War Aims

Watching Livni yesterday on television greeting immigrants who had just made Aliyah it was interesting to hear her say that, "Israel is the only Jewish state," and I was tempted to think, does she believe that there should be another Jewish state? Which one would you like Tzipi? What about Australia, big enough to quench a Zionist's thirst, or Austria, yes, only fair that the "next" Jewish homeland be established in Austria. The point is Tzipi, the West that you like to claim affinity with doesn't have Catholic states, or Protestant states and even Turkey is a secular state. Alright, alright a lot of countries have, perhaps, a majority of Orthodox Christians or Catholics or Protestants or Atheists or Muslims, or whatever. However, at least as far as the law is concerned, they are all inclusive societies. Tzipi being British and Catholic or being British and Jewish or being British and Protestant or being British and Muslim or being British and Atheist ...... Anyway, do you get the point? Well, the point is a "Jewish Democracy" is a contradiction in terms and, while Israel is so concerned at seeing its place as protecting western civilisation, and that in fact sounds a bit like Dr Josef Goebels giving his blessing to the Nazi hoards that went looking for "Lebensraum" in the east, it is, in fact, right up there with the KSA and all of those other ridiculous non-secular, backward, states dotted all over the planet.
That brings me to another point and one that is more relevant to the murdering and massacring that is going on in Gaza as I write this. The Arab population on the land occupied by Israel is, more or less, equivalent numerically to the Jewish population and sooner or later demographics will unequivocally be on the side of the Arabs. Therefore, how does Israel protect the Jewish character of the state? Well, it continues what it began in 1948; it ethnically cleanses whole areas and if those areas cannot be ethnically cleansed, Israel no longer takes responsibility for them and this is why Gaza is being bombed. The hope is that either Egypt will take on the responsibility for Gaza or that it will open its borders and accept the hundreds of thousands of refugees who would avail themselves of the opportunity to flee once a ground offensive starts. Hosni Mubarak is most certainly not one of my favourite people. Nevertheless, however detrimental to the well-being of those suffering in Gaza his refusing to open the Rafah border crossing might be in the short term, for the medium and longer term perspective of the Palestinians, it is, perhaps, important that he doesn't.
Israel's aims are all too clear; firstly, Hamas are to be removed from the equation and Israel's "negotiating" partner is to be Abbas and Fatah, secondly, in the short term Egypt is to take on responsibility for Gaza before it becomes part of that Palestinian "state" that Abbas will be forced to accept in "negotiations" with Israel. This Palestinian "state" will be made up of a few "Bantustans" on the West Bank and Gaza and it will be totally reliant on the good will of the Israelis for its continued existance; the "Nakba", the occupation and the land grabs will fade from the collective Palestinian memory and we will all live happily ever after. That, of course, is not going to happen.