Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery
9.9.06

                      State of Chutzpah

IN EVERY language there are some words that cannot be properly
translated into any other. It seems that they express something intimately
connected with the speakers of that language and rooted in their history,
traditions and reality. Such words become international expressions,
appearing in other languages in their original form.

For example, the German word "Schadenfreude". Or the English word
"gentleman" and the American word 'business". Or the Russian word
"pogrom" (originally meaning devastation). Or the Japanese word
"kamikaze" (divine wind, the title given to suicide bombers). Or the
Mexican "manana" and the similar Arabic "bukra" (both meaning
tomorrow. The difference between them? The joke says: Bukra is not so
urgent.) And, lately, the Palestinian "intifada".
The most prominent Hebrew addition to this international lexicon is
"chutzpah", a word that has no equivalent in any other language. Some
English words may come close (impertinence, cheek, insolence,
impudence), but none conveys the full meaning of this Hebrew-Yiddish
expression. It seems that it reflects something that is especially
characteristic of Jewish reality, which was transferred to the State of
Israel, which defines itself as a "Jewish State".

THE PRESIDENT of Israel is supposed to symbolize the common
denominator of all our citizens. Therefore it is proper for him to
symbolize this trait, too.
And indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more quintessential chutzpah than
the behavior of His Excellency, President Moshe Katzav. He is the
supreme symbol of Israeli chutzpah.
Katzav has been accused of the sexual harassment of several women who
worked for him in the President's office, as well as in his earlier public
offices. At least three of them accused him of rape.
Such accusations are, of course, far from a conviction. The investigation
is still going on. The President, like any other citizen, must be presumed
innocent until found guilty in court. It is quite possible that in the end he
will not even be indicted, or - if this happens - that he will be acquitted,
though perhaps only for lack of proof.
But that is not the point. The point is that the President of the state, like
Caesar's wife, must be above suspicion. It is sufficient that there be
reasonable grounds for suspecting the President - such as a criminal
investigation - for him to resign his office. If he is later acquitted, so
much the better.
Let it be clear: I have nothing against Moshe Katzav personally. On the
contrary, I have praised him on TV for his readiness, in spite of belonging
to the Likud, to listen to Arab citizens. I once brought to him a delegation
of leaders from the West Bank, and he treated them with the utmost
courtesy.
But as a citizen of Israel I am ashamed. The affair in which he is involved
dishonors the office and, indirectly, the entire state. "Citizen Number 1"
has become the butt of jokes.
One thing can be said in his favor: in his chutzpah, too, he symbolizes
the state, or, at least, the ruling elite.

THE KING of chutzpah, its very personification, is the Prime Minister, Ehud
Olmert.
If he had a gram of shame, the minimum of decency, he would have
resigned the day after the cease-fire. There is no need for an inquiry to
decide the obvious: that he is guilty of a long line of disasters that have
caused the death of a thousand human beings, including almost 200
Israelis - men, women, old people and children.
It can be debated of what exactly to accuse Olmert: the starting of an
unnecessary and hopeless war (as I believe), or "only" the incompetent
conduct of the campaign from start to finish. But any one of these is
enough for a decent person to go home and wait there for the results of
the inquiries.
But Olmert does not even dream of doing that. He continues as if nothing
has happened. In the US this is called "stonewalling". He stands there
naked like the emperor in the children's story. All the promises he made
only a few months ago, during the election campaign, have dissipated like
smoke in the wind. He has no political plan left. He has not even the
ability to carry out any plan, if he had one. He has no time to think about
anything, except his political survival.
Winston Churchil once said about a former British Prime Minister: "The
right honorable gentleman sometimes stumbles on the truth, but he
always hurries on as if nothing has happened." Olmert, similarly, hurries
on his way.
He objects to the investigation of the war through the instruments
prescribed by law. He tries to set up a whitewash investigation by an
unquestioningly loyal group chosen by himself. He goes on using every
opportunity to make another of his banal, clich�-laden speeches, which
do not contain a single word of truth, or even of interest.
That is chutzpah. Not chutzpah in the harmless, jocular sense often
signified by this word, but a dangerous, rude and aggressive chutzpah. In
practice, the state remains without leadership. It is unable to take bold
decisions in a situation which demands them. His personal survival
overshadows everything else, from the problem of the prisoner exchange
to the daily killing of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
It must be stated again and again: the state is not private property. It is
not some booty that belongs to whoever has succeeded in laying his
hands on it, accidentally or not. It is a national treasure entrusted by the
citizens to a particular politician, which must be given back by him if he is
proven unable or incompetent to exercise his duties. Any other attitude is
chutzpah.

