"Kill a Hundred Turks and Rest" by Uri Avnery

[Douglas Carpenter]

08/03/08

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1205012429/

snip:"THE FIVE-DAY WAR in Gaza (as a Hamas leader called it) was but another short chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. This bloody monster is never satisfied, its appetite just grows with the eating.

This chapter started with the "targeted liquidation" of five senior militants inside the Gaza Strip. The "response" was a salvo of rockets, and this time not only on Sderot, but also on Ashkelon and Netivot. The "response" to the "response" was the army's incursion and the wholesale killing.

The stated aim was, as always, to stop the launching of the rockets. The means: killing a maximum of Palestinians, in order to teach them a lesson. The decision was based on the traditional Israeli concept: hit the civilian population again and again, until it overthrows its leaders. This has been tried hundreds of times and has failed hundreds of times."

snip: "THE FIRST step on the way out of this madness is the readiness to question all our concepts and methods of the last 60 years and start thinking again, right from the beginning.

That is always hard. That is even harder for us, because our leadership has no freedom of thought - its thinking is very closely tied to the thinking of the American leadership.

This week, a shocking document was published: David Rose's article in Vanity Fair. It describes how US officials have in recent years dictated every single step of the Palestinian leadership, down to the most minute detail. Though the article does not touch the Israeli-American relationship (in itself a surprising omission) it goes without saying that the American course, including the smallest items, is coordinated with the Israeli government.

Why shocking? These things were already known, in general terms. In this respect, that article held no surprises: (a) The Americans ordered Mahmoud Abbas to hold parliamentary elections, in order to present Bush as bringing democracy to the Middle East. (b) Hamas won a surprise victory. (c) The Americans imposed a boycott on the Palestinians, in order to nullify the election results. (d) Abbas diverted for a moment from the policy dictated to him and, under Saudi auspices (and pressure), made an agreement with Hamas, (e) The Americans put an end to this and compelled Abbas to turn over all security services to Muhammad Dahlan, whom they had chosen for the role of strongman in Palestine, (f) The Americans provided plenty of money and arms to Dahlan, trained his men and ordered him to carry out a military coup against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, (g) The elected Hamas government forestalled the move and itself carried out an armed counter-coup.

All this was known before. What is new is that the mixture of news, rumors and intelligent guesses has now condensed into an authoritative, well substantiated report, based on official US documents. It testifies to the abysmal American ignorance, which trumps even Israeli ignorance, of the internal Palestinian processes."

snip:"The only result of the Five-Day War is the strengthening of Hamas and the rallying of the Palestinian people behind it - not just in the Gaza Strip, but in the West Bank and Jerusalem, too. Their victory celebration was justified. The launching of rockets did not stop. The range of the rockets is increasing.

But let us assume that this policy had succeeded and that Hamas had been broken. What then? Abbas and Dahlan could return only on top of Israeli tanks, as subcontractors of the occupation. No insurance company would cover their lives. And if they did not come back, there would be chaos, out of which extreme forces would emerge the like of which we cannot even imagine.

Conclusion: Hamas is there. It cannot be ignored. We have to reach a cease-fire with it. Not a sham offer of "if they stop shooting first, then we will stop shooting". A cease-fire, like a tango, needs two participants. It must come out of a detailed agreement that will include the cessation of all hostilities, armed and otherwise, in all the territories.

The cease-fire will not hold if it is not accompanied by speeded-up negotiations for a long-term armistice (hudna) and peace. Such negotiations cannot be held with Fatah and not Hamas, nor with Hamas and not Fatah. Therefore, what is needed is a Palestinian government that includes both movements. It must bring in personalities who enjoy the confidence of the entire Palestinian people, such as Marwan Barghouti.

That is the very opposite of the present Israeli-American policy, which forbids Abbas even to talk with Hamas. In all the Israeli leadership, as in all the American leadership, there is no one who dares to spell this out openly. Therefore, what has been is what will be."

link to full article:

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1205012429/

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[Douglas Carpenter]

1. Some bio regarding the author of this article, Uri Avnery:

Uri Avnery -- former Irgun Commando, 1948 Israeli war hero, former member of the Israeli Knesset -- Peace Activist:

born: September 10, 1923, Beckum, Germany immigration to Palestine: November1933.... member of the Irgun underground under Menachem Begin, 1938-1942. At the outbreak of the 1948 war, Avnery joined the army (Givati brigade) and later volunteered for "Samson's Foxes", a motorized commando unit on the Egyptian front which soon became legendary. He took part in dozens of engagements, became a squad leader, and was severely wounded in the last days of the war at Iraq al-Manshiyya (the present Kiryat Gat). His life was saved by four soldiers of his squad, new immigrants from Morocco, who rescued him under murderous fire and enabled him to reach hospital in time. There, a part of his intestines was cut out.

Son of a well-established German-Jewish family, originally from the Rhine area. ....

His father was a private banker in Beckum, and later on a financial adviser in Hannover, where his family lived in an upper-class neighborhood. A Zionist from an early age, his father decided, immediately upon Hitler's ascent to power in 1933, to take the family to Palestine. Avnery still experienced the first half year of the Nazi regime, as the only Jew in school, and his impressions of the last years of the Weimar republic and the beginning of the Nazi era are imprinted in his memory. He wrote a book about this (The Swastika, 1961).

He arrived with his family in Haifa in November 1933 and lived for half a year in Nahalal, the legendary Moshav, in order to "get acclimatized". Then his family moved to Tel-Aviv, where he has lived ever since......"

Uri Avnery peace activist, journalist, writer.

founding member, Gush Shalom (peace bloc), independent peace movement (1993)
former publisher and editor-in-chief, Haolam Hazeh news magazine (1950-1990)
former member of the Knesset (three terms: 1965-1969, 1969-1973, 1979-1981)
founding member, Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (1975)
columnist, Internet.

link for a more complete biography:

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/about/1177150070

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For more article by Uri Avnery:

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery

[Ghost Dog]

2. Absolutely right, I reckon.

... And this coming from one of those Irgun ex-terrorists (joke) :-)