I wish American Jews still enamored with Israel would have the temerity to read beyond the headline of this Gideon Levy article from Ha'aretz, which is still in my view the NY Times in Israel. This article is not praising Netanyahu; the closest to praise is calling him a poor man's consolation. The thrust of this article is Levy's disgust with Labor Party and assorted liberal and even left Zionist politicians, several of those quoted who are merely defectors from the Likud Party in the guise of being for peace, but time and time again, show their true Jabotinsky-tinged colors.
One has to put in the front of the article, from the near ending, to see what Levy is getting at: "Only a complete lifting of the Gaza blockade will solve Gaza’s problem, which is also Israel’s problem, and only a direct dialogue with Hamas can bring this about."
For too many supporters of Israel, who tend to skew older among both Jews and evangelical Christians, the most difficult point for such folks to grasp is the blockade of Gaza is a continued attack on Gazans. And worse, the blockade enables the worst elements in Hamas to demand revenge.*
From America's stance, the immediate answer is to end all military and economic aid to Israel and say, We mean it this time. Get to the damned peace table. Stop this slow moving ethnic-cleansing land grab. Israel's military destroyed settlements in Sinai when peace was achieved in Egypt, and Arik Sharon destroyed settlements in Gaza at the time Israeli troops pulled out of Gaza (before formally enacting the blockade), and settlements in the West Bank can still be dismantled along with ending the Gaza blockade. If the "two-state" solution is lost, then the most likely choices will be either pro-apartheid or pro-BDS, as both favor a single-state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Right now, the two-state solution is, practically speaking, dead because of Israeli leadership and the views of at least half of Israeli Jews who vote (Palestinians, having seen what happened after the Oslo Accords, with more settlements built and more control of water and other resources than before, have been cynical about the two-state solution for some time now). So why won't Israel act? Because the people running things in Israel know they are "winning," as they look at these admittedly somewhat exaggerated anti-Zionist maps and only see more opportunity, not disgust at what has happened with respect to the Palestinian people.
And so, the stop-start-bombings- retaliation-all-while-building-settlements-throughout-the-West Bank, goes on. And I retreat into reading liberal Zionist novelists who share my hopes, my fears, and my resignation regarding what was supposed to be a light unto the nations.
*There has been a nascent non-violent movement among Palestinians, including in Gaza. It has been there for a longer time than too many of us ever imagine. However, American corporate media does not talk about this in any sustained way, if at all, and Israel's response remains as violent as if the protesters are acting violently--so the canard of "Well, Israel has no peace partner" remains a self-delusional, yet effective propagandistic mantra.
