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uri avnery
More Power to You Miss Omar
"Tell me who you cannot criticize and I will tell you who is your master". (Attributed to Voltaire).
Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nation's most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion.
Mar 08, 2019
"Tell me who you cannot criticize and I will tell you who is your master". (Attributed to Voltaire).
Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nation's most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion.
I keep in my bookcase a cautionary book, 'They Dared Speak Out' written by US senators and congressmen who all lost their positions after rebuking Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians or daring to suggest that Israel had far too much influence in the US.
Journalists learn this first commandment very early. Criticize, or even question, Israel at your own peril. Until recently, we journalists were not even allowed to write there was an 'Israel lobby.' It was widely considered Washington's most powerful lobby group but, until lately, mentioning its name was seriously verboten.
Now, young Democratic stars Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a feisty congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, have suddenly broken the taboo and said what dared not be said: there is too much rightwing Israeli influence and there must be justice for Palestine.
Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have come to the defense of Ilhan Omar against the usual charges that she is anti-Semitic. So have black groups and smaller liberal Jewish groups. The Democratic Party, that once received half its financial support from Jewish sources, is badly split over the Palestine crisis. Its old guard is retreating and does not know what to do beyond issuing fiery denunciations of the heretical Miss Omar. The Democrat Party split comes just at a time when it is trying to bring down President Donald Trump.
Many people seem unaware that Islam is now America's third largest religion and may soon surpass the number of Jews. In Canada, Muslims are already the second religion.
Ilhan is not anti-Semitic. I grew up in New York and New England where vicious anti-Semitism abounded. I know real anti-Semitism when I see it. But she is quite right in charging that vast amounts of pro-Israel money have bought Congress and the media.
Sheldon Adelson, the pro-Israel casino tycoon, has given well over $100 million to the Republican Party and its leaders. This money comes from legal gambling, a sickness that preys on addicts and the unfortunate.
In the 1700's, Dr. Samuel Johnson well-defined lotteries and gambling as 'a tax on fools.' Such is the source of Adelson's billions and his influence over the US political process. He is also the primary financier of Israel's prime minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, who now faces serious charges of corruption.
Interestingly, Britain faces a similar political storm. Its left-leaning Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, has called for justice for the Palestinians and a viable state for them. Britain's pro-Israel groups and media have launched furious counterattacks on Corbyn and his allies, barraging them with false accusations of being anti-Semitic. This is utter nonsense. To find real anti-Semitism in Britain you need look into the recesses of the Conservative Party. I've seen its ugly face.
Israel's brutal repression of Palestinians has sparked bitter anti-Israel sentiments across Europe. Not so much in America, where media leans far over to Israel's side and evangelical Christians have been bamboozled into believing that a Greater Israel is somehow necessary for the Second Coming.
But young Americans, and even more so Europeans, are increasingly hearing the call of justice for Palestine. They want no truck with Israel's right-wingers, whom many leftist Israelis, including the late great writer, Uri Avnery, brand 'fascists.'
The prescient and courageous Pat Buchanan said it years ago: the US Congress was 'Israeli occupied territory.' His political career was ruined.
So was my mother's career. She was one of the first American female journalists to cover the Mideast in the early 1950's. After extensively reporting the unknown fact that there were nearly one million Palestinian refugees driven from the new state of Israel, she was silenced by advertisers pulling ads from the papers she wrote for and, finally, threats to throw acid in my face. Her career was ruined.
So I say to Miss Omar and the other brave ladies, full speed ahead. Damn the torpedoes. Do what is good for the world and your country. Break the hold of big money over our republic.
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The Lion of Judah's Last Roar
There would never be peace in the region, warned prophet Uri Avnery, until Israel returned at least some land taken from Palestinians, and created a viable Palestinian state with full democratic rights and freedoms.
Aug 26, 2018
"If you don't get my weekly column, it means I am dead," wrote Israeli writer Uri Avnery to a friend. As I eagerly awaited Uri's column each week, I feared that each new column might be his last.
And so it finally came to be. The renowned 94-year old writer and peace advocate finally succumbed to old age after a stroke and massive heart attack.
The roar of the last Lion of Judah had been silenced.
I always considered Avnery as the wisest voice in the Mideast, and Israel's last prophet. His voice was always rich in wisdom, morality and common sense. Few Israelis and even fewer Arabs attained his level of clarity and logic.
Whenever I grew weary writing columns and felt I could no longer go on, I told myself, "if 94-year old Uri can keep writing brilliant columns each week, then you too can keep writing. Back to your keyboard!"
Uri's story was in good part that of modern Israel. He was born Helmut Osterman to a prosperous German Jewish family near Hanover. When Hitler came to power, they migrated in 1933 to Palestine with the 11-year old Helmut - who changed his name to the Hebrew, Uri Avnery.
In 1948, the young Avnery joined the underground Jewish guerilla force Irgun, fighting British and Palestinians and, later, Arab regular soldiers. Irgun committed numerous notorious terrorist acts and massacres that played a key role in driving the Palestinian population from their ancestral homes. He was seriously wounded and nearly died.
Two years later, he and three friends started a political magazine, "One World."
Avnery was increasingly political and sided with Israeli expansionists. But he gradually came to see that peace and cooperation was the only solution for Israel. After Israel's smashing victories over the Arabs in the 1956 and 1967 wars, he formed a leftist pro-peace party and won a seat in Israel's parliament, the Knesset. He helped found the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Council and the renowned Gush Shalom peace movement.
