Alternative Insight

ISRAEL FACES DETRACTORS
Part I: Israel's actions compared to those of the Nazi State
Part II: The Jewish Caliphate

Israel's actions compared to those of the Nazi State

Continuous Israeli attacks on the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and the large number of civilian deaths, especially children, have prompted comparisons between Israel's actions and those of the German Nazi state. Although the totalitarian Third Reich has no counterpart in the democratically inclined Israel, military actions, some restrictive laws, and methods of governance of captured territories are being compared. Nazi racist and genocidal policies were beyond severity, but Israel's detractors show that the much smaller country, on its limited scale, promotes racism and policies that are severely destructive to the Palestinian community. Charges arrive from many sectors of societies, from liberal institutions, and from Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

If comparisons to Nazi Germany are insufficient for becoming the world's pariah, a new comparison is being leveled against Israel due to its demand for recognition as a Jewish state. ISIS declaration of transforming itself into an Islamic caliphate provides ammunition for those who regard a Jewish Israel state as a Jewish caliphate. This comparison only examines the reasons and methods for founding the two states -- establishment of a state with foreign people on foreign territory -- and does not imply that Israel's operations resemble those of the deranged Islamic State.

The combination of two possible indictments against the State of Israel poses other important considerations.

(1) Will the Jewish community also be judged by Israel's actions?
(2) Is Israel a creation by subverted Zionists and apocalyptic revelation by America's religious Fundamentalists?
(3) Should world Jewry divorce itself from Israel's actions and its attempt to unilaterally portray itself as a Jewish state?

Israel's similarities to characteristics of the Nazi state.
The specific comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany result from its constant wars and policies that insinuate Israel as a repressive and militaristic nation. Other nations - Soviet Union, Islamic Republic of Iran, Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the United States have been accused of exhibiting behavior patterns attributed to the Nazi ideology. Israel is not exempt from similar criticism.

Examining the similarities in behavior and tactics between Israel and the Nazis allow judging the extent to which Israel expresses attitudes and policies associated with the Nazis. If the accusations cannot be countered by objective appraisal, then it must be assumed the accusations are correct.

Virulent nationalism
Israel, similar to Nazi Germany, combines a virulent nationalism with militarism. Zionism and Nazism appealed to followers as national movements, which evolved into nationalist movements, nations for a selected ethnicity. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, The eternal Jew in nationalist Israel by Carolina Landsmann, Jul. 22, 2014, describes the growing nationalism among Israel's citizens by comparing attempts to silence critics to 'book burning" of the past.

The hatred for the Haaretz newspaper and the Israeli left must be understood in the context of increasing Jewish nationalism. The calls to silence the paper's writers are reminiscent of the book burning in 1817 at Wartburg Castle in Germany, where student groups that led the German unity movement threw the French constitution – written less than 30 years earlier – into the fire while railing against foreigners, Jews and cosmopolitans.
Jewish nationalism, which has become the religion of the majority here, threatens all those who refuse to "convert." (Ed: to conventional thinking)

Its huge army (for its population size), which militarizes all of its adult citizens, indoctrinates them at an early age and contains the most advanced weapons is comparable to the force of the German Wehrmacht. The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs details the military obligations of the citizenry.

… the IDF deploys a small standing army (made up of conscripts and career personnel) with early warning capability, and a regular air force and navy. The majority of its forces are reservists, who are called up regularly for training and service and who, in time of war or crisis, are quickly mobilized into their units from all parts of the country.
Compulsory Service: All eligible men and women are drafted at age 18. Men serve for three years, women for two years.
Reserve Duty: Upon completion of compulsory service, each soldier is assigned to a reserve unit and may serve up to the age of 51.

The indoctrination of children is described in an online You Tube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQUa_t_KJkQ and a Daily Forward blog,
http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/197866/when-israelis-teach-their-kids-to-hate/.

Irredentism
Irredentism, annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, drove the Third Reich. Israel's irredentism regains mythical lands and joins together a single folk in these lands. At the 1919 Paris Peace conference the Zionist organization requested, as their territory, the entire Palestine, Lebanon above Sidon, parts of the Sinai, and a section of Jordan, almost to Amman, all of which contained the important aquifers.

Military adventures
The Third Reich fought continuous wars for about eight years. Israel has been fighting continuously for 65 years. The former explained their military thrusts as revenging a "stab in the back" loss in World War I. Israel explains its battles by warranted reprisals, defensive and security measures. Add to these explanations an accusation that Israel provokes wars in order to test new weapons, battle field tactics and military strategy. Both nations refused to abide by international organization decisions and chose military solutions before compromise.

