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THE ABSURD TIMES
The Struggle Against Jerusalem's Quiet Ethnic Cleansing
Palestinians Face Home Demolitions Spree By Israel
August 02, 2008 By Jonathan Cook
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In the first hours of dawn, Nader Elayan was woken by a call from a neighbour warning him to hurry to the house he had almost finished building. By the time he arrived, it was too late: a bulldozer was tearing down the walls. More than 100 Israeli security guards held back local residents.
The demolition, carried out four years ago, has left Mr Elayan, his wife, Fidaa, who is now pregnant, and their two young children with nowhere to live but a single room in his brother's cramped home. It is the only land he owns and he had invested all his savings in building the now destroyed house.
Over the past few years, the Elayans' fate has been shared by two dozen other families in the Palestinian
The problem of house demolitions affects Palestinians throughout the occupied territories. But according to Hatem Abdelkader, an adviser to Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, the situation is particularly acute in the
He noted that
"Illegal building is simply a pretext for destroying Palestinian families' homes and lives," said Jeff Halper, head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).
"The demolitions are part of a policy to stop the natural expansion of Palestinian communities in and around
In an act of defiance, Mr Halper's organisation and 40 international volunteers helped the Elayans to rebuild their home this week in an attempt to highlight what the committee calls the "quiet ethnic cleansing" of
"This is the first time a government has supported the rebuilding of an 'illegal' Palestinian home demolished by the Israeli authorities," Mr Halper said.
The issue of house demolitions is back in the spotlight now after two separate incidents in July in which Palestinians, both of whom were residents of
Such punitive destruction of homes was stopped in 2005, under the threat of legal challenge, but not before some 270 homes were razed on security grounds in the first years of the intifada.
According to Mr Halper, however, the use of demolitions against Palestinians accused of illegal building is a far more significant problem. "We estimate that there have been at least 18,000 homes destroyed during the four decades of occupation."
In fact, Mr Halper said, he believes the true number of demolitions is likely to be double the official figure. Many razings are unrecorded, carried out by Palestinians themselves fearing a heavy fine if the Israeli army enforces the demolition order.
"Most demolitions are of multi-storey buildings that are home to several families, meaning that well in excess of 100,000 Palestinians may have been made homeless by Israeli administrative policies," he said.
Since its founding a decade ago, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions has rebuilt 150 Palestinian homes as part of its campaign to bring the issue of demolitions to the attention of Israeli Jews and the international community. It has been an uphill struggle, Mr Halper said. The European Union, which recently upgraded its relations with
But this year's work camp may make the continuing demolition of homes in Anata a little harder, Mr Halper said. "It's one thing to destroy a home supposedly built illegally by a Palestinian, but another to destroy one built with money provided by the Spanish government."
Mr Halper also believes that, by exposing such groups as the summer camp volunteers to the Palestinians' plight, public perceptions may begin to change.
Alonso Santos, a 21-year-old architecture student from
"It was an eye-opener to realise that the principles of urban planning we are taught at the university are being used by the Israelis, but for exactly the opposite purpose from the one usually intended. The planning rules here are designed not to improve the Palestinians' lives but to make them more miserable."
The volunteers were hosted at a peace centre in Anata erected on the site of Salim Shawamreh's home, which was demolished four times by Israeli authorities. Known as Arabiya House, after Mr Shawamreh's wife, the building is decorated on one side with a mural depicting the death of Rachel Corrie, a
"Imagine your children leaving in the morning for school and returning later in the day to find their home, their whole world, has disappeared while they were gone," Mr Shawamreh said. "It's happened to my children four times. It's cruelty beyond words."
Mr Shawamreh, whose family were refugees from the northern
The peace centre is also close both to the snaking route of Israel's separation wall and to a new bypass road - part of what critics call an apartheid road system - being built to ensure that Jewish settlers can drive separately from Palestinians across the West Bank.
Arabiya House is under a temporary reprieve from demolition while Israeli courts determine its status.
Mr Halper said the judges have been reluctant to confirm the destruction order because his group has threatened to take the case to the International Court of Justice if the ruling goes against it.
