Smotrich says half of Gazans can be 'encouraged' to leave within two years

[David__77]

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that Israel should occupy Gaza and “encourage” half of the Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinians to emigrate within two years.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Israeli municipalities in the West Bank, Smotrich said that “it is possible to create a situation where Gaza’s population will be reduced to half its current size in two years.”

…

https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-says-half-of-gazans-can-be-encouraged-to-leave-within-two-years/

[AloeVera]

1. The end game from the start.

It was the point of the destruction of Gaza and the terror inflicted on the people. Kill, maim, the traumatize and immiserate to such an extent people would rather swim across the Mediterranean than stay. It's the new "voluntary migration".

[Igel]

8. Don't know what that would accomplish.

I mean, that would still leave Gaza with 3 times the population it had when the Isrealis took Gaza over from their previous hegemon, Egypt.

I would reduce overcrowding, but elimination it isn't.

And it's still better than what a lot of sympathy-inducing groups in the area want for Israel, so it's hard to feel all that righteous about one partial ethnic cleansing over another without being reduced to ahistorical tropes masking as historical truths.

[AloeVera]

11. You don't understand what ethnic cleansing accomplishes?

Surely you do.

There is no such thing as "partial" ethnic cleansing - just ethnic cleansing, which definitely is not "elimination" if by that you mean the removal of every single last native person from their land. It can't be minimized or excused away that way.

I'm not sure what your argument really is. What is an ahistorical trope? The current ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza? Obviously not.

You seem to be saying that the ethnic cleansing is not so bad because Israel is also threatened with it. As if the imagined, future threat of something awful happening justifies or minimizes the awful thing happening right now. Committed by the very people who claim to be the ones threatened, the very people who are nuclear-armed, have the best military and who have brutally occupied another people and perhaps should look at why they are hated by their neighbours.

I don't buy into that kind of moral quagmire way of thinking. You'd be surprised at how many people don't.

[Beastly Boy]

12. Oh please do tell! What does ethnic cleansing accomplish?

You speak of ethnic cleansing with the confidence of an authority whose presumptions are to be taken for granted from the outset. But the best I can make of how you define ethnic cleansing is that it is something that Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza.

With all due respect, it is on you to demonstrate how and whether what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza conforms to the definition of ethnic cleansing, not the other way around. And in order to do this, you must first articulate what you mean by ethnic cleansing and on what authority. Only then can you determine whether what you mean resembles the established definition of the term.

... Judging by how casually you use "ethnic cleansing" in a sentence, I anticipate that the former will bear little or no resemblance to the latter.

[Beastly Boy]

2. Fuck Smotrich!

Saying that he speaks for Israel is like saying David Duke speaks for America.

[Israeli]

4. Only David Duke

is not a senior member of America's government, is he ?

[Beastly Boy]

6. Not for lack of trying.

Last edited Thu Nov 28, 2024, 08:02 AM - Edit history (1)

He ran for President, US Senate, US House of representatives, Louisiana Governor, and won a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives.

The analogy is not that precise, but it's close. Smotrich's membership in the Israeli government is due exclusively to Netanyahu's attempts to remain in power and avoid his legal issue. Nehanyahu suspected it would be disastrous to Israel but went for the right-wing coalition as a last resort, at Israel's expense. Israel is paying for it now. He thought that he is so savvy and smart being a politician that he could keep control over his right wing partners. Instead, they, including Smotrich, control him now ( I remember telling you once that whenever Netanyahu opens his mouth, I hear Smotrich talking).

As far as analogies to governmental titles, Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense, may be closer: an unrepentant bigot, a white supremacist, a militant, a top echelon propagandist. Smotrich is as representative of Israel as this bigot is representative of the US.

Either analogy is good for me.

[magicarpet]

3. Next up the West Bank,...

.... some very fertile farm land there that the Jewish settlers want as their own. Drive out the Palestinians with 2,000 lb. US bombs. Trdumpee will be more than glad to accommodate Netanyahu.

[C0RI0LANUS]

5. So giddy with the success of the Nakba, the Likudniks can't help but slip their true intentions.

[Beastly Boy]

7. Smotrich is not a likudnik.

And Likud was founded in 1973, some 25 years after the War of Independence.

[C0RI0LANUS]

9. True, Smotrich is not a Likudnik but he's in their cabinet as Finance Minister and he's Rightwing, unlike us DU-ers.

In 2005, the ISA (Shin Bet) arrested Smotrich who was in possession of 700 liters of gasoline and suspected of participating in an attempt to blow up Ayalon Highway. He was held in jail for three weeks but not charged after refusing to speak.



In 2006, Smotrich helped organize the "Beast Parade" as part of protests against a gay pride parade in Jerusalem.




In the US, Libertarians swear and avow that they are not Republicans, but somehow they seem to vote in line with GOP interests.


Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezalel_Smotrich

[Beastly Boy]

10. Smotrich is the most extreme right winger in today's right wing government of Israel.

Last edited Wed Nov 27, 2024, 11:48 PM - Edit history (1)

It is important for us DUers to know this in the event we decide to post comments about extreme right wingers' views so we don't confuse them with those of the mainstream Israeli politics.

It would also help to not mix up historical references in our posts.