[rad-green] Former Israel commander says Israel ’s ‘unjust’ war in Palestine fuels ‘anti-Semitism around the world’

*https://mondoweiss.net/2019/11/former-israel-commander-says-israels-unjust-war-in-palestine-fuels-anti-semitism-around-the-world/
<https://mondoweiss.net/2019/11/former-israel-commander-says-israels-unjust-war-in-palestine-fuels-anti-semitism-around-the-world/>*







*Mondoweiss          November 5, 2019Former Israel commander says Israel’s
‘unjust’ war in Palestine fuels ‘anti-Semitism around the world’By Philip
Weiss*
[image: image.png]
*Ami Ayalon at J Street on Saturday October 26, 2019. Washington.
Screenshot.*

Last week a former Israeli security official urged American Jews to
restrain Israel’s “unjust” war in Palestine because it fuels anti-Semitism
around the world. The statement is remarkable because that view is
generally seen as anathema: saying that Israel’s actions have any role in
the growth of anti-Semitism.

Ami Ayalon, a Navy commander and former head of the Shin Bet, spoke at J
Street last week <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvXsugfPE54> and said
that Israelis believe they are fighting a just war of defense for their
existence, and that the world refuses to acknowledge that. But in fact
Israel’s existence is established, and American Jews can see that Israel is
engaged in an unjust war. (Emphasis mine)

What you see from the outside is us fighting two separate, totally
different wars. The first is indeed a just war, a war to establish Israel
within the 1967 borders based on international resolutions. You correctly
say that we have won that war….

“We continue to fight a second war, a war in order to expand our border to
the east, to build more settlements, and to prevent the establishment of a
Palestinian state next door. That second war is not a just war. It denies
the Palestinians the right to self determination, which was recognized by
the international community. As a former commander of the Navy and director
of the Shin Bet, as a person who fought in too many wars, as someone who
represents the views of a vast majority of the IDF top command, past and
present, I tell you today that the second war, the unjust one, cannot be
won with force alone. There is no military decision in this war. That is
why unless we choose a totally different approach, this war will continue
for generations to come, it will lead to more violence and terror. After we
beat Hamas and Islamic Jihad, we will face ISIS. And after that, who knows
what will come.

“But I can assure you it will definitely be more extremist. This second war
to expand our borders will isolate Israel even more and increase
anti-Semitism around the world, but the most important thing, the most
dangerous thing, is that this war will be the end of Israel as the founding
fathers of Zionism envisioned it. I’m here to tell you that the question of
which war we are sending out young men into is tearing Israeli society
apart…

“You see that reality. We in Israel refuse to see it. We cannot see it. We
are too close to the events, we are in too much pain to see clearly. We
still use the language of guilt, not of responsibility. We need you by our
side on this long and hard road. We need you to tell us the truth the way
you see it. So when we say [Hebrew phrase] which means, All Israel are
responsible for each other, we are in a way saying, You have the right, and
in times of crisis, like today when you see the writing on the wall and we
do not or cannot, you also have the duty to stand up and tell us your
truth. This is the real meaning of mutual responsibility.”

Ayalon’s comments are similar to those of the former Episcopal chaplain at
Yale, Bruce Shipman, for which he lost his job five years ago. In the wake
of the 2014 Gaza slaughter, Shipman wrote to the New York Times
<https://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/sentence-chaplains-resignation/> and said
there was a “relationship between Israel’s policies in the West Bank and
Gaza and growing anti-Semitism in Europe and beyond.”

[Growing anti-Semitism] parallels the carnage in Gaza over the last five
years, not to mention the perpetually stalled peace talks and the
continuing occupation of the West Bank.

As hope for a two-state solution fades and Palestinian casualties continue
to mount, the best antidote to anti-Semitism would be for Israel’s patrons
abroad to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for
final-status resolution to the Palestinian question.

Shipman was lambasted for blaming the victim and making Jews responsible
for Israel’s actions. “If, according to Rev. Shipman’s view, the antidote
for anti-Semitism is a solution to the Palestinian question, then he should
share with us the antidote for the Spanish Inquisition, the pogroms of
Eastern Europe, and Hitler’s Germany,” Yale graduate Michael Katz wrote to
the school paper. While Mark Oppenheimer wrote in Tablet
<https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/183402/the-yale-chaplain-who-doesnt-get-jews>
that
Shipman was blaming American Jews in a bigoted way. “Next time an innocent
Jewish man or woman is shot
<https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/174101/four-killed-in-brussels-jewish-museum-shooting>
in
Brussels, rather than complain about anti-Semites, I will ring up Prime
Minister Netanyahu and complain about his war policy. And next time 1,400
children are abducted, beaten, raped, and sex-trafficked
<https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089> in England,
rather than decry sex-trafficking and child-rape, I will demand that you
[Shipman] ring up the Queen.”

Ayalon said just that: that in the spirit of one Jewish people, American
Jews should tell Israel to stop making wars.

*H/t Adam Horowitz and James North.*

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