(* I attach the text of a received email*)
> Hi,
>
> I have been so disgusted by the Israeli action in Gaza but so confused
> by conflicting messages. It is hard to know what to think, and what to
> do.
>
> The most cogent account I have found, with context, especially about
> Hamas coming to power, and the sorry story of of Gaza after 40 years
> occupation and then the last two years in which it has been turned
> into a vast open-air prison, is this one from Avi Shlaim, an Oxford
> Professor:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine
>
> Shlaim is one of the "new historians" like Benny Morris, who have
> questioned some of the founding 'myths' of the problem. He is maligned
> in places on the internet, but I suppose people who tell the truth (or
> even half the truth) will always have detractors. I am sure that much
> could be argued with in his account above, but much of it also rings
> true with me.
>
> I have been wondering what to do. Not just about this episode, but
> about the problem of Israel and the Palestinians in general.
>
> Some of my friends in the UK have been boycotting Israel for years
> (e.g fruit and vegetable products in UK supermarkets), and I am
> feeling that I should now do the same. This won't matter much, but a
> collective attitude would, and so presumably would enough people in
> the US calling their congress-people, etc. Interestingly, the leader
> of the opposition liberal democrats in the UK called today for a
> suspension of UK arms to Israel (more than 20 million pounds worth in
> the first three months of 2008), and of EU arms to Israel. [This is
> not to mention the several billions of dollars per year in US aid to
> Israel].
>
> Sanctions on south africa were a key factor (although I guess it's
> debatable how key) that led the regime to eventually talk with the
> "terrorists" and then compromise and share power.
>
> Interested in your views,
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1 comment:
The referenced article indicates why the deligitimisation of radical politics is such a dangerous tendency. This article, written by a supposed revisionist, doesn't rest upon (subjective) judgement. Rather, it relies on facts which, while known for a long time, were concealed by the sanitizing mainstream. If Israel's occupation is shocking now - based upon these facts - it was shocking all along.
Much of what Shlaim writes has been covered extensively by left-wing commentators over the years. Not having read widely, I confess ignorance. These elements are new to me:
1. The charge that American neocons stoked the Hamas/Fatah conflict.
2. The depiction of Gaza as a cultivated labour camp.
3. The claim that Israel broke the ceasefire.
At Time, Tony Karon (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1869807,00.html) provides an interesting guess about Hamas's perspective.
About South Africa, there's no question that a blend of economic sanctions and systematic fiscal mismanagement decided the end. Don't take my word for it, the same was said by Sheila Camerer, a deputy defense minister in the terminal apartheid government.
I expect that Israel will have the same sort of economic vulnerability as South Africa under apartheid.
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