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth,
This article originally appeared in The National (http://www.thenational.ae), published in
Gaza Under Siege
August 05, 2008 By Stephen Lendman
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After Hamas' January 25, 2006 electoral victory,
On June 14, 2007, collaboratively with Israel and the US, Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas declared a "state of emergency," illegally dismissed Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh and his national unity government, and appointed his own prime minister and new "emergency" cabinet. Authority is now split. Abbas runs the
Hamas remains isolated. It's called a "hostile entity," and after last September 19 was squeezed by tightened sanctions. Electricity, fuel and gas were reduced and intermittently cut off. So were supplies of food, medicines, water and other essentials. Its industrial production dropped 95%, and its agricultural output is about half its pre-2007 level. Nearly all construction also stopped, and according to a new UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) report, poverty tops 50% and unemployment is nearly as high. Other unofficial estimates say 80% for both is more accurate. Things are bad and worsening.
Shops are short of everything because
-- certain medicines;
-- restricted food items like fruit, milk and other dairy products, wheat flour, rice, sugar, salt, cooking oil, and frozen foods;
-- cleaning materials;
-- agricultural samplings;
-- herbicides and pesticides;
-- footwear;
-- clothing;
-- fabrics, threads, and buttons;
-- construction materials: cement, tin, iron, plastic pipes, asbestos, wood, nails, screws, wires, paint, etc.;
-- spare parts and supplies for manufacturing goods;
-- electrical appliances;
-- office equipment and supplies;
-- livestock and fodder;
-- books;
-- computers;
-- telephones and mobiles;
-- spare parts for communication devices;
-- tobacco and cigarettes;
-- beverages;
-- all types of motor vehicles, including spare parts (batteries, tires, engine oil, etc.);
-- elevators and their spare parts;
-- water pumps and their spare parts; and
-- the import or export of raw materials for industry, construction and agriculture - virtually everything a modern society needs to function and survive.
Compared to 9000 commodities imported before June 2007, now it's only 20. People don't get enough to eat, and conditions keep getting worse. Even fishing is restricted, idling thousands of local fishermen because anyone in open waters risks detention and harassment.
Power is in short supply - affecting hospitals, fresh water availability, sanitation, and the functioning of daily life under conditions of extreme duress. Families (including spouses) are also cut off. Some live in
Earlier, family unification was denied after the Knesset passed the Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (July 2003). It bars Palestinians in the Territories with an Israeli spouse from getting citizenship or residency status in
Thousands of married couples and their children are affected - forced to remain apart or leave
Here's a brief snapshot of
International law (including the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention) obligates occupying powers to protect civilian populations. Its Article 3(1) specifically states:
"Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat (out of action) by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria."
Under Fourth Geneva law, Israel is obligated to protect all Palestinians - especially the sick, wounded, children under 15, pregnant women, the elderly, infirm and disabled. It must also allow free passage of food, medicines and other essentials, let medical teams provide help, and refrain from imposing collective punishment and de facto martial law. The (1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights goes further, and
Israeli Human Rights Violations
In January 2008, John Dugard, the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on Palestine prepared a scathing indictment of Israel's human rights violations. Leading human and civil rights organizations have their own like the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), B'Tselem, the
Its March 9, 2008 report is called: "The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion." Here are some highlights:
--
-- Gazans are effectively imprisoned; movement in and out of the Territory is "impossible;" food, water, health care, sewage treatment, sanitation and other essentials "can no longer be taken for granted;"
-- because of the siege and economic collapse, there's "little money to buy food and limited food to buy;" rising prices exacerbate the problem;
-- trucks carrying commercial and humanitarian supplies into Gaza have "plummeted" - from around 250 a day pre-crisis to a maximum of 45 a day or less;
-- extreme poverty levels have "increased sharply" making 80% of Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid when it's available - a 10-fold increase in the last decade; in 2007, households (on average) spent about 62% of their income on food;
-- 95% of
-- the siege destroyed public service infrastructure; Israel prevents repairs and maintenance; spare parts imports are prohibited; electricity and fuel are severely restricted; hospitals and public institutions can't function properly; power cuts last 8 - 12 hours daily; 40 - 50 or more million liters of partially and untreated sewage are daily dumped in the sea;
-- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says its higher - up to 60 million liters daily; in addition, raw sewage is being pumped into heavily populated areas, including three million liters recently into the Jabaliya camp storm water lagoon;
-- since
-- the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) provides drinking water and treats sewage; with limited electricity, fuel, maintenance and spare parts, the network can't function adequately; as a result, nearly one-third of Gazans have no running water; pre-siege, they all did;
-- education is so undermined that classes are cancelled; dropout rates are high because families can't afford to send their children to school; for those attending, school days are shortened; textbooks and other resources are in short supply; and failure rates are nearly 80%; 90% in math;
-- healthcare has deteriorated markedly - inside Gaza and in access to outside treatment; Gazans needing special treatment are denied exit permits; patients are dying for lack of care, including children;
--
-- Israel effectively controls Gaza; it's obligated to protect its people but instead punishes them by its: military presence, attacks, extra-judicial assassinations, land and infrastructure destruction, restrictions on movement, lack of drinking water, food, medical care and other essentials, unemployment, impoverishment, and barriers to education;
-- isolating Hamas has been counterproductive; it's failed "at all levels;" a new strategy of engagement is needed: condemn the siege; go public on the humanitarian crisis; pressure Israel to end it; provide adequate emergency help; reactivate Gaza's economy; enforce international law; and work towards "an inclusive (productive) political process."
