I just listened to Hardtalk on the BBC with Stephen Sakur who was interviewing Natli Bennett, a member of the Israel government and a probable coming PM after Nethanyahu. Though, I thought Bennett had retired, whatever.
Sakur tried to ask questions, but almost everytime the 'answer' was in the form of a question that questioned the premise the assumption inside Sakur's question! This is an old rhetorical trick.
Sakur had his work cut out. It's difficult to interview these Israelis because if one challenges them about their views, the interview rapidly begins to collapse, because they refuse to enter into any kind of discussion of the rightness of their views.
Bennett wanted Gaza destroyed and an Arab peacekeeping force deployed. There had to be a buffer zone established inside Gaza along the border. The ideology of Hamas of resistance had to be wiped out and this meant a total change in attitudes from the people in Gaza and new schools, teachers and schoolbooks! At the same time that Israel and Bennett said they wouldn't interfere in Gaza. He talked repeatedly about 'de-Nazification' in relation to Gaza.
Sakur pointed out the inconssistancis here and the idea that the Arabs would takeover responsibility for Gaza, that had been destroyed was a non-starter, Bennett's proposals were a pipe-dream.
Sakur could have challenged him, the possible coming PM, far more rigorously of course, but that quickly opens one up to the charge of being... 'anti-semitic', because that means questioning the fundamental character of the Israeli state, Zionism and their settle ideology.
There's little hope for the future then? Only if Israel is defeated on the battlefield. Then, perhaps they will be forced to settle for reality rather than their Zionist dreamworld of Greater Israel.
Sakur wanted to know how Israel really thought the millions of Palestinians would accept living under Israeli rule, for ever, as Bennett was against a two-state solution? This was a difficult paradox that he had no intention of addressing directly.
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