Times of Israel Blogs

> I'm surprised to see such conspiracy theories favored by the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Yasser Arafat like "Greater Israel" trumpeted on Hacker News.

I read about it primarily in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. Here are a few recent articles on the topic, no need to read Osama Bin Laden or Yassar Arafat:

"Trump's Return Is a Victory for Greater Israel, Annexation and Apartheid"

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-11-10/ty-article/.premium/trumps-return-is-a-victory-for-greater-israel-annexation-and-apartheid/00000193-1619-d45e-a7df-7f9be5b50000

"From Mount Hermon's Peaks, Netanyahu Plots His Vision of a Greater Israel"

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-12-11/ty-article/.premium/from-mount-hermons-peaks-netanyahu-plots-his-vision-of-a-greater-israel/00000193-b61b-d5f3-a1f7-bf7b46b70000

"The Greater Israel Ideology of Bezalel Smotrich Has Already Lost"

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-02-04/ty-article-opinion/.premium/the-greater-israel-ideology-of-bezalel-smotrich-has-already-lost/0000018d-6fe9-d971-a38f-7ffbc5910000

Or you can read the Times of Israel.

"The wind is at their backs. Activists screaming for a Greater Israel want the government to annex Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has published the manifesto."

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/annexation-now-is-not-the-time-for-a-greater-israel/

Saying that I cannot discuss Great Israel when it is a common topic in the Israeli press is just weird and…

If it were intentional, to conflate all Jews with all of Israel is intellectually, ethically, and morally bankrupt. If it were unintentional, then it would be extremely ignorant for a supposed "diversity head."

I hope he instead meant "instances of the Israeli military shooting unarmed civilians across an international border, led by extreme Zionist leaders who want to 'drive [Palestinians] into the sea.'" even if unable to articulate it in a professional, nuanced, and sensitive manner.

--- The larger issue that keeps getting lost ---

Zionist != Jew; Anti-Zionism != Anti-Semitism. There are plenty of anti-Zionist Jews and allies; Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky, IIRC, are anti-Zionists. Alan Dershowitz[0], Fox News, and Likud all peddle the same fallacy: anything anti-Zionist is exactly the same as anti-Semitic. Furthermore, Likud and its allies have repeatedly targeted American universities with overt and covert anti-BDS and anti-Zionist disruptive social/political/intelligence-gathering/free speech activities[1,2,3,4,5], which 45 got behind to condemn BDS with the weight of the US government to the extent an executive order can (an EO is an "executive wish," in many cases).[6] They hide behind the shield and sword of crybully shouting down and labeling anyone anyone who isn't with them as "anti-semitic," and in doing so, are making the term irrelevant and meaningless for actual instances of anti-semitism ("the boy who called 'wolf.'")

0. The Case Against BDS: Why…

The censorship debate always reminds me of the 2000s after 9/11 where anyone who opposed going to war in multiple foreign countries which had nothing to do with 9/11 were labelled "terrorist sympathizers". Taking advantage of this, they also passed a mass spying bill - the Patriot Act. Stating "man cannot be a woman" or "men shouldn't compete in women's sports" is considered transphobic in current climate. Regardless of which side of the Palestine-Israel conflict you fall one, either or both sides can be censored by labelling it as "anti-semitic" or "islamaphobic". Speaking out against the Patriot Act and forever wars would be (and was) labelled "unpatriotic" and "terrorist sympathizer" and censored. Speaking out against healthy living would be labelled "fat phobic". Or the opposite could also happen. All the groups which speak out against fat shaming could also get censored because it's dangerous to public health. The government and big tech would start censoring you for advertising soft drinks/chips and other junk food. Since all religions oppose gay marriage, when super religious are in power, they would censor LGBT content. Pro-choice would get censored for religious reasons and Pro-life would be censored for racism/dangerous or other reasons.

Just a few days ago there were 2 posts on HN:

Rival weightlifter speaks out on transgender Hubbard's Olympic place:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27598383

The blackout Palestinians are facing on social…

The issue is really whether people are aware of their own biases and actively try to counter them by trying to look at events through the lens of different biases, or just run with their own biases because they're trying to promote them, generally with ulterior motives in mind.

Hence George Orwell: "Those who control the present control the past, and those who control the past control the future."

For example, if you ardently believe in investment capitalism as the best economic system in history, you might be reluctant to dive into the history of Wall Street's close ties to Nazi Germany in the 1930s, such as the IBM story:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/ibm-and-the-holocaust-20-years-of-corporate-denial/

Alternatively, if you ardently believe Marx-inspired socialism is the optimal solution, you might be reluctant to dive into the history of collectivization of agriculture in Ukraine:

https://www.anneapplebaum.com/book/red-famine-stalins-war-on-ukraine/

Historians who are merely trying to promote their own particular ideology, or to justify the past actions of their own particular nation-state, are best viewed as propaganda peddlers.

You would start by not sending them money. Unless of course you needed a justification for your political/expansionist goals.

https://archive.ph/2023.10.14-033824/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-09/ty-article/.premium/another-concept-implodes-israel-cant-be-managed-by-a-criminal-defendant/0000018b-1382-d2fc-a59f-d39b5dbf0000

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/hamas-israels-own-creation/

Anyway, the idea of embedding military targets within civilian populations is also not exclusive to one side:

https://www.haaretz.com/2012-06-09/ty-article/.premium/does-the-presence-of-the-idfs-hq-in-tel-aviv-endanger-its-population/0000017f-f419-d887-a7ff-fcfd3a480000

Neither is the use of terror:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing

https://web.archive.org/web/20121226235336/http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137825/daniel-byman-and-natan-sachs/the-rise-of-settler-terrorism

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2019/02/no-justification-israel-shoot-protesters-live-ammunition

https://www.thetorah.com/article/israels-incomplete-conquest-of-canaan

No Wait! Global Warming Caused ISIS !
Anti-capitalist Naomi Klein says ISIS and global warming caused by same forces : http://junkscience.com/2015/11/anti-capitalist-naomi-klein-says-isis-and-global-warming-caused-by-same-forces/

No wait: Obama caused ISIS : http://www.nationalreview.com/article/386354/how-obama-caused-isis-ira-straus

wait more ... America caused ISIS : http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-created-al-qaeda-and-the-isis-terror-group/5402881

Clinton says Dick Cheney caused ISIS : http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Clinton-Cheney-Iraq-ISIS/2014/06/27/id/579645/

Kerry says Israel caused ISIS: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/whos-right-kerry-believes-isis-recruitment-is-caused-by-palestinian-israeli-conflict-while-singapores-lee-kuan-yew-believes-its-saudi-and-qatari-jihad-ideology/

Wait ....