6 thoughts on “Israeli Political Leadership Uses War as Tool for Dampening Social Protest – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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    1. Oh, absolutely. It is all the management of dissent. The state in Orwell’s “1984” was in perpetual war (real or not) for this reason (w/ Oceania, as I recall!) We are there now with Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, constant war, the “War on Terror” which translated means “War on Selected States and People.” The profits of war do not accrue to the ordinary citizen however which means the average citizen becomes poorer.

      But this leads then to the erosion of an individual’s stake in the system and more dissent. Once the ordinary Israeli is no longer able to provide food, shelter, education and a reasonable hope for future to his children, the right wing government will be over. The same is true in the US. The costs of conflict are now socialized: The profits of conflict are privatized. This cannot go on forever. I think the endpoint is when crowds begin to form in the town center and eventually turn to destroying property like we have seen in the black ghettos on and off since the 60’s, at least. This reaction is apparently alive and well and progressing in both the US and Israel.

      1. Dear Davey,
        I fear I might need to disagree with you in the case of Israel. The Right Wing will not be gone soon, and the Left Wing will continue to lose and shrink election after election. Most Mizrahim vote for the right not only because of the prevalent historically rooted anti-Mizrahi racism in the Zionist, post-Zionist and anti-Zionist Israeli Left. It is the socialist Zionist Laneft who was still is most instrumental in the creation and maintenance of the Israeli intra-Jewish color bar. There are also many practical reasons for the Mizrahim to continue voting for the Right, despite the draconian economic policies of Bibi. You might find a detailed explanation here:
        http://smadarlavie.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/lavie_mizrahi_feminism_and_the_question_of_palestine.pdf
        It is unfortunate that many progressive American Jews continue to kvetch about Israeli politics with their Ashkenazi Zionist-post-anti Leftist buddies in Israel, while overlooking the fact that these lefties, mostly upper class (and therefore their cosmopolitan command of English) have near zero constituencies among the majority of Israelis. Mizrahim are also the majority voters.

        1. @ Smadar
          That was a very interesting comment. I started reading your paper on Mizrahi feminism and the question of Palestine, just came back here to say that it’s passionating. More power to you !

        2. Thanks for the paper. You are suggesting that Ashkenazi left, particularly the feminist left, is not open to the issues of the disenfranchised Mizrahim for racist reasons and this pushes Mizrahim toward the center and right. Certainly, this anomalous behavior, leftism detached from universalism, confounds both Israel and American Jews. American Jews have been conflicted for decades. Racism seems to override the best of intentions. Even so, I think the gathering of angry Israelis demanding more is a very good sign even if the agenda did not include Palestinians and women directly. Likewise, the “occupy” phenomenon in the US. There has to be a point where the economic plight of many in Israel will be difficult to manage through external threats and fear mongering inasmuch as the profits go to the rich and the poor pay the costs. The Israel Lobby effort to export threat and fear to the US ala Geller-style Islamophobia is meeting some very fierce resistance, I think.

  1. You used the phrase: “the forthcoming Israeli attack on Iran” in this piece.

    Does this mean that you believe such an attack to be inevitable? Is there any scenario unfolding where this can be avoided in your opinion?

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