[Marxism] Uri Avneri: "Billions of people have seen us as ablood-dripping monster"

[Lüko Willms]

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:56:43 -0800, Gary MacLennan wrote:

> I admire this piece.  Avnery can understand that as Levinas pointed out to
> make war on the Other destroys the Same. 

  The problem with Uri Avnery is that he defends the need for a "Jewish 
State" and wants to keep the bounty of the 1948 colonial war, but thinks that 
this can only be done by limiting the conquest there. He is against the right 
of return for those driven out from what is now the State of Israel, and 
concedes the return only for a restricting number, controlled by the Israeli 
authoritiesm but to be agreed on with a "responsible" Palestinian leadership. 

   Avnery never mentioned that a big majority, two thirds or even three 
quarters of the Gaza residents are refugees, expelled in 1948 from their 
homes in Jaffa and surroundings and other places which is now ruled as the 
State of Israel. But this fact is decisive to understand the real problem. 

   Look what he writes in a polemic against the "One State solution", 
discussing an interview with Sari Nusseibeh of whose father Avnery presents 
as "a true Palestinian aristocrat". He obviously thinks that most Hebrew 
Israelis would turn into fascist monsters once they are no longer part of a 
Jewish ethnocracy: 

> <http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1219526051>

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The "One-State Solution" is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. The 
One-State idea is not a solution, but an anti-solution. It is a recipe for an 
ongoing bloody conflict. Not a dream, but a nightmare.

There is no chance at all that the Jewish public will agree, in this generation 
or the next, to live as a minority in a state dominated by an Arab majority. 
99.99% of the Jewish population will fight against this tooth and nail. The 
demography will not stop haunting them, but on the contrary, it will push 
them to do things which are unthinkable today. Ethnic cleansing will become 
a practical agenda. Even moderate Israelis will be driven into the arms of the 
fascist right-wing. All means of oppression will become acceptable when the 
Jewish majority adopts the aim of causing the Arabs to leave the country 
before they have a chance of becoming the majority.

True believers in the bi-national state idea will say: OK, let it be. We shall 
have one or two generations of bloodshed, of a state of civil war, but in the 
end we shall persuade or compel the Jews to accord the Palestinians 
citizenship and equality. But what normal people would take such a risk?

The real choice is, therefore: the "Two-State Solution" or the "Ethnic 
Cleansing Solution".
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   Well, maybe Avnery follows a secret plan which aligns with Fred Feldman's 
thinking about the way forward for Palestine, and he just hides his true 
intentions in order not to lose the hearing he has.  

   There has been an article from somebody else posted to the Marxmail list 
arguing the same way, but I can't find it again. Maybe somebody else does, at 
least the poster. 


> I doubt if any of the European politicians were
> all that anxious to be photographed along side the blood thirsty savages
> from Tel Aviv.  The Israelis know that they are seen Arab-butchers to the
> world and in an attempt to undo the damage they have launched their
> propaganda offensive.

   The press conference of them was broadcasted live on many stations, and 
the world could see that they were really not happy. 

   If what Michel Warshawsky wrote (see my message with subject "M. 
Warshawsky: 'You have no right to speak in the name of the martyrs of our 
people'", dated Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:45:22 +0100 (MEZ)) finds more 
resonance among Jews of the world, the whole thing could fly in their face. 

   Michel Warshawsky, to add this to that previous message, was born in 
Strasbourg, France, as son of a Jewish rabbi and was emigrated as child to 
Israel. 


Comradely, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
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