NO NEED to waste words on the chutzpah of Amir Peretz. It speaks for
itself.
He bears personal responsibility for all the blunders of the war, from the
unthinking decision to start it, up to the last military decision. From the
boastful beginning to the bitter end he showed a shocking inadequacy. A
decent person would have resigned the moment the guns fell silent. His
refusal is chutzpah.
The chutzpah of Peretz is almost bizarre. He achieved political power on
the basis of his explicit promise to carry out basic social reforms. Not
only did he ignore this promise, he did the very opposite. His effort to
continue now as if nothing has happened and even to present himself as
a social leader is pathetic.

BUT EVEN these three champions - Katzav, Olmert and Peretz - pale in
comparison with Dan Halutz.
Together with likeminded people I demonstrated opposite the Ministry of
Defense when he was sworn in as Chief-of-Staff. It was clear to us that
such a person, who had behaved as he did behave and who had said what
he did say was not fit to lead the Israeli army. But even we did not foresee
in our wildest imagination that in such a short time, and in such an
extreme manner, he would confirm our darkest forebodings.
From a purely military point of view, Halutz is the greatest failure in the
annals of the Israeli army. From a human point of view, he justified the
prophecy that he has a brilliant future in the court of The Hague. From a
political point of view, his understanding equals that of a primary school
pupil (if the pupil community will excuse me.)
The boastfulness of the Air force, the arrogance of an incompetent
general, the brutality of a person who is able to bring tragedy to
hundreds of thousands without batting an eyelid - all of these were
exposed during the war.
As has been published, he told the government on the sixth day of the
war that from that moment on there was no possibility of achieving
anything more. Said so and did not demand to stop, said so and went on
with the killing and destroying, day after day, night after night. On the
eve of the cease-fire he sent his soldiers into a militarily senseless,
completely unnecessary offensive, in which the lives of 33 of his soldiers
were sacrificed.
But Dan Halutz does not resign. It doesn't even enter his mind. This week,
at a meeting of former generals, accusations and even insults were slung
at him, and he did not budge.
A decent person would have resigned at once. It is clear that an officer
who has failed in this manner, who is so much distrusted by the army,
cannot carry out the general overhaul demanded now - the replacing of
the entire general Staff, and especially the replacing of all the
commanders who were in charge of the campaign. Can a person who
refuses to bear the responsibility for this entire bungled campaign
demand that his subordinates shoulder theirs?
When chutzpah is the norm in the army - what chance is there for its
rehabilitation?

I KNOW, there are several arguments for keeping the champions of
chutzpah in office. There are no obvious alternatives. The bad may be
replaced by worse. Olmert's resignation may lead to new elections, in
which the more extreme Right may win. His resignation may also lead to
the inclusion in the government of Avigdor Liberman, compared to whom
the Frenchman Le Pen and the Austrian Haider are bleeding-heart
liberals. Who can guess who and what might come after Halutz?
All these arguments are valid, but they must give way to one simple
demand: Chutzpah must not be allowed to reign. The acceptance of
personal responsibility by the directors of the government and the army
is an essential feature of a healthy society. It is a simple moral imperative,
like the categorical imperative of Kant, an imperative that does not allow
for any compromise.
The Talmud warns against "chutzpah towards heaven" (God). We must
warn against chutzpah towards civil society, the sovereign on earth.

Uri Avnery
16.9.06

                Help! Peacemongers!

