[A-List] Fwd: A Flash of Lightning - Uri Avnery

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Suzanne de Kuyper <suzannedk at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Subject: Fwd: A Flash of Lightning - Uri Avnery
To: Charles Higgins <charles.higgins at gmail.com>


This real story is a methaphor for the US with the largest Military
set of forces the world has ever seen, thousands of military bases
encirlcing the globe at costs that ensure that the public schools of
the US, the medical care of the US, the labor Unions of the US are
cheated and starved of funds and government interest.  It is a vast
system that is sure that where force does not work, more will.  Brains
be damned.     Try and set up a path away from those forces for you
and yours.  love, Mom


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 7:16 AM
Subject: A Flash of Lightning - Uri Avnery
To:


Uri Avnery

June 19, 2010

A Flash of Lightning

NIGHT. UTTER darkness. Heavy rain. Visibility close to nil.

And suddenly – a flash of lightning. For a fraction of a second, the
landscape is lit up.  For this split second, the terrain surrounding
us can be seen. It is not the way it used to be.


OUR GOVERNMENT’ action against the Gaza aid flotilla was such a
lightning flash.

Israelis normally live in darkness as far as seeing the world is
concerned. But for that instant, the real landscape around us could be
seen, and it looked frightening. Then the darkness settled down over
us, Israel returned to its bubble, the world disappeared from view.

This split second was enough to reveal a dismal scene. On almost all
fronts, the situation of the State of Israel has worsened since the
last flash of lightning.

The flotilla and the attack on it did not create this landscape. It
has been there since our present government was set up. But the
deterioration did not start even then. It began a long time before.

The action of Ehud Barak & Co. only lit up the situation as it is now,
and gave it yet another push in the wrong direction.

How does the new landscape look in the light of Barak’s barak?
(“barak” means lightning in Hebrew.)


THE LIST is headed by a fact that nobody seems to have noticed until
now: the death of the Holocaust.

In all the tumult this affair has caused throughout the world, the
Holocaust was not even mentioned. True, in Israel there were some who
called Recep Tayyip Erdogan “a new Hitler”, and some Israel-haters
talked about the “Nazi attack”, but the Holocaust has practically
disappeared.

For two generations, our foreign policy used the Holocaust as its main
instrument. The bad conscience of the world determined its attitude
towards Israel. The (justified) guilt feelings – either for atrocities
committed or for looking the other way – caused Europe and America to
treat Israel differently than any other nation – from nuclear
armaments to the settlements. All criticism of our governments’
actions was branded automatically as anti-Semitism and silenced.

But time does its work. New tragedies have blunted the world’s senses.
For a new generation, the Holocaust is a thing of the remote past, a
chapter of history. The sense of guilt has disappeared in all
countries, except Germany.

The Israeli public did not notice this, because in Israel itself the
Shoah is alive and present. Many Israelis are children or
grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and the Holocaust has been
imprinted on their childhood. Moreover, a huge apparatus ensures that
the Holocaust will not disappear from our memory, starting from
kindergarten, through ceremonies and memorial days, to organized tours
“there”.

Therefore, the Israeli public is shocked to see that the Holocaust has
lost its power as a political instrument. Our most valuable weapon has
become blunt.


THE CENTRAL pillar of our policy is our alliance with the United
States. To use a phrase dear to Binyamin Netanyahu (in another
context): it’s “the rock of our existence”.

For many years, this alliance has kept us safe from all trouble. We
knew that we could always get from the US all we needed: advanced arms
to retain our superiority over all Arab armies combined, munitions in
times of war, money for our economy, the veto on all UN Security
Council resolutions against us, automatic support for all the actions
of our successive governments. Every small and medium country in the
world knew that in order to gain entrance to the palaces of
Washington, the Israeli doorkeeper had to be bribed.

But during the last year, cracks have appeared in this pillar. Not the
small scratches and chips of wear and tear, but cracks caused by
shifts of the ground. The mutual aversion between Barack Obama and
Binyamin Netanyahu is only one symptom of a much deeper problem,

The Chief of the Mossad told the Knesset last week: “For the US, we
have ceased to be an asset and become a burden.”

This fact was put into incisive words by General David Petraeus, when
he said that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is endangering
the lives of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The later
soothing messages did not erase the significance of this warning.
(When Petraeus fainted this week at a Senate hearing, some religious
Jews viewed it as divine punishment.)


