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Michael Sappir
Leipzig, Germany
Recent Activity
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Michael signed the petition | -
Michael commented on the article |I've heard about traditional schools trying (don't have any references, it's been a while), but I think a big part of what makes these systems so fair and just in Sudbury schools is that they treat all members of the school community equally, adults and children alike. In that kind of equality, staff can participate and lead by example without it being seen as the adults lording it over the children (which is how I, for one, experienced the teachers' problem-solving in traditional schools). These things don't work nearly as well in an atmosphere of arbitrariness.
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Michael commented on the article |
Correction: There is NO "Palestinian plan"
(no idea where that "no" went) -
Michael commented on the article |
1. There is "Palestinian plan" just like there was never an international Jewish conspiracy. Stop spouting generalized racist nonsense please. The Palestinian people are far too divided to have anything like an evil plan for domination. Your claim that having a single state combined with Israel is "their plan" is especially ludicrous considering how unpopular the one-state solution is. You should either educate yourself a little on Palestinian politics or stop mischaracterizing it.
2. If a single, Israeli-Palestinian state were established, it's true that it could end up bad. But that depends entirely on how it's done. A few things to pay attention to would be the division of power and autonomy between the Jewish and Arab communities; the creation of a strong human-rights based constitution; and most of all intensive normalization/reconciliation work to ensure that all groups can live together in a single democratic society. Both sides have a whole lot of tolerance to learn, and a whole list of grievances to forgive. It won't be easy. But no solution to the conflict will ever be easy, since so many Palestinians and Israelis have nowhere else to go. (I am of the lucky minority of Israelis who hold citizenship elsewhere and aren't dependent on just one state... Many Palestinians don't have any citizenship anywhere. Unlike Jews coming to Israel, Palestinians don't automatically get citizenship anywhere in the world.)
3. If you weren't seriously proposing racial segregation of citizenship, why did you say it? And if you're not proposing that, what *are* you proposing? When you say "Liberman isn't going far enough" I hear "why try to deny them citizenship when you can just deport or kill them all?" - is that not what you're saying? It sounds to me like you see no way for Israel to peacefully co-exist with the Palestinians, and that you don't think the Palestinians have any claim to the land they were born on. What do you propose? Total subjugation? Enslavement? Genocide? Exile? Systematic sterilization? Eternal war? -
Michael commented on the article |
Michael,
Similar attitudes as applied to a different state and a different nation led to several dozen relatives of my granparents being slaughtered here in Europe 60-70 years ago. My father is named after his uncle, whose fate is unknown, but most likely perished in Poland before the age of 13 for not being of the right blood to live in Germany. So I'm sorry if I have a hard time accepting that kind of idea. (Not to mention I would never want to live in a state for "Jews and their spouses only", even though I would be entitled to. Jews make terrible Hummus.)
Also, I'm not going to repeat myself about this ludicrous idea that "the Palestinians could go anywhere", because if you didn't read it the first time you won't read it this time.
By the way, how much is Israel paying you? I ask as a fellow writer... And times being as they are... -
Michael commented on the article |
Thanks for this post, Charles, it was really encouraging to read.
@Lyn: "I believe it's still illegal in Israel to question the supremacy of Jewish political "rights" there. Azmi Bishara was prosecuted not to long ago for saying Israel should be a state for all its people."
It's not overtly illegal, and many left-wing Israelis question that premise regularly... But it does make the authorities look funny at you.
This relates to what I see as possibly the biggest challenge for the one-state solution, or any solution for that matter - in Israel, those who cooperate with Palestinians are not popular. As is probably typical for a nationalist state, if you're Jewish you're assumed to be a zionist and an equal until you show otherwise...and then many will say you aren't being Israeli... You get called a traitor by many... That's not to say that you are executed as a traitor or arrested or anything, but if you're perceived as overly attentive to the plight of the Palestinians it's very hard to get most people to listen to you.
It's good to see there are Palestinians paying serious attention to the one-state solution, but as the article notes, they need a Jewish Israeli wing, and in Israel I can imagine that wing will not be particularly popular or capable of representing a broad section of the public. But one can still hope. And one does. -
Michael commented on the article |(my laptop sent that prematurely, here's the rest:)
Israeli Arab towns/villages categorically receive less funding and attention from the authorities (though generally more than their Bedouin counterparts) and Israeli Arabs do not enjoy the freedom of movement and other liberties that Israeli Jews enjoy quite to the same degree (they are routinely pestered by the authorities and denied many of their rights.) They have basically grown accustomed to being treated as second-class citizens, but they are still rather moderate politically and do identify themselves, for the most part, with Israel nonethless.
