[E-rundbrief] Info 752 - U. Avneri: Our Obama

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Sa Nov 1 22:41:16 CET 2008


E-Rundbrief - Info 752 - Uri Avnery (Israel): Our Obama.

Bad Ischl, 1.11.2008

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Our Obama

Uri Avnery

1.11.08


IN THREE days, it seems at the moment, the incredible will happen: the
most important "white" country in the world will elect a black president.

143 years after the assassination of Abe Lincoln, the man who freed the
slaves, and 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the
dreamer of the Dream, a black family will occupy the White House.

This will have huge implications in many directions. One of them is an
electrifying message to a world-wide order to which I belong: the Order
of the Optimists.


HOW DOES an optimist differ from a realist? My definition is: a realist
sees reality as it is. An optimist sees reality as it could be.

Antonio Gramsci, the Italian communist thinker, believed in "the
pessimism of the intellect and the optimism of the will."  I disagree.
True, for anyone versed in world history it is easy to be a pessimist,
but for each pessimistic lesson there is an optimistic one (and vice
versa, unfortunately).

A year before the ascent to power of Adolf Hitler, few believed it to be
possible. But it did happen, and a dark chapter began on the pages of
world history. On the other hand, a year before the fall of the Berlin
Wall, practically nobody believed that it would happen in their lifetime.

At the beginning of 1947, hardly anyone believed that within a year the
State of Israel would come into being. At the same time, also at the
beginning of 1947, practically nobody imagined that a Naqba (disaster)
would befall the Palestinians. But it happened.

David Ben-Gurion used to say that all experts are experts on what has
happened, not what is going to happen. That is not entirely true.
Science fiction writers have predicted many things. And in this country,
too, there have been some prophets of doom who warned about what would
happen to Israel if it proceeded in the direction it was moving. But in
principle it is true: experts analyze the existing situation and tend to
extrapolate from it into the future. But the future is made by human
beings, who are never entirely predictable.

In a world in which a person like Barack Hussein Obama can appear from
nowhere and advance within a few years to the highest levels of world
politics - nothing is predictable, and therefore everything is possible.
As the ancient Jewish maxim goes: "Everything is possible and permission
is granted."

For all the optimists of the world, the message of these elections is:
Yes, we can! Good and evil are in our hands. And if we want it, as Herzl
said, it is no fairy tale.


THAT REMINDS me of the German, the Frenchman, the Englishman and the Jew
who decided to write about elephants. The German goes to Africa, returns
after ten years and composes a five-volume tome: "A Foreword to a
General Introduction to the Origins of the African Elephant".  The
Frenchman comes back after half a year and writes a slim and elegant
volume: "The Love Life of Elephants". The Englishman returns after a
week and produces a booklet: "How to Hunt Elephants". The Jew stays at
home and writes an essay about "the Elephant and the Jewish Question".

During the last few weeks, the Jews in America and in Israel have been
asking: Is He Good For The Jews?

One contribution to the answer was provided by the American citizens in
Israel who have already voted. According to press reports, almost all of
them are Jews, most of them are Orthodox and most of them voted for John
McCain.

Official Israel has been hard put to hide its fear of Obama. A black
man. A man whose grandfather was a Muslim. Whose middle name is Hussein.
An unknown quantity. Frightening.

Obama, on his part, has gone out of his way to show that he would
support the Israeli government exactly as his predecessors have. He
groveled in the dust before AIPAC. He surrounded himself with Bill
Clinton's Jewish aides and hinted that they would enjoy the same status
in his future administration. But go and believe a candidate's election
promises. They are worth as much as a garlic's skin, as we say in Hebrew.

Some people do believe in promises. I have received an e-mail message
from a British person: "So instead of the Jewish neo-cons who have ruled
Washington we shall get the Jewish Zionists who ruled there under
Clinton. What's the bloody diff?"

But official Israel is full of angst. The public TV channel has spread
pro-McCain propaganda quite openly (while on commercial Channel 10, the
commentator Nitzan Horowitz exuberantly supported Obama.) A senior
official leaked to Haaretz that Nicholas Sarkozy had privately warned of
the frightening inexperience of Obama - a story (whether true or false)
designed to provide the McCain campaign with live ammunition in its
fight for the Jewish vote in Florida. In a scandalous gesture, the
right-wing Israeli ambassador in Washington, Salai Meridor, travelled to
a remote town to meet Sarah Palin (of all people!).


SO, IS HE "Good For Israel"? In the old Jewish way, this question must
be answered with another question: "For which Israel?" There is more
than one Israel, as there is more than one USA.