The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights also monitors
On April 8, it produced a scathing report called "Worst Year under Occupation: 2008 1st Quarter Report on (Israeli) Violations of Human Rights in the Gaza Strip." Below are its highlights:
-- during the first quarter of 2008,
-- the level of 247 killings exceeded the combined totals reached for the 2005 through 2007 first quarter periods; they nearly equal all of them for 2007;
-- public and private property destruction greatly increased; dunums of agricultural land destroyed as well;
--
-- the international community remains silent in the face of systematic, "strangulating" collective punishment on an unprecedented scale; the lives and well-being of Gazans are affected in all ways imaginable;
-- the number of Gazans victimized and their material losses show the extent of violations under international law; the international community's failure to intervene made current conditions possible;
-- Al Mezan condems Israel's "aggression" and "gross human rights violations;" they're willful crimes of war and against humanity and one of the most extreme examples ever of collective punishment against a civilian population; Al Mazen calls on the international community to intervene - to "investigate, pursue and prosecute those who ordered and/or perpetrated (these) crimes."
Last November, former NATO commander, (retired) General James Jones, was named the administration's special Middle East envoy with this endorsement: he's the "person we need to take up this vital mission....an experienced leader who can address the regional security challenges comprehensively and at the highest levels...." His assignment: draft a strategic security stabilization plan to complement Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Word is now out about a report Jones is preparing that his superiors won't like. Nor will Israelis. According to Haaretz (on July 22), it's "extremely critical....of Israel's policies in the territories and its attitude toward the Palestinian Authority's (PA) security services" - President Mahmoud Abbas' repressive shock troops doing Israel's dirty work and targeting Hamas in Gaza and its supporters in the West Bank.
Administration officials have a draft summary, and it's "arousing considerable discomfort. (It's) conclusions about
-- it's "fairly broad definition" of
-- "its attitude toward the PA security services."
That's not all. Jones criticizes
That was Carter's assessment in an April 17 speech at the
Last April, he met with Khaled Meshaal (Hamas' exiled leader) in
For
A Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Narrative Under Siege - "Swimming in Sewage"
It's one of many PCHR accounts to show how Gazans' lives have deteriorated under siege. It begins as follows: "I think the sea probably is polluted. Sometimes I get strange white marks on my skin; but we come down to the beach each day because we have nowhere else to go." That's Salim's voice speaking for himself and his friends. They go to
People flock to beaches in summer because it's hot, but some of them are "swimming in sewage." According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), around 60 million liters of untreated and partially treated sewage pour into the sea around
The Gaza Coastal Municipal Water Utility (CMWU) supplies the Territory's water and manages its three sewage treatment plants. Because of power and spare parts shortages, unfiltered tap water is saline and undrinkable, and sewage plants can't function normally. It forces CMWU to dump raw sewage into the sea so it doesn't flood residential areas.
Concern is great and growing. The World Health Organization (WHO) took samples from 30
WHO warned that "Waterborne outbreaks are....to be avoided because of their capacity to result in the simultaneous infection of a high proportion of (the) community" - most notably with gastroenteritis, ear and eye infections, dermatitis, dysentery, respiratory and urinary tract infections, guardia, and e-coli strains. These pathogens cause these diseases and death, so it's crucial to avoid them.
