The NYT Pretends Apartheid Israel is Democratic

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

There's nothing remotely democratic about a nation waging endless undeclared war on Palestinians and its own Arab citizens for not being Jewish.

The scourge of Zionism is tyranny by another name. A cancer infesting Israel, the US, and elsewhere, it's ruthless, racist, undemocratic, destructive, and hostile to peace, equity and justice.

It's legally and morally bankrupt — contemptuous of fundamental rule of law principles, a malign force threatening whatever it touches.

Despite facing no foreign threats, Israel pursues regional belligerence and other hostile actions, its territory and Palestinian areas virtual armed camps.

Defenseless Palestinians are in the eye of its storm, especially two million Gazans, suffering from suffocating blockade, enduring over a decade of humanitarian crisis conditions — illegally enforced solely for political reasons, unrelated to security.

Gazans face IDF terror-bombing and cross-border incursions at Israel's discretion. 

Millions of West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians are terrorized by bulldozed homes, land theft, ethnic cleansing, targeted killings, mass arrests, torture, and gulag imprisonment for not being Jewish.

Israeli Arab citizens are effectively disenfranchised, their elected officials treated like fifth column threat nonpersons, powerless to serve their people.

Palestinians wanting liberation from Israel's repressive boot are considered threats to national security. Self-defense when attacked by Israeli security forces is considered terrorism.

Palestinian journalists are silenced for truth-telling, Palestinian lawmakers imprisoned for belonging to the wrong party, Gazan medical workers shot with live fire for aiding wounded demonstrators.

Occupied Palestinians endure police state persecution, denial of their fundamental rights, isolation, and virtual open-air imprisonment, especially in Gaza.

Establishment media ignore the above reality, notably the NYT. Instead of denouncing Israeli state terror forthrightly, it featured Netanyahu's days earlier racist rant, saying:

"There won't be, there can't be a government that relies on the anti-Zionist Arab parties, parties that deny Israel's very existence as a Jewish and democratic state…parties that glorify and praise bloodthirsty terrorists who murder our soldiers, our citizens and our children. That simply cannot be."

Following September 17 elections, its editors dismissively said "results confirmed (that issues related to) Palestinians and their lands…faded in the absence of progress toward a negotiated peace."

For millions of long-suffering Palestinians, nothing matters more — what apartheid Israel and its US paymaster reject, never explained by the broadsheet or other establishment media.

The self-styled newspaper of record falsely claimed a "broad political center" in Israel that doesn't exist — the nation governed by hard-right fascists since the 1990s, no matter what ruling coalition is formed, especially under Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu.

Things will be no different if Benny Gantz succeeds him as PM. He's unaccountable for high crimes of war and against humanity throughout his military service from 1977 – 2015.

In Israel's 2006 rape of Lebanon in command of its ground forces, he inflicted mass casualties against defenseless civilians.

As IDF chief of staff during Israel's 2012 Pillar of Cloud and 2014 Protective Edge aggression against Gaza, he was responsible for massacring thousands, injuring many thousands more, mostly civilians.

Using banned weapons against Gazans, doctors reported treating horrific injuries never seen before.

Ruthlessly hardline, Gantz differs from Netanyahu in style alone. As PM, he'll govern like an IDF commander, operating by his own rules, flaunting international law — with full US support and encouragement.

In a campaign video, he bragged about returning parts of Gaza "to the stone ages." 

Boasting about what international law considers war crimes, he implied a repeat performance as PM, Palestinians throughout the Territories considered legitimate targets. 

Separately, the Times' resident neocon hardliner/dissembler Bret Stephens pretended apartheid Israel is "democrat(ic)," turning reality on its head, saying:

"Israeli democracy (sic) is doing fine, thanks," calling Gantz "a neophyte politician with the quiet charisma that comes with inner composure; the quality — so rare in modern politics — of not being perpetually frantic. He projects confidence without fanaticism."

His military record reveals belligerent fanaticism against Palestinians, Lebanon, and Syria by countless terror-bombing attacks, naked aggression against a neighboring country.

Noting that the Joint (Arab) List party finished third to Gantz/Lapid's Blue & White and Netanyahu's Likud, Stephens debunked the reality of Israeli apartheid, ignoring powerless Arab Knesset members throughout Jewish state history.

The outcome of Israel's September 17 rerun election remains uncertain, both leading parties short of forming a ruling coalition majority so far.

Indisputably certain is no matter who governs, the fundamental rights of Arab citizens and Occupied Palestinians will be ignored like always before throughout Jewish state history.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

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