Using overwhelming military force to subdue powerless antagonists
The Nazis and its Panzer troops went full attack against all opponents, regardless of their strength. Israel uses a strategy that minimizes its casualties, and despite its claim of being a humane army, has always attacked with pulverizing force with kill ratios of tens to one and having civilians constitute a large proportion of casualties. The table below details the casualties from several wars in which Israel took the offensive. Its data is gathered from several sources and averages the best estimates from these sources.

 

 

WAR

 ISRAEL MILITARY  ISRAEL CIVILIAN  ARAB MILITARY  ARAB CIVILIAN
   Dead  Wounded  Dead  Wounded  Dead  Wounded  Dead  Wounded
 1967   850  4517  20    23500      
Lebanon 1982  657  3887  50    6914    12171 20000 total (unknown how serious)
Lebanon 2006  121  1244  44  101
Serious and
Moderate		  ~700    1191 4409
(unknown how serious)
 Gaza 2008  3 plus
10 by
friendly
fire		  336  3  182  600
militants
est.		    759 5303 total
(unknown how serious)
 Gaza 2014  66  450  6  80  508
militants est.		  3300
(unknown how serious)		  1662 7700 (unknown how serious)

Note: Accurate estimates of moderate and seriously wounded is difficult. If statistic is missing then no verifiable estimate is available.


Racist laws
Although the term 'right of return' refers to a principle of international law and gives any person the right to return or re-enter his/her country of origin, the Israeli 'right of return' only permits foreign Jews to gain citizenship and does not permit immigration of non-Jews, such as Palestinian refugees.
Because marriages must be performed by a rabbi, a Jew cannot marry a non-Jew within the boundaries of Israel, similar to a Nuremberg Law that prohibited marriage between Jews and other Germans. Other restrictive laws, include the Nakba Law, which states that "groups or institutions that mourn Israel's Independence or deny the state's Jewish and democratic nature" can be denied state funds, and the Citizenship Law, which allows the state to revoke citizenship and imprison anyone convicted of acting against "the sovereignty of the state."

Laws and actions favor the Jewish majority and impede the Arab minority -- few Palestinian Israelis are able to rent housing or buy property in West Jerusalem, immigrant Jews are able to acquire property but are not allowed to sell the property to Arab citizens, few, if any Arabs, have been able to purchase government sponsored housing, and a separation of ethnicities results in the separation of their activities, recreation centers, schools and education. Israel's history displays initial discrimination of the Mizrahim (Middle East and North African Jews) and continuous discrimination of the Yemeni and Ethiopian Jews (Falasha) in education, housing and employment; this from the Zionists who accused nations of treating Jews unfairly. Israel separates and distinguishes its citizens by nationality, with passports citing one of major nationalities - Jewish, Arab, Druze, Samaritan, Circassian, Kara'ite or foreign nationality. There is no Israeli nationality and a definitely favored Jewish nationality.

Severe repression in occupied territories.
Repression of Palestinians under occupation includes confiscation of Palestinian lands for military use, destruction of wells, olive trees and agriculture, raids on villages, obtrusive checkpoints, mass arrests of opposition, denial of highway use. A separation wall separates Palestinian communities and families and farmers from livestock and fields, chokes the Palestinian economy and obstructs daily exchanges between people. If we compare the German occupation during the west European "peace years" from the fall of France until the United States entered the war, which was before the construction of the labor camps, with Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, the entire repression compares to that of the Nazis, and seems more obtrusive and deliberate. The last is significant; the Nazis reacted harshly and the Israelis seem to deliberately provoke.

Killing of opposition and punitive measures after an attack.
The Nazis used punitive measures and collective punishment to terrorize its captive peoples and combat resistance. Israel has done the same.

The Nazis had Lidice, a village destroyed after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi leader in Bohemia and Moravia. In 1953, in retaliation for a Palestinian guerrilla incursion into Israel that killed several Israeli civilians, the Israeli military raided the West Bank village of Qibya, killed 67 Palestinians and destroyed 56 houses.

Palestine has been victim to tens of mini-Lidicies -- destruction of areas and houses due to accusations of being the homes of suicide bombers. During the Lebanon invasion of 2008, Israeli Major General Gadi Eisenkott defined what he called the Dahiye Doctrine in an October 2008 interview with Israel's newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. "What happened in the Dahiye Quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which shots are fired on Israel. We will use disproportionate force against it and we will cause immense damage and destruction. From our point of view these are not civilian villages but military bases. This is not a recommendation, this is the plan, and it has already been authorized."

A UN fact-finding mission that reported on the Gaza War of 2008-2009 verified the Dahiye Doctrine: The report can be accessed at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G09/157/95/PDF/G0915795.pdf?OpenElement.