GUESS WHOSE words these are: "Starting this war was a scandal�It was
possible to solve the problem of the missiles in South Lebanon by
diplomatic means�The offensive of the last two days of the war, in which
33 soldiers were killed after the cease-fire resolution had already been
accepted, was a spin of the Prime Minister�The Prime Minister, the
Minister of Defense and the Chief-of-Staff must resign�"

Right, it was Gush Shalom.

But that's not new. What is new is that yesterday, the former Chief-of-
Staff, Moshe Ya'alon, repeated these statements, almost word for word.

"Bogie" Ya'alon is the very opposite of Gush Shalom. Nobody could say
that he belongs to a "marginal group". He comes from the very center of
the establishment. He is a Rightist. He was responsible for some of the
most cruel acts of the occupation.

There is another difference: Gush Shalom spoke out when the events were
actually happening, in the midst of the war, when it was still possible to
save the lives of those 33 soldiers. At that time, these statements were
unpopular in the extreme, bordering on treason. Because no Israeli
medium was prepared to publish them, the Gush had to pay for them as
advertisements. Now Ya'alon comes and repeats them, after the wind has
changed and they have become popular.

Ya'alon's motives are not important. (As will be remembered, Ariel Sharon
removed him from office and replaced him with Dan Halutz a year ago, in
order to ease the way for the "Disengagement"). What is important is that
the things have now been said by a person with supreme military
credentials. When such a person declares that 33 soldiers were sacrificed
for no military purpose, for the personal interests of Ehud Olmert, that
the war itself was quite unnecessary, and that the problem of Hizbullah's
rockets could have been solved by diplomatic means - these things carry
weight.

This is not important only in regard to what happened a few weeks ago,
when the leadership spoke of a terrible danger looming on our northern
border, but even more so today, when the same leadership is warning of
an even more acute "threat" somewhere else.


IN THE corridors of power in Jerusalem the cry is going up: "Help! Peace is
upon you, Israel!"

A terrible enemy is conspiring to impose peace on us. He is advancing
against us from two sides, in a giant pincer movement.

One arm of this offensive is the Palestinian Unity Government that is
about to be set up.

The other is the decision of the Arab League to revive the Arab Peace
Plan.

From the point of view of the Government of Israel, this offensive is far
more dangerous then all of Hassan Nasrallah's rockets put together.


THE PALESTINIAN Government of National Unity is designed to solve, first
of all, domestic Palestinian problems.

Since the Palestinians elected Hamas, a state of anarchy has prevailed on
the Palestinian street. The constant clashes between the President, who is
the head of Fatah, and the Prime Minister, who belongs to Hamas, have
created a state of paralysis, just when the Palestinian people need unity in
the face of existential challenges.

Fatah has dominated the modern Palestinian national movement since its
foundation by Yasser Arafat almost 50 years ago. It is not resigned to
defeat. But a people fighting for its very existence cannot allow its two
main factions to fight against each other, instead of cooperating in the
struggle for national liberation.

To this must be added the blockade imposed on the Palestinian Authority
by Europe and America, by order of President Bush. This is an
unprecedented attempt to literally starve a whole people into removing its
democratically elected government.

The National Unity Government is designed to restore public order and to
break the international blockade.

For this to happen, the government must circumvent several obstacles.
For religious reasons, it is difficult for Hamas to recognize Israel officially.
This has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, as alleged, but with the fact
that according to Islam, Palestine is a "Waqf" (religious endowment)
belonging to Allah (similar to the Jewish fundamentalists' belief that God
has promised us the country, so that giving away any part of it is a mortal
sin.) But the Muslim religion opens a back door here by allowing for a
long-term "hudnah" (truce) that can last for decades or even centuries.

The way to solve this problem is to get the Unity Government, headed by
Hamas, to declare that it is committed to the "prisoners' document", the
UN resolutions, the agreements signed between Israel and the PLO and
the Arab peace plan - all of which are based on the recognition of Israel.
That should suffice for anybody who really wants to promote Israeli-
Palestinian peace.

As far as our government is concerned, there precisely is the rub.


THE SECOND arm of the peace offensive is the renewal of the Arab Peace
Plan.

This plan was originally devised by Abdallah, then the Crown Prince and
now the King of Saudi Arabia. It was adopted by the summit meeting of
the Arab heads of state in Beirut in March 2002.

