Uri Avnery is a long term Israeli peace activist, left wing activist, journalist and politician and always worth reading. He has been an advocate of a two state solution since the estalishment of the state of Israel back in 1948 and originally avocated a broad anti-colonialist alliance of Jews and Arabs to liberate the "Semitic Region" (his term for the Middle East) from imperialism and colonialism.
I regularly pick up his articles at the Information Clearing House which is where I saw this piece reflecting ruefully on the current situation in Israel/Palestine. I want to quote some of his observations here.
On the recent international conference on Gaza:
And on the current state of play on the peace process in Israeli politics:
While I respect Avnery I think the time of the Two State solution has passed, if there ever could be such a time. It was killed when Israel began the settlements in the Palestinian territories. I can't see any way of dislodging those people voluntarily. Many of them are fanatics and deeply immured in a disturbing racism against their Arab neighbours. The only possibility for a Two State solution would be if the settlers accepted citizenship in the new Palestinian state and gave up the perks and privileges they currently enjoy, provided by the Israeli government.
My personal view is that there were two catastrophes for the Jewish people/s in the 20th century. The first was the Nazi Holocaust and the second was the Zionist triumph through the establishment of the state of Israel. The latter was dependent on the former. Mass extermination of the Jews of Europe meant the elimination of both the political and religious opposition to Zionism within the Jewish world. People today don't realise that prior to the Holocaust Zionism was regarded as an anti-religious and even blasphemous and sacrilegious movement by Orthodox and Hasidic Jewry. The great rabbinical schools of Orthodox and Hasidic Judaism were based in the Eastern European heartland and were destroyed by the Nazis. In the post-war period, amongst the Jewish emigres in Palestine primarily there was a reconfiguration of Judaism to re-orient along Zionist lines. This actually marked significant rupture with Rabbinic tradition, a rupture that could only have been successful following the elimination of the great mass of European Jewry and it s religious leadership and the concomitant severe trauma amongst the surviving populations. But the Zionist triumph and the state of Israel represented a catastrophe, ehtical, spiritual, cultural as severe as the Nazi Holocaust. However there are surviviors who remain steadfast to the older form of Orthodox Judaism. You can find links ot them in he list of Some Interesting Sites down the side below.
Just as tragically Zionism has resulted in a similar spiritual and ethical catastrophe in US Protestant Evangelaical and Charismatic Christianity. Riddled with the heresy of dispensationalism, these Christians have become infected with a most nasty form of Christian Zionism, which, as with the Jewish settlers of the West Bank, has corrupted them with a vile form racism against Arab people, as well as providing a basis for a masked but vuirulent form of anti-Semitism entertaining fantasies of a destruction of the Jewish peoples that would make Hitler's attempts look like child's play.
Even if it was morally tenable, the Two State solution is no longer viable thanks to the settlements. The only solution I can see is the creation of a secular, democratic state of Palestine with its capital in Jerusalem with citizenship for all: Jewish, Arab, Armenian, Russian and Greek; Christian, Muslim, Druze, Rabbinic Jew, Karaite, Samaritan, Bahai, Raelian, agnostic, atheist and all.
I regularly pick up his articles at the Information Clearing House which is where I saw this piece reflecting ruefully on the current situation in Israel/Palestine. I want to quote some of his observations here.
If you stop any ten random passers-by in a Tel Aviv street and ask them what they think about the chances of peace, nine of them will shrug their shoulders and answer: It won’t happen. No chance. The conflict will just go on forever.
They will not say: We don’t want peace, the price of peace is too high. On the contrary, many will declare that for peace they are ready to give back the occupied territories, even East Jerusalem, and let the Palestinians have a state of their own. Sure. Why not? But, they will add: No chance. There will be no peace.
Some will say: The Arabs don’t want it. Others will say: Our leaders can’t do it. But the conclusion is the same: It just won’t happen.
A similar poll of Palestinians would probably yield the same results: We want peace. Peace would be wonderful. But there’s no chance. It won’t happen.
This mood has produced the same political situation on both sides. In the Palestinian elections, Hamas won, not because of its ideology but because it expresses the despair of peace with Israel. In the Israeli elections, there was a general move to the Right: Leftists voted for Kadima, Kadima people voted for Likud, Likud people voted for the fascist factions.
Without hope there is no Left. The Left is by nature optimistic, it believes in a better future, in the chance of changing everything for the better. The Right is by nature pessimistic. It does not believe in the possibility of changing human nature and society for the better, it is convinced that war is a law of nature.
