[R-G] The Nightmare in Israel

[Macdonald Stainsby]

The Nightmare in Israel

By Alexander Cockburn

Let's start with Baruch Kimmering, a sociologist at Hebrew University. Here's
what he sent to the Jerusalem Weekly Kol Ha'Ir last month, which duly published
it:

          "I accuse Ariel Sharon of creating a process in which he will
     not only intensify the reciprocal bloodshed, but is liable to
     instigate a regional war and partial or nearly complete ethnic
     cleansing of the Arabs in the "Land of Israel."

     "I accuse every Labor Party minister in this government of
     cooperating for implementation the right wing's extremist, fascist
     'vision' for Israel.

     "I accuse the Palestinian leadership, and primarily Yasir Arafat, of
     shortsightedness so extreme that it has become a collaborator in
     Sharon's plans. If there is a second Naqba (Palestinian Holocaust),
     this leadership, too, will be among the causes.

     "I accuse the military leadership, spurred by the national
     leadership, of inciting public opinion, under a cloak of supposed
     military professionalism, against the Palestinians. Never before in
     Israel have so many generals in uniform, former generals, and past
     members of the military intelligence, sometimes disguised as
     "academics," taken part in public brainwashing

     "I accuse the administrators of Israel's electronic media of giving
     various military spokespeople the access needed for an aggressive,
     bellicose, almost complete takeover of the public discourse

     "I accuse everyone who sees and knows all of this of doing nothing to
     prevent the emerging catastrophe. Sabra and Shatila events were
     nothing compared to what has happened and what is going to happen to
     us. We have to go out not only to the town squares, but also to the
     checkpoints. We have to speak to the soldiers in the tanks and the
     troop carriers And I accuse myself of knowing all of this, yet crying
     little and keeping quiet too often."

>From the press here we learn all the time of the pressure of public opinion on
Sharon and his government to bear down even harder on the Palestinians. We just
listened to NPR's Linda Gradstein quoting one "expert" after another in Israel
to this effect. But if public opinion here is crucial in pressuring US
administrations to some measure of constructive intervention (as opposed to
carte blanche for Sharon) then we should be hearing everyday of the passionate
opposition to Sharon of people like Kimmering.

There are many others you don't read about. Take the extraordinarily courageous
people in the movement known Ta'ayush. On its site first you'll see the words
"Arab-Jewish Partnership", and then you'll be able to scroll through one action
after another in which these folk have braved police and army beatings, march
to beleagured and often bulldozed Palestinian villages to stand shoulder to
shoulder with the victims.

Here's what Professor Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University wrote March 6: " As
to the situation here, it is getting unbearable by the day We tried to
dismantle a roadblock the other day near Hebrew U and were beaten by the
police. Three women had their hands broken, one had her head opened. I was
beaten while in custody with my hands handcuffed behind my back. Sharon bombed
Gaza this morning"

There are plenty of people in Israel who see well enough that repression is not
going to work. At the end of last year Ami Ayalon, a former head of Shabak,
Israel's security service, told Le Monde, "We say the Palestinians behave like
'madmen,' but it is not madness but a bottomless despair... Yasser Arafat
neither prepared nor triggered the Intifada. The explosion was spontaneous,
against Israel, as all hope for the end of occupation disappeared, and against
the Palestinian authority, its corruption, its impotence."

"I favor unconditional withdrawal from the Territories --
preferably in the context of an agreement, but not necessarily: what needs to
be done, urgently, is to withdraw from the Territories. And a true
withdrawal. If they proclaim their own state, Israel should be the first to
recognize it and to propose state to state negotiations, without conditions."

There have been other public statements from other Israeli security personnel
bearing on the same general theme that the present strategy of extreme
repression is doomed to fail and that some form of phased withdrawal is in
order.

Is there anything to the Saudi proposal? After all, its suggested bargain of
unconditional recognition for Israel from the Arab countries in return for
Israel's unconditional withdrawal to pre-1967 borders is over 30 years old.

The Israeli journalist Meron Benvenisti had the right angle in his Ha'aretz
column on February 28: No illusion is more dangerous than the idea being sold
that 'the conflict with the Palestinians is small and incidental. We can solve
the conflict with the entire Arab world.' It was long ago proven that there is
no solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict without a solution to the conflict
with the Palestinians--and that is what the Saudi initiative is all about."

The Bush Administration, criminally negligent in its cowardice to engage with
this crisis, lets it be known that the Saudi proposal has merit, by which it
knows well enough what the standard operating procedure is for such
proposals. As summed up by Uri Avneri, head of the peace group Gush Shalom, "
In Israel, every international initiative designed tio put an end to the
conflict passes through three stages: (a) denial, (b) misrepresentation, (c)
liquidation. That's how the Sharon-Peres government will deal with this one,
too."

The press here has been as criminally negligent as the Bush administration for
decades. No US administration will ever exert itself positively without some
popular pressure, and the role of most of the press has been to avert such
pressure but suppressing voices of opposition.

Here's one thing you can do. Right now Jewish Voices Against Occupation is
calling for the evacuation of all settlements, a return to pre-1967 borders,
the suspension of US military aid till the end of the occupation, the
estasblishmdent of an international peraqcekeeping force.

JVAO's Bluma Goldstein tells me that 450 has signed it and $30,000 raised
towards the necessary $37,750. Mail them at JVAO, PO Box 11606, Berkeley, Ca
94712. Their email is jvao at jvao.org. Remember Kimmerling's line, "And I accuse
myself of knowing all of this, yet crying little and keeping quiet too often."