The tactics used by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza offensive (2009 operation cast lead) are consistent with previous practices, most recently during the Lebanon war in 2006. A concept known as the Dahiya doctrine emerged then, involving the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations. The Mission concludes from a review of the facts on the ground that it witnessed for itself that what was prescribed as the best strategy appears to have been precisely what was put into practice.

It is clear from evidence gathered by the Mission that the destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy by the Israeli armed forces. It was not carried out because those objects presented a military threat or opportunity but to make the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population.

The Jews in Nazi Germany had Kristallnacht, a day when Jewish shops and synagogues were attacked after a youth of Jewish faith assassinated a German official in Paris. Constant attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza signify that almost every day in Palestine is Kristallnacht. All the Palestinian shops in the market of Old Hebron have been destroyed. Bethlehem tourist businesses have become bankrupt due to construction of the "Security Wall." Impediments to transportation, movement of goods and persons destroy Palestinian commerce. Almost every day features attacks on either Palestinian olive trees, harvests, water supplies or daily life.

Ethnic cleansing
After the 1948 and 1967 wars, Israel destroyed 412 Palestinian villages and eventually created 1.2 million refugees who were not permitted to return to their homes. Palestinian bank accounts, land, homes and industries were confiscated. Attempts have been made to destroy the patrimony, archives, and erase the cultural identity of the Palestinians, which includes Israel military seizure of the Palestinian archives in Beirut during the war in Lebanon. The entire Palestinian territory is a Swiss cheese construction of enclaves with Gaza having restricted exit to the outside world, and Qalqilya and Tulkarm in the West Bank completely enclosed, forcing inhabitants to enter or leave by a guarded gate and at prescribed times. Palestinians live in a multitude of ghettos, which do not match the oppression in the Warsaw ghetto but resemble artificially enforced ghettos.

Propaganda
The Israel propaganda machine exceeds that of the Nazis due to its international reach, churning out each day books, films, and articles that extend memories of the Holocaust, references to anti-Semitism, and the greatness of little Israel who needs support as it fights against the world's evils. An army of several hundreds of thousands of Israeli supporters, including Israeli planted "emigrants" to the United States and Germany, invade civic life and institutions throughout the western word, lobby support for Israel, criticize opponents, spread false charges of anti-Semitism and convince the world of Israel's cause. Any nation that can convince a great part of the western world that it is being viciously attacked when it kills hundreds of citizens of its adversary while only three of its own citizens are killed is a master at deception.

Genocide
Israel's policies are paving a route to destruction of the Palestinian people. Hopelessness, despair, immobility, lack of redress for the loss of their lands, economic insecurity and constant attacks against their persona and livelihood drive the Palestinians to a difficult existence. Israel's occupying force shows no care for the rights of the occupied people and no desire to address the fatal issues concerning them; even reinforcing the misery. If Israeli leaders speak of trading their own land for allowing illegal settlements to remain on Palestinian land, why did they not previously settle the settlers on Israeli land or move them there? Why did they complicate the situation? Why do they continuously expropriate only Palestinian land for "military purposes?" These contradictions prove intent to seize Palestinian lands and replace Palestinians in the West Bank with Jews, similar to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from their ancient lands. Israel portrays a mindset that ignores the agonies and rights of others, and can lead to genocide.

If the World War II genocide has essential features of deliberate planning and a means for extermination, similar features are apparent in the treatment of Palestinians. Genocide is not only extinguishing life by bodily death; it is also defined by the death of identity and community. Mayans and Native Americans have survived but their communities have neither clear identity nor control of their lives. Deprived of land and sufficient water, denied housing permits and presented with severe obstacles for transport, trade and commerce, the Palestinian existence depends heavily on assistance from other nations, especially Qatar, and from United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The aid cannot continue forever and must end one day. When that happens, the already precarious life for those in the West Bank and Gaza will be hopeless. Starvation diets and psychological deterioration will occur. This is obvious, more obvious to an observer in an era of rapid and widespread communication than the World War II genocide, which occurred when it was difficult to verify reports.

In a letter, published in The New York Times, August 23, 2014, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network called for a full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. They wrote, "We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people." Of the 327 signatories, 40 survived the Holocaust and the other 287 were descendants of Holocaust survivors or victims.

The analysis may seem overkill, but it is necessary to be mostly complete in order to place in proper perspective the thesis proposed by a growing public sentiment: "The Israel government policies resemble many aspects of the Nazi regime."

Go To
Part II: The Jewish Caliphate

alternativeinsight
september 2014

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