Sparks Fly Again

Yesterday veteran South African journalist Allister Sparks decided to once again use his bi-monthly column to peddle the one-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Readers will remember the controversy a similar column by Sparks produced last year.) His recent column was published by all Independent Group newspapers across the country.

Much of the article was taken from that awful book Seeking Mandela written by Heribert Adams and Kogila Moodely (see IAS’s review of this book). This confused book looks at the similarities and differences between Israel/Palestine and Apartheid South Africa. Spark’s article does honestly reflect the confused views of the original authors. Although they believe there are many differences between Zionist Israel and Apartheid South Africa, the Jewish state, in their opinion, is in many instances worse. They support a 2 state solution but only as an interim step towards a one state solution and so on…

As most other anti-Israel leftists, Sparks’ major gripe is the Jewish nature of the state. He finds the concept of an ethno-nationalist state, be it Apartheid South Africa or Zionist Israel, repugnant, while he believes multi-cultural states like the new South Africa are the solution to social injustice and the promotion of human rights. I not only disagree with this premise that ethno-nationalist states are by their nature racist but also think multi-culturalism is way overrated and not always practical.

I just can’t believe that such an educated man as Sparks makes no adjustment to his ideological position for the fact that Hamas is now the Palestinian government. Not only does he expect Jews to give up on their internationally recognised right to national self-determination, but in fact their very right to life.

Hamas exposes a lethal variant of anti-Semitism not dissimilar to the Nazis. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Hamas leader, June 10, 2003, in an interview with Al-Jazeera put it well when he explained

‘By God, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine. We will fight them with all the strength we have. This is our land, not the Jews… You will have no security except outside the homeland Palestine…. We have Allah on our side.’

Now Sparks expects us Zionists to support the idea, that Israel’s 5 million Jews must live in a state that will ultimately be controlled by these murderous anti-Semites. How long does he think it will take before they impose their final solution to Palestine’s Jewish problem? It’s just absurd: this solution is now so obviously a non-starter.

Why do Sparks and his ilk continue - even in the face of insurmountable practicalities - to fight against Jewish ethno-nationalism thousands of miles away? Why is it that ethno-nationalist states like Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana on our border are not derided in his bi-monthly columns? Why does Sparks never call on the 22 Arab ethno-nationalist states to embrace multi-culturalism?

I see only 2 possible explanations. Firstly his objection to only Jewish nationalism could result from a deep rooted anti-Semitism. I don’t believe this to be the case as he did oppose the ethno-nationalist nature of White South Africa as well.

So the second possible explanation is that his world view is deeply clouded by an innate colonialist mentality. What he is really saying is that tribalism/ethnicity is okay for Blacks and Arabs but not for whites. It’s okay to have a despotic king in Swaziland running a tribal homeland or an all powerful emir in the gulf ruling ethno-religious fiefdom because they are non-White and that’s how non-Whites live best. Isn’t it quaint he must think?

But Jewish Israel is White. Even the fact that they are a democracy is not good enough. Whites are above ethnicity. For them it is an anachronism. For White people, the only way to lead a civilised existence is multi-culturalism. In this modern day and age, I find this racist outlook appalling. Mr Sparks truth be told YOU are the anachronism.

Comments

[Gary]

allister Sparks denies Israel's right to exist and calls for a 'unitary' Arab dominated 'Palestine' to replace Israel, in which Jews would be a helpless minority at the mercy and whim of HAMAS , as the Jews in Europe and the Arab countries (from which 800 000 Jews where expelled in 1948.) were at the mercy of their persecutors. If Spark's suggestion became a reality, Jews would wait, huddled in their ghettos, to be massacred by the Arabs.
Sparks and others who call for Israel's replacement by a 'unitary Palestine' know full well that this would lead to a second Holocaust of Israel's five million Jews.

