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CounterPunch
October
2, 2002
Manufacturing
Anti-Semites
by
URI AVNERY
The first Israeli victim of Saddam Hussein is
a Zionist myth on which we were brought up.
It stated that Israel is a haven for
all the Jews in the world. In all the other countries, Jews live
in perpetual fear that a cruel persecutor will arise, as happened
in Germany. Israel is the safe haven, to which Jews can escape
in times of danger. Indeed, this was the purpose of the Founding
Fathers when they established the state.
Now Saddam comes along and proves the
opposite. All over the world, Jews live in safety, and only in
one place on the planet are they threatened by annihilation:
Israel. Here the national parks are prepared for mass-graves,
here (pathetic) measures against biological and chemical weapons
are prepared. Many people are already planning to escape to the
communities in  the Diaspora. End of a myth.
Another Zionist myth died even before
that. The Diaspora, so we learned in our youth, creates anti-Semitism.
Everywhere the Jews are a minority, and a minority inevitably
attracts the hatred of the majority. Only when the Jews gather
in the Land of their Forefathers and constitute the majority
there, will anti-Semitism disappear throughout the world. Thus
spoke Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism.
Nowadays this myth, too, is giving up
its blessed soul. The very opposite is happening: the State of
Israel is causing the resurrection of anti-Semitism all over
the world, threatening Jews everywhere.
The Sharon government is a giant laboratory
for the growing of the anti-Semitism virus. It exports it to
the whole world. Anti-Semitic organizations, which for many years
vegetated on the margins of society, rejected and despised, are
suddenly growing and flowering. Anti-Semitism, which has hidden
itself in shame since World War II, is now riding on a great
wave of opposition to Sharon's policy of oppression.
Sharon's propaganda agents are pouring
oil on the flames. Accusing all critics of his policy of being
anti-Semites, they brand large communities with this mark. Many
good people, who feel no hatred at all towards the Jews, but
who detest the persecution of the Palestinians, are now called
anti-Semites. Thus the sting is taken out of this word, giving
it something approaching respectability.
The practical upshot: not only does Israel
not protect the Jews from anti-Semitism, but quite on the contrary
- Israel manufactures and exports the anti-Semitism that threatens
Jews around the world.
For many years, Israel enjoyed the sympathy
of most people. It was seen as the state of the holocaust survivors,
a small and courageous country defending itself against the repeated
assaults of murderous Arabs. Slowly, this image has been replaced
by another: a cruel, brutal and colonizing state, oppressing
a small and helpless people. The persecuted has become the persecutor,
David has turned onto Goliath.
We Israelis, living in a bubble of self-brain-washing,
find it hard to imagine how the world sees us. In many countries,
television and newspapers publish daily pictures of Palestinian
children throwing stones at monstrous tanks, soldiers harassing
women at the checkpoints, despairing old men sitting on the ruins
of their demolished homes, soldiers taking aim and shooting children.
These soldiers do not look like human beings in uniform - "the
neighbor's son" as they look to Israelis, but like robots
without faces, armed to the teeth, heads hidden by helmets, bullet-proof
vests changing their proportions. People who have seen these
photos dozens and hundreds of times start to see the Israel in
this image.
For Jews, this creates a dangerous vicious
circle. Sharon's actions create repulsion and opposition throughout
the world. These reinforce anti-Semitism. Faced with this danger,
Jewish organizations are pushed into defending Israel and giving
it unqualified support. This support enables the anti-Semites
to attack not only the government of Israel, but the local Jews,
too. And so on.
In Europe, Jews already feel the pressure.
But in the United States, they still feel supremely self-confident.
In Europe, Jews have learned over the centuries that it is not
wise to be too conspicuous and to display their wealth and influence.
But in America, the very opposite is happening: the Jewish establishment
is practically straining to prove that it controls the country.
Every few years, the Jewish lobby "eliminates"
an American politician who does not support the Israeli government
unconditionally. This is not done secretly, behind the scenes,
but as a public "execution". Just now this was done
to the black Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, a young, active,
intelligent and very sympathetic woman. She has dared to criticize
the Sharon government, support Palestinians and (worst of all)
Israeli and Jewish peace groups. The Jewish establishment found
a counter-candidate, a practically unknown black woman, injected
huge sums into the campaign and defeated Cynthia.
All this happened in the open, with fanfares,
to make a public example - so that every Senator and Congressperson
would know that criticizing Sharon is tantamount to political
suicide.
Now this is repeated in a big way. The
pro-Israel lobby - which consists of Jews and extreme right-wing
Christian fundamentalists - is pushing the American administration
to start a war. This, too, openly, in full view of the American
public. Dozens of articles in the important newspapers point
this out as a plain political fact.
