[WCUSP] Fwd: Milk powder, toys and cancer patients / Avnery looks 12 year back and more / Rabin questionnaire

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

This is a very strong article!
Thank you for sending it Yvonne!

Odile

On 10/28/07, yvonne simmons <roweenayvonne at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Some say that the most important thing is to talk, because "when you are
> talking you are not shooting." That is a dangerous illusion. In our case,
> the opposite is true: when you talk for the sake of talking while the
> occupation deepens, despair is gaining ground and the shooting has never
> really stopped. The failure of Annapolis may well trigger the outbreak of
> the Third Intifada.
>
>

> Note: forwarded message attached.
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Gush Shalom" <info at gush-shalom.org>
> To: intl at mailman.gush-shalom.org
> Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:30:10 -0700
> Subject: Milk powder, toys and cancer patients / Avnery looks 12 year back
> and more / Rabin questionnaire
>
>
> www.gush-shalom.org
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Milk powder, toys and cancer patients...
> .
> The cutting of electricity and fuel – further exacerbation of the cruel
> siege on Gaza.
>
> Barak's decision comes on top of the denial of milkpowder, toys and vital
> medical treatment...
>
> read more at:
>
> http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/press_releases
>
>
>
> חלב לתינוקות, צעצועי ילדים וחולי סרטן...
> .
> ניתוק החשמל והדלק – החרפה נוספת במצור אכזרי וענישה קולקטיבית בעזה
> החלטת ברק – בהמשך למניעת אבקת חלב לתינוקות...
>
>
>
> קיראו עודב:
>
> http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/he/channels/press_releases
>
>
>
>
>
>
> HOW TO HONOR THE MEMORY OF RABIN
>
>
> # To show tolerance towards those who hated
>
>  him?
>
>
> # To curse Yigal Amir by day and by night?
>
>
> # To continue on Rabin's road: negotiate for peace with those whom the
> Palestinians have elected as their representatives?
> http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/weekly_ad
>
>
>
> Ad published in Haaretz, October 26, 2007
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> איך לכבד את זכרו של יצחק רבין
>
>
>
> # לנהוג בסובלנות כלפי מי ששנאו את רבין?
>
> # לקלל את יגאל עמיר יומם ולילה?
>
> # להמשיך בדרכו של רבין: משא-ומתן לשלום עם מי שהפלסטינים בחרו כנציגיהם?
>
>
> http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/he/channels/weekly_ad
>
> פורסם ב"הארץ", 26 באוקטובר 2007
>
>
>
>
>
>  12 Years Later
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  Uri Avnery: More than anything, Rabin was the typical representative of my
> generation, the "generation of 1948" - and not by accident was this
> generation defined by a war
>
> Full text in the end, or click
> http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery
>
>
>
>  12 שנה אחרי
>
>
> אורי אבנרי: בראש וראשונה רבין היה נציג מובהק של דורי, "דור תש"ח" - ולא במקרה
> נקרא הדור הזה על שמה של מלחמה
>
>  הקליקו לעוד
> http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/he/channels/avnery
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> info at gush-shalom.org
>
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>
> Uri Avnery
> 27.10.07
>
>
>
> 12 Years Later
>
>
>
> THE PRESIDENT of the Knesset invited me to take part in the special Knesset
> session to commemorate he 12th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak
> Rabin.
>
> I debated with myself whether to accept the invitation.
>
> On the one hand, I would like to honor the man and the achievements of his
> last years. I liked him.
>
> On the other hand, I had no wish to listen to a eulogy delivered by Shimon
> Peres, the man who pretended to follow Rabin's path and who buried the Oslo
> agreement out of sheer cowardice. And even less to a eulogy from Ehud
> Olmert, one of the people who led the incitement campaign against the Oslo
> agreement and its authors. And still less to a eulogy from Binyamin
> Netanyahu, who stood on the balcony while the picture of Rabin in SS uniform
> was paraded below.
>
>
> IN THE END, I DECIDED to stay away from this orgy of sanctimonious
> hypocrisy. I did not go to the Knesset. Instead I sat at home watching the
> sea and thinking about the man.
>
> About the young Yitzhak Rabin, who joined the Palmach (the pre-independence
> "regular forces"). The commander who drove the Arabs from their homes in the
> 1948 war. The Chief of Staff who called, on us, after the Six-Day War, to
> honor the enemy dead. The Prime Minister who did more for education than any
> of his predecessors or successors. The Prime Minister who allowed me to
> continue my secret contacts with the PLO leaders, when this constituted a
> serious crime. The Defense Minister who called on the soldiers to "break
> their arms and legs", an order that was meticulously carried out. The man