How well did the 'unitary state ' work in Lebanon where hundreds of thousands of Christian Lebanese were massacred by the PLO and Syrians and went from being a majority in 1975 to a minority today? How well did the Animist and Christian Nilotic Blacks fare in Sudan where millions have been massacred, or the Kurds in Iraq where 800 000 were butchered by Saddam Hussein?We all know how minorities fare in Arab countries and what makes anyone think the Jews in Spark's suggested 'unitary Palestine' would fare any better, given the amount of hate in Palestinian society for Israel's Jews.

The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more (especially after Hitler's Holocaust). So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact.The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards, Jews in the Land of Israel have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed, who would raise no hand in their defense, were robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs - as where the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias. Bedouin Arabs passed through Land of Israel at will-and robbed and killed Jews for profit. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Arab feudal lords in the Land of Israel organized pogroms precisely as the Tsar had organized pogroms.

In 1920 Jews where massacred by Arabs in Jerusalem, in 1921 in Jaffa and in 1929 in Hebron. Thousands of Jews where murdered in 1936 to 1939 in the Nazi inspired Arab Revolt. Since 1948 Arabs have launched wars against Israel to try to drive Jews into the sea and since Arafat launched the latest war in 2000, after rejecting a peace deal, thousands of Jewish men women and children have died in Israel by bomb, bullet and knife. Jews will never again be put into a position where they can be subjected to another Holocaust (particularly in the ancient Jewish homeland)
Never again!
Long live the Jewish State of Israel

[mike]

well put Gary. well put!

[Evan]

It's funny how these columnists take for granted that Israel is a "White" nation, while it is probably the most ethnically diverse state in the Middle East.

Then again, the Palestinian narrative holds that Arab natives were dispossed of their homeland by colonists from Europe - in other words, it's the classic colonial narrative - and it's gobbled up by guilt-ridden liberals everywhere.
Such a reductive outlook ignores the fact that Jews weren't often considered "White" or "European" despite living centuries in Europe, or the fact that more than half of Israel's population are not "White" at all - having migrated from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Then again, why let nuance spoil a good story?

The "bright" Sparks of this world should think of actually visiting Israel sometime.

[Nils]

I have been reading Mr. Sparks opinion columns for a long time. The expectation of any sort of balanced comment from him is just about zero. Almost in the same class as Robert Fisk!

[Mike]

Evan, great point. It is unbelievable how the Palestinians have managed to impose the classic European colonial narrative onto the conflict. What I find perhaps the most remarkable is their claim that they are the true indigenous inhabitants of the land of Israel. This ridiculous historical forgery that they are the decedents of the Canaanites was constantly repeated by the previous Palestinian ambassador to South Africa on radio talk shows. I recently read a quote form Yassir Arafat in which he described Jesus as the first Palestinian Fedahyin.

[Just a Caring Individual]

snore....

[Gary]

Sparks and countless other leftwing academicians claim that the State of Israel must not be allowed to exist because the 'nation state is an anachronism'
What bull!
Are they going to force the 6 States of the former Yugoslavia back together?
Are they going to force states like Lithuania , Estonia , Moldova etc back into the Soviet Union?
The world lauded the creation of the NATION STATE of East Timor after the UN approved a it's seccession from Indonesia.
I think in the years to come we will see new independent nation states emerging.

So people must know that it is just the Jewish State these Stalinist apparatchiks have a problem with.
All decent humans , Jew or gentile, need to oppose the 'one state solution' for what it really is , a 'final solution' that will lead to a second holocaust.

[Lara]

"academicians"?????

[Anti-UN]

Ya, its weird how people make up their own words thinking that it makes their case stronger.

Islamofascist, IslamoNazi, "academician", Zionazi...the list goes on but i cant be bothered to right them all up.

Dont get me wrong, I am as pro-Israel as Bibi Netanyahu is, but I am getting so bored with all these make up words that those blinkered folks on both sides use.

Time to stop playing the semantics games and get to the facts (which this blog does, unlike some of the intl ones like IsraPundit.)

[Gary]

Look it up in the Oxfor dictionary or just google it , and you will see that 'academicians' is a genuine word , and not made up at all!

[Mike]

Thanks anti-UN for the kind words. We do our best to cut out the rhetoric and focus on the facts.