Is Israel provoking Diaspora ant-Semitism in Gaza?

One is reminded of PM Sharon's insistent admonition that all Jews who do not make the Great Aliyah to Israel by 2020 are damned as they will "lose their Jewish souls." One cannot help but wonder if the current crisis, planned for over a year, had not been initiated at a time when the US is economically unable to maintain its lavish support of the Israeli economy in order to force Diaspora Jews into an anti-Semitism driven flight to Israel. The outrageous "hasbarah" imposed on Western press, the suppression of opposition or negative reporting by Israel's advocates abroad, and the current crashing of the White House site along with clogging of White House phone line with demands for release of Israeli spy Pollard, convicted to life in prison-- all ordered from Israel-- make one wonder what lies behind this insolent attempt to implicate the US into a Mideast crisis of Israel's making at the very time when US focus is moving away from the Middle East and onto South Asia. What is Netanyahu doing campaigning in the US when his nation is in crisis? Who will engorge the American $$ placenta from which the fetal state of Israel draws sustenance? How will Israel recoup the WMDs it is so liberally dispensing on Gaza, making it all look like a repeat of the Warsaw Ghetto?

Every period of military domination of Israeli policy is followed by a period referred to by Likudniks as "post-Zionism," when land for peace becomes a national mantra. Given that the rabbis nixed FM Livni for the PM slot merely on grounds that she is a woman, it is clear that she initiated the current offensive to prove that she can be as violent as any man. PM Olmert seems to be seeking to regain some standing after his forced resignation for corruption by ordering the shooting of fish [Palestinians] in a barrel [Gaza]. No one seems to note that, in the US and EU media, stories censored to impose official Israeli hasbarah about the Gaza bloodbath are followed immediately, without even a commercial break, by stories about Madoff, the American investor charged with swindling $50 billions. At the same time, the story, just released by the NY Times and David Sanger in his book THE INHERITANCE, about how Israel tried to force the US to provide it materials and Iraq over flight permission to bomb Iran without any consideration for the consequences to American troops in Iraq, shows a level of disregard for the interests of the American $placenta from which Israel subsists, reminiscent of the story about killing of the goose that lays the golden eggs. We aware also informed on the CHARLIE ROSE SHOW by CBS 60 MINUTES producer David Simon that the two states solution is dead and that the only options are either one state or apartheid.

The question of exploiting anti-Semitism by Zionists in the 1930s was made quite stark by Tom Segev, the Israeli historian, in his book THE SEVENTH MILLION. I do not believe that one could read his book without seeing a similar attempt to entangle involuntarily Diaspora Jews into the Zionist interests, repeating history, except that now a deliberate attempt to foment non-existent anti-Semitism seems underway. Two stories in the FORWARD are mind numbing: (1) a former Israeli intel head brags of his multiple passports, allowing him the privileges of safety in several states; (2) also in the FORWARD, is an article bragging that the Jewish power in Congress managed to "earmark" $178 millions for "Jewish interests" from the Financial Bailout Bill meant for US banks exclusively. Why are such inflammatory stories put forward at the very time when the risk of inflaming anti-Semitism is greatest?

Diaspora Jews, in the main, consider Israel a nice place to visit but they have shown that they would not like to live there. Many cases of older Diaspora Jews retiring to Israel and returning after the Israeli tax system consumed their pensions are well known. Many young Israelis are unable to accept any longer that when they shave in the morning, they can't be sure whether to put on a business suit in order to follow their careers or a uniform to serve an open ended mobilization as reservists; so upon finishing their excusive Israeli education, they migrate to the West for jobs. The alyiah is, it seems, has long been in reverse. So, is there now a desperate attempt to fan the flames of anti-Semitism through all of the above enumerated items-- all presented at the very time that the US is plunging into economic depression? Is it deliberately done in the hope that Diaspora Jews will be forced to make the Great Aliyah in fear?

All this comes at the very time when Israel's prospects look brightest. A puny Iranian atomic bomb will drive all the Sunni Arab states to seek protection under Israel's nuclear umbrella. Arab leaders are realizing that continuation of their banana republic one crop (oil) status is untenable. Israel is the only country they can turn to for leadership in escaping their current techno/sci backwardness. Yet, it seems, Israel takes this moment to polarize Arabs, to expand its settlements-. According to the US DeptState 78% are homes built at US taxpayers' expense are empty because there are not enough "olims" to settle them; they are merely used as excuse to expel Palestinians and create hollow "facts on the ground" with which to make the case for Greater Israel.

If Israel is indeed seeking to create a backfire of anti-Semitism in the Diaspora that forces Jews to stampede to Israel in fear, seizing their assets, it is making a fatal mistake. What Israel needs now is Palestinians who can serve as deal-makers for it with the Arabs. But the illegal use of anti-personnel weapons in Gaza is only-- as did the Lebanon War-- producing recruits for HAMAS who live to kill in revenge for Israel's repeated massacre from the air. Diaspora Jews are first and foremost loyal to their nations of birth. The flight of East European Jews in the 1980s, coming to Israel to escape Communism, has been reversed after the downfall of Communism. This should be a cardinal sign of how hopeless is any attempt at a fear driven aliyah stampede.

HAMAS is not Palestinian. It was made by Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood escapees whom Israel invited and supported in the hope that they would destroy Arafat and the PLO when the world was ready to accept the PLO as spokesman for the Palestinians. Now Israel's goals have reversed because HAMAS won an election forced on the Palestinians by GW Bush so he could claim that he brought "democracy" (sic) to the Middle East. HAMAS is well aware of its tenuous hold on Palestinians, the most secular of Arabs, many are Christians. HAMAS leaders understand quite well that every massacre of Palestinians attempt by the IDF is followed by a long era of political dominance by the post-Zionist doves. The Israeli polity, no matter what weapons are used to create mass casualties, is extremely casualties averse-- morally over both Palestinian and Israeli. There is no way to destroy HAMAS without accepting intolerable IDF and civilian Palestinian casualties. Consequently, Israel will lose lose its taste for massacre. So it is not too late for Israel to swallow its losses and propose a generous two-states-one-economy solution en route to demanding full diplomatic and economic recognition by the Sunni Arabs who will avail themselves of its nuclear umbrella and will follow its lead into a modernization revolution. Frivolous short term electoral tactics imposing mass casualties but lacking any strategic foresight leave Israel open to extinction. To date, as pointed out by a leading Israeli international law expert, Israel is a country but not a nation, for it is totally dependent on a foreign placenta, it's economy is in shambles, its currency is based on a dollar backing of the shekel (a debt quietly "forgiven" by Congress periodically), not recognized by its neighbors and without set borders, expanding constantly. Up to now Israel has held on by the skin of its teeth, lavished by massive US aid. But now the US is going into economic depression and it is hard to imagine the $placenta not drying up.

Israel must commit to a TOTAL first step solution as developed, not at Camp David, but at Taba-- a productive step that the rise to power of Bush and Sharon made untenable. Well, now, eight years later, the US political process is reversed and a real effort which eliminates most of the settlements must become a reality. BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST, Israel must realize that its hasbara is not effective smoke but very transparent wind; and, no matter what Israel does to provoke Diaspora anti-Semitism, the Jews are first and foremost natives to their homelands of birth, not cattle to be stampeded in fear in Israel's direction.

Daniel E. Teodoru