Sayla Benhabib writes in Blatter that Israel’s war against Hamas reflects three significant changes in international relations. First, protectionism, imperialism, and expansionism are alternatives to globalization, especially in the case of invasion or threat of invasion by Russia, the United States, China, and Israel. This is often justified in a way reminiscent of the Lebensraum ideology of the early 20th century.th It is a century with “a vision of an ethnicized and exclusive national identity.”
Second, the abandonment of multilateral human rights treaties in favor of bilateral treaties. Throughout the Cold War period, many multilateral agreements were concluded and international organizations were established. We are now witnessing the delegitimization and defunding of this infrastructure.
Third, national sovereignty is being reconceived as national immunity, and international law is consistently and openly defied in the interest of national interest or “security.” What is needed in the face of these changes is a new political imagination that challenges the return to 2019.th-The evil alliance between century thinking and the 21st centurycent– Military technology of the century.
Rather than framing Israel as a colonialist state, Benhabib argues that we need to recognize the multiethnic nature of Israeli society, which can form the basis of a truly pluralist future. “The time has come to silence the sounds of war and heal the wounds of the children of Gaza and all peoples of Israel and Palestine.”
Let our political imagination soar. One nation, two nations, a union. International lawyers, political philosophers, refugee scholars, and human rights experts must bring goodwill and intelligence to the peoples of these lands, including Jews, Palestinians, Christians, Druze, and Bedouins, so that they can build a future together.
decolonization matrix
Observing the jubilation of the left in Western Europe and North America after October 7, Eva Illouz traces the left’s anti-Zionism back to Soviet anti-Semitism.
The Soviet Union was the first to equate Zionism with imperialism, and thus logically to equate anti-imperialism with anti-Zionism. This “propaganda” was also picked up in the Arab world, where anti-Semitic Islamism was already influenced by Nazism. This complexity of identifying and defining the enemy was not understood by the Western left. Since the victim cannot be the perpetrator, Illuz argues, the anti-imperialist left simplified the story by equating Muslims with the oppressed proletariat and elevating their hostility towards Jews to a morally and politically sound revolutionary struggle.
This schema continues to play out today in ever more fantastical relationships, such as the one between the state of Israel and climate destruction introduced by Marxist ecologist Andreas Malm. Illuz calls such associations “wandering structures” that create identifications between disparate or even unrelated phenomena in order to tell a simple story of good and evil. If the left is to “survive as a humanitarian project,” she concluded, it must return to “the democratic virtues of complexity and truth.” The hope for the liberation of the Palestinian people lies here, not in a supposedly progressive hatred of the state of Israel.
state legislature
Wolfgang Kraushaar has created a list of contradictions that contribute to the paralysis of the German people and government in the face of the Israel-Hamas war. He began with the stated objectives of the Israeli operation: destroy Hamas and free the hostages. Each of these goals makes the other goals unattainable. Germany, on the other hand, declared that protecting the state of Israel was a matter of national interest and braced itself for failure. This effectively left Israel free to act in the name of self-defense without risking opposition from Germany.
Invoking the Holocaust to justify Germany’s uncritical loyalty to Israel does a disservice to the victims of the Nazis. Indeed, Kraushaar argues, it distorts their memories. This damages our own values. “Watching thousands of people being killed negligently or intentionally not only jeopardizes our moral understanding of ourselves, but also shames the norms enshrined in our Constitution.”
Israel’s AI-assisted targeted killing methods are particularly egregious in order to flaunt its rule of law and moral standards, such as destroying entire buildings occupied by alleged Hamas members with total disregard for civilian casualties. Kraushaar argues that the only way out of this barbarism is to vote Prime Minister Netanyahu out of office and bring about political change in Israeli society.
illiberal rap
Johannes Geck discovers ideological overlap and cooperation between white supremacists and immigrant artists in Germany’s gangster rap scene. In their lyrics, rappers such as Haftbefer, Kashmo and Koreger, who have millions of streams in Germany, often fantasize about destroying the state and its representatives, killing the Jews who supposedly run it all, and uniting as men to degrade women.
Whether the admired purebred is a “Germanic” or an immigrant race becomes almost irrelevant in the eyes of artists and fans. A shared hostility towards the liberal state and its perceived elitist culture, LGBTQ, feminism, etc. leads to lyrics such as: “And believe me when I say that most of my Kanaks feel the same way.” It’s the Germans who hate me, and Mehmet who greets me. ” There was absolutely no reason to be surprised when Kasmo, the author of these lyrics, recently co-recorded a song with Haftbefehr, who has Turkish roots and celebrates his immigrant identity.
Review by Millay Hyatt
Source: Eurozine – www.eurozine.com