> who recognized the PLO and shook the hand of Yasser Arafat.
>
> He was all of these, and the list goes on.
>
> More than anything, he was the typical representative of my generation, the
> "generation of 1948" - and not by accident was this generation defined by a
> war. It was the era of innocence. The innocence of the fighters and of the
> Yishuv (the Hebrew society in pre-state Palestine). In retrospect, the
> events of that time - the actions of the underground organizations, the
> operations of the war - take on a different aspect, a picture with many
> shadows. But it must be remembered: that is not how they looked to us when
> they happened. Not at all.
>
> Rabin personified the innocence of the generation which believed with all
> their hearts that they were sacrificing their lives for a cause more just
> than any other - the existence of the Yishuv, the salvation of the Jews of
> Europe, our fight for national independence. Without this absolute belief,
> coupled with total ignorance of the other side, we would not have stood the
> test of 1948 - a test in which a significant proportion of our age-group was
> killed or wounded.
>
> This generation idealized a certain personality type - the "Sabra"
> (literally: prickly pear plant), a mythical figure that had an immense
> influence in shaping the generation. (I myself played some part in nursing
> this myth). The Sabra was supposed to be upright, both physically and
> mentally, free of the complexes of the "exile" Jews (the term "exilic" was
> the most insulting appellation in our lexicon). The "Sabra" was honest,
> truthful, practical, natural, someone who always comes straight to the point
> and despises hollow mannerisms, empty talk and histrionic phrases, which we
> referred to colloquially as "Zionism". Before we knew about the Holocaust,
> "exile" Jews and everything connected with them were treated with scorn,
> even contempt.
>
> As if all by itself, a clear terminological distinction appeared: the
> "Hebrew" Yishuv and the "Jewish" religion, the "Hebrew" kibbutz and the
> "Jewish" shtetl (in the Diaspora), "Hebrew labor (as in the name of the then
> dominant trade union, "the General Organization of the Hebrew Workers in
> Eretz-Yisrael") and "Jewish" luft-gesheften (Yiddish for nebulous
> transactions), "Hebrew" workers and "Jewish" speculators.
>
> Yitzhak Rabin was the ultimate Sabra: a handsome youngster who sacrificed
> his private ambition (to study hydraulic engineering) in order to serve the
> nation, to become a fighter and to command fighters, to act and leave the
> discussion of ideology to the old people.
>
> He was reputed to possess an "analytical mind", because of his ability to
> examine a given situation and find practical solutions. The other side of
> the coin was his lack of imagination. He dealt with reality, and could not
> imagine a different reality. (Abba Eban, who hated his guts, told me in his
> malicious way: "Analysis means dissecting. Rabin can take things apart, but
> he cannot put them together again.")
>
> He was withdrawn, perhaps shy, and drew back from bodily contact, slaps on
> the back and public embraces. Some called him an "autist'. But he was not
> overbearing, certainly not arrogant. After a few glasses (always Scotch) he
> opened up a little, and at parties he could smile his somewhat crooked smile
> and become quite friendly.
>
>
> IF HE HAD died in 1970, we would remember him only as a soldier, a
> successful brigade commander in the 1948 war, the best Chief-of-Staff the
> Israeli army ever had, the architect of the incredible victory of the
> Six-day War. But that was only one chapter in his eventful life. A rare
> thing happened: at the age of 70 he did something that even 30-year olds are
> generally unable to do: he completely changed his world view and abandoned
> the certainties that had hitherto governed his life.
>
> To this amazing change I was a witness. In 1969, when he was serving as
> Israeli ambassador in Washington, we talked for the first time about the
> Palestinian issue. He completely rejected the idea of peace with the
> Palestinians. I still remember a sentence of his from this conversation: "I
> don't care for secure borders, I want open borders." (In Hebrew, a play on
> words: batuach means secure, patuach means open.) "Secure borders" was at
> the time the slogan of annexationists. Rabin meant an open border with
> Jordan, and once said: "I don't care if I need a visa to go to Hebron."
>
> After that we met from time to time - in his office, in the Prime Minister's
> residence, at his private home and at parties - and the conversation always
> came back to the Palestinian issue. His attitude remained negative.
>
> So I know how extreme a change it was. I don't believe that it was I who
> influenced him - at most I planted, perhaps, a few seeds. He himself