You do Israel no great service by making ridiculous claims, Michael. Be realistic and stop embellishing, it will make your support of Israel more convinving and effective. -
Michael commented on the article |
1. Astute observation. I've made no secret of the fact I think a single state for Israelis and Palestinians may be a very good solution, and naturally that means not having a border between Israel and the Palestinian territories. Or do you mean the right of return? That's probably a good idea but I haven't given much thought to it.
2. Okay, now I am actually convinced that you are paid by Israel to write this stuff... I knew they astroturf, but you've made it painfully obvious you are part of that. Let's break your point 2 into three parts:
a) by that logic, the German people should all be executed for the Holocaust, or should have all been directly after the war... What's done is done. You can't hold a people collectively responsible for the crimes of terrorist organizations, even in such a case where there really is broad popular support for the murderers. That's simply an inhumane policy and quite precisely one of the biggest issues I have with Israel's handling of the conflict.
b) The Bedoin are NOT treated with respect, and you are either being ignorant or deceitful here. Israel has been herding Bedouins into town against their will for decades, and moreover, most of the Bedouin settlements, including those created by Israel, are sorely lacking in the infrastructure Israeli settlements and towns enjoy. The Bedouins are citizens whom Israel categorically neglects and against whom Israel displays categorical prejudice. Check your facts.
c) The voting rates amongst Israeli Arabs are low and they have always been underrepresented in Knesset compared to their population. Israeli Arab towns/villages categorically receive less funding and attention from the authorities ( -
Michael commented on the article |
First of all, way to completely miss my point. You argued the Palestinians could go anywhere, I argued they can't. The scope of what I stated was rebuttal. Of course it would be nice if the whole world were comprised of enlightened democracies and the Palestinains could go to Jordan or wherever else they want, but that's immaterial. Your argument that "the arabs" are pestering Israel "even though they have all the land and money" is bunk if you base it on the claim that the Palestinians are part of this group with the means and lands to go anywhere. The fact is there are a few million people between the Jordan and the sea who are refugees, without a state to protect them, and Israel is the dominant force occupying them and the lands they live on. You claim that Israel is a highly moral state, and as an Israel I concur that this is part of the very concept of the State of Israel from its conception - but to fulfill that part of the beautiful vision behind Israel, Israel has to treat the human beings under its power in an *ethical and humane manner*, regardless of the fact that some of these people hate Israel and murderously try to kill its citizens. Israel cannot escape this responsibility by claiming that the Palestinians could go anywhere, because they simply can't.
As for 1947/8, I can't say I disagree entirely - the UN decision was a relatively fair one, compared to most of what has come since. Nonetheless, it was a pretty inconsiderate kind of colonial mindset that ignored the fact that there was a people in that region that already laid claim to the land and that many people would be displaced by the founding of the new state. It was basically a plan forced on the people later known as Palestinians, by international powers, without so much of planning to cooperate with them in the creation of the new state... War was inevitable. What's done is done, but I wouldn't call the Arab attack following the UN Resolution completely unprovoked (even if it wasn't *justified*)... And that is all largely irrelevant now, when the vast majority of people identifying themselves as Palestinians weren't born at the time. It is not fair to suffer for the sins of their fathers and grandfathers, no matter what they did. These are human beings being treated inhumanely, and that is something unnaceptable, period. -
Michael commented on the article |
"Objectively, they have all the land they will ever need and all the money, so why not leave Israel alone?"
Who, the Palestinians? Excuse me while I laugh myself to death. The Arab world may make a show of "supporting their bretheren in Palestine" but the fact is nobody has killed more Palestinians than...King Hussein of Jordan, who slaughtered some ten thousand of them in his country a few decades ago. The Palestinians, for the most part, have nowhere else to go. They are not truly welcome anywhere in the Arab world, despite the use by many anti-Western governments of pro-Palestinian rhetoric.
And as for "You can not occupy territory that was once yours," the State of Israel is occupying land that has never belonged to the State of Israel. We cannot base land ownership on maps dated 200 A.D. (or earlier) By that logic, states representing the Native American nations would have every right to conquer and occupy the entirety of the Americas... But of course, the colonists did a much better job at slaughtering and subduing them than was done with the Jews, so I guess the peoples of the Americas don't have to worry about losing the lands where they were born... The Palestinians just aren't quite as lucky, I guess.
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