The Whole Truth about Israel
in One Sentence
By Alan Hart
It was written by Gideon Levy, the conscience of Israeli
journalism, in an article for Ha’aretz, and here it is:
“The two-state solution is dead (it was never born); the
Palestinian state will not arise; international law does not
apply to Israel; the occupation will continue to crawl
quickly to annexation, annexation will continue to crawl
quickly toward an apartheid state; “Jewish” supersedes
“democracy”, nationalism and racism will get the stamp of
government approval, but they’re already here and have been
for a long time.”
The somewhat satirical headline over Gideon’s article was
‘Stop whining, Long live Israel’s new and honest government.’
He set the scene for his one sentence statement of the truth
with these words.
“The 34th government will deserve Israel; Israel will deserve
the 34th government. This is an authentic and representative
government, the true manifestation of the spirit of the times
and the deepest feelings of most Israelis. It will be a true
government, without pretence, without makeup and without
self-justification. What we’ll see is what we’ll get. Welcome
to the fourth Benjamin Netanyahu government.
“They won’t talk haughtily and they won’t spout hollow
slogans. Not about peace and not about human rights; not
about two states and not about negotiations; not about
international law, justice or equality. The truth will be
thrust in the faces of Israelis and the world.”
Born in Tel Aviv in 1953 to Czech parents who fled from the
Nazi holocaust, Gideon started life as a normal Israeli –
brainwashed by Zionist propaganda. He has described his
political views as a teenager as typically mainstream. “I was
a full member of the nationalistic religious orgy. We all were
under the feeling that the whole project (of Israel) is in an
existentialistic danger. We all felt that another holocaust is
around the corner.”
Today Gideon describes himself as a “patriotic Israeli” and
the target he constantly fires at is what he sees as Israel’s
“moral failure”.
In 2007 he wrote that the plight of the Palestinians in the
besieged Gaza Strip made him “ashamed to be an Israeli”.
And after Israel’s last war on it he wrote this. “The
conclusion is that Israel is a violent and dangerous country,
devoid of all restraints and blatantly ignoring the
resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, while not
giving a hoot about international law.”
Gideon describes his “modest mission” as being “to prevent a
situation in which many Israelis will be able to say ‘We
didn’t know.'”
In my view that’s not a modest mission. It’s awesome and
perhaps a mission impossible. Why? Another part of the truth
which Gideon didn’t mention is not only that most Israelis
don’t know what is being done to the Palestinians in their
name – they don’t want to know.
To say that Gideon Levy is courageous is an understatement.
His truth-telling provoked a call for him to be put on trial
for treason and he frequently receives death threats.
The question arising from his one sentence statement of the
truth is something like this. Is there any real sign of an end
to what Ilan Pappe has described as “the continued apathy and
indifference of the Western political elite and media to the
plight of the Palestinians”?
The answer is “No” and that makes the Western political elite
and media complicit, partly by design in the past but mainly
by default today, in Israel’s crimes.
– Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign
correspondent who has covered wars and conflicts wherever they
were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle
East. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
He blogs on AlanHart.com.