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Opinions/Editorials Title: Israel's Image Is Changing The Arab poet Adonis writes, "the Israeli policy has a peculiar dictionary — linguistically, intellectually and ethically. Whoever contradicts its rules and standards, even if rightly, is already dubbed as mistaken. There is no place for truth outside that dictionary". Israel, according to growing world opinion, has become an "insane state", "a pirate state", "illegal", "suicidal", "ignorant in history", "brutal" and "disdaining of humanity", to quote only a few expressions describing Israel. These symptoms started to appear after the end of the Cold War, when America and Europe's need for the Zionist state diminished. Due to Israeli insanity, international criticism has increased on such issues as colonies, savage aggression against Gaza, atrocious occupation that never ends but leads to Israeli apartheid, the counterfeiting of allies' passports, secret nuclear policy and, finally, the fatal attack committed in international waters against international activists who participated in the Freedom Flotilla. In Suicide State, Israel's Nehemia Shtrasler writes, "Even yesterday's good friends consider us a burden today. Not just Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called the flotilla raid ‘state terror', but also the representatives of Brazil, Austria and Mexico who demanded that Israel lift the blockade of Gaza. EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton, and UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, criticised Israel for the ‘disproportionate use of force'. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not mince words either, nor President Barack Obama, who supports a credible, transparent international investigation ..." No longer privileged The old western position, whereby Israel was considered an exception, has changed. Israel was considered an "heir of the Holocaust" and its existence was "endangered by its larger neighbouring countries", hence Israel's "right" to bypass laws not only with its enemies, but with allies as well. Today, the world is seeing Israel the way we see it: as a state obsessed with fear of the future and controlled by superstitious religious beliefs and fascist Zionist ideology. Half a century ago, the Jewish-American thinker Martin Buber admitted the Zionist movement was falling prey to racism. He wrote, "Hitler showed that history does not follow the path of the mind, but that of power, and that when a people is quite strong, it can kill with impunity … This is the situation that we had to combat … We failed in saving the Jewish nationality from being ‘transformed into an idol'." In Seven idiots in the Cabinet, Yossi Sarid wrote, "Seven ministers versus seven ships — not aircraft carriers, or even destroyers, but small boats, laden with hundreds of people. Not all are righteous, but neither are they terrorists. But suddenly, without warning, this barely seaworthy flotilla became a threatening armada … And it's disturbing to think about our army, which trips every time it is ordered to march … Elite units are supposed to know how to take over a ship without sinking the state ... How did we become so devoid of confidence in our ends? … So the septet will persist in its evil ways, endangering us more than any ship could, for madness will rule us … And we will continue to fear our leaders — as if we didn't have enough to fear in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad". The increased fear in Israel about the state's growing illegality and international unpopularity have prompted some damage control, such as the declaration that Tel Aviv will "radically" ease the siege on Gaza. The Israeli Zionist Root Institute's report concludes that (A) Israel's growing illegality threatens its existence; (B) the Jewish Diaspora and NGOs should be organised to support Israel and counteract the international network focused on delegitimising Israel; (C) the networks focused on delegitimising Israel should be challenged in their hubs (London, Paris, Toronto and Madrid), and isolated from those who provide them with volunteers, funds and information; and (D) the negative image of Israel — that it is prone to aggression and violation of international law — must be addressed and a positive image promoted, in part by accusing the country's opponents of ‘anti-Semitism'. Given all this, Haaretz reported that Ehud Barak, Israel's Defence Minister and the Labour Party leader, said he demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "forge a plan for a political settlement with the Palestinians to tackle the essential issues in order to make real political steps". Inevitable Regardless, the deterioration in Israel's international relations is a logical consequence of its continued atrocities and the revolutionary increase in international awareness due to the transformation of the world into a "global village", wherein any world citizen can follow — and even watch — all important world events. However, can one expect anything but insanity from this Israeli extremist right-wing government, which still insists on not seeing its own ugly face, policy and practices? This is why its aggressive and racist mentality could deteriorate even further. Netanyahu's declarations — and those of his Cabinet members, such as Avigdor Lieberman and even the supposedly liberal Labour leader Barak — emphasise this. To give one example, Haaretz quoted Barak as saying, "A political initiative will break us out of the isolation and prevent phenomena like the flotillas to the Gaza Strip and international investigations … There have been governments in Israel that were able to operate freely from a military point of view only because they initiated political moves".
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