Israel Shamir meiner det er viktig å få til ein offensiv for ein stat i
Palestina medan den sionistiske leiarskapen er i tvil om kva dei skal gjera
i neste omgang. Eg vidaresender ein sak han sende ut på nettverket sitt.
"Hebrew speaking goy" tyder "hebraisktalande ikkje-jøde".
Hans O
When a Jew is not killing an Arab with his own hands, he considers
himself a saint, and wants to be nominated for Nobel Peace
Prize.
Shimon Tzabar
In London, I met one of the first 'asli sabres', real Israelis, born and
bred in Palestine before Balfour declaration or hereabout. Shimon
Tzabar, a 'grand old man' of Israeli art, utterly devoid of emigre's
bitterness or Jewish supremacy, describes himself as this perfect fruit
of Zionism, a "Hebrew-speaking Goy". Indeed, Zionism was supposed to
finish Jewish particularity, but it caused just an opposite result.
Tsabar published a first call against occupation in 1967, and it still
can be reprinted in the morning paper. Afterwards, he left Israel,
disgusted by its policies, and settled in England. Irregularly, he
publishes an article in Israeli papers or in the net,
http://www.israelimperialnews.org/
In the article below, published ten years ago, he concisely stated
what is wrong with the Israeli peace movement. I felt the same last week
at the Peace demonstration in Tel Aviv, when I listened to speeches by
Amos Oz and Yossi Sarid. They asked Palestinians to give up hope of
return in exchange for a flag over their Bantustans. But Shimon Tzabar
did not criticized only, he proposed a new direction, that of One State.
I send it to you now, while just yesterday similar call was made by the
Palestinian film maker, Elia Suleiman.
We need to do a concentrated push for the One State solution now, when
Israel is at loss what to do next, and before it does something even
worse.
Israel Shamir
shamir@home.se
www.israelshamir.net
JUST THE WORD "PEACE" IS NOT ENOUGH
by Shimon Tzabar
...There is no principled difference between Peace Now and the
ultra-nationalists. Both are supporters and advocates of a Jewish State.
If
this is what they are, they both must regard the Palestinians as their
enemies. The difference is that whereas Ariel Sharon and the
assassinated
minister Ze'evi (nicknamed Gandhi) wanted to get rid of all the
Palestinians, either
by killing or transporting them elsewhere, the Peace people are willing
to
push them into the enclaves of Gaza and the Bantustans of the Western
Bank. At
best, the Peace Now or Peace Block (Gush Shalom) movements represent the
moderate section
of the Zionist front.
Let me explain myself:
Let us begin with the name: Peace Block. Peace ? Who is against peace ?
Show me even one gangster who does not want peace. Peres is for peace,
Sharon is for peace, Rehava'am Ze'evi was for peace (remember that even
Hitler was for Peace!). When you march down Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv
chanting "Peace", you don't offend anybody.
The "Now" in the name is a bit subtler. When you chant "Peace now", you
effectively say: True, if we continue to fight and conquer territories
we
will secure more spoils. We will have more towns and villages in which
to
settle Jews. We will obtain more land to confiscate, etc. But I have got
enough. After all, I already live in an Arab house that we stole in 1948
and
nobody today is demanding to hand it back. So I am secure in my spoils.
Why
should I endanger myself for a house in Nablus or in Gaza for a Russian
or
for another Jewish immigrant? That ought to be his headache. I want to
enjoy
my booty now. I want peace NOW!
I know this sounds rude and even brutal. Here we have people with a
pure
soul, and now, not only is Kahana and Ghandi spitting on them, here
comes
Shimon Tzabar whom we once regarded as an honest Israeli and he gives us
a
kick in the ass. "How can he say I have spoils and booty ? I don't have
a
house in Jaffa. I saved money by withholding food from my children in
order
to buy an apartment in a new neighbourhood at Ein Kareem. Is that booty?
Is
that spoils of war? I am against killing children and I demonstrate for
Peace Block. How can you regard me as a child murderer?"
What can we do ? When a Jew is not killing an Arab with his own hands,
he
considers himself as a saint, and wants to be nominated for Nobel Peace
Prize. That fact that he pays taxes to a government which permit (if not
orders!) its soldiers to shoot at children, is of course not his
problem. He
is OK.
To be fair I must admit that the Peace Now people or even more so the
Peace Block people, are not all the same. Among them are those who
simply
stand for peace. Others may be for a Palestinian State and even for the
return of the territories conquered in 1967, and there are some who live
in
old Palestinian houses because they cannot afford an apartment with
windows
in all the four wind directions. What binds them and the
ultra-nationalists
together is Zionism - the idea that Jews deserve a State and that this
state
can only be in one country, in the Land of Israel that others call
Palestine.
It is easy to say "I am for a Jewish State in the Land of Israel". The
Land of Israel was never an uninhabited desert without people. If it
were,
there was no need to conquer it militarily. The mere fact that we had to
conquer it in 1948 is the best proof that it was inhabited. We conquered
it
militarily, expelled some of its inhabitants and settled in their place
the
Jews we loved so much. But there is a price to pay. When you expel
people,
they do not like it. You must hit, kill and if they hit back or kill in
return, you, your son or your daughter may also get killed. And then you
must enact a wicked and discriminatory legislation and force your judges
to
pervert the law. You must pursue two forms of logic which would serve
two
sets of morals, one for you and one for them. True, the method is not
new,
it is as old as history itself. Many States and Empires were established
in
such a way, including some of the most prestigious. But this was before
we
invented television. What you do here today is seen tomorrow around the
globe. And you must remember that even if you are sufficiently strong,
militarily, to keep the land that you relish, you are not sufficiently
strong to compel the entire world to agree with that.
If this is the situation, is there no way to solve the problem ?
The answer depends on what you consider to be the Jewish problem. If
the
problem is to find out how human beings can live in peace together, then
there is no difficulty in solving it, because this is exactly the
problem of
the Palestinians. But if the Jewish question is how to live as the upper
race and rule others as slaves, to that there exists no other solution
than
what is already going on now. I can only suggest an alternative to those
who
wish to live not as Jews but as Human Beings, and this alternative is to
transform the Jewish State to a State of human beings. The process is
not at
all complicated and it is possible to implement it in a few simple
steps.
Step 1: Formally annex all the Occupied Territories to the State of
Israel.
Step 2: All who live in this territory will get the same civil and
democratic rights.
Step 3: New elections. The new Parliament will draw a constitution.
The
constitution should ensure not only the rights of the majority but also
those of the minority. This would be a good opportunity to bring back
and
resettle the Palestinian refugees. Such a Parliament can also decide the
name of the country and its flag.
Don't ask me if the Palestinians will accept this proposal. First we
must
offer it to them and see. And if you accuse me of not caring for the
Jewish
people, my answer is that I stopped caring for the Jewish people ever
since
I realized that it had stopped caring for itself and abandoned the care
for
its destiny to a power-thirsty & murderous gang.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS IS AN EDITED AND UPDATED TRANSLATION OF AN ARTICLE THAT APPEARED IN
THE
HEBREW TABLOID IN ISRAEL- "HADASHOT", ON THE 9th OF MARCH 1990
Israel Shamir is an Israeli journalist based in Jaffa. His articles can
be found on the site www.israelshamir.net In order to subscribe to this
list or to be removed from it, please write to info@israelshamir.net No
copyright for electronic transmission, but ask for permission in order
to publish as hard copy.
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