Minister Naftali Bennett, You Are Killing Zionism

[Israeli]

An answer to the minister who has come this close to accusing me of treason.

Rogel Alpher Jul 17, 2016

Education and Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett accuses me of undermining “the foundations of the Zionist enterprise,” and of “blatant subversion of the foundations of our existence here and the future of the Jewish people” (Haaretz July 12). From here it is a very short road to marking me as an enemy of the people. The phrase “blatant subversion of the foundations of our existence here and the future of the Jewish people” smacks of treason. Bennett is one of the government’s senior ministers and also a member of the security cabinet. If he saw fit to publish an article under his name accusing a journalist of treason, one might be permitted to fear that it would follow naturally for Bennett to try to shut that journalist up by restricting his freedom of expression. That would obviously follow, even necessarily follow, in order to protect “the foundations of our existence here” and “the future of the Jewish people.”

Naftali, you are killing Zionism. You killed the Jewish state. You and your settlements. You and your occupation. You and your apartheid. I am choking on the broth you cooked. You established a violent binational state in Israel, awash in terror, radical nationalism and fundamentalist religion. You are blatantly subverting the foundations of all of our existence here, Jews and Palestinians. You have left me no choice but to declare that I feel a sense of shared fate with the Palestinians in Israel and the territories. Because I am a democrat. And I believe in universal morality. I am not a fascist like you.

You claim that “The State of Israel is the state of the Jewish people…the nation is the starting point and securing its future is the goal and the means.” The continued control over millions of Palestinians without basic human rights in Judea and Samaria is not Zionism, Naftali. You are dispossessing them and excluding them, but they exist. They live there. That is their state too. And they are not Jews. And they are not Zionists. And your insistence on continuing to rule them has turned Israel into a state that is not Jewish and not democratic.

Naftali, because of you we are living in a binational state. That is the reality. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s declaration that “a Jewish state has been established in the Land of Israel, which is the State of Israel,” is no longer relevant, I’m sorry to say. And therefore it is unacceptable to claim that Israel is the home of a Jewish baby born as an American citizen in Minneapolis as these lines are being written any more than it is the home of a Palestinian baby born at that same moment as a citizen of Israel in the town of Sakhnin. That is racism.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.731346

[oberliner]

1. "My Israeliness and my Jewishness are not essential to my identity."

Like every cosmopolitan person, strictly secular and with a universalist worldview, well-steeped in the global culture and speaking fluent English, I can have many other homes. There are quite a few countries where I could settle, make a living and feel comfortable.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.613224

How wonderful for him.

[Israeli]

2. In what way do you consider it .... " wonderful for him " ....oberliner ?

I get your snarky remark .......tho I doubt many others do .

[Israeli]

3. Your not going to answer me are you ?

Its another hit and run .

So from the link you gave me ......

My fate and the fate of my children will be determined here by people who have a God whom they talk to and in whose name they act. I think they are crazy. What are the alternatives? The racist forces of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman? The empty words of Yair Lapid? The useless pessimism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? For them, and for their voters, to be a Jew living in Israel is the most important thing, and it’s worth dying for. And they shape our lives according to that principle. They live at Yad Vashem.

I belong to a dying breed in Israel. I can’t influence the situation. I have no interest in devoting myself to the struggle against the occupation. I believe that it is useless. There will be no compromise.No Palestinian state will be established, and a binational state will be hell.

I watch Channel 2, listen to Army Radio, read the website Walla and the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth – and feel like I don’t belong; that there’s nothing for me here, not even in the Tel Aviv bubble. I don’t want to live in a bubble, certainly not one that’s protected by an Iron Dome.

If you identify with me you will certainly admit that you will encourage your children to seek their future elsewhere in the world, for the sake of their personal security, psychological and economic wellbeing. Israel is not worth the price it is exacting from us. There is a nationalist-religious-ultra-Orthodox majority, and our lifestyle will not survive in our homeland. We have a much better chance of maintaining it elsewhere. That’s the truth.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.613224

[oberliner]

4. Not everyone is as cosmopolitan

It is good that he acknowledges his privilege.

[Israeli]

5. Not for the first time I give you ....

and this time I will add .....

Lior Schleien: Left is the hand with the watch, right is the arm without the number.

and ...........

[oberliner]

6. Thanks

Those are much appreciated.

[Israeli]

7. You are welcome......

...............you sure they are not too " cosmopolitan " for you ???

Cos we secular Leftists know exactly who we are dealing with oberliner :

[Little Tich]

8. I don't like Naftali Bennett - but then again, I don't like any fascist wannabees...

Bennett and the rest of the f**kwits in the Israeli government are pushing the Apartheid one-state solution. I personally think things have gone too far, and that a Jewish state with a Jewish majority is no longer possible. There's no "next election" that can make a two-state solution possible again. the last election was the last election when the two-state solution was even theoretically possible.

I agree totally with Rogel Alpher's assessment.