An enemy of the state in the parliament of that state — a fact that in itself belies the oppressive and racist character of the state as she describes it. “New Balad MK praises Iran’s nuke quest,” by Samuel Sokol in the Jerusalem Post, March 31 (thanks to Pamela):
New Balad party MK Haneen Zuabi, the first woman to be elected to the Knesset as a representative of an Arab party, has welcomed Iran’s growing influence on Palestinian affairs and praised Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon as a means of offsetting Israel’s regional military edge.
She should review her talking points on this. Iran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking nuclear weaponry — she is letting the cat out of the bag.
Having Israel as the region’s sole nuclear power, she said, was “dangerous to the world.”
Why? It is Iran’s leader who has threatened repeatedly to eradicate Israel, not the other way around.
Interviewed in English twice in recent days – in her Knesset office and in a Jerusalem hotel – Zuabi, one of Balad’s three MKs and the former director of the I’lam: Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel, said Iran’s role in Palestinian affairs was “more useful” than that of regimes like Jordan and Egypt, in that Iran stood more firmly “against occupation than a lot of the Arab countries. This is our interest.”
She said Egypt and Jordan were scared of a free and democratic Palestinian state.
Queried regarding Iran’s quest to manufacture nuclear weapons, Zuabi stated that having Israel as the region’s sole nuclear power was disadvantageous.
“It would be more supporting me to have a counter-power to Israel,” she said. “I need something to balance [Israel’s] power.”
22 Arab states and non-Arab Muslim powers such as Iran uttering constant threats against Israel, and she thinks Israel’s power is overwhelming.
Zuabi was asked if she felt worried, living among Jews, that Iran was getting close to acquiring a nuclear weapon. She replied: “No, I am not.”
Indeed, she said she was “more afraid from the Israeli nuclear [weapons].” […]
When asked if she thought that Israel would use nuclear weapons, she replied, “The Israelis? I think yes… And I am afraid from real risk rather than from potential risk.”
The Iranian bomb was only “a potential” threat. The real danger was the IDF, she said. “Every day the Israeli [army] uses its violence, army violence.”
Zuabi said that Israel was an aggressor state, and that only a situation similar to that which existed between the Soviet Union and United States in the form of the doctrine of “Mutually Assured Destruction” would restrain Israel.
“It is more dangerous to the world, more dangerous to everyone, more dangerous to the Palestinians, to Israelis, to have Israel as the only powerful state. I need something to balance its power because this balance of power will restrict the Israeli using of power.
“The Israeli violence of the army is an outcome of Israel’s convenient feeling that no one will restrict her, that no Arab country will really declare a war against [Israel].”
She added: “I believe that [Israel] would respect its use of power if she’s afraid from others. The fact that she is not afraid from Arab countries, the fact that she is not afraid from a potential declaration of our Arab world to declare war against Israel, makes Israel more violent. You understand me?”
Asked whether an Iranian bomb would make America nervous and lead to more US pressure on Israel, and whether that would be good from her point of view, Zuabi said: “Exactly.”
Zuabi declared that the very concept of a Jewish state was “inherently racist,” saying that Israel must be turned into a “state of all its citizens,” which would eliminate its Jewish or Zionist nature.
The Knesset Central Elections Committee disqualified the Balad party from running in the recent elections due to its members’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and reported calls for violence against it. The ban was overturned by the High Court of Justice. […]
Suicidal.