israel exploits the Paris massacre - Tel Aviv city hall lit up in French colours |
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| Candles placed outside the Carillon cafe |
Gideon Levy also lays into the idea that you can draw an equals sign between Hamas, Hezbollah, Isis and Al Qaeda. Apart from the small fact that Hezbollah is a Shi’ite group, Hamas is fighting a national resistance campaign. Yes they are all Islamic organisations but that is where the comparison ends. For example both Hezbollah and Hamas condemned the Charlie Hebdo killings whereas al-Qaeda in Yemen, with whom Saudi Arabia is presently aligned, carried them out.
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| Fans stream out of football stadium where Germany-France were playing |
The far Right and the Zionists will make common cause over the Paris bombings. It’s all the fault of the Muslims. Their recipe will be to wage war on Muslims throughout Europe. There is nothing that Israel would love more than to export its war on the Palestinians to Europe even if it makes common cause with Europe’s fascists.
Tony Greenstein
Before the Israeli Right Rejoices Over Paris
The Israeli right will say: We told you so. That is how the Palestinians are, that is how the Muslims are - bloodthirsty animals. The conclusion: There is no partner. This is of course a propagandist house of cards.
Ha’aretz Gideon Levy Nov 15, 2015 2:50 AM
Just before the right in Israel begins to celebrate, we must tell them: There is no connection whatsoever between the child with a knife from Hebron and the French Muslim with a suicide bomb in Paris.
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| Palestinian demonstration in Paris - pro-Palestinian activity is heavily suppressed by French state |
Just before the right in France and all of Europe starts to celebrate, we must tell them: Don’t you dance on the blood as well. The nationalism, hatred of foreigners, racism, deportation of refugees, isolationism and the war against Islam — your magic solutions will not solve anything. The rejoicing calls of “we told you so” from Israel and the European right are already being sounded loudly.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Marine Le Pen are once again those who are profiting the most from the terror. We must not fall into their trap.
The Israeli right will say: We told you so. That is how the Palestinians are, that is how the Arabs are, and that is how the Muslims are - bloodthirsty animals. The conclusion: There is no partner. We will forever live by our swords. Now Europe is experiencing what we have been experiencing for years. Now Europe will take steps toward a war on terror — the same steps which it condemned when we took them. Now Europe may leave us alone; after all we have a common enemy. Let’s see them labeling products now, let’s see it condemning the settlements.
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| Israelis exploit the French massacre |
Our daring raids on the al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron and the primary school in Silwan in Jerusalem are part of the war of civilizations which West is fighting, and which Israel is so proud to belong to. Whoever does not invade al-Ahli is not fighting terror. Whoever does not shoot a young woman holding a knife at a checkpoint gets Paris. The law for Ahmed Manasra (the 13-year-old Palestinian boy who stabbed an Israeli boy) is the same law as that for Jihadi John. Hamas is the Islamic State organization and the same goes for Hezbollah, Mahmoud Abbas, (Islamic Movement leader)Sheikh Ra’ad Salah, Joint List Members of Knesset Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi —and all of them are ISIS, all the Arabs.
This is of course a propagandist house of cards, which is completely unrelated to reality. The goal of the knife wielder from Hebron is completely different from that of the jihadist from Stade de France, and so is their worldview. Here the Palestinian is battling for his land and country, for his liberation from occupation, for self-determination and freedom — and there the game is destroying Europe and taking control of it. Here the main motive is national and political, and there it is religious fundamentalism.
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| Palestinian demonstration in Paris |
But the truth is that the Israeli right is not completely wrong. In the end, its prophesy will be self-fulfilling. If Israel continues with its policies, the child stabber from Hebron will turn into the adult suicide bomber of ISIS. Already today he is looking with eager eyes at the success of his big brothers. His despair leaves him little other hope.
ISIS is still not here yet, but it is possible to count on Netanyahu and his ilk to bring them here. The occupation has already given birth to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. A desperate West Bank and an imprisoned Gaza Strip are the appropriate fertile grounds for growing them. The storm troopers of the occupation and the assassins in the hospitals provide the particle accelerators for ushering in jihadists.
The European right is wrong too. After all, the tens of thousands of the Muslim refugees knocking on the gates of Europe are trying to flee for their lives, escaping the very terror of the jihadists who are now attacking Europe. They are fleeing from the people who earlier destroyed their homelands and are now perpetrating a massacre in the Bataclan Theater. Closing the doors in their faces, inflaming the hatred of foreigners in Europe, along with the continued Islamophobia and the rise of the extreme right, will only play into the hands of ISIS.
There are now quite a few Israelis who are rejoicing in their hearts (or on the social networks) in light of the events in Paris. In addition to the perverseness of rejoicing over the death of other human beings, this is also a celebration of the blind. The correct lesson from what happened in Paris is that there are no longer any local wars. The world cannot continue to shut its eyes in the face of what is happening in Syria, and also not in the face of the Israeli occupation. When the world pulls itself together from the shock, maybe it will also free itself from the paralysis and understand that it must harness itself to find a solution to these conflicts, both in war-torn Syria as well as in the occupied Palestinian territories. Then let's see the Israeli right.
Gideon Levy
Haaretz Correspondent