18 November 2010

Yitzhak Laor on the policies of folly


Defining the occupying state as the owner of "state lands" on the West Bank has been the greatest tragedy of generations, writes Ha’Aretz columnist Yitzhak Laor in an opinion piece, A gold nose ring, published on Monday 15 November 2010:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is crushing East Jerusalem, but he only pales in comparison to others: The late general and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, and former general and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, preceded him in their policies of folly. The uninhibited sons of moshavim [villages or settlements] grew up among wars over land that were waged against natives, and each in his turn advanced an illegal policy of settlement without giving a thought to the future. Both, as we recall, inflicted military disasters upon us, since they were generals who thought like company commanders - only about "capturing the hill." But what is beyond it? We'll have to wait and see. Whoever survives, that is.

Laor makes very cogently the point that the colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 are no accident, they are conscious acts of the Israeli State.

He concludes:

The State of Israel continues the irreversible colonization of the last piece of land that is left the Palestinians for establishing their state. They will not have a state without a Jerusalem of their own. In order to destroy the chances of that, Israel built Ma'aleh Adumim east of the city, and is now encouraging the disintegration of East Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a disaster in-the-making - thanks to a minister of public security from a fascist party and a prime minister who converses with the "minister of history": Until there is a bloodbath, he will not enter the national pantheon.

Read the full article here.

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