This plan says, roughly: the entire Arab world will recognize Israel and
make peace with it, if it withdraws to the 1967 borders and makes it
possible to establish the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its
capital.

The government of Israel has rejected the initiative, as the Hebrew
expression goes, "on the threshold" (every peace initiative is rejected "on
the threshold", so as not to allow it, God forbid, to put a foot in the door.)
The plan was consigned to a pigeon hole and has been collecting dust
ever since. Now the evil Arabs have decided to dust it off and slap it back
on the table.


AGAINST THIS danger of the Arab peacemongers, the Olmert government
is calling up all its forces. In spite of the fact the entire political and
military leadership is now busy fighting for its survival after the Lebanon
fiasco, it is uniting in the face of this frightening menace.

Tzipi Livni was sent head over heels to the United States, in order to avert
the danger. She went to convince President Bush (who happened to "pass"
the room when she was talking with Condoleezza Rice and who calls her
"Tsiffi") to use the deadly American veto against any Security Council
resolution that might support peace. She is going to meet with some 20
heads of governments and foreign ministers to enlist their support
against this menace.

For this, she took down from the Foreign Office attic a diplomatic rag
called "the Road Map". It has never even entered the mind of the Israeli
government to carry out this agreement, whose sole purpose was, right
from the beginning, to create the impression that President Bush has
achieved something in the Middle East. From its inception, all the parties
knew that this was a document that cannot be implemented.

Israel and the US will, therefore, declare that the Arab peace plan is
damaging peace, because it contradicts the Road Map. The Palestinian
unity government, when it is set up, must be boycotted, because it does
not explicitly state that all its members recognize the State of Israel (as if
all the members of the Israeli government were prepared to recognize the
State of Palestine and its government, not to mention foreswearing
violence and accepting all the existing agreements.) Therefore, the
blockade of the Palestinian population must go on, until it sinks to its
knees.


WHY DOES the peace offensive frighten the Israeli government?

If somebody had come to us on June 4, 1967, and told us that the entire
Arab world was ready to make peace with us within the borders existing
on that day, and that the Palestinian leadership, too, was prepared to
declare an end to the historic conflict, we would have felt that the
Messiah had come.

But on June 5, 1967, we started a war that changed everything. We were
soon in control of the whole of Palestine and huge additional territories.
We declared that we were holding them temporarily in order to trade
them in, but, as is well known, appetite comes with eating. We started to
annex territories (East Jerusalem with its surroundings and the Golan
Heights), and to cover the West Bank with settlements.

In the eyes of the Israeli leadership, the peace initiative - any peace
initiative - is nothing but an evil conspiracy of the peacemongers to rob
us of these territories. It would compel us to put an end to the settlement
enterprise - which has not stopped for a moment since 1968, and which
is even now in full swing - and to dismantle the existing settlements.

The pincer movement of the peacemongers could gather momentum and
generate international pressure that would be difficult to withstand.
That's the reason for the panic in Jerusalem.


THE ARAB peace initiative could be successful if it puts in front of the
Israeli public the straight and unequivocal choice: peace without the
occupied territories - or the occupied territories without peace.

After six major wars and several minor ones, we may be inclined to
suspect that the price in blood and money is too heavy, and - more
importantly - that it does not bring victory, but multiplies the burdens on
Israeli society.

In the six years of folly between the 1967 and the 1973 wars, Moshe
Dayan coined the phrase: "Better Sharm al-Sheikh (on the southern tip of
the Sinai Peninsula) without peace than peace without Sharm al-Sheikh!"

Such slogans cost the lives of some 2700 Israeli soldiers (and who knows
how many Egyptians and Syrians) in the Yom Kippur war. Afterwards we
returned Sharm al-Sheikh and all of Sinai and got peace with Egypt.
Dayan himself played a role in achieving this peace.

How many soldiers and civilians, Israeli and Arab, must die before we
finally understand that peace with the Palestinian people and the entire
Arab world is immeasurably more important to Israel than trying to hang
on to the occupied territories and the settlements?

I'm tearing up sniff.

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