Uri Avnery

Hi,
Hope this may interest you.
I am sending this earlier than usual, because of a short
vacation.
By the way, the question of the different numbers of the
verse quoted by the pope has been cleared up. In different
translations, the numbers are different, because some count
the obligatory opening verse (In the Name of Allah...) and
some don't. So the pope and I were both right and fallible.
Shalom,
uri

Uri Avnery
30.9.06

                Because of a Small Nail

HAD HAMLET been a reserve soldier in the Israeli army, he might now
declare: "Something is rotten in the State of Israel!"

And indeed, something is rotten -

- The President of the State refuses to suspend himself, in face of eight
individual accusations of sexual harassment. He whines about a
monstrous conspiracy against him and points at Netanyahu's men in the
Likud.

- The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense refuse to resign, in spite
of the overwhelming majority of the public's expressed lack of confidence
in Ehud Olmert (70%) and Amir Peretz (82%). Instead of agreeing to the
establishment of an independent judicial commission of inquiry, they
have set up an examining committee that has already lost the confidence
of the majority of the public - even before it has started to investigate the
events of the Lebanon War.

- The Chief-of-Staff, under attack from retired and serving generals,
declares that he "will not take off his uniform until somebody tears it off."

- The chairman of the Knesset Foreign and Military Affairs Committee is
indicted for fraud and perjury.

- The Minister of Justice is on trial for pushing his tongue into the mouth
of a female soldier.

According to the polls, the overwhelming majority of the population is
happy with their personal situation (80%) but depressed about the
situation of the state (59%).

So what to do?

Simple: just change the system.


THIS IS a typical Israeli reaction. Perhaps typically human.

When a crisis threatens to upset the foundations of our perceptions, we
tend to turn away from the main issue and concentrate all our attention
on some detail. Thus we are relieved from questioning our basic beliefs
and the world-view we are accustomed to. We take some detail, as small
as possible, and put all the blame on it. That�s it! Found it! That's the
guilty part!

As the old song goes: "All because of a small nail!" So when a major
disaster occurs, we find the small nail that caused it, and we need not
look further.

For example: the Yom-Kippur war. Why did this bloody war break out at
all? Why didn't we accept President Anwar Sadat's earlier offer of peace in
exchange for the return of the Sinai? Why did our Ship of Fools blithely
sail from the Six-day war to the Yom-Kippur war on a sea of arrogance?

No, such questions were not asked. But what was asked? Things like: Why
didn't the army intelligence department warn us that the Egyptians and
Syrians were about to attack? Why weren't the reserve units called up in
time? Why weren�t the "instruments" (tanks and artillery) moved to the
canal?

It was called "The Omission". That was the slogan of the mass protest
movement that sprang up and swept away Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan.

That's like emptying the ashtray when a car breaks down. Now something
similar is happening.


THE POLLS show that the public has no confidence in the leadership. But
the public does not say: We voted for these leaders, so we are to blame.
That would be an unpleasant admission. What they say is: It's not our
fault. So who is to blame? The "system", of course.

That's because our parliamentary democracy does not assure the Prime
Minister a full term of four years. He can fall before that. It also compels
him to include in his government leaders of the coalition parties, even if
they are quite incompetent to direct their ministries. The Prime Minister
cannot plan long-term policy, nor put capable experts in charge of the
ministries.

That's very bad. Therefore, we must adopt the American system. The
people will elect a president, who will serve at least four full years. He will
choose a cabinet composed of outstanding personalities, each one an
expert in his field. Thus Zion will be redeemed.


THIS IS the purest snake oil - one bottle to cure all illnesses, without pain
and without delay.

First of all, one cannot simply transfer a political system from one country
to another. Every state has its own tradition, its own specific culture, its
own social set-up. A political system must grow from within. It cannot be
imposed on another people. When one tries to do that, the society adapts
it to its own requirements and changes it beyond recognition. (Japan after
World War II springs to mind.) Only out-of-touch professors in ivory
towers could imagine that the illnesses of a society can be cured by an
ideal political system copied from another country.

That has already been proven in Israel: under the influence of some
professors, our "system" was changed some years ago. It was decided
that the Prime Minister would be elected directly, separately from the
Knesset elections. But soon it became obvious that this system was worse
than the one before it. So the Wise Ones took counsel and changed the
whole thing back again.

But there's no need for us to go through that experience ourselves. In
order to appreciate the advantages of the presidential system, it's enough
to look at the situation in its homeland: the United States.

What has this system achieved there? Indeed, the president has at least
four full years, but many would add "alas!" When it is discovered that a
complete idiot has been elected and embroils his country in disastrous
adventures, he cannot be removed. In our parliamentary system, as in the
United Kingdom, a Prime Minister can be removed with comparative ease.
Tony Blair will be gone within a year, while George Bush serves out his full
term.

