In his video, he said any demands that Jews leave their West Bank settlements was “outrageous”. Hours after it was released, the State Department condemned Netanyahu’s…
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As of this writing, the post of the video has received more than 13,000 likes on Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook page.
It is a pretty sensational charge – especially given the context.
Most countries view Israeli West Bank settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace. “I’ve always been perplexed by this notion”.
Last week, after Israel approved the building of 284 new housing units in West Bank settlements, the United States said the policies could expand settlements in a “potentially unlimited way”.
Netanyahu noted “Israel’s diversity” which manifests in “the almost two million Arabs living” in the Jewish state and reflects its “openness and readiness for peace”. That’s because they aren’t.
“Arabs live and work side by side with Israelis in the State of Israel”.
On the contrary. Israel’s diversity shows its openness and readiness for peace. Mr. Netanyahu earlier this week spoke of the PA plan of having a Judenrein Palestinian state, stating unequivocally that the PA is guilty of ethnic cleansing.
The Palestinian president is accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing”, days after Israel’s leader lobbed that same allegation at the Palestinians.
A document from a British archive collection suggests that current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was once a K.G.B. agent for the Soviets during the Cold War era.
Palestinian officials allegedly laughed at the report and its implications, saying that this is just another attempt to “slander” Abbas’s name.
There are also Israeli Trump campaign offices in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Modi’in devoted to registering American citizens in Israel to vote and convincing them to vote for Trump and the Republican ticket.
Obviously, the Palestinians today can not “ethnically cleanse” any Jews.
We call upon America’s Jewish organizations, particularly those who focus on fighting bigotry and hatred in the public sphere, to repudiate Netanyahu’s comments.
Israel, as well as Palestine, are in fact all too familiar with ethnic cleansing and have themselves witnessed it-only in the real world-Palestine has been the victim.
Duss quoted Hanan Ashrawi, a top Palestinian leader, who told Israeli journalists in 2014: “Any person, be he Jewish, Christian or Buddhist, will have the right to apply for Palestinian citizenship”.
In his video, Netanyahu asked: “Would you accept ethnic cleansing in your state? A territory without Jews, which Hispanics, without Blacks?”
Prime Minister Netanyahu certainly knew what sort of response his video would get when he chose to use the term ethnic cleansing. It’s about time somebody said it.
One of his spokesmen, David Keyes, said Netanyahu was not responding to any recent statements by the Palestinian leadership.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his envoys invited PM Netanyahu and President Abbas to meet in Russia. This is a little like saying the sun will rise tomorrow.
“The central question is whether Mahmoud Abbas is ready to meet without preconditions”.
But maybe something bigger is brewing?
Levy further argued that the state of Israel continues to have the cleansing mentality and goal at its core while it daily carries out “microcleansings” in the West Bank, Negev desert and Jerusalem.
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Worldwide criticism of Israeli settlement building, including from the United States, has intensified in recent months.