George W. Bush, our devoted friend, betrayed his "vision" and gave Ariel
Sharon an all-encompassing permit to enlarge the settlement blocs, each
of which is a deadly landmine on the road to peace. He hindered Israel
from making peace with Syria, which he added to the "Axis of Evil". His
invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq gave an immense push to the
anti-Israel Muslim fundamentalists, to the creeping domination of
Lebanon by Hizbullah and to the strengthening of Hamas in Palestine. No
wonder Osama Bin-Laden prays to Allah for a McCain victory. (Perhaps
that's the only hope left to McCain.)

Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton, another great friend of Israel, helped
Ehud Barak after Camp David to spread the lie that "I have turned every
stone, offered them everything they wanted, Arafat has rejected all my
generous offers, we have no partner for peace." This mantra dealt a
tremendous blow to the Israeli peace camp, from which it has not
recovered to this day. At the same time the settlements were being
enlarged at a frantic pace, with the knowledge and tacit approval of the
Clinton administration. And no wonder: under Clinton, all matters
pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were in the hands of a
group of Jewish Zionists. There was not a single Arab around.

There are those who reassure the Obama-fearers in Jerusalem. Even if he
wants to change things, they say, he won't be able to. The supporters of
(official) Israel dominate the Democratic Party, which enjoys the
support and the generous donations of the Jewish voters even in these
elections. The supporters of (official) Israel will dominate the next
Congress, as they did the last. As in the past, a politician who
supports Israel by only 100%, instead of 110%, will be committing
political Harakiri.


THIS IS all true, but still I dare to hope that Obama will be revealed
as a friend of the Other Israel, the Israel that seeks peace.

He promises change. I believe that for him this is not an empty phrase,
but something more profound that is rooted in his character.

The thing that is going to happen this week is not just another
transition from one party to another party, when the difference between
the two is minimal. The new arrival is a person who has the ability, and
seemingly also the will, to get things out of the rut and look at
everything with new eyes.

That happens from time to time in the United States, which in this
respect is superior to other democracies, and especially ours. A new
person comes to power and, like the turn of a kaleidoscope, everything
looks different.

As far as the national interests of the US are concerned, the "larger
Middle East" is not a secondary theater. It is one of the most
important, and the new administration will have to deal with it right
from the beginning. This is also the theater where the catastrophic
failures of Bush are the most obvious.

When Obama and his people - and I hope that they will be new people, not
the wrecks from the Clinton era -  examine this subject, they will be
compelled to arrive at a self-evident conclusion: that the hatred for
the US that is boiling from Morocco to Pakistan is inextricably bound up
with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is what has poisoned all the
wells. This is the trump card in the hands of the Sunni Osama Bin-Laden
and the Shiite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This conclusion was already made
clear in the bi-partisan Baker-Hamilton report, which Bush has thrown
into the wastebasket.

This conclusion leads to another one: that it is in the American
interest to turn over a new page in our region and to really work for an
Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Syrian, Israeli-all-Arab and perhaps even
Israeli-Iranian peace. This conclusion was apparent already on the
morrow of 9/11. I wrote at the time that this was going to happen, any
minute now, as the inevitable lesson from the disaster. I was wrong.
Bush and the Bushites went in the opposite direction, and made the
situation ten times worse. I hope that it will happen now.

In other words: I hope with all my heart that Obama will continue to
support Israel, but not the Israel of the bullies, the impostors and the
hypocrites, who pretend to be negotiating for peace while enlarging the
settlements, tightening the oppression in the occupied territories and
blabbering about bombing Iran. It is not this Israel that should be
supported by the next president, but the Israel that is ready for peace,
prepared to pay the price for peace and crying out for an American
administration that will give the decisive push to the initiative.


OBAMA'S ADVISORS may answer with a question: OK, but where is the
Israeli leadership that will respond to such an initiative?

Where is the Israeli Obama?

We can respond to that only with embarrassed silence. We cannot point to
anyone in the Israeli political arena who is ready to take on this task.

But an optimist will give another answer: only yesterday you did not
have an Obama either. He appeared, because something happened deep down
in the "national psyche" of the United States. There was an expectation
and there was a longing for a person who would speak the language of
hope, audacity, change. And when he appeared, the indifferent public
rose and followed him enthusiastically. All the more so because the
situation was bad and it was clear that the old road just leads to worse.

That can happen here, too. Our Obama can appear suddenly when there is a
demand for him. When people get finally fed up with all those
politicians, devoid of vision and courage, who pack our stage today.
When the demand for change is so strong that it passes from the phase of
griping at Sabbath-eve parties to the phase of mobilization and deeds.
Then it will become clear that we, too, have a young generation and that
our indifferent public can change radically.

The victory of the American Obama may well give a big push to the
emergence of an Israeli Obama, hopefully as charming as the original.
The victory in America should mean for us, paraphrasing a Hebrew poet: 
If there is an Israeli Obama, let him appear at once!

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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