Activists Plan to "breach the (
On August 6 or 7, about 40 unarmed activist members of the International Solidarity Movement, the Israeli Commission against House Demolitions and others will depart Cyprus on two wooden sailboats - to "get into the Gaza harbor and breach the siege." On board will be an 81 year Catholic nun, an 83 year old Holocaust survivor, a Nakba survivor, an Israeli professor, Palestinians from
"The IDF will probably stop us but part of the point is to show that
NGOs Worldwide Call for An End to
The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is one of many. It's a "growing alliance of trade unions, community groups, faith groups, women and youth organisations, NGOs and other campaigners working together across more than 100 national platforms....to end poverty, inequality," injustice and human suffering. It cites deep concern about
Other NGOs voice similar demands:
-- in January 2007, 8 Israeli human rights organizations collaboratively joined an international campaign to end
(1) The Association for Civil Rights in
(2) Amnesty-Israel;
(3) Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights;
(4) Gisha -
(5) Hamoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual;
(6) The Public Committee Against Torture in
(7) Physicians for Human Rights -
(8) Yesh Din - Volunteers for Human Rights.
Others have as well:
--
-- the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) says: "The blockade makes export impossible so farmers are abandoning their crops; Israeli incursions result in huge destruction to lands and enterprises; almost every industry in Gaza is facing ruin; this collective punishment must end;"
-- the Palestinian Medical Relief Society says: "
-- the Women's Affairs Centre says: "
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) says: "How can
Many others worldwide as well call for;
-- ending
--
-- the right to work and an adequate standard of living;
-- the right to health;
-- education;
-- life; and
-- 41 illegal years of occupation.
The world no longer can wait. Neither can the people of
Stephen Lendman lives in
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New actor on the same old stage
August 04, 2008 By Robert Fisk
Source: The Independent
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If Obama is elected he will be enmeshed in the Middle East tragedy and forced to take sides.
I was in the studios of al-Jazeera - the Qatar satellite channel so democratic in the eyes of Colin Powell that Bush later wanted to bomb it - while Barack Obama was performing his theatricals in the Middle East. "Theatre" is what I called it on air while the anchor desperately tried to suck some Arab hope out of the whole ridiculous fandango. No such luck, I told him. It isn't going to make the slightest difference to the Arabs whether Obama or McCain wins.
Westerners believe that Obama appeals to the Arabs because of his middle name or because he's black. Untrue. They like him - or liked him - because he grew up poor. Like them, he understood - or rather, they thought he understood - what oppression was about. But they quickly found out where they stood in the food chain. Forty-five minutes in Ramallah vs 24 hours in Israel was the Obama equation. Yes, I know the old saw. Every US presidential candidate has to make the pilgrimage to the Wailing Wall, to Yad Vashem, to some Israeli town or village that has taken casualties (albeit minuscule in comparison to those visited upon the Palestinians), to talk about Israel's security, etc. That doesn't mean, we are always told, that Israel is going to have it easy once the US president is elected. Wrong. Israel is going to have it easy. Because no sooner is he elected than he will be enmeshed in the Middle East tragedy and be forced to take sides - Israel's, of course - and then it will be time for the next election, so the president's hands will be tied again and he'll be talking about Israel's security (rather than Palestinian security) and we'll be back on the same old itinerary.
It's like the Lebanese, who keep believing that a Labour government is better than a Kadima or a Likud government in Israel; a clever idea, but - whoever runs Israel - the bombs keep falling on Lebanon. It's not that US presidents shouldn't understand the immensity of Jewish suffering during the Holocaust - it's a pity the Arabs still won't acknowledge it - but the Second World War is over and, right now, Israel continues to build colonies for Jews and Jews only on Arab land. Of course, Obama made the usual references to Jewish settlements not being helpful to peace, just as Gordon Brown did a few days earlier. And the Israelis showed what they thought of both men by announcing further colony-building within 24 hours of Obama's departure.
But hasn't anyone realised that Obama has chosen for his advisers two of the most lamentable failures of US Middle East policy-making? There, yet again, is Dennis Ross, a former prominent staff member of Aipac, the most powerful Israeli lobby in America - yup, the very same Aipac to which Obama grovelled last month - and the man who failed to make the Oslo agreement work. And there is Madeleine Albright who, as US ambassador to the UN, said that the price of half a million dead children under sanctions in Iraq was "worth it", and who later announced that Israel was "under siege". This must be the only time - ever - that a US politician thought Palestinian tanks were on the streets of Tel Aviv.