Are the American ministers more competent than ours? Is Donald
Rumsfeld less of a disaster than Amir Peretz?

Moreover, in order to be elected president, a candidate needs huge sums
of money. Such heavy money can come only from interest groups, lobbies
and large corporations. The American system is corrupt to the core - a
corruption so deep and wide, it makes the sins of Olmert & Co. look
innocent.


BUT LOGIC is not the key to this discussion, because the demand for
system change is serving as a cover for something much more sinister:
the call for a Leader.

Such calls always arise in times of crisis. When there is a feeling of defeat
and a climate of distrust of the old leadership, people long for a strong
father. Democracy looks weak and rotten, especially faced with the legend
that the politicians have "prevented the army from winning." A strong
leader solves problems with an iron fist. A policy of dialogue and
agreements is something for weaklings.

It must be clear: the proposal to adopt the presidential system is nothing
other than a disguised call for an all-powerful leader. One has only to
look at those who propose it.

The foremost advocate of "system change" is Avigdor Liberman, the
leader of the "Israel Our Home" party, composed mainly of immigrants
from the former Soviet Union. This is a party of the radical Right - to use
an understatement. In other countries, they might be called by another
name.

"Israel Our Home" stands for unbridled nationalism and xenophobia. It is
more radical than Joerg Haider in Austria and Jean-Marie Le-Pen in
France. It calls for all Palestinians to leave the country, including the Arab
citizens of Israel proper, who constitute 20% of the population. That does
not prevent Ehud Olmert from declaring publicly that he would like to
have this party in his government. (When Haider joined the Austrian
government, Israel recalled its ambassador from Vienna.)

Liberman, who wants to be Minister of Defense, has set five conditions for
joining the government, headed by the demand for the adoption of the
presidential system. It is quite clear who his candidate for president is:
Avigdor Liberman.

The polls say that if elections were held now, Liberman's party would get
16 seats in the 120-seat Knesset (compared to 11 seats in the present
assembly). To this, one must add the nine seats occupied in the present
Knesset by the "National Union", whose leader, a knitted-kippa-wearing
general, publicly demands the expulsion of all Arabs from the occupied
Palestinian territories, and the withdrawal of democratic rights from the
Arab citizens of Israel itself. When such parties constitute a fifth of the
voting public, there is certainly cause for concern.


I BELIEVE in Israeli democracy. It is an incredible phenomenon,
considering where most Israeli citizens or their parents came from:
Czarist and Communist Russia, the Poland of Pilsudsky and his heirs,
Morocco, Iraq, Iran and Syria - in addition to those born in colonial
Palestine under the rule of the British High Commissioner. Like the
resurrection of the Hebrew language, which has no parallel in the world,
this democracy is a miracle. (This means, of course, democracy in Israel
proper. In the occupied territories, a very different situation prevails.)

I don't believe that there is a concrete danger of the rise of fascism at
present. But we have to be on our guard, every day and every hour.
Several factors may promote fascist tendencies here: the feeling of defeat
in war, the legend of the "the stab in the back of the army", lack of
confidence in the democratic system, a widening gap between rich and
poor, incitement against the national minority described as a Fifth
Column.

That is more than a small nail.

Hi Beautiful people,

I hope this interests you.

URI On liberman


A BLACK FLAG!

When the racist Joerg Haider joined the Austrian government, the Israeli
government recalled our ambassador from Vienna.

Now there is an intention to invite Avigdor Liberman, a racist much worse
than Haider, to join the Israeli government itself.

The inclusion of Liberman in the government is not just a change in the
coalition. It raises a black flag over the State of Israel.

The very idea that such a person, which such views, can be a member of
the Government of Israel is shocking. It shames everyone who advocates
it.

Liberman is a threat to the fabric of Israeli society, a threat to a whole
sector of citizens, a threat to democracy, a threat to any chance for Israel
to achieve peace with its neighbors.

The proposed law for the change of the regime, which has been
introduced by Liberman in the Knesset, is not just a proposal for another
change in the mechanism of government. It is the first step towards the
establishment of a dictatorship, which will lead to national disaster.

This is a road of no return.

A cynical Prime Minister, out to save his skin, together with a gang of
corrupt and/or st**id politicians, are helping Liberman to put his foot in
the door of Israeli democracy.

Anyone who raises his hand in favor of Liberman and his proposals raises
his hand against the State of Israel as defined by the Declaration of
Independence, a state that was supposed to be democratic, peace-
oriented, with equality for all its citizens.

