Every time I hear the voice of David Ben-Gurion uttering the words "Therefore we are gathered here..." I think of Issar Barsky, a charming youngster, the little brother of a girlfriend of mine.
The last time we met was in front of the dining hall of Kibbutz Hulda, on Friday, May 14, 1948.
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Thank you Uri Avnery for this beautiful piece and thank you to the Huffington Post. For the good of all our children, let's hope that both Israel and America gain back their promise and their souls as nations. We have both become what we most feared.
I want my country back too.
The Obama supporters are the monks who hit themselves in the head.
"Pie Iesu Domine. Dona Eis Requiem" >smack<
(self-destructive fanatics is what I'm saying)
It almost begins to restore some sense of optimism about humans in general when you stumble upon someone (like Uri Avnery) who seems NOT to be bent upon Armageddon at all costs. A very welcome change from the general tone of Ha'aretz and the strident Zionists. Getting everyone to stop the killing is the hard part, but of course, that's Step One. As long as all sides feel justified in perpetuating the cycle of violence ("We owe them this one to get even!") the wheel of karma keeps rolling down the same old rut.
There's absolutely no question where isreal will be in the next sixty years given their present trajectory:
"A state of permanent war, the terror of its neighbors, where violence pervades all spheres of life, where the rich flourish and the poor live in misery; a state that will be deserted by the best of its children."
My birthday wish to isreal?-here's to the end of Zionism and the birth of openheartedness.
Hear hear.
Israel won't exist 60 years from now. 5 million Israelis, 122 million Arabs...yo
60 years of dispossession. Let all Palestinians have Israeli citizenship and become one state. Let see much about democracy. For the Jewish state it is democracy for the few and repression for the non jews. I heard that about 1936 the other way around in a land called Germany.
You point out a plain truth. Well spoken.
what about the dispossessed Iraqi, Syrian,Iranian (Mizrahi) Jews? how about compensation for losing all their property? How about letting the MIzrahi Jews return to their homes and property they lost? Oh, I forgot. All Jews are European interlopers to the Middle East. Nevermind the Sephardim and Mizrahi that were there long before Balfour and is declaration.
As usual, we, Sephardim and Mizrahi are shoved aside and considered quaint. Just like the 55,000+ that were sent from Africa and the Middle East to die in the camps by the collaborating Muslims.
If there is a God, and the neocons disappear along with arch-criminals Bush-Cheney in another year, Israel's politics will also begin to moderate.
The Likud Party of Israel is as fascist as our own neocons, maybe more so.
They certainly have a reason to be hard-line but hardliners rarely find peace.
The liberals in this country are pretty fascist as well. I guess we can all agree on being fascists and we can move on.
Leave it to yet another conservative tool to not know what "fascist" means.
"Fascism is corporatism, the merger of the state with the corporate powers."
-- Benito Mussolini, inventor of Fascism.
That definition easily fits the current government of Israel and the US, how exactly that would apply to "liberals", of course, you don't have the faintest idea.
This is a wonderful article. It is one that yearns for a multi-modal solution to a problem that views itself as
lineal. Lines in sand, jews vs. arabs--and let us remember the many many thousands of Jews that were expelled or that poured out of the Arab countries after Israel became a state in 1948. Israel has been rulled by its European brothers with linear minds and fears. The sheitel.
"Herzl's maxim did not remain an abstract thought. The Zionist movement followed it from the first moment on, and the state of Israel continues to do so to this very day."
It is time to explore ways in which these people can blend.
Let's start by placing the blame where it belongs- on ultra-orthodox jewish fanatics who steal land that doesnt belong to them.
Is either side interested in blending?
An informative article. Maybe a new Democrat president can get peace in the ME back on track.
Certainly not Hillary. She's totally one-sided. Just like Bush.
Mr. Obama spoke of "a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel: our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy.
"When Israel is attacked, we must stand up for Israel's legitimate right to defend itself," Mr. Obama said. " such as last summer, when Hezbollah attacked Israel.
" No Israeli Prime Minister should ever feel dragged to or blocked from the negotiating table by the United States," Mr. Obama said. "When I am president, the United States will stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel,"
"I have not just talked the talk, I have walked the walk when it comes to Israel's security. I think it is fundamental. "The United States government and an Obama Presidency cannot ask Israel to take risks with respect to its security."
Beautifully written, Uri Avnery encapsulates the tragic paradox of Israel's foundation and Palestinian catastrophe. A must read for anyone trying to understand Israel's history in its proper global context.
How is that a paradox? Israel's foundation and the Palestian catastrophe are both tragedies.
A very good article.
I hope a lot of people read it.
Good article. It would be nice to see peace in the ME, but that's going to take a fair amount of work on both sides. Maybe, an new American President can get peace back on track.
Much much more work by the party that is wrong-Israel. Tear down the wall. Unrecognize Israel. Return the stolen land. Pay reparations. Apologize.
Then there won't be a motivating force for terrorists against Americans. Dismantling Israel is in our nation's best interest. And it's just the right thing to do.
Happy Birthday Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East! May you live to see many, many more happy birthdays to come! Chazak v'amatz!
Democratic as in: guarantees equal rights, equal citizenship and full participation to all persons born in the territory that the state controls, regardless of race, religion or national origin? Or in some other sense?
Don't be daft - it's not canada for pete's sake! "Democratic" as in supported by the Americans as a reserve land with nukes for when they go into Iran for the rest of the Middle East oil.
"Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East"
People like you were saying the same about South Africa and the African continent some 30 years ago. Yes, that racist, apartheid right-wing government loathed by every true democracy on this planet and whose main sponsors were the US and Israel.
BTW, Nelson Mandela is **STILL** on America's list of "terrorist
Since when is "right-wing" particularly a bad thing? And Israel isn't loathed by democracies, they are despised by socialists of Europe and anti-semites.
ummmm....o
Long long ago,I would guess around the early months of 1948,there were numerous arguments and opinions about the establishment of a Jewish State,or homelandin the Palestinian protectora
There were American leaders such as George Marshall and Dean Achinson who storngly advised president Truman against endorsing establishment of the State of Israel in the Palestinian Protectora
Sadly,their advise was ignored by Mr Truman,a man who,but for this incident I have great respect and admiration.
Equally sadly,the predictions of people like Atcheson and Marshallhave turned out to be accurate and true.
And worse of all American leaders persist in and increase support and arming a despotic regime of
Zionist Expansionism,totaly disregarding the rights and needs of Isreal's neighbors and refugees.A
I fervantly hope the next U.S.electi
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First Posted: 05- 7-08 07:34 AM | Updated: 05-15-08 05:12 AM