> explained the change to me later as a series of logical deductions: when he
> was Defense Minister, he met with local Palestinian personalities. In
> one-to-one conversations they were amenable, but when they were in a group,
> they were tough and told him that they took their directions from the PLO.
> After that came the Madrid conference. Israel gave in to pressure and agreed
> to negotiate with a Jordanian delegation that included Palestinian members.
> Once there, the Jordanians refused to deal with Palestinian issues, and so
> the Palestinians became in practice an independent Palestinian delegation.
> Feisal Husseini, their real leader, was not allowed into the conference room
> because he was a Jerusalemite. The delegation members went to the other room
> from time to time to consult with him, and at the end of every day, they
> told the Israelis that they had to call Tunis to get instructions from
> Yasser Arafat.
>
> "This became too ridiculous for me," Rabin told me in his straightforward
> way, "If everything depends on Arafat anyhow, why not talk with him
> directly?"
>
> That was the background of Oslo.
>
>
> HOW DID Rabin's Oslo ship get stuck on a sandbank?
>
> I believe that much of the fault lies with Rabin himself. He really wanted
> to achieve peace with the Palestinians. But before his eyes he had no route
> to the objective, and no clear picture of the objective itself. The change
> was too sharp. Like Israeli society in general, he was unable to free
> himself overnight from the fears, mistrust, superstitions and prejudices
> accumulated over 120 years of conflict.
>
> That is why he did not do the one thing that could have led the ship of Oslo
> to a safe haven: to use the momentum and achieve peace in a bold and rapid
> move. He did not know the famous dictum of David Lloyd-George concerning
> peace with Ireland: "You cannot cross an abyss with two jumps."
>
> The makeup of his personality had a negative impact on the process. He was
> by nature cautious, slow, averse to dramatic gestures (unlike Menachem
> Begin, for example). This resulted in the fatal weakness of the Oslo
> agreement: the final aim was not spelled out. The two decisive words -
> "Palestinian State" - do not appear at all. This omission led to its
> collapse.
>
> While the two sides wasted months and years haggling over every single
> detail of the endless "interim" steps, the anti-peace forces in Israel had
> time to recover and unite. Led by the settlers and the ultra-right, they
> were sustained by the hatreds and anxieties bred by the long war.
>
> In military terms: Rabin was like a general who succeeds in breaking through
> the front - and, instead of pouring his forces into the breach and forcing a
> decision, hesitates and stays put, allowing the opposing forces to regroup
> and form a new front. In other words, he routed the forces of war, but
> allowed them to reunite and mount a counter-attack.
>
> For this he paid with his life.
>
>
> THE MURDER of Rabin changed the history of Israel, much as the murder of the
> Austrian crown-prince in Sarajevo in 1914 changed the history of the world.
>
> Nobody is irreplaceable, they say, but no second Rabin has been found - no
> one with his honesty, with his courage, with his logical mind.
>
> This week, Ehud Olmert declared that he was continuing on the path of Rabin,
> but he represents the very opposite: the opposite of honesty, the opposite
> of courage, the opposite of logic (not to mention his propensity for
> embracing people and slapping them on the back.)
>
> Rabin really wanted to move forward towards peace. Slowly-slowly, with
> stubborn haggling, but also with consistency and persistence. Olmert's aims
> are quite different. He wants a "peace process" that has no end - babbling,
> meetings, conferences, without any movement, while in the meantime the
> occupation is continuing, annexation is creeping forward, settlements are
> enlarging and the hopes and chances for the two peoples are evaporating.
>
> The Annapolis conference fits perfectly into this scheme: hollow
> declarations, another conference without results, a meaningless exhibition.
>
> Some say that the most important thing is to talk, because "when you are
> talking you are not shooting." That is a dangerous illusion. In our case,
> the opposite is true: when you talk for the sake of talking while the
> occupation deepens, despair is gaining ground and the shooting has never
> really stopped. The failure of Annapolis may well trigger the outbreak of
> the Third Intifada.
>
>
>
>
> With donations you can help this voice being heard
>
> Please, send checks in your own currency – for confirmation of receipt
> include email address.
>
>  In several countries, tax-exemption can be obtained by donating through
> local charities - email us for details
>
> GUSH SHALOM p.o.b. 3322 Tel Aviv 61033
>
>
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