"What are You Doing? What Have You Become?"
Israel as an Extension of American Empire
By JEFF HALPER
There are many tragic and self-destructive features of the Occupation for
Israel itself. Although the country was founded on the "original sin" of
exclusivity and the expulsion of the refugees, it nevertheless had (has?)
the potential to develop into a normal, even progressive society. Many of
the socialist principles that accompanied the Zionist program led in those
directions. Israel always talked of democracy, even extending citizen****p
to
its Arab population in 1948, even though the underlying concept of a
"Jewish
democracy," coupled with a deep-based fear of demographics only
exacerbated
by the Occupation, has emptied that of much of its content. It constituted
itself as a welfare state, only to see that largely dismantled as the
Israel-Palestine conflict gave dominance to the right whose agenda,
together
with expansion, was anti-socialist and pro-privatization. Israel became a
member of the Socialist International and engaged in constructive
development work in Africa, Asia and Latin America, but its need for
military strength, coupled with a self-serving "alliance" with the US, has
led to become a major arms dealer on a global scale, a subverter of
progressive civil society elements throughout the developing world.
Continued
http://www.counterpunch.org/halper11072005.html
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