Now read closely this "Call For International Action to END THE OCCUPATION
NOW!" issued by Jeff Halper, of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
(ICAHD) on March 6:

"This is the moment of decision. The Israeli army today opened its widest
campaign against Palestinian 'targets' ever non-stop bombardment from the air,
sea and land, invasion of large Palestinian areas (especially in Gaza), house
demolitions, killings, arrests and the declaring of a virtual halt to
Palestinian traffic on all the roads of the Occupied Territories. This is the
time when all of us, NGOs, faith-based organizations and citizens,
Palestinians, Israelis and members of the international community , must arise
and focus our efforts on one goal, and one goal only: To bring an end to the
brutal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza NOW.

"During the seven years of Oslo, Israel pursued a particular vision of 'peace',
a non-viable and only semi-independent Palestinian mini-state that would
relieve Israel of the three million Palestinians residing in the Occupied
Territories but would leave it in control. Israel's ferocious response to the
Intifada came from a fear that the Palestinian Street would break the PA out of
the Oslo framework and lead it to a true dismantling of the Occupation, to a
viable and truly sovereign Palestinian state.

"That is the battle being waged now, between an Israeli-controlled Palestinian
bantustan and a viable, sovereign Palestinian state. Couching Palestinian
resistance as mere 'terrorism' (and thereby cynically exploiting the simplistic
'anti-terror' approach of the post-September 11 Bush Administration), Israel is
using its entire military arsenal (except its nuclear weapons) to suppress
Palestinian aspirations 'for once and for all'. Sharon, who believes that there
can be only one 'victor', has declared that the current offensive, escalated
daily, will not cease until the Palestinians 'surrender'."

The only force preventing the defeat of Palestinian aspirations for
independence is the Palestinian Street. This is the force that rose up against
an Oslo process that was leading it to apartheid. This is the force that
appealed to the international community for support in its struggle against a
vastly superior military and political oppressor. But how long the Palestinian
people can hang on is a matter of question. People speak bravely of fighting
for as long as it takes, but military strikes, invasions of refugee camps,
impoverishment, house demolitions, severe restrictions on movement and
psychological fatigue all take their toll. Israel's smooth, well-oiled machine
of public relations and diplomacy has succeeded in isolating the Palestinians
internationally and delegitimizing Arafat's leadership.

"This is the time when an international Intifada is called for, when members of
the international community must stand up and demand that their governments end
the Occupation NOW. This must be the focus of our actions. All else, no matter
how well intentioned, has been rendered irrelevant by the events of the past
weeks. What must we do?

"International NGOs, faith-based organizations and political groups must join
their extensive but scattered and poorly-focused networks into a coherent,
adamant Campaign Against the Occupation. Each country must form a campaign team
and those teams must develop a working framework of cooperation and joint
action. The international and country-based teams should then establish
contacts with Palestinian and Israeli organizations for purposes of our
immediate concerns and demanding an end to the occupation now; coordination;
the development of informational and campaign materials; the dispatching of
local delegations (Palestinian, Israeli and joint) for the purposes of
lobbying, media work and appearing in public forums abroad. Effective lobbying
in the American Congress, the European Parliament and in European capitals is
essential.

"I would urge that joint Palestinian-Israeli delegations be sent with a simple,
compelling message: we are on the same side, the side that aspires to a just
peace that addresses the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people
while bringing security, stability and economic development to the entire
region; the dispatching of international delegations to Palestine to engage in
resistance actions, and to develop with them effective follow-up actions back
home.

"We also need more effective means of raising funds for our work, and of
focusing our funding on campaigns and actions that bear directly upon the
urgent task of ending the Occupation.

"Palestinian organizations must focus their efforts on a Campaign to End the
Occupation Now, pulling together the agendas of their many organizations into a
coordinated and effective effort. In my opinion, a close working relationship
between Palestinian NGOs and those Israeli organizations that share in their
agenda of ending the Occupation is essential for effective advocacy.

"Israeli peace and human rights organizations must also develop a more
effective framework of action. Besides our scattered protest activities, we
must find ways to effectively communicate with the Israeli public, and we must
be much more involved in international networking and campaigns, including
production of better informational materials. We must also seek ways to support
Palestinian organizations. All the pieces are in place. We have the
organizations and the world-wide networks. Some of us have the information,
others the funding, still others the skills at putting together an
international campaign, working with the media, gaining access to
decision-makers. Some of us are here, 'on the ground' in Palestine/Israel, with
all we can contribute; others are abroad, in key positions to influence public
opinion in their countries and their governments' policies. We now all share
the responsibility the collective, urgent responsibility of bringing all our
resources to bear on the "People and organizations at the center of
international networks have to decide how to proceed. You all know each
other. Network, discuss, develop mechanisms of coordination and suggest to us
'on the ground' how to link up effectively. Palestinian organizations perhaps
through PNGO should declare a common Campaign For Ending the Occupation Now in
order to focus their attention and interact effectively with organizations
abroad, with all the contact information. Again, I would urge a meeting with
partner Israeli organizations to strengthen the cooperation. ICAHD will work to
create better forums of cooperation among Israeli organizations, and to augment
the present emphasis on activism with effective international advocacy and
campaigning. We should not underestimate our power, the power of the
international civil society, which is growing in strength and
organization. This is the moment in which we must arise and assert our
collective will. End the Occupation NOW!"


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Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international

"They are all Enron, we are all Argentina"
    --WEF protesters.
----
In the contradiction lies the hope.
                                     --Bertholt Brecht