Editorial Article
University of Haifa - Marcelo Svirsky (Dept of
Political Science and Cardiff University) Thinks Critics of the
Zionist Entity are never Critical Enough
Haifa
University's political science department was long the home of the
arch-hater of Israel and pseudo-academic fraud Ilan Pappe. Today it
is home to
Political Science
Lecturer
Marcelo Svirsky, currently abroad in the UK, where he is busy
smearing Israel as a racist society that engages in "ethnic
cleansing" and "colonialism." Marcelo Svirsky seems intent on
following in Pappe's footsteps.
…
In the letter to [prominent French intellectual Bernard Henri]
Levy, Svirsky compares the Gaddafi regime to Israel's Zionist state
in the most noxious terms and adds: "But we should be under no
illusions: for governments, cozying up to those who may become the
future rulers of Libya would facilitate the exploitation of the
country's vast resources in the future. By contrast, an
Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and the stabilization of the region
that would bring along, is far less attractive to Europe and the
West's interests."
…
"I struggle to find the words to describe your ignorance here,
in particular with regard to how ethnic segregation and
discrimination against Israel's Palestinian citizens within the
Green Line structures an imperative to fight the system."
"Fight the system" here means supporting anyone
fighting against a Jewish state, using violence when "necessary."
Svirsky criticizes Levy for not damning
Israel when it dared to stop the terrorist flotilla designed to aid
Hamas in opening up the sea lanes to bring weapons into Gaza:
University of Haifa - Marcelo Svirsky (Dept of
Political Science and
Cardiff
University) Thinks Critics of the Zionist
Entity are never Critical Enough
By Lee Kaplan,
www.Isracampus.org.il
1/6/2012
Haifa
University's political science department was long the home of the
arch-hater of Israel and pseudo-academic fraud Ilan Pappe. Today it
is home to
Political Science
Lecturer
Marcelo Svirsky, currently abroad in the UK, where he is busy
smearing Israel as a racist society that engages in "ethnic
cleansing" and "colonialism." Marcelo Svirsky seems intent on
following in Pappe's footsteps.
Svirsky is a great believer in "multiculturalism"
as being the key to solving all the world's ills. We see this in
parsing
a letter from Svirsky to Bernard Henri-Levy, a prominent
French intellectual who appeared in media to support the Arab spring
revolution in
Libya that brought down Mohammar Gaddafi. Levy supported the revolt,
a bit to the chagrin of Svirksy because Svirksy thinks it was
"spiced with ethnographic (if dubiously colonial) smells and
visuals." Svirksy spends much of his time denouncing "colonialism"
and "ethnic cleansing," by which he refers to the self-defense of
democracies.
Of course, few people know that the term "Ethnic
Cleansing" was invented by the Saudis during the Bosnian War as the
oil-soaked royal family funded Islamic mercenaries to kill and
behead Christians in the former
Yugoslavia. The Saudis are the worst racists in the world and still
practice slavery. Bosnia today is the drug and slave trade capital
of the world now that Balkan "ethnic cleansing" has stopped.
"Colonialism" of course refers to one country taking over another
and supposedly depleting its resources to the benefit of the mother
country back home. The English hosts of Svirsky were the biggest
colonialists in history.
In the letter to Levy, Svirsky compares the Gaddafi
regime to Israel's Zionist state in the most noxious terms and adds:
"But we should be under no illusions: for governments, cozying up to
those who may become the future rulers of Libya would facilitate the
exploitation of the country's vast resources in the future. By
contrast, an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and the stabilization of
the region that would bring along, is far less attractive to
Europe
and the West's interests."
We have to wonder, of course, if Svirsky has been
living under a rock. The West and even the EU have poured in
billions of dollars into "settling" the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. However, the real reason it has not been settled is
because the Arabs refuse to recognize the right of any Jewish state
to exist in the region.
Oslo
would have given the Arabs a state for the Palestinians within five
years, but they refused to renounce terrorism or the Catch 22 of the
"Right of Return."
Svirsky continues: "But let us stick with the
assumption that all that counts is a sincere preoccupation with the
fate of the Libyan people as they fight to overcome decades of
oppression. This assumption reflects an admirable spirit which may
be tested in other cases as well – and here it is only right to
consider your own opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. A
couple of years ago, in a debate at the New York Public Library on16
September 2008, you insisted on the extraordinary democratic
character of the State of Israel by emphasizing its tolerance
towards Arab political parties and others who aim at democratizing
Zionist structures."
Zionist structures? Like creating a national
homeland for Jews?
Then our Svirsky, the product of a Jewish (Zionist
state) writes:
"I struggle to find the words to describe your
ignorance here, in particular with regard to how ethnic segregation
and discrimination against
Israel's Palestinian citizens within the Green Line structures an
imperative to fight the system."
"Fight the system" here means supporting anyone
fighting against a Jewish state, using violence when "necessary."
Svirsky criticizes Levy for not damning
Israel when it dared to stop the terrorist flotilla designed to aid
Hamas in opening up the sea lanes to bring weapons into Gaza:
"More recently, right after the deadly events of
the Flotilla to Gaza in May 2010, when you expressed your criticisms
of the IDF at a public meeting in Tel Aviv, you stressed your
surprise at their actions and your belief in the morality and the
sense of democracy of the Israeli Army (see the English edition of
Haaretz, 30 May 2010)). These are just two reminders of your
well-known public support for Zionism and for
Israel, which must be now measured alongside your present support
for the revolutionary wave shaking the Arab world."
More Svirsky: "What is it in your liberal heart
that blinds you to the effects on Palestinian life caused by the
tragic ethnic cleansing of 1948, by six decades of discrimination
within the Green Line, and four decades of Zionist military
oppression in the
West Bank, Gaza Strip and
East Jerusalem? As the world rightly distinguishes
between oppressors and oppressed in
Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya, why not apply, with the
particularities of the case taken into account, the same treatment
to
Palestine?
Europe's enthusiasm for the Arab uprising, like your own, irritates
because of the double standard which is all the more striking in its
spatial aspect: by refusing to support the Palestinian struggle in
the same terms in which you support the Arab uprising across the
whole region, "
So here we have a rant about the supposed "ethnic
cleansing" of Arabs in 1948 and six decades of discrimination within
the Green Line. In 1949 at the end of hostilities there were 110,000
Arabs left in
Israel. Today they number 1.2 million. Where's the ethnic cleansing,
Marcelo? And just how did the 400,000 "refugees" who fled the battle
zones of 1948 morph into the 7 million claiming to be refugees
today?
Some "ethnic cleansing"!!
Israel
has affirmative action programs for Arab-Israelis in the
universities that give them preference, Arab mothers get subsidies
for their children, some Bedouin don't need to work because they
have four wives and the state allots them money. Meanwhile, the
separate Arab state being constructed next door insists no Jews be
allowed to live there.
Finally and most disturbing: After Svirsky blames
Israel for the Mavi Marmara flotilla affair, this "scholar" subtly
calls for violence to achieve what he wants:
"But let me conclude by saying that it is indeed in
the same manner that I understand my own Israeli citizenship as
giving me not a mandate to perpetuate present modes of oppression
but the right to redefine the whole spectrum of rights by way of
struggle. It is in this light that I expect you and the
world to support the struggle to transform the Israeli
regime."
Make no mistake about it. By struggle this man
means support of the myriad Arab terror groups that would dismantle
Israel by violence. Maybe he should move permanently to the UK..
There he can do fine as the next Ilan Pappe.
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