They are not 'Settlers', they are Squatters. Settlers tend to settle on empty land, squatters squat on others' land. In other words, illegally.
Annie Besant | 03.31.08 - 3:06 pm | #

Interestingly, it was the Israeli Labor Party that first proposed the Apartheid Wall, except that they wouldn't have crossed the Green Line with it in obedience to International Law. But the Israeli public didn't trust Labor to implement it, so they elected Sharon, who of course perverted it into an offensive wall to enclose the illegal settlements.
Montag | 03.31.08 - 3:46 pm | #

Are you sure? I know it was always a Labour zionist idea but the settlements began under Labour and it was Labour under Ben Gurion who offered what Ben Gurion admitted was a sham acceptance of partition. You make it sound like Labour would have withdrawn from all the territory occupied since 1967.
Mark Elf (levi9909) | Homepage | 03.31.08 - 10:15 pm | #

Are we sure that 1967 represents the rightful boundaries of Israel - as opposed to 1948 boundaries as stolen by the UN?
edwin | 03.31.08 - 11:42 pm | #

Mark, I don't know anybody apart from the
Israeli Established media and yourself who would refer to Israeli Labour-led governments as "the Left".

Nor is it startling news that these governments have been better for settlers.

So why do it? You would not call Tony Blair government "Leftist" would you?
But to jump to arguing "there is no Israeli Left" is a trick. It is the kind of argument used by some Arab nationalists to accuse all Israelis of being equally guilty for war and repression, and denounce any Arab leftists who accept groups in Israel or ordinary Israelis as potential allies. It was Saddam Hussein's method.
And without bandying vague terms like "Left" about too much, British Labour and Britain's peace movement are not that superior to their Israeli equivalents as some seem to pretend.
Charlie Pottins | Homepage | 04.01.08 - 9:44 am | #

Israel has no 'rightful' boundaries in the normal sense of the word - and famously has never actually defined its borders - the 1967 lines were adopted almost by default because for a period before the Oslo accords they seemed to offer the basis for a workable 2-state solution.
James O | 04.01.08 - 10:20 am | #

Charlie - don't be so tetchy, I was only playing though my first line was a bit sloppy. But even allowing for that you haven't read what I said in full. Look at my last line again. It's a clear reference to Israel's governments, not the entire political spectrum in Israel.

I might do sloppy, and I've been known to take the piss, but I don't do tricks.
Mark Elf (levi9909) | Homepage | 04.01.08 - 11:29 am | #

'British Labour and Britain's peace movement are not that superior to their Israeli equivalents as some seem to pretend'

The distinction is that the majority of Israeli labour and 'peace' movement are committed to an apartheid Jewish state whereas the British equivalents a committed to equality. this is a fundamental deistinction and begs the question of whether a Zionist 'left' can be considered left in any meaningful sense
James O | 04.01.08 - 2:42 pm | #

I might do sloppy, and I've been known to take the piss, but I don't do tricks.


And his apologies have a wonderful bouquet.
mooser42001 | Homepage | 04.01.08 - 8:07 pm | #

I've got emails telling me that some people follow this blog just for my apologies and retractions.
Mark Elf (levi9909) | Homepage | 04.01.08 - 8:52 pm | #

Don't feel too bad, there's a report going around the blogs from Russian Intelligence about the U.S. gearing up for an attack on Iran that's got everyone in a tizzy. Slight problem, it's a year old--same time LAST year. Yet no one seems to cotton to the fact that 2007 isn't 2008.
Montag | 04.01.08 - 10:06 pm | #

A recurring April fool?
Mark Elf (levi9909) | Homepage | 04.01.08 - 11:54 pm | #

No, my birthday's in March.

BTW, steeped in boiling kosher water, Mark's apologies make a refreshing tea. Strain and serve with lemon and sugar.
It's even better if you hold the sugar cube between your teeth, and sip the tea through it. Now that's Left cuisine, baby!
mooser42001 | Homepage | 04.02.08 - 3:53 pm | #

Have you ever seen someone drink tea through an ice cube?
Mark Elf (levi9909) | Homepage | 04.02.08 - 5:53 pm | #

That's what Raskolnikov used to do, innit?
mooser42001 | Homepage | 04.02.08 - 8:35 pm | #

Ouch! I knew I souldn't have tried that! Darn you, Elf!

I'm sticking to coffee from now on.
mooser42001 | Homepage | 04.02.08 - 8:36 pm | #

My mother told me that her grandmother used to do that and I've read about it but I can't quite visualise how its done.
Mark Elf (levi9909) | Homepage | 04.03.08 - 7:41 am | #

My grandparents, if they even existed, were much too poor to have ice cubes, or tea, for that matter.
All they left me was this indecipherable genetic code. I keep it in a box with your apologies. And it goes with me everywhere.
mooser42001 | Homepage | 04.03.08 - 4:12 pm | #

Too poor for ice cubes. Lenni Brenner wrote of a yiddisher boy who sold shaved ice with syrup on the streets of New York. His wife told him that he would sell more if he made up a Scandinavian sounding name so he came up with Haagen Das. And when he made millions he donated some to the JDL and Kach. Of course I never touch the stuff.
Mark Elf (aka levi9909) | Homepage | 04.03.08 - 5:38 pm | #

So Haagen Das, along with Starbucks, is glat Kosher? I never knew that.
mooser42001 | Homepage | 04.03.08 - 8:36 pm | #

According to the Brooklyn rebbe, Lenni Brenner.
Mark Elf (levi9909) | Homepage | 04.03.08 - 8:43 pm | #