Each of them will be remembered forever with shame.


                                            GUSH SHALOM


972-3-5221732 - P.O.Box 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-
shalom.org - [email protected]

------------------------------------------------------------ --
------------------------------------------------------------ --
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Special large ad published in Haaretz
October 17, 2006

No S**T!     
Just checking.


I don't think Bush is a bad guy His Dad may well be. I think evil people
are very very rare. Very few people get up in the morning and say to them
selves,"Hmm what kind of mischief can I get up to today?" Good people
are capable of doing evil by doing nothing to stop evil or compromising
the wrong things for what they believe to be the greater good. I know a
little something about evil. The real stuff. It has nothing to do with
politics, religion or disorderly people. It has to do with an absence of
tolerance. You don't have to love or forgive as much as you have to just
wait, think, talk or just start over sometimes.

Uri is on the rampage again

Uri Avnery
19.10.06

                        Ehud von Olmert

THE NAME of Franz von Papen is familiar to everyone who knows the
history of the German republic that was born after World War I and that
died when Hitler came to power.

What made him deserving of a place in history? Not his talents. On the
contrary, during his short term as Reichskanzler (chancellor), he was as
much a failure as his predecessors. Neither was he a very interesting
person - just an ordinary politician from the minor nobility ("von"), a
member of the "Zentrum", a German party like our own "National-
Religious Party", before it lost its mind.

No, the name of von Papen is remembered only because he paved the way
for the Nazis to take over Germany. It was he who advised the President
of the Reich, an almost senile Field Marshal, to appoint Hitler as
Reichskanzler. Von Papen told him that Hitler was just another
demagogue with a big mouth, who, once in power, was sure to moderate
his views. And anyhow, for safety's sake, all the important positions - War
Minister, Foreign Minister etc. - would be given to non-Nazis. Hitler
would be Kanzler in name only, unable to move.

Well, everybody knows what happened next. After getting his foot in the
door with the help of von Papen, Hitler stormed into the building,
instituted a reign of terror, threw his opponents (including the assistants
of von Papen himself) into concentration camps, changed the law and
established the dictatorship that led Germany to disaster.

Now there is a danger of Ehud Olmert becoming the Israeli von Papen.


I HAVE always been careful to avoid the example of the famous shepherd
who used to cry "Wolf! Wolf!" just to tease the others.

Many times, this or that Israeli politician has been accused of being a
fascist. But to be a fascist, it is not enough to espouse extreme nationalist
views or to carry out racist policies.

There is no scientific definition of fascism. But from experience one can
say that it is a combination of world view and personality type, radical
nationalism, racism, a cult of violence, dictatorship and more. When
asked who is a fascist, I answer: When you see one, you will know.

Or, as the Americans say: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it
is a duck.

More than once, Menachem Begin was called a fascist, but he was far
from it. He was indeed an extreme nationalist, but also a confirmed
democrat, with decidedly liberal views (like his guide and master, Vladimir
Ze'ev Jabotinsky). Rehavam Ze'evi, who advocated "voluntary transfer" of
the Arab population, came close to the definition, but he lacked the
special character that makes the fascist.

The only leader in the history of Israel who can accurately be defined as a
fascist was Meir Kahane. He did not grow up in this country but was an
import from the US. He was and remained alien in appearance and style,
and failed to impress the general public.

Now Israeli democracy is threatened by a much more dangerous
individual.


AVIGDOR LIBERMAN is a clever person. It is not easy to nail down his
views. They are always formulated in a slick and elusive way. But the rule
applies to him: When you see him, you will know.

When he came to Israel from the Soviet Union, he already brought with
him a racist outlook. He wants a purely Jewish state, with no Arabs. For
this, he is prepared, so he says, even to give up Israeli territory in which a
dense Arab population is living. He proposes to get these citizens out of
Israel, together with the land they are living on. Not a second Naqba, God
forbid: the Arabs will not be driven from their lands, as then, but will be
expelled together with their land. In return, Israel will annex the
territories on which the settlers, one of whom is Liberman himself, are
living.

What's wrong with that? The basic idea is wrong: the turning of Israel into
a state "cleansed" of Arabs. In German that would be called "Araber-rein".
(Actually, it's an inversion of the Nazi phrase: not Juden-rein, but Rein-
f�r-Juden. That is clearly a racist slogan, which appeals to the most
primitive instincts of the masses.

The chances of this actually happening are, of course, nil. But the very
voicing of this idea prepares the way for something even worse: the
simple expulsion of the masses of Arabs from Israel proper and the
occupied territories. Without euphemisms, without exchanges of territory,
without any kind of spin. Once the fascist genie gets out of the bottle, no
power can stop it before it leads to disaster.

