War on Gaza: As Palestinians suffer, liberal Zionists play the victim

Less than a year after Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, Jewish philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz published an article titled “The Territories,” criticising the Israeli occupation and the imposition of a military regime on millions of Palestinians. 

From this critique emerged the now-famous slogan: “The occupation corrupts” - a phrase that has become the foundation of arguments by many liberal Zionists. 

These individuals view the crimes of the occupation primarily as acts that corrupt their own morality, rather than fundamentally harming the lives of others. Palestinians are thus not people in their own right, but a backdrop to a story liberal Zionists tell about themselves. 

When a Palestinian dies, they see themselves as the true victim - their delicate conscience sullied by that death. As former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once remarked: “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.”

In this twisted logic, even while acknowledging that Israelis kill Palestinian children, they are still positioning themselves as the victim. 

Read more: War on Gaza: As Palestinians suffer, liberal Zionists play the victim