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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Commentary Home page  back Print  Send To friend Red Rag column - the fires in Israel - militaristic feminism - Brigadier-General Ofek Buchris - Amona By: Gideon Spiro 30 November 2016 (English translation 11 December 2016) Burning Antisemites accused the Jews of poisoning wells and drinking the blood of Christian children. The right-wing Israeli government and its supporters, having adopted the racist tactic of attributing collective guilt, are accusing the Arabs of starting fires. As these lines are being written, not a single suspect has yet been arrested for setting the fires in Haifa and Zichron Yaakov – which has not prevent the government from declaring that the fires were nationalistically-motivated. Jewish victims of the fires are happy with this, because such a declaration means government financing for reconstruction. While Arabs are being accused of arson, firefighters from the Palestinian Authority have been helping to extinguish the fires, and leaders of Arab communities have opened their doors to those who have been displaced by the fires. Having said that, I do not live on the moon. I assume that it is possible that some Palestinians, in despair after 50 years of Occupation, which have seen the burning of mosques, the burning of olive trees and the burning of human beings by settlers, may have lost their good judgment and come to the conclusion that “it should all burn”. What is called nationalistically-motivated arson, attributed to Palestinians, is another gift to the people of Israel, kindness of the settlement enterprise and the army of Occupation. The nationalistic motivation comes first from the settlers, and only afterwards from Palestinians. Those who want a country without fires should first of all extinguish the flames of the Occupation. Militaristic feminism A world war is being waged between those referred to as the rabbis of Religious Zionism and the army, over a decision to integrate women into tank-crews. More than a few Israeli women see this decision as a feminist achievement. This is one of the manifestations of the sad story of Israeli feminism, which struggles for the right of women to take part in the Israeli army’s killing and murder machine. I call it: nationalistically-motivated feminism, which must be resisted with same determination that characterises the struggle against male chauvinism. We are witness here to a unique conjunction of Israeli absurdity, with rabbis of the settlements opposing, on nationalistic grounds, the service of girls in the army, facing off against feminists who are campaigning for such service – also on nationalistic grounds. Both should be uprooted. Brigadier-General (still) Ofek Buchris On 30 November 2016 Haaretz reported that Brigadier-General (Res.) Ofek Buchris, the charge-sheet against whom includes among other things three rapes, was about to sign a plea-bargain according to which the accusation of rape would be converted to “consensual sexual relations”. According to the agreement, Buchris (a Religious Zionist whose admirers describe him as a “Hero of Israel”) will not sit in jail for one day. How did rape, the most serious of sexual offences, get turned into “consensual sexual relations”? The god of military justice knows the answer. One of two: either the soldier agreed, or she was raped. No bridge can span the gap between them. Amona They are driving the public crazy with an affair called “the evacuation of Amona”. Will there be an evacuation? Will there be no evacuation? Judicial experts are discussing it as a matter of obedience to the law, as if any settlement were legal. It’s all a bluff. There is no such animal as a legal settlement. Amona will not be evacuated, but at most will be relocated a few metres to the right or the left. It will continue to be illegal even in its new location, within the framework of the theft of Palestinian lands. The legal thing to do with regard to settlements is to evacuate them and return the settlers to within the borders of the State of Israel. The empty houses will be a contribution by the government of Israel to the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in their state. A country that absorbed a million immigrants from the Soviet Union can absorb 400 thousand settlers returning to their country. Translated from Hebrew for Occupation Magazine by George Malent Links to the latest articles in this section Three weeks into the Gaza War - a somber and sober assessment, with some historical perspectives Israelis, Palestinians, Gaza, Hamas - trying to preserve sanity Gush Shalom: The UN decision is a very necessary message to Israel’s extreme right-wing government