Dissident Veteran For Peace: Israeli Ambassador: We're White Europeans

Dissident Veteran For Peace

"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America." —Alexis de Tocquevile. Democracy in America, Book I, Chapter XV.

With a nod to the Most Rev. Dom Helder Camara: When I support Palestinians some call me an 'anti-Semite', when I try to explain why I stand in solidarity with Palestinians they call me a Nazi.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.)

"... no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end." —character of O'Brien in 1984, part 3, ch. 3 by George Orwell.

"Every prophet has realized that nobody loves you for being the enemy of their illusions. Every prophet has realized that most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the price. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said, ' "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace,' ..." —The Rev. William Sloane Coffin. "Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword."

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Israeli Ambassador: We're White Europeans

In July, I posted an entry on European/Ashkenazi Jewish racism against Mizrahi Jews in Israel. Here are two excerpts from one of two articles quoted in that post:

Mizrahim provide the demographic majority on whose civic docility the Eurocentric Israeli regime rests. Mizrahim have been the Jewish labor turning the cogs of the European-Zionist colonial project ever since its inception, with the Yemeni-Jewish labor migration of 1882. ...

The Ashkenazi leadership has repeatedly evoked the image that Israel is a European villa, planted in the midst of the regional jungle, from Bible times to the present day.

One can find no better confirmation of the "European-Zionist colonial" nature of Israel than the recent remarks of the Israeli ambassador to Australia, Naftali Tamir. In an interview with Ha'aretz, Tamir, a veteran diplomat, told Charlotte Halle:

"Israel and Australia are like sisters in Asia. We are in Asia without the characteristics of Asians. We don't have yellow skin and slanted eyes. Asia is basically the yellow race. Australia and Israel are not - we are basically the white race. We are on the western side of Asia and they are on the southeastern side.

"Israel has a past and present in Europe, but no future. Israel is a part of Asia," he added. [emphasis added--VFPD]

In a followup article, Halle reports:

The key concern of the Jewish community, the source in Sydney explained, was that the broad coverage of the comments in the Australian press would fuel those who charge that Israel is a racist state and that the Australian government is erring in its overtly pro-Israel position. He added that while the comments were considered offensive and embarrassing, the community would "rally around [the ambassador]," while distancing itself from the sentiments.

Note that the "key concern" is not that the Ambassador's remarks reflect an underlying reality of real racism. No, the "key concern" is that the remarks will be used by Israel's critics. I am reminded of those American pundits and politicians who agonized over the Abu Ghraib scandal not because it was bad but because it made the US look bad.

Thanks to B.C. and A.S. for tipping me off to this story.

Labels: identity, Israel, Mizrahim, race, White folks