Apoplectic responses by Netanyahu and much of the Israeli political class to the recent declarations by the International Criminal Court and now the International Court of Justice show Israel to be a bully state, a rogue state, a state whose leaders and many of its citizens are so used to getting their own way that the slightest progress for the Palestinian cause or the Palestinian people infuriates them. But the world is waking up to the fact of Israeli arrogance, brutality, racism and crudeness. The tantrums of Israel reveal a condition of desperation, where the state feels that its 'moral armour' (as Said called it) is no longer proof, in the eyes of most of the world.
In recent days, Ireland has felt some of Israel's current fury. The decision of the Irish government, along with the leaders of Spain and Norway, to 'recognise the state of Palestine' has drawn displays of petulance, ire and bullying that are striking - but telling - to behold. The Israeli Foreign Ministry Tweeted a video of Irish dancers intercut with images of Hamas gunmen. Yisrael Katz, the Foreign Minister, called the Irish declaration a 'parade of stupidity'. The Israeli ambassadors to Ireland, Spain and Norway have been recalled, and the Irish, Norwegian and Spanish ambassadors have been summoned by the Israeli government to be brow-beaten and shown videos. This dressing-down has been shown on Israeli TV - surely a breach of diplomatic protocol, all the more striking when it comes from 'the only democracy in the Middle East'. Dana Erlich, the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, has suggested in an interview (presumably recorded just before she mercifully headed for the airport) that Ireland has an 'unhealthy obsession with Israel'. She'd be better employed realizing that Israel has an unhealthy obsession with itself, its exceptionalism, its self-appointed status as 'a light to the nations', its self-appointed status as 'the essential refuge of the Jewish people'. Just in the last few days, Netanyahu trotted out that hoary old shit about the IDF as 'the most moral army in the world'. The best answer to such stuff was given some weeks ago in a brilliant letter to the Irish Examiner by my comrade Sue Pentel, a member of Jews for Palestine - Ireland, where she pointed out that Jews do not need Zionism to be Jewish and do not need Israel to be safe.
Never has the case for boycotting Israeli institutions, and Israeli education institutions, been more cogent.
Reading ...
Mitchell Plitnick at Mondoweiss:
Biden and Congress are destroying International Law for Israel
Michael Gasser at Mondoweiss:
Michael Arria at Mondoweiss:
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