But this dreary old stage play doesn't end there. No one follows the narrative any more because it is so repetitive. Take Nouri al-Maliki, the PMIGZ - Prime Minister of the Iraqi Green Zone - who's suddenly gone from being the Democrats' favourite target to being their election buddy-buddy, as Max Boot sagely noted in The Washington Post. Maliki suggested to Obama that Iraq will be ready to assume responsibility for its own security by 2010. Bingo. This chimes in perfectly with Obama's promises.
But wait a minute. In May, 2006, Maliki announced that "our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces within a year and a half". Five months later, the PMIGZ said that it would be "only a matter of months" before Iraqi security forces "take over the security portfolio entirely and keep some (sic) multinational forces only in a supporting role". Then in January, 2007, Maliki boasted that "within three to six months our need for the American troops will dramatically go down".
Four months later, he was at it again, claiming that Iraqi forces would control all security "in every province" within eight months. Quite apart from the idea that there is a security "portfolio" in Iraq, his own military chums don't agree with any of this bumph. The PMIGZ's own defence minister claims his forces can't assume responsibility until 2012, while the Iraqi commander in Basra wants US troops to stay until 2020!
Even if we ignore all this drivel, what does Obama want to do with his soldiers once he withdraws them from Iraq? He's going to send the poor devils back to Afghanistan, that graveyard of foreign armies where the Taliban were so utterly defeated in 2001 that they are now stronger than ever. I would recommend that Obama glance through Appendix XXIV of the official British account of the 1878-80 Second Afghan War where he will find the British announcing victory over a massed Afghan force which included a fierce group of fighters known as "talibs". These men would choose a particular soldier in the British ranks and make a suicidal attack to seize him and cut his throat in front of his comrades.
And I am "minded" (as Jack Straw used to say when he was showing off his English) of the bleak conversation I had with an adviser to the Taliban "elders" of Kandahar, a certain Mullah Abdullah, in the last days of the dark militia's rule in 2001. "If our people return and take back this lost land, it's a success," he told me. "If we are killed trying to do so, we have received martyrdom and this will be a great success for us too... If we are thrown out of Kandahar, we will go to the mountains and start the guerrilla war as we did with the Russians." The Taliban would fight on, he said. They would ambush the Americans in ever greater numbers. And so today Obama is also going to reinforce his soldiers to fight on in another Muslim country. If he wins.
Comments
Re: Re: The Great War For Civilisation
By Barfield, Michael
The subtitle is the subtitle given to the article by The Independent, for which this article was written: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-new-actor-on-the-same-old-stage-883270.html Re: The Great War For Civilisation
By , minot
How did the following subtitle get attached to today's Fisk article: 'If Obama is elected he will be enmeshed in the Middle East tragedy and forced to take sides.' This is no way reflects the content of Fisk's article – how do you explain this? I expect better from ZNet than to shamelessly make excuses for Obama – this site is not supposed to be The Nation, after all. The Great War For Civilisation
By Andrews, John
I am currently reading Robert Fisk's mighty tome - The Great War For Civilisation, published by Fourth Estate, London.
It is an absolutely superb book and is a reminder of just how good a journalist Robert Fisk has been over the last thirty years or so.
If only politicians in the UK and USA had read, and understood, Fisk's work they may have shown more caution in their actions towards Afghanistan and Iraq. The history of these countries is clearly defined in the book and it was obvious what would happen if the west interfered in the affairs of either of these countries. History has a nasty habit of repeating itself.
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A failed Israeli society is collapsing
by Avraham Burg, Jerusalem
The Zionist revolution has always rested on two pillars: a just path and an ethical leadership. Neither of these is operative any longer. The Israeli nation today rests on a scaffolding of corruption, and on foundations of oppression and injustice. As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep. There may yet be a Jewish state in the Middle East, but it will be a different sort, strange and ugly. There is time to change course, but not much. What is needed is a new vision of a just society and the political will to implement it.
