May 28, 2011
Bibi
and the Yo-Yos
By Uri
Avnery
IT WAS all
rather disgusting.
There
they were, the members of the highest legislative bodies of the
world’s only superpower, flying up and down like so many
yo-yos, applauding wildly, every few minutes or seconds, the most
outrageous lies and distortions of Binyamin Netanyahu.
It was worse than the Syrian parliament during a speech by Bashar
Assad, where anyone not applauding could find himself in prison.
Or Stalin’s Supreme Soviet, when showing less than sufficient
respect could have meant death.
What the American Senators and Congressmen feared was a fate worse
than death. Anyone remaining seated or not applauding wildly enough
could have been caught on camera – and that amounts to political
suicide. It was enough for one single congressman to rise and
applaud, and all the others had to follow suit. Who would dare
not to?
The sight of these hundreds of parliamentarians jumping up and
clapping their hands, again and again and again and again, with
the Leader graciously acknowledging with a movement of his hand,
was reminiscent of other regimes. Only this time it was not the
local dictator who compelled this adulation, but a foreign one.
The most depressing part of it was that there was not a single
lawmaker – Republican or Democrat – who dared to resist.
When I was a 9 year old boy in Germany, I dared to leave my right
arm hanging by my side when all my schoolmates raised theirs in
the Nazi salute and sang Hitler’s anthem. Is there no one
in Washington DC who has that simple courage? Is it really Washington
IOT – Israel Occupied Territory – as the anti-Semites
assert?
Many years ago I visited the Senate hall and was introduced to
the leading Senators of the time. I was profoundly shocked. After
being brought up in deep respect for the Senate of the United
States, the country of Jefferson and Lincoln, I was faced with
a bunch of pompous asses, many of them nincompoops who had not
the slightest idea what they were talking about. I was told that
it was their assistants who really understood matters.
SO WHAT did the great man say to this august body?
It was a finely crafted speech, using all the standard tricks
of the trade – the dramatic pause, the raised finger, the
little witticisms, the sentences repeated for effect. Not a great
orator, by any means, no Winston Churchill, but good enough for
this audience and this occasion.
But the message could be summed up in one word: No.
After their disastrous debacle in 1967, the leaders of the Arab
world met in Khartoum and adopted the famous Three No’s:
NO recognition of Israel, No [] negotiation with Israel, NO peace
with Israel. It was just what the Israeli leadership wanted. They
could go happily about their business of entrenching the occupation
and building settlements.
Now Netanyahu is having his Khartoum. NO return to the 1967 borders.
NO Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. NO to even a symbolic
return of some refugees. NO military withdrawal from the Jordan
River - meaning that the future Palestinian state would be completely
surrounded by the Israeli armed forces. NO negotiation with a
Palestinian government "supported" by Hamas, even if
there are no Hamas members in the government itself. And so on
– NO. NO. NO.
The aim is clearly to make sure that no Palestinian leader could
even dream of entering negotiations, even in the unlikely event
that he were ready to meet yet another condition: to recognize
Israel as "the nation-state of the Jewish people" –
which includes the dozens of Jewish Senators and Congressmen who
were the first to jump up and down, up and down, like so many
marionettes.
Netanyahu, along with his associates and political bedfellows,
is determined to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state
by all and any means. That did not start with the present government
– it is an aim deeply embedded in Zionist ideology and practice.
The founders of the movement set the course, David Ben-Gurion
acted to implement it in 1948, in collusion with King Abdallah
of Jordan. Netanyahu is just adding his bit.
"No Palestinian state" means: no peace, not now, not
ever. Everything else is, as the Americans say, baloney. All the
pious phrases about happiness for our children, prosperity for
the Palestinians, peace with the entire Arab world, a bright future
for all, are just that – pure baloney. At least some in the
audience must have noticed that, even with all that jumping.
NETANYAHU SPAT in Obama's eye. The Republicans in the audience
must have enjoyed that. Perhaps some Democrats too.
It can be assumed that Obama did not. So what will he do now?
There is a Jewish joke about a hungry pauper who entered an inn
and demanded food. Otherwise, he threatened, he would do what
his father did. The frightened innkeeper fed him, and in the end
asked timidly: "But what did your father do?" Swallowing
the last morsel, the man answered: "He went to sleep hungry."
There is a good chance that Obama will do the same. He will pretend
that the spittle on his cheek is rainwater. His promise to prevent
a UN General Assembly recognition of the State of Palestine deprived
him of his main leverage over Netanyahu.
Somebody in Washington seems to be floating the idea of Obama
coming to Jerusalem and addressing the Knesset. It would be direct
retaliation – Obama talking with the Israeli public over
the head of the Prime Minister, as Netanyahu has just addressed
the American public over the head of the President.
It would be an exciting event. As a former Member of the Knesset,
I would be invited. But I would not advise it. I proposed it a
year ago. Today I would not.
The obvious precedent is Anwar Sadat’s historic speech in
the Knesset. But there is really no comparison. Egypt and Israel
were still officially at war. Going to the capital of the enemy
was without precedent, the more so only four years after a bloody
battle. It was an act that shook Israel, eliminating in one stroke
a whole set of mental patterns and opening the mind for new ones.
Not one of us will ever forget the moment when the door of the
airplane swung open and there he was, handsome and serene, the
leader of the enemy.
Later, when I interviewed Sadat at his home, I told him: "I
live on the main street of Tel Aviv. When you came out of that
plane, I looked out of the window. Nothing moved in the street,
except one cat – and it was probably looking for a television
set."
A visit by Obama will be quite different. He will, of course,
be received politely – without the obsessive jumping and
clapping – though probably heckled by Knesset Members of
the extreme Right. But that will be all.
Sadat’s visit was a deed in itself. Not so a visit by Obama.
He will not shake Israeli public opinion, unless he comes with
a concrete plan of action – a detailed peace plan, with a
detailed timetable, backed by a clear determination to see it
through, whatever the political cost.
Another nice speech, however beautifully phrased, just will not
do. After this week’s deluge of speeches, we have had enough.
Speeches can be important if they accompany actions, but they
are no substitute for action. Churchill’s speeches helped
to shape history – but only because they reflected historic
deeds. Without the Battle of Britain, without Normandy, without
El Alamein, those speeches would have sounded ridiculous.
Now, with all the roads blocked, there remains only one path remains
open: the recognition of the State of Palestine by the United
Nations coupled with nonviolent mass action by the Palestinian
people against the occupation. The Israeli peace forces will also
play their part, because the fate of Israel depends on peace as
much as the fate of Palestine.
Sure, the US will try to obstruct, and Congress will jump up and
down, But the Israeli-Palestinian spring is on its way.
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