On the recent international conference on Gaza:
On TV we were shown a uniquely impressive conference, a huge assembly of world leaders, who all came to Sharm-el-Sheikh. Who was not there? Chinese and Japanese rubbed shoulders with Saudis and Qataris. Nicholas Sarkozy was everywhere (Indeed, it was well-nigh impossible to take a photo without the hyper-active French president appearing in it somewhere.) Hillary Clinton was the star. Hosni Mubarak celebrated his achievement in getting them all together on Egyptian soil..
And for what? For little, poor Gaza. It has to be rebuilt. It was a celebration of sanctimonious hypocrisy, in the very best tradition of international diplomacy.
First of all, nobody from Gaza was there. As in the heyday of European imperialism, 150 years ago, the fate of the Natives was decided without the Natives themselves being present. Who needs them? After all, they are Primitives. Better without them.
Not only Hamas was absent. A delegation of Gaza businessmen and civil society activists could not come either. Mubarak just did not allow them to pass the Rafah crossing. The gate of the prison called Gaza was barred by the Egyptian jailers.
The absence of delegates from Gaza, and especially from Hamas, turned the conference into a farce. Hamas rules Gaza. It won the elections there, as in all the Palestinian territories, and continues to govern it even after one of the mightiest armies in the world spent 22 days trying to dislodge it. Nothing will happen in the Gaza Strip without the consent of Hamas. The world-wide decision to rebuild Gaza without the participation of Hamas is sheer foolishness.
And on the current state of play on the peace process in Israeli politics:
This is now a test for all those who stood at the cradle of the “Two State” idea some 60 years ago.
This vision was – and remains – the only viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The sole realistic alternative is the continuation of the present situation – occupation, oppression, Apartheid, war. But the enemies of this vision have smartened up and pretend to support it on every occasion.
Avigdor Liberman is in favor of “Two States”. Absolutely. He spells it out: several Palestinian enclaves, each of them surrounded by the Israeli military and by settlers like himself. These Bantustans will be called “a Palestinian state”. An ideal solution, indeed: the State of Israel will be cleansed of Arabs, but will continue to rule over all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Binyamin Netanyahu has a similar vision, but differently worded: the Arabs will “govern themselves”. They will govern their towns and villages, but not the territory, neither the West Bank nor the Gaza Strip. They will have no army, of course, and no control of the airspace over their heads, neither will they have any physical contact with neighboring countries. Menachem Begin used to call this “autonomy”.
But there will be “economic peace”. The Palestinian economy will “flourish”. Even Hillary Clinton ridiculed this idea publicly before meeting with Netanyahu.
Tzipi Livni wants “Two Nation-States”. Yes’ Ma’m. When? Well… First of all there have to be negotiations, unlimited in time. They did not come to fruition during the years she has been conducting them, nor have they got anywhere at all. Ehud Olmert speaks about the “Political Process” – why did he not bring it to a successful conclusion during the years of his stewardship? How long must the “Process” go on? Five years? Fifty? Five hundred
So Hillary speaks about “Two States”. Speaks with great vigor. Is ready to speak about it with any Israeli government that will be set up, even if inspired by the ideas of Meir Kahane. The main thing is that they talk with Mahmoud Abbas, and that Abbas in the meantime receives money, a lot of money.
An EXTREME right-wing government is about to be set up.
While I respect Avnery I think the time of the Two State solution has passed, if there ever could be such a time. It was killed when Israel began the settlements in the Palestinian territories. I can't see any way of dislodging those people voluntarily. Many of them are fanatics and deeply immured in a disturbing racism against their Arab neighbours. The only possibility for a Two State solution would be if the settlers accepted citizenship in the new Palestinian state and gave up the perks and privileges they currently enjoy, provided by the Israeli government.
