Israeli settlers want new govt be tough with Arabs

[bemildred]

ARIEL/SALFIT, West Bank: Israelis in the biggest settlement in the occupied West Bank say they will vote for right-wingers vowing a tough line with Palestinians on defending Jewish settlements and halting militant attacks.

They may well get one-polls forecast a win for opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday as well as a strong showing for his rightist former aide Avigdor Lieberman. Netanyahu is a former prime minister whose vision of peace talks has focused on shoring up the Palestinian economy rather than a separate state.

We hope Netanyahu will win," said Dina Timshin, a supermarket manager in Ariel, a Jewish settlement around 20,000 in the heart of the West Bank. "The world likes the Arabs, the whole world is protecting the Arabs.

---

Netanhayu is just about money. Lieberman will be like Stalin in dealing with the Arabs," said Ira Isacov, a shop worker who came to Israel 14 years ago. "Stalin, Lenin and Lieberman-they are strong men. Netanyahu's weak.

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=ODIzMDkzMTI5

[oberliner]

1. How is the Kuwait Times conducting interviews with Israeli settlers? nt

[bemildred]

2. It's an AFP story. See at the bottom. nt

[oberliner]

5. Duh- thanks!

Shoulda caught that

[GoesTo11]

3. Dog bites man.

Israeli settlers kind of self-select for this view.

[bemildred]

4. I find it all kind of Alice-in-Wonderlandy.

"The world likes the Arabs, the whole world is protecting the Arabs."

---

"Stalin, Lenin and Lieberman-they are strong men. Netanyahu's weak."

http://z.about.com.nyud.net:8090/d/politicalhumor/1/0/n/U/moran.jpg

[LeftishBrit]

6. All sadly predictable...

The only slightly surprising thing is Isacov's admiration for Stalin and Lenin; a bit odd on the far-right (I wonder if he is an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, which would in a way make this even odder?). But I suppose it's one more refelction of the truly RW nature of Stalinism.

Also note the typical justification by the Israeli exceptionalist far-right: 'the whole world is protecting the Arabs' - implying 'everyone's against us so we have to act on our own and be tough'. This is one of my objections to boycotts: that it will just feed into this mindset. (Of course the whole world is not protecting the Arabs - certainly not protecting the Palestinians- and we are here seeing the paranoia of the Right.)

For the rest, it just seems to be RW settlers being RW settlers. Let's hope they do NOT get their way electorally!

[Jefferson23]

7. Like Stalin, not weak like Netanyahu, nice, just let it all hang out, don't hold

back now.