The Israeli state and the ultra-right settler movement (Part 1 of 4)

[IndianaGreen]

The Israeli state and the ultra-right settler movement

Part one

By Jean Shaoul
15 August 2005

This is the first in a four-part series.

The campaign by the ultra-nationalist settler movement against the planned withdrawal from Gaza has again demonstrated the extraordinary and disproportionate political influence of these extreme right-wing forces in Israel.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to “disengage” from Gaza and pull out the settlements housing just 8,000 Israelis is a tactical retreat in the face of the escalating cost of maintaining the settlements. More fundamentally, it is aimed at securing Washington’s consent for the annexation of vast swathes of the West Bank that Israel has occupied illegally for nearly four decades. In Gaza itself, Israel will remain the occupying power, retaining control of Gaza’s borders, its seaport, airport and water supply, and will reserve the right to invade whenever it sees fit.

Despite this, members of Sharon’s own cabinet, including the finance minister and former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who resigned in protest, as well as the ultra-nationalist and religious parties, are opposed to the disengagement. Israel’s extreme right wing regards Sharon’s decision to pull out from any part of the biblical land of Israel as nothing short of treason.

The settlers have staged sit-down protests, poured oil and nails onto the roads, and set tyres alight to block roads in Israel, causing traffic jams for miles. They have beaten, stoned and shot Palestinians in an effort to humiliate them and provoke them into violent retaliation. Sharon has blamed such incidents on the banned Kach movement and ordered a crackdown on the extremists.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/gaz1-a15.shtml

[pelsar]

1. the falacy of the article.....

More fundamentally, it is aimed at securing Washington’s consent for the annexation of vast swathes of the West Bank"

since washington is hardly going to agree...the whole basis for the article is fiction....it appears that someone just had to write some articles about israel and just cant seem to "recognize a changing envnironment"...

its tough to changes ones view, even when the situation seems to call for it...and some simply cant do it..... (the far right is losing their influence....)

[IndianaGreen]

2. It gets worse!

The author is engaging in revisionist history (that's a charitable way of putting it) which contradicts well known historical facts, as well as my own personal recollections of the events the author is alluding to.

I can only surmise that Jean Shaoul has eaten a bad batch of mushrooms and what we are reading are the rantings of a bad hallucinogenic trip.

Here is the link to part 2, if you want to read bad fiction:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/gaz2-a16.shtml