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Last update - 21:29 27/03/2006
One racist nation
By Gideon Levy

Contrary to appearances, the elections this week are important, because they will expose the true face of Israeli society and its hidden ambitions. More than 100 elected candidates will be sent to the Knesset on the basis of one ticket - the racism ticket. If we used to think that every two Israelis have three opinions, now it will be evident that nearly every Israeli has one opinion - racism. Elections 2006 will make this much clearer than ever before. An absolute majority of the MKs in the 17th Knesset will hold a position based on a lie: that Israel does not have a partner for peace. An absolute majority of MKs in the next Knesset do not believe in peace, nor do they even want it - just like their voters - and worse than that, don't regard Palestinians as equal human beings. Racism has never had so many open supporters. It's the real hit of this election campaign.

One does not have to be Avigdor Lieberman to be a racist. The "peace" proposed by Ehud Olmert is no less racist. Lieberman wants to distance them from our borders, Olmert and his ilk want to distance them from out consciousness. Nobody is speaking about peace with them, nobody really wants it. Only one ambition unites everyone - to get rid of them, one way or another. Transfer or wall, "disengagement" or "convergence" - the point is that they should get out of our sight. The only game in town, the 'unilateral arrangement," is not only based on the lie that there is no partner, is not only based exclusively on our "needs" because of a sense of superiority, but also leads to a dangerous pattern of behavior that totally ignores the existence of the other nation.

The problem is that this feeling is based entirely on an illusory assumption. The Palestinians are here, just like us. They will, therefore, be forced to continue to remind us of their existence in the one way they and we both know, through violence and terror.
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This gloomy chapter in the history of Israel began at Camp David, when Ehud Barak succeeded in planting the untruth that there is nobody to talk to on the Palestinian side, that we offered them the sky and they responded with violence. Then came the major terror attacks and Israeli society withdrew into a sickness of apathy never before known to it. While it used to demonstrate complete indifference toward Palestinian suffering, that apathy spread and intensified to include weak Israelis - Arabs, the poor, the ailing. From that aspect the current election campaign, more boring than ever, seems almost like an expression of the state of public caring. Nothing can awaken the Israelis from their coma - not the imprisonment of the nation next door, not the killing and destruction that we sow in their society and not the suffering of the weak among us.

Who would have believed that in Israel of 2006, the killing of an 8-year-old girl at short range, as happened last week in Yamoun, would barely be mentioned; that the ruthless attempt to expel an Ethiopian with AIDS who is married to an Israeli, just because he is not Jewish, would not raise hue and cry; and that the results of a poll showing that a majority of Israelis - 68 percent - don't want to live next to an Arab, did not raise a stink. If in 1981, tomatoes were being thrown at Shimon Peres and in 1995, there was incitement against Yitzhak Rabin, now there are no tomatoes, no incitement and not even any election rallies.

Nothing can get the Israelis out to the streets, nothing can enrage them. An election without involvement and interest is more dangerous to democracy than any tomato. It is a demonstration of apathy and indifference, which the regime can exploit to do whatever it wants. The fact that there are no real differences between the three main parties, with this one saying nearly the entire country is mine, and that one saying nearly the entire country is mine, is bad news for democracy. The coming elections have been decided already. A massive majority will cast its vote for the racist arrangement that ignores the Palestinians, as proposed by Kadima, Likud and, to a large extent, Labor. None of them tried to propose a just peace; their leaders never said a word about the war crimes and suffering caused by Israel. They'll be joined by the extreme right and the ultra-Orthodox, and there you have it: a nation in which racism is the real common denominator uniting us all. Nearly everyone will say no to peace, yes to the continuing occupation (even if it is in new camouflage) and yes to the total focusing on ourselves.