IT IS not only the Israeli-American relationship that has undergone a
fateful change, but the standing of the US itself is changing for the
worse, a bad omen indeed for the future of Israeli policy.

The world is changing, slowly and quietly. The US is still by far the
most powerful country, but it is no longer the almighty superpower it
had been since 1989. China is flexing its muscles, countries like
India and Brazil are getting stronger, countries like Turkey – yes,
Turkey! – are beginning to play a role.

This is not a matter of one or two years, but anyone who is thinking
about the future of Israel in ten, twenty years must understand that
unless there is a basic change in our position, our position, too,
will decline.


IF OUR alliance with the US is one central pillar of Israeli policy,
the support of the vast majority of world Jewry is the second.

For 62 years, we could count on it with our eyes shut. Whatever we did
– almost all the world’s Jews stood at attention and saluted. In fire
and water, victory or defeat, glorious or dark chapters – the world’s
Jews did support us, giving money, demonstrating, pressuring their
governments. Without second thoughts, without criticism.

Not anymore. Quietly, almost silently, cracks have appeared in this
pillar, too. Opinion polls show that most American Jewish young people
are turning away from Israel. Not shifting their loyalty from the
Israeli establishment to Israel’s liberal camp – but turning away from
Israel altogether.

This will not be felt immediately either. AIPAC continues to strike
fear into Washingtonian hearts, Congress will continue to dance to its
tune. But when the new generation comes to man key positions, the
support for Israel will erode, American politicians will stop crawling
on their bellies and the US administration will gradually change its
relations with us.


IN OUR immediate neighborhood, too, profound changes are underway,
some of them beneath the surface. The flotilla incident has exposed
them.

The influence of our allies is decreasing constantly. They are losing
height, and an old-new power is on the rise: Turkey.

Hosni Mubarak is busy with his efforts to pass power to his son,
Gamal. The Islamic opposition in Egypt is raising its head. Saudi
money is trumped by the new attraction of Turkey. The Jordanian king
is compelled to adapt himself. The axis of
Turkey-Iran-Syria-Hisbollah-Hamas is the rising power, the axis of
Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Fatah is in decline.


BUT THE most important change is the one that is taking place in
international public opinion. Any derision of this reminds one of
Stalin’s famous sneer (“How many divisions has the pope?”)

Recently, an Israeli TV station showed a fascinating film about the
German and Scandinavian female volunteers who flooded Israel in the
50s and 60s to live and work (and sometimes marry) in the kibbutzim.
Israel was then seen as a plucky little nation surrounded by hateful
enemies, a state risen from the ashes of the Holocaust to become a
haven of freedom, equality and democracy, which found their most
sublime expression in that unique creation, the kibbutz.

The present generation of idealistic youngsters from all over the
world, male and female, who would once have volunteered for the
kibbutzim, can now be found on the decks of the ships sailing for
downtrodden, choked and starved Gaza, which touches the hearts of many
young people. The pioneering Israeli David has turned into a brutish
Israeli Goliath.

Even a genius of spin could not change this. For years, now, the world
sees the State of Israel every day on the TV screen and on the front
pages in the image of heavily armed soldiers shooting at
stone-throwing children, guns firing phosphorus shells into
residential quarters, helicopters executing “targeted eliminations”,
and now pirates attacking civilian ships on the open seas. Terrified
women with wounded babies in their arms, men with amputated limbs,
demolished homes. When one sees a hundred pictures like that for every
picture that shows another Israel, Israel becomes a monster. The more
so since the Israeli propaganda machine is successfully suppressing
any news about the Israeli peace camp.


MANY YEARS ago, when I wanted to ridicule the addiction of our leaders
to the use of force, I paraphrased a saying that reflects much of
Jewish wisdom: “if force does not work, use brains.” In order to show
how far we, the Israelis, are different from the Jews, I changed the
words: “If force doesn’t work, use more force.”

I thought of it as a joke. But, as happens to many jokes in our
country, it has become reality. It is now the credo of many primitive
Israelis, headed by Ehud Barak.

In practice, the security of a state depends on many factors, and
military force is but one of them. In the long run, world public
opinion is stronger. The pope has many divisions.

In many respects, Israel is still a strong country. But, as the sudden
illumination of the flotilla affair has shown, time is not working in
our favor. We should deepen our roots in the world and in the region –
which means making peace with our neighbors – as long as we are as
strong as we are now.

If force doesn’t work, more force will not necessarily work either.

If force doesn’t work, force doesn’t work. Period.