In this op-ed piece, published in Ha’aretz yesterday, Meron Benvinisti talks about the Zionist attempt to nationalize the landscape of Israel – i.e. to prove ownership of the land through the cult of knowing (which in Hebrew also means sexual love) of the land. Benvinisti writes:
“The hidden aspects intrinsic to the cult of ‘Knowing the Land’ – the aspects of alienation from the other and erasing them from the consciousness – served as the ideological infrastructure that led from ‘the transfer of consciousness’ to actual transfer during the 1948 war.”
But Jewish nationalism led to worse crimes as well, as this horrific piece by Tom Segev attests.
In the past, there were moral constraints that limited the crimes Israel and Israelis were willing to commit out of “love” for the land. But since the ascendancy of the brutal war criminal Arik Sharon, Israelis seem to have lost all contraints. Diaspora Jews defend everything Israel does with this circular argument: “Israelis are good. Ergo it is impossible that Israelis commit the crimes they are accused of. Hence reports to the contrary must be lies.” To those who cling to this delusion, please note that the Segev article was based on a book published by Israel’s Ministy of Defense. No doubt, those who published it found the actions described worthy of emulation. After all, these are the same people who think this week’s terror attack by the Israeli army in Khan Yunis was “a great success.”
Tags: War Crimes, Zionism