Yes, we Israelis have revived the Hebrew language, created a marvelous theater and a strong national currency. Our Jewish minds are as sharp as ever. We are traded on the Nasdaq. But is this why we created a state? The Jewish people did not survive for two millennia in order to pioneer new weaponry, computer security programs or antimissile missiles. We were supposed to be a light unto the nations. In this we have failed.
It turns out that the 2,000-year struggle for Jewish survival comes down to a state of settlements, run by an amoral clique of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their citizens and to their enemies. A state lacking justice cannot survive.
It is very comfortable to be a Zionist in West Bank settlements such as Beit El and Ofra. The biblical landscape is charming. From the window you can gaze through the geraniums and bougainvillea and not see the occupation. Traveling on the fast highway that takes you from Ramot on Jerusalem's northern edge to Gilo on the southern edge, a 12-minute trip just west of the Palestinian roadblocks, it's hard to comprehend the humiliating experience of the despised Arab who must creep for hours along the pocked, blockaded roads assigned to him. One road for the occupier, one road for the occupied.
This cannot work. Even if the Arabs lower their heads and swallow their shame and anger forever, it won't work. A structure built on human callousness will inevitably collapse in on itself. Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli escapism.
They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated.
We could kill a thousand ringleaders and engineers a day and nothing will be solved, because the leaders come up from below — from the wells of hatred and anger, from the "infrastructures" of injustice and moral corruption. If all this were inevitable, divinely ordained and immutable, I would be silent. But things could be different, and so, crying out is a moral imperative.
Here is what the prime minister should say to the people:
The time for illusions is over. The time for decisions has arrived. We love the entire land of our forefathers and in some other time we would have wanted to live here alone. But that will not happen. The Arabs, too, have dreams and needs.
Between the Jordan and the Mediterranean there is no longer a clear Jewish majority. And so, fellow citizens, it is not possible to keep the whole thing without paying a price. We cannot keep a Palestinian majority under an Israeli boot and at the same time think ourselves the only democracy in the Middle East. There cannot be democracy without equal rights for all who live here, Arab as well as Jew. We cannot keep the territories and preserve a Jewish majority in the world's only Jewish state — not by means that are humane and moral and Jewish.
We must remove all the settlements — all of them — and draw an internationally recognized border between the Jewish national home and the Palestinian national home. The Jewish Law of Return will apply only within our national home, and their right of return will apply only within the borders of the Palestinian state.
Do you want democracy? No problem. Either abandon the greater Land of Israel, to the last settlement and outpost, or give full citizenship and voting rights to everyone, including Arabs. The result, of course, will be that those who did not want a Palestinian state alongside us will have one in our midst, via the ballot box.
That's what the prime minister should say to the people. He should present the choices forthrightly: Jewish racism or democracy. Settlements or hope for both peoples. False visions of barbed wire, roadblocks and suicide bombers, or a recognized international border between two states and a shared capital in Jerusalem.
But there is no prime minister in Jerusalem. The disease eating away at the body of Zionism has already attacked the head. Polls published two weeks ago showed that a majority of Israelis do not believe in the personal integrity of the prime minister — yet they trust his political leadership. In other words, Israel's current prime minister personally embodies both halves of the curse: suspect personal morals and open disregard for the law — combined with the brutality of occupation and the trampling of any chance for peace. This is our nation, these its leaders. The inescapable conclusion is that the Zionist revolution is dead.
Why, then, is the opposition so quiet? Perhaps because it's summer, or because they are tired, or because some would like to join the government at any price, even the price of participating in the sickness. But while they dither, the forces of good lose hope.
This is the time for clear alternatives. Anyone who declines to present a clear-cut position — black or white — is in effect collaborating in the decline. It is not a matter of Labor versus Likud or right versus left, but of right versus wrong, acceptable versus unacceptable. The law-abiding versus the lawbreakers. What is needed is not a political replacement for the Sharon government but a vision of hope, an alternative to the destruction of Zionism and its values by the deaf, dumb and callous.
Israel's friends abroad — Jewish and non-Jewish alike, presidents and prime ministers, rabbis and lay people — should choose as well. They must reach out and help Israel to navigate the road map toward our national destiny as a light unto the nations and a society of peace, justice and equality.
Avraham Burg was speaker of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, from 1999 to 2003 and is currently a Labor Party member of the Knesset. His article, edited here, appeared in the International Herald Tribune (Paris), September 6, 2003.
