Uri Avnery on the Current Reality of the Israeli Peace Movement

[marmar]

Uri Avnery
January 30, 2016


HAMELIN, A small town in Germany (not so far from where I was born), was infested with rats. In their despair, the burghers called upon a rat-catcher and promised him a thousand guilders for liberating them from this plague.

The rat-catcher took his pipe and played such a sweet melody that all the rats came out of their holes and joined him. He marched them to the Weser river, where they all drowned.

Once freed from this plague, the burghers saw no reason to pay. So the piper took out his pipe again and produced an even sweeter melody. The enchanted children of the town gathered around him and he marched them straight down to the river, where they all drowned.

Binyamin Netanyahu is our pied piper. Enchanted by his melodies, the people of Israel are marching behind him towards the river.

.....(snip).....

THE ISRAELI Peace Camp is in despair. No savior is in sight. Many just sit in front of their TV set and wring their hands.

.....(snip).....

Let me first say that I admire Schocken. “Haaretz” (“The Land”) is one of the last bastions of Israeli democracy. Cursed and detested by the entire rightist majority, it leads the intellectual battle for democracy and peace, All this while the written media are in dire financial straits, in Israel and around the world. From my own experience as a magazine owner and editor – who lost this battle – I know just how heroic and heartbreaking this job is. ...............(more)

http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/uri-avnery-on-the-current-reality-of-the-israeli-peace-movement

[oberliner]

1. What a bizarre analogy

I still don't fully understand it.

Who are the rats meant to represent?

[shira]

2. The hypocrisy of outside pressure that is going to save Democratic Israel...

As if the Israeli populace doesn't know what's good for them within their own Democratically elected government.

At least Uri Avnery realizes outside pressure will do nothing if there is no attempt to connect with the the Israeli populace and their legitimate security concerns.

[Israeli]

3. Its a message to all of us who fight against the occupation marmar......

So let the good fight go on – inside, outside, everywhere.

We are getting many such messages lately .....this one about sums it up how we are feeling right now .....

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.700430

This loose federation is maintained for the meantime through scaremongering and occasional wars against external enemies real or imaginary but in any event ones that do not constitute an existential danger: Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Islamic State, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But this is just postponing the inevitable. Nothing lasts forever. In the end, a decisive resolution is necessary. Prior to that, we must recognize reality. The dream is over. A decent person must decide where he or she stands. The terminology is important: This is a civil war, not a war of brothers. Naftali Bennett cannot be my brother. He is undermining my existence. Every man to his tent, O Israel.

[shira]

4. Are you and Uri Avnery friends? Have you met? Just curious. n/t

[Little Tich]

5. The pied piper analogy is as good as any, I guess.

I really agree with OP that Israel doesn't have the strenght to save itself from Netanyahu and his right-wing buddies, and that it can only happen with outside pressure. It helped South Africa get rid of Apartheid, and I can't see why it wouldn't work with Israel.