The annexation of the settlements will, of course, put an end to any
chance of peace.

But the menace of Liberman lies not only in his acknowledged or
unacknowledged views. It is imprinted in his character. Witness: he is the
sole leader of his party, which is almost entirely composed of new
immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Like previous waves of
immigration, this is a group of people who did not grow up in a
democratic society, and tend to have an oversimplified view of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.   

Many of them live in Israel as if on an island, read only the local Russian-
language press (almost entirely far to the right), and are isolated from the
liberal and democratic tendencies in the country. They have pushed out
Nathan Sharansky, who looks too weak, and vote for a tough,
authoritarian leader whose main election slogan, even in Hebrew-
language broadcasts, was "Da, Liberman!" (Yes, Liberman!) What does that
remind one of?

Liberman does not hide his intention of totally changing the structure of
the Israeli political system and establishing an authoritarian regime,
headed by a strong leader (himself). As a first step, he has submitted a
bill for the establishment of a "presidential" regime, in which the
president would have almost dictatorial powers. He would not be
dependent on the Parliament, which would become unimportant, and
would control all the instruments of power himself. The immediate model
is Vladimir Putin, the gravedigger of Russian democracy, but it seems that
Liberman is far more extreme.


WHY DOES Ehud Olmert court this man? Why does he insist on including
him in his government and agreeing to vote for his proposals? Why is
Libermania fast becoming the hottest topic in Israeli politics?

Simply: Olmert, completely bankrupt, is clutching at straws.

Only seven months after becoming Prime Minister by a stroke of luck -
Ariel Sharon's stroke - he is left with nothing, and right with nothing, too,
it seems:. The public already understands that the Lebanon War, in all its
facets, was a total fiasco. His refusal to appoint a Judicial Commission of
Inquiry has deepened the feeling of defeat. The central slogan of his
election campaign - "Convergence" - has become a bad joke. From the
famous "Social Agenda" nothing has remained. Olmert & Co. have been
left without any plan, any mission, except one: to hold on to power at any
price.

One of the hallmarks of a person like Liberman is a talent for sensing and
exploiting the weaknesses of others. He is making Olmert a seductive
offer: he would join the government and bring with him his 11 votes in
Parliament - without anything in return. Literally for nothing.

In the past he has demanded the post of Minister of Defense, or at least
Minister of Police (officially "Minister of Interior Defense"). Now he talks
about a nebulous title: "Minister in Charge of Long-Range
Strategy" (translation: the bombing of Iran). But he does not insist even
on that. He is prepared to be a minister without portfolio, not even
demanding that two or three of his colleagues also become ministers, as
the size of his party would justify.

An offer that cannot be refused. Liberman knows that the title is
unimportant. What is important is to get his foot in the door and gain
legitimacy as a minister. The rest will come in due course.

For the despairing Olmert, out to hold on to power, this looks like a gift
from heaven. He has opponents in the government, especially in the
Labor Party. His parliamentary majority is not safe. And here comes
Liberman and provides him with complete security in office. People have
sold their souls to the devil for less.

The official justification is: "One cannot reject any Zionist party" (a
wording that automatically counts out all Israeli Arab parties). Adapting
the famous words of Dr Samuel Johnson, it could be said: "Zionism is the
last refuge of a scoundrel."

Olmert wants to gain some more years - or months, or weeks - in power.
Power for its own sake. Power for no cause or purpose, for no idea, for no
action. In return, he is ready to open the door to the forces of darkness.
What does he care? After him the deluge.


I HAVE said more than once that I believe in Israeli democracy. The
immigrants from the Soviet Union are not the only ones who grew up in a
dictatorial system - almost all Israelis, or their parents, grew up under
tyrannical regimes. But Israeli democracy, the miracle that has no logical
explanation, is holding up even in these difficult circumstances.

However, we cannot ignore the dangers that threaten our democracy now.
Years of a brutal occupation have corrupted the state and the army,
racism is flourishing in our daily life - not only against the inhabitants of
the occupied territories, not only against the Arab citizens of Israel
proper, not only against foreign workers. There exist in our society deep
schisms that can be exploited by fascism in its search for power.

When Rome was in danger from the approaching Carthaginian army, the
cry went up: "Hannibal ante portas!" We should now raise the cry:
"Liberman at the gate!"

Ehud Olmert will be a passing episode in the annals of Israel. In a few
years, nobody will remember him. Unless he acquires the status of the
Israeli von Papen.


Edited by Daniel Dworsky

Daniel Dworsky wrote: Uri is on the rampage again

Many thanks to Uri and to you as well Daniel for letting us know. I have come to know few things that are not available in the common media.