Uri Avnery: America's Rottweiler

[BurtWorm]

Common sense appraisal of the Lebanon catastrophe from an Israeli:


http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/index.html

America's Rottweiler
By Uri Avnery
Gush Shalom

Saturday 26 August 2006

In his latest speech, which infuriated so many people, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uttered a sentence that deserves attention: "Every new Arab generation hates Israel more than the previous one."

Of all that has been said about the Second Lebanon War, these are perhaps the most important words.

The main product of this war is hatred. The pictures of death and destruction in Lebanon entered every Arab home, indeed every Muslim home, from Indonesia to Morocco, from Yemen to the Muslim ghettos in London and Berlin. Not for an hour, not for a day, but for 33 successive days - day after day, hour after hour. The mangled bodies of babies, the women weeping over the ruins of their homes, Israeli children writing "greetings" on shells about to be fired at villages, Ehud Olmert blabbering about "the most moral army in the world" while the screen showed a heap of bodies.

Israelis ignored these sights, indeed they were scarcely shown on our TV. Of course, we could see them on Aljazeera and some Western channels, but Israelis were much too busy with the damage wrought in our Northern towns. Feelings of pity and empathy for non-Jews have been blunted here a long time ago.

But it is a terrible mistake to ignore this result of the war. It is far more important than the stationing of a few thousand European troops along our border, with the kind consent of Hizbullah. It may still be bothering generations of Israelis, when the names Olmert and Halutz have long been forgotten, and when even Nasrallah no longer remember the name Amir Peretz.

IN ORDER for the significance of Assad's words to become clear, they have to be viewed in a historical context.

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[Kailassa]

2. I used to be an enthusiastic supporter of Isreal ....

No more, Israel's actions are threatening to plunge the world into WWIII.
And that is a war No person on the surface of this eath is likely to survive.

Israel's contempt and outright hatred for their neighbours, and its constant
greed in forever trying to take over more and more of the fertile lands
surrounding it, have made it despised by many people around the globe.

The only way now to bring peace back to that area would be to remove all
armaments that give Israel such a smug belief in their own invincibility,
and stop the enormous subsidation of Israel by the American government.

The Israelis are far from stupid. In that situation they would quickly
learn to humbly negotiate and work together with their neighbours towards
a peaceful resolution.

[breakaleg]

4. I agree that if Israel was forced into that situation, they would quickly

find a way to work out a solution. In some ways, this needs to happen so they can negotiate as equals rather than with the threat of the military backing them up.

I hold the US responsible for the current state of affairs in Palestine and Lebanon. Without US support - both financial and political - Israel would long ago have been forced to negotiate in good faith with their neighbors.

[Poll_Blind]

3. Uri Avnery outdid his usual outstanding efforts. One of the things...

...I like about his writings is that he continually steps up and outside the cave, toward a healing light for both Israelis and Arabs. I would like to think that if just a few follow each time, by the whiff of truth and cavendish, Israel could be on its way to reconnoiter a peaceful place in the region. But I am not as optimistic as I should hope. Maybe it's because I have not had a good breakfast or my morning tea that I am less hopeful. The American empire is in decline but the military/industrial organism which long ago secured control over the mainsail has immense resources to feed similar-minded compatriots in Israeli politics.

  To fight against these things is equally difficult in either country and it will not be until one of them spectacularly runs aground that it will cause popular reconsideration of course in the other. And by that time I imagine that both will already be in the most dangerous waters.

PB

[scarletwoman]

5. This is a wonderful piece. I was going to post it myself until I saw that

you had already.

It seems as though Israel has been trying to construct a sort of "Cloud City" (ala Star Trek), holding itself separate and remote from the region in which it was transplanted, and from the people whom it displaced.

Israel's arrogance and hostility only breeds more hostility in return, a downward spiral from which no good end can possibly result.

sw

[eridani]

6. 1907, a blast from the past

Let's hope that Israel will turn its back on this role.

http://www.inminds.co.uk/palestine-history-and-responsibility.html

“There are people who control spacious territories teeming with manifest and hidden resources. They dominate the intersections of world routes. Their lands were the cradle of human civilizations and religions.

These people have one faith, one language, one history and the same aspirations.
No natural barriers can isolate these people from one another... if per chance, this nation were to be unified into one state, it would then take the fate of the world into its hands and would separate Europe from the rest of the world.
Taking these considerations seriously, a foreign body should be planted in the heart of this nation to prevent the convergence of its wings in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never-ending wars. It could also serve as a springboard for the West to gain its coveted objects.”

[UndertheOcean]

7. A kick for Uri..

n/t