Golan, who entered politics five years ago after a career in the army, is one of the most prominent of the many brave Israelis who took matters into their own hands that day to save others. His new image as a hero has given his political career a shot in the arm – and he has decided his new mission is to revive his country’s moribund left.
“The right today in Israel is people who think we can annex millions of Palestinians, and Israel should adopt some sort of policy of revenge, that we can live by our swords and not attempt to reconcile with the Palestinians or any other hostile entity in the region. I think 180 degrees the opposite.”
Israeli politics has changed, Golan said. “I’m not sure whether Israel right now is truly a democratic state any more … It is not a question of left or right any more: these titles are meaningless,” he said.
This premise is invalid. Hamas governed Gaza for the past fifteen years, not Israel. Palestinians held elections until they voted in Hamas, which put an end to that. Israel maintained a blockade, but Egypt also strictly controlled Gaza trade and passage at Rafah. Not being able to ship stuff from your ports sucks, but Hamas made no good faith efforts to really improve the security situation to enable easy trade through Egypt. Having significant external influence over a region doesn’t mean you are their government.
Blatantly untrue. Palestinians in the occupied territories did not hold elections before 2006. The first and only Palestinian election was held as a result of the second Intifada, and after the election the international community refused to accept the result because Hamas didn’t agree to denounce violent resistance (which of course they didn’t because peace doesn’t work with Israel).
Oh I guess this is fake news
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Palestine
Okay admittedly I didn’t know an election was held in 1996. That said, the PNA was (and still is) an Israeli subcontractor, and not at all a state in any sense of the word. The implication that Palestinians had political independence is false. When I said elections I meant elections as a state, which only happened in 2005-2006 after Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005.
OK. Now do the West Bank.
Does Mahmoud Abbas not exist?
Oh, is he stealing land, building illegal settlements and oppressing the people living in the West Bank?