My personal view is that there were two catastrophes for the Jewish people/s in the 20th century. The first was the Nazi Holocaust and the second was the Zionist triumph through the establishment of the state of Israel. The latter was dependent on the former. Mass extermination of the Jews of Europe meant the elimination of both the political and religious opposition to Zionism within the Jewish world. People today don't realise that prior to the Holocaust Zionism was regarded as an anti-religious and even blasphemous and sacrilegious movement by Orthodox and Hasidic Jewry. The great rabbinical schools of Orthodox and Hasidic Judaism were based in the Eastern European heartland and were destroyed by the Nazis. In the post-war period, amongst the Jewish emigres in Palestine primarily there was a reconfiguration of Judaism to re-orient along Zionist lines. This actually marked significant rupture with Rabbinic tradition, a rupture that could only have been successful following the elimination of the great mass of European Jewry and it s religious leadership and the concomitant severe trauma amongst the surviving populations. But the Zionist triumph and the state of Israel represented a catastrophe, ehtical, spiritual, cultural as severe as the Nazi Holocaust. However there are surviviors who remain steadfast to the older form of Orthodox Judaism. You can find links ot them in he list of Some Interesting Sites down the side below.
Just as tragically Zionism has resulted in a similar spiritual and ethical catastrophe in US Protestant Evangelaical and Charismatic Christianity. Riddled with the heresy of dispensationalism, these Christians have become infected with a most nasty form of Christian Zionism, which, as with the Jewish settlers of the West Bank, has corrupted them with a vile form racism against Arab people, as well as providing a basis for a masked but vuirulent form of anti-Semitism entertaining fantasies of a destruction of the Jewish peoples that would make Hitler's attempts look like child's play.
Even if it was morally tenable, the Two State solution is no longer viable thanks to the settlements. The only solution I can see is the creation of a secular, democratic state of Palestine with its capital in Jerusalem with citizenship for all: Jewish, Arab, Armenian, Russian and Greek; Christian, Muslim, Druze, Rabbinic Jew, Karaite, Samaritan, Bahai, Raelian, agnostic, atheist and all.
Update: Two interesting pieces from today's Asia Times. In the first, Robert Dreyfuss, discusses the recent Charles Freeman affair in Washington and asks whether the Israel lobby there have, in fact, overplayed their hand. Their very sucess in thwarting Freeman's appointment shows without a doubt that there is a definite organised Israel lobby that exerts considerable influence on Washington. Furthermore, as he points out, not only does this lobby, for the main consist, of rightwing Zionist neo-conservatives but:
Baroud continues:
He further observes:
Israel is about to be run by an extremist, ultra right-wing government led by Likud Party leader Bibi Netanyahu, and including the even more extreme party of Avigdor Lieberman, as well as a host of radical-right religious parties. It's an ugly coalition that is guaranteed to clash with the priorities of the Obama White House.In the other piece, Ramzy Baroud, reflects on the prospects of a third Palestinian Intifada. A number of issues are simmering that could provoke it but:
As a result, the arrival of the Netanyahu-Lieberman government is also guaranteed to prove a crisis moment for the Israel lobby. It will present an enormous public-relations problem, akin to the one that faced advertising agency Hill & Knowlton during the decades in which it had to defend Philip Morris, the hated cigarette company that repeatedly denied the link between its products and cancer. The Israel lobby knows that it will be difficult to sell cartons of menthol smooth Netanyahu-Lieberman 100s to American consumers.
some of the most contentious issues throughout the years have been the crimes of house demolitions, settlement construction in the Occupied Territories and the increasing number of settlers moving into those ever-growing settlements.
In a recent interview with Ma'an news agency, the Palestinian Authority's governor to Jerusalem warned that the planned demolition of 100 Palestinian homes and the displacement of nearly 1,000 people in the occupied Jerusalem area would certainly increase the growing possibility of a third Intifada. "It is now clear to the international community, and our position within the Palestinian Authority is very clear - no negotiations, no peace process with settlements," he stressed.
Baroud continues:
There is a great fear that the Israeli plan, which some have described as "slow-motion ethnic cleansing", is now augmenting into a fast-paced settlement project. These worries have been confirmed by the Israeli "Peace Now" movement, in a press release, issued on March 2.
"The Ministry of Construction and Housing is planning to construct at least 73,300 housing units in the West Bank," Peace Now reported. It further stated that the plans outlined in the Israeli Ministry of Housing report "represent only a small part of the total number of the plans existing in the settlements".
"At least 15,000 housing units have already been approved and plans for an additional 58,000 housing units are yet to be approved," said the group, which also concluded that of the units already approved by the Israeli government, nearly 9,000 have been built. "If all the plans are realized, the number of settlers in the territories will be doubled."
He further observes:
The new illegal units are built on stolen land, illegally confiscated from their rightful Palestinian owners. With such a move, Israel purposely renders the so-called two-state solution permanently incapacitated, while insisting that a one-state solution is the equivalent to the "annihilation" of the Jewish state.