What will happen if the war ends in failure?
If it has unexpected negative results and many young Americans
die? If the American public turns against it, as happened during
the Vietnam War? One can easily imagine a whispering campaign
starting: "The Jews have pushed us into this," "The
Jews support Israel more than they support America," and,
finally, "The Jews control our country."
Furthermore, Sharon may sooner or later
bring about a revolution in the Arab world. This will be a disaster
for American interests. American Jews, now completely identified
with Israel, will be blamed.
Anyhow, the conspicuousness of the Jews
in the United States, especially in the media, and their disproportionate
influence over the Congress and the White House, can backfire
one of these days.
Of course, the special political culture
of the United States encourages such phenomena - but that was
also true in Spain of the "Golden Age" and the Weimar
republic in Germany. History does not have to repeat itself,
but neither should one disregard its lessons.
There are people in Israel people who
secretly wish for the victory of anti-Semitism everywhere. That
would confirm another Zionist myth on which we were brought up:
that Jews will not be able to live anywhere but in Israel, because
anti-Semitism is bound to triumph everywhere. But the United
States is not France or Argentina, it plays a critical role in
the Middle East. Israel's national security, as established by
all Israeli governments since Ben-Gurion, is based on the total
support of the United States - military, political and economic.
If I were asked for advice, I would counsel
the Jewish communities throughout the world as follows: break
out of the vicious circle. Disarm the anti-Semites. Break the
habit of automatic identification with everything our governments
do. Let your conscience speak out. Return to the traditional
Jewish values of "That which is altogether just shalt thou
follow!" (Deuteronomy 16,20) and "Seek peace and pursue
it!" (Psalms 34, 14). Identify yourselves with the Other
Israel, which is struggling to uphold these values at home.
All over the world, new Jewish groups
that follow this way are multiplying. They break yet another
myth: the duty of Jews everywhere to subordinate themselves to
the edicts of our government. to the edicts of our government.
Uri Avnery
has closely followed the career of Sharon for four decades. Over
the years, he has written three extensive biographical essays
about him, two (1973, 1981) with his cooperation. Avnery is featured
in the new book, The
Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.
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October 2,
2002
Uri Avnery
Manufacturing
Anti-Semites
October 1,
2002
Benjamin Shepard
On the
Road Again:
IMF/World Bank Protest
Reveal a Revived
Movement for Global Justice
Dr. Susan
Block
Cockfight
at the
Baghdad Corral
Krystal Kyer
Growing Union Opposition
to War
Ron Jacobs
Born Without a Spine
Scott Loughrey
Mysteries
of 9/11
Jeremy Brecher
Collective
Security is Working
Brenda Norrell
Troy
Black Feather on
the American Flag
Sam Bahour
Wake Up
and Smell
the Occupation
Richard Harth
Contrary
to Reason:
Adieu, Hitchens, Adieu
Carol Norris
Rumsfeld
the Surrealist:
Things Related and Not
Ben Tripp
Lists Upon
Lists
September
30, 2002
Rep. Barbara
Lee
Alternatives
to War
Kurt Nimmo
Iraq: The
Vision
of the Velociraptors
Zeynep Toufe
"We
Own the World, We Ignore the Children"
Dave Marsh
The Troubador's
Highway
Tariq Ali
Taking
It to London's Streets
Neve Gordon
Bush's
War of Self-Adulation
September
25 / 29, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Dogs of War,
the Bears of Wall Street
Ben Tripp
Hunting with George
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Haywire: Boeing's New Navy Fighter Fails Bomb Tests
Joanne Mariner
Naming Genocide
James T. Philips
Riding to Maine
Anis Shivani
Life of a Bum
David Vest
Too True North
Jacob Levich
Case of the Missing Terrorist
William MacDougall
British Immigration Tests
Edward Hammond
Pentagon Develops Illegal Chemical Weapons Capability
Molly Secours
Bush's "I" Words:
Intervention & Impeachment
Edward Lazarus
Civil Liberties After 9/11
Lee Sustar
Employers Attack
Anthony Gancarski
Ledeen's Mad World
Krystal Kyer
Bush the Magician
David Wiggins
West Point Grad:
Bush Threatens World Peace
September
24, 2002
Chet Batsmack,
American
The American
Century
Paul de Rooij
Smear Mongers
George Szamuely
International
Kangaroo Courts
Jack Wheeler
Janet Reno: America's Saddam?
Linda S. Heard
Portrait
of Uncle Sam
Gary Leupp
Random
Thoughts on Anti-Americanism
Wayne Madsen
Germany
Leads the Way
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George
Will: War Pimp
Resources:
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