Avnery was one of the first Israelis to call for fair treatment of the Palestinians, over a million who had become refugees in 1948 and 1967. He urged Israel to sign a lasting peace accord with the Palestinians and return to them control of the West Bank, the old city of Jerusalem, Golan and Gaza - all occupied by the Israeli Army and growing waves of Jewish settlers.
Uri became the target of decades of hatred by right-wing Israelis. He was stabbed. He said things that were not said in public. He kept reminding Israelis that their Jewish ethics demanded fair and decent treatment of Palestinians, whom Israeli leaders preferred to call 'cockroaches' and 'wild animals.'
Interestingly, the two men who have best explained the Muslim world to westerners, Uri Avnery and the Austrian-born Leopold Weiss, known as Muhammad Asad, who wrote the great book, "the Road to Mecca," were both Germanic Jews.
There would never be peace in the region, warned prophet Avnery, until Israel returned at least some land taken from Palestinians, and created a viable Palestinian state with full democratic rights and freedoms. Instead, Uri watched as Israel's US-backed far right government arrested ever more Palestinians, grabbed more Arab lands, and prepared to create a full-fledged South African-style apartheid state.
Never one to mince words, Uri called Israel's right, which just enacted a law making Israel an exclusively Jewish state (thus excluding its 21% Muslim and Christian population) 'semi-fascist Jews.' Israel's far right now exercises decisive influence over the Trump White House and the US Congress.
Avnery became fast friends with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The two leaders could have created a viable Jewish-Arab state or federation. Sadly, Arafat was probably murdered and Avnery politically sidelined. In fact, Israel's entire pro-peace left has dwindled to a fringe movement, isolated by its right-wing governments and Washington. Days after Uri died, Israel's Likud coalition announced the expropriation of more Arab land on the West Bank to build 1,000 new homes for Jewish settlers.
Like most Jewish prophets, Avnery was loved or hated. He had no equal in the Arab world. Like Gandhi, his message was too logical and too uncomfortable for nationalist fanatics. His icy skepticism and clear thinking was a godsend in the overheated emotional hothouse of the Mideast.
Israel's last prophet is gone. Rest in peace, Uri.
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Gazans Are the Victims of Their Own and Israel's Leadership
Jul 16, 2017
The curtailing of electricity to Gaza conducted by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in connivance with Israeli authorities seriously hurts the people of that region. They have become the victims of the political fighting between the Palestinian Authority ruled by Fatah, and the Palestinian leadership in Gaza ruled by Hamas. The PA pays Israel for the provision of electricity to Gaza. However, the PA has decided to reduce the electricity supply to Gaza from three hours a day to only two hours, thus worsening an already serious situation.
Gazans' health has been particularly affected. "The health sector is able to provide only the absolute minimum standard of care -hospitals are being forced to cancel some operations, are cutting back on maintenance, and are dependent on the UN for emergency fuel to run their generators," stated Michael Lynk, UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied territories.
With his characteristic nonchalance Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's defense minister, declared, "We are not a side in this issue. They pay, they get electricity. They don't pay, they don't get electricity." He doesn't seem to realize the tremendous cost Israel's Gaza siege is imposing on Gaza's inhabitants.
Haaretz has reported that to punish the Hamas Government in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has also threatened to stop providing medicines and baby formula to hospitals in Gaza. This move would have terrible consequences for residents of the Strip, particularly the chronically ill and children, warned Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director of the pharmacy department in Gaza's Health Ministry.
These actions were approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as reprisal for Hamas' establishment of its own administrative unit to run Gaza. This decision was preceded by a 30 percent reduction of salaries paid by the PA to its employees in Gaza. Abbas admitted that he would continue taking such strong measures against Hamas in order to pressure the group, and force it to decide if it will govern fully by itself or cooperate with the PA and end the split between them.
Robert Piper, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory, warned in June about the tragic consequences on the health and living situation of two million Palestinians if there is further reduction in electricity to Gaza. He asked the PA, Hamas and the Israeli government to put the welfare of Gaza's residents first and to take the necessary measures to avoid further suffering. "The people in Gaza should not be held hostage to this longstanding internal Palestinian dispute," said Piper.
Uri Avnery, a former Israeli soldier and former member of the Knesset, recently wrote, "The uninvolved bystander wonders: how can that be? After all, the entire Palestinian people are in existential danger. The Israeli government tyrannizes all Palestinians, both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. It keeps the Strip under a strangling blockade, on land, in the sea and in the air, and is setting up settlements all over the West Bank, to drive the population out."
Because Israel continues to have effective control of life in Gaza, it is also responsible for the welfare of its residents, as per to the laws of occupation specified in The Hague and Geneva Conventions. In addition, international humanitarian law and human rights conventions require Israel to protect civilians, safeguard wounded and sick persons, and enable the shipment of necessary medicines. Instead, according to Dr. Munir al-Bursh, ninety percent of cancer patients have no drugs today in Gaza.
Siham is a 53-year-old woman from Gaza and a mother of 10 children. She was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2013, in what was the start of a painful and expensive journey. She exemplifies the difficulties Gazans are going through. "To be a cancer patient from Gaza is to be at the mercy of the occupation. It is being sentenced to a slow death by the permit regime, the harsh living condition, the poverty, and the blockade. We want to live the little time left for us in dignity."
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