Donnerstag, 30. April 2015

Zionism vs. Liberal Democracy

In his program "Head to Head", Al Jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan hosted perhaps the most liberal Israeli Zionist, Shlomo Ben-Ami, former foreign minister of the State of Israel. Professor Avi Shlaim, one of three discussant and a retired Professor of History at Oxford University, who doesn't consider himself an anti-Zionist, exposed the inherent contradictions of the so-called liberal Zionism. The interview demonstrated that, despite the intellectual twists and turns of Ben-Ami, liberal Zionism remains a pipe dream, it never existed in the first place. Yitzhak Laor has already unmasked these "liberals".

Avi Shlaim repudiated Ben-Ami's proposition that Israel is becoming less and less discriminatory. " I think that is the exact opposite of the truth. Because, ever since the breakdown of the Camp David summit, Israel has been moving further and further to the right. And today we have a prime minister who embodies the most right-wing, xenophobic, exclusivist, and racist brand of Zionism. And his government is an extremely chauvinistic government, which not only is opposed to any withdrawal on the West Bank—in other words, it is opposed to peace with the Palestinians—but it is also increasingly discriminatory toward the Arab minority within Israel." 

Hasan asked Ben-Ami whether he sees "Palestinians as a demographic threat". His answer shows the "liberal Zionists" phoniness. Instead of saying a plain "yes" he answered evasively: "It does not respond to the original plans of Zionism." Ben-Ami argues that the state has to maintain a Jewish majority. And he still thinks that Israel will end its illegal occupation and helps to create a Palestinian state. For Shlaim, this is wishful thinking. He calls the two-state solution "dead as a dodo".


In fact, there is already one state: Israel.