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Wealthy Donor Calls Israel Dead

Written by Subject: Israel

Wealthy Donor Calls Israel Dead

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Israel relies on support from wealthy Jewish and other donors to supplement billions of dollars gotten from Washington annually. 

Losing enough of what private donors provide would be a significant material and symbolic body blow - long overdue.

Will Vivien Duffield do the right thing? One of Israel's largest donors, she calls the country "dead" over enactment of its apartheid nation-state law.

It's an obscenity by any standard, what I called Israel's version of Nazi Germany's anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws.

Duffield donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Israel, one of the country's largest longstanding donors, greatly disturbed about how the Netanyahu regime operates.

"The Israel that I knew and loved…is dead," she said, adding: "Do I like Israel at the moment? No, I hate Israel." 

"I think it's a strong word, but I disapprove of everything. The vote in parliament (for the apartheid nation-state law) was appalling, absolutely terrible."

It's a high crime against humanity, she should have stressed, but her anger about what happened is very much welcomed.

She's absolutely right calling the new law "apartheid. (F)or for the English, who remember South Africa, this is South Africa! This is one rule for one group and another rule for the other."

"Our foundation donates to science, to education, to health and to Arabs. To the cores of diversity in Israel. We were the first to give anything to the Arab communities - not only to the veterans, to" help Arab people.

She recalled how oppressed Arabs lived after Israel's preemptive June 1967 six-day war of aggression against Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

Claiming it was self-defense to avoid annihilation was a bald-faced lie - later admitted by future prime ministers and IDF generals.

One general said years of planning went into the "initial eighty minutes," adding: "We lived with the plan. We slept on the plan. We ate the plan…We perfected it."

Another IDF general said "(w)e were not threatened with genocide on the eve of the six-day war, and we had never thought of such a possibility."

Except for the 1973 Yom Kippur war, all Israeli wars from inception were and remain naked aggression against invented enemies.

Duffield opposes illegal settlements. "(T)hey keep on doing it," she said. "It cannot end well." She always believed Israel won't survive as the country she remembered decades earlier.

Will Israel's persecution of Palestinians affect her foundation's activities in the country?

"I don't know," she said. "It's too early to say, but I'm very angry. I will make absolutely sure that Arabic is still part of every project we do." 

"I will not do a project without Arabic being there. But it's very difficult. I think every move that Mr. Netanyahu makes is a catastrophe. It's very difficult to defend Israel." 

She could use her wealth responsibly. Cease all donations to Israel. Shift them to help long-suffering Palestinians, especially besieged Gazans.

Go to Gaza. See what's going on. Stand with the people. Declare opposition to the suffocating blockade. 

Announce a shift in charitable giving away from Israel to Palestinians throughout the Territories, prioritizing humanitarian aid for Gazans.

Maybe she'll encourage other wealthy donors to do the same thing.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

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www.universityofreason.com/a/29887/KWADzukm