Morality has become a dirty work, and the worst corruption in the country's history, the occupation, was never mentioned. Only one-sided maps, similar to one another, all including the humongous "settlement blocs," a withdrawal based on "our needs," with a separation wall and the frightening air of indifference hovering above it all.
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  1.   Maybe 08:41  |  Aussie 26/03/06
  2.   I am truly astounded 08:52  |  ash 26/03/06
  3.   THIS IS A POSITIVE ARTICLE 08:55  |  MEIR WEINSTEIN 26/03/06
  4.   Israel`s own Father Coughlin 08:58  |  Steve 26/03/06
  5.   remember aussie.... 09:03  |  ariel 26/03/06
  6.   Maybe Not 09:25  |  Timmy Ramone 26/03/06
  7.   Refreshing 09:26  |  Andrew 26/03/06
  8.   Gideon Levy 09:33  |  Connie 26/03/06
  9.   a leftys problem with gideon 09:37  |  dov 26/03/06
  10.   RACISM ALA MODE 09:41  |  shai 26/03/06
  11.   Who`s the Biggest Racist? 10:33  |  Paqid Yirmeyahu 26/03/06
  12.   A mirror for Gideon Levy 11:01  |  eli 26/03/06
  13.   One racist nation in denial. 11:01  |  Osborne Reed 26/03/06
  14.   Osborne Reed 11:24  |  Rachel 26/03/06
  15.   the hysteria of racism 11:25  |  Lindsey 26/03/06
  16.   Racism is Universal 11:44  |  Rabbi David Hoffman 26/03/06
  17.   Awful 11:44  |  rich 26/03/06
  18.   Re: a mirror for gideon levi 11:59  |  man de hu 26/03/06
  19.   WELL SAID MEIR # 3 12:15  |  CHONI 26/03/06
  20.   I can never hate israelis as long as there are people like Levy. 12:16  |  al 26/03/06
  21.   andrew#7 Refreshing? 12:36  |  Judy Abeliasov 26/03/06
  22.   Gideon Levy 12:40  |  Shalom 26/03/06
  23.   Andrew from Sweden - Excuse me? 12:42  |  Adina 26/03/06
  24.   The Morality of Nationalism 12:44  |  Esperanza 26/03/06
  25.   Racism vs Nationalism 12:50  |  Irv 26/03/06
  26.   LEVI`S NERVE 12:51  |  ron 26/03/06
  27.   OSBORNE REED.would you be so sanctimonious if the neighbours -- 12:52  |  PETER SM 26/03/06
  28.   Re #7 Andrew 12:56  |  JW 26/03/06
  29.   Grow Up Osborne 13:00  |  Richard 26/03/06
  30.   Timmy - 6 13:01  |  Aussie 26/03/06
  31.   Gideon Levy his ideal and the politicians reality 13:04  |  Ronnie Wolman 26/03/06
  32.   hypocrisy of racism/anti-semitism charges 13:09  |  Lindsey 26/03/06
  33.   Richard 13:09  |  Osborne Reed 26/03/06
  34.   Gideon Levy - Mensch 13:14  |  Eric Blair 26/03/06
  35.   One word, there isn`t one 13:14  |  TonyL 26/03/06
  36.   J`accuse Osborne; the danger to society 13:21  |  Richard 26/03/06
  37.   Come on Gideon......... 13:25  |  Mike 26/03/06
  38.   The ignorance and hate from Levy is tiring 13:28  |  David Teich 26/03/06
  39.   Osbourne Reed 13:31  |  rich 26/03/06
  40.   `Haaretz` undermines Israel 13:41  |  Shalom Freedman 26/03/06
  41.   One racist nation 13:43  |  Robert Stiver 26/03/06
  42.   If Israel is racist, what are arab nations 13:47  |  Steve 26/03/06
  43.   What color is the sky in Gideon`s world? 13:47  |  Danny 26/03/06
  44.   Connie 13:51  |  Neil 26/03/06
  45.   Osbourne Reed 2 14:35  |  rich 26/03/06
  46.   Robert Stiver,,,letter to an American 14:36  |  rich 26/03/06
  47.   one rasist nation 14:42  |  boris 26/03/06
  48.   Are you a Prophete?! 14:45  |  Bouhadana 26/03/06
  49.   Israel Never Did Want Peace 14:46  |  Abe 26/03/06
  50.   Reality hurts 14:55  |  Eyal 26/03/06
  51.   The glove doesn`t fit 15:01  |  JJ Doyle 26/03/06
  52.   Jerko! Arabs Are The Most Racist People In The World! 15:07  |  Sam The Sham 26/03/06
  53.   Voice of Reason 15:14  |  Sal 26/03/06
  54.   Well said! 15:17  |  Robert J. Sutherland 26/03/06
  55.   The true nature of Zionism 15:18  |  Andrew Winkler 26/03/06
  56.   a lone voice crying in the wilderness 15:19  |  Chris Delzio 26/03/06
  57.   About the author 15:19  |  Daedalus 26/03/06
  58.   #1 Justice first 15:21  |  Justice 26/03/06
  59.   ...good for Eli !!!!....but Gideon Levy is a pseudonym...he isnt 15:25  |  The 72... 26/03/06
  60.   Eyal in London 15:27  |  rich 26/03/06
  61.   Watch "Bend Like Beckham" 15:33  |  Joel in Albany 26/03/06
  62.   Bravo Gideon Levy! 15:35  |  Marlene N. 26/03/06
  63.   No man is an Island and neither is any country 15:44  |  Dutch 26/03/06
  64.   Huge Oversimplification of the Issues 15:47  |  Jane 26/03/06
  65.   Gideon, excuse me, but 15:51  |  Israelite 26/03/06
  66.   Raison d`etre de Gideon Levy 15:53  |  Xaxam 26/03/06
  67.   ...to Mr Gideon Levi...you really accep critics...good for you!!! 15:55  |  abraham...mico 26/03/06
  68.   GIDEON LEVY 15:57  |  JOEL SPRAYREGEN 26/03/06
  69.   Gideon on the Cross 16:12  |  Tom MIlstein 26/03/06
  70.   Choni #19 16:12  |  Gabe1 26/03/06
  71.   Give Respect 16:15  |  Billy B 26/03/06
  72.   Hass-Levy- Amos Schocken-Walt- Mearsheimer 16:30  |  Shalom Freedman 26/03/06
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