[Peace-discuss] Fw: Interview with Uri Avnery

[unionyes]

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From: <moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG>
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Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 9:35 PM
Subject: Interview with Uri Avnery


> Israel Trying to Get Gaza People to Overthrow Hamas
>
> Interview with Uri Avnery
>
> By Mazal Mualem Haaretz (Israel) June 7, 2010
>
> www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/veteran-peace-activist-israel-trying-to-get-gaza-people-to-overthrow-hamas-1.294593
>
> Benjamin Netanyahu is lying when he says the Gaza
> blockade exists in order to prevent the transfer of
> weapons to Gaza, veteran peace activist Uri Avnery
> tells Haaretz
>
> Journalist and former Knesset member Uri Avnery is one
> of the most prominent political activists identified
> with the Israeli peace camp. As has been the 86-year-
> old's habit for decades, he did not miss the leftist
> demonstration in Tel Aviv, on Saturday night - this one
> protesting the government's handling of the Gaza-bound
> flotilla incident last week.
>
> The interview:
>
> All told, only 6,000 people took part in the
> demonstration. Is the Israeli peace camp in
> fact just a negligible minority?
>
> That number is wrong. There were at least twice
> as many demonstrators, and that is a huge amount when
> you take into account the unprecedented brainwashing
> the country experienced during the week, when a a
> near-totalitarian propaganda machine repeated a single
> picture and a single story, and prevented citizens from
> seeing or hearing anything else. We hardly saw anything
> except for a few minutes shot and edited by the Israel
> Defense Forces spokesman's office, which confiscated
> the films shot by journalists. The question may be
> asked: Why? What are they afraid of?
>
>
> The photos published by the IDF and the Turkish media
> clearly show Israeli naval commandos being
> attacked,thrown from the deck and bleeding. Are you
> saying those photos were fabricated?
>
> The gap is created when you see only two minutes [of
> footage]; you don't see what came before or after, and
> so it is possible to get the impression that the Turks
> attacked a Jewish ship. Imagine if Jews were in
> distress, attacked on the high seas, with dead and
> wounded - just imagine the uproar. Not only the Turks
> see this as an Israeli attack, but the whole world
> does.
>
>
> Are you convinced this was an aid flotilla?
>
> There is no doubt. The intention of the Israeli
> government is to create a crisis that is so terrible
> that the people of Gaza will overthrow Hamas.
> Meanwhile, four years have passed and Hamas is stronger
> than it was. What is the siege for? Who is it good for?
> If the Israeli government hadn't sent the poor soldiers
> to attack the ship, just as the cabinet secretary [Zvi
> Hauser] suggested, all of this could have been
> prevented. They could have stopped [the ships],
> examined them and let them go on. It seems we have to
> protect IDF soldiers from [Defense Minister] Ehud Barak
> and [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu.
>
>
>
> When Netanyahu calls it a flotilla of hate, is he lying?
>
> Not only Netanyahu, the ministers, too, in addition to
> a few people in uniform: the army chief of staff and
> the commander of the navy. In any well-run country, the
> head of the navy would have resigned that same night.
> The operation itself reflected an astounding and
> disastrous lack of military capability. What is the
> nature of an army whose admiral personally commands
> such a stupid undertaking? I was a soldier and I don't
> remember any of my commanders ever putting me in such
> an idiotic situation. A person who can give such an
> order cannot command our soldiers.
>
>
> And the mounting evidence that the flotilla was a
> provocation by terrorists fails to convince you?
>
> The story begins with the fact that Israel attacked a
> Turkish ship because it was bringing aid. The ship was
> attacked and [the forces] did what they did. After all,
> we experienced this ourselves with the Exodus, when
> British soldiers attacked and the illegal immigrants
> defended themselves any way they could. Three
> immigrants were killed and dozens were injured. That
> was the beginning of the end of the British Mandate
> just eight months later.
>
>
>
> Continuing this parallel that you are making, what
> does this say about us?
>
> Parallel? Then there was a British government minister
> named Ernest Bevin who was stupid and coarse, and now
> we have a defense minister who is stupid and coarse. We
> are led by a gang of idiots. After last week a big
> change has taken place en route to ending the
> occupation and the siege on Gaza, which is a siege
> based on lies and wrapped in stupidity.
>
> Benjamin Netanyahu said the siege exists in order to
> prevent the transfer of weapons to Gaza. This is a lie.
> He prevents the entrance of noodles, fruit, children's
> toys and paper for books. The damage caused to Israel's
> standing this week is greater than that caused by
> Operation Cast Lead [in Gaza, in December 2008-January
> 2009]. I am receiving messages from liberal Jews
> [abroad] and they see this as a disaster. We are moving
> forward with the blindness of the people of Sodom -
> struck blind and going on, increasing the wave of
> hatred against Israel.
>
>
>
> Is it possible that something good can come from this
> low point, as it did with the Exodus incident?
>
> In Goethe's "Faust," Satan appears and says: I am the
> power that always wants evil, but causes good. It might
> happen that, paradoxically, something good comes out of
> the bad.
>
>
> Who will lead? After all, the peace camp has no
> political leadership.
>
> All of the disasters in Israel began with Ehud Barak
> declaring himself the head of the peace camp. He went
> to Camp David unprepared and failed. When he returned
> he did not say that the negotiations would continue.
> Instead he said: I have turned over every stone on the
> way to peace; we haven't got a partner. These words
> caused a disaster we haven't yet recovered from.
>
> But perhaps now, because of this incident, people who
> have been standing on the sidelines will understand
> that we have an existential problem. I see the
> demonstration [Saturday night] as a new awakening. We
> have a long way to go. We are in a situation in which
> the political system is split wide open. Last week in
> the Knesset we saw that Kadima is not a different
> version of the Likud; it is even worse. I was a Knesset
> member for 10 years and I don't remember any disgrace
> that came even close to this: physical attacks [on Arab
> MKs] by nearly all the Jewish members accompanied by
> the shouting of racist and sexist remarks.
>
>
> And the Arab MKs did not take part in the
> uproar?
>
> There is polarization on both sides. Actions create
> reactions. There's a vicious cycle here when the
> parliament descends to such a nadir. I am looking for
> the right word: parliamentary rabble. It terrifies me
> anew. It is a death blow to parliamentary democracy.
>
>
> Did [Turkish Prime Minister] Erdogan incite the
> region?
>
> That is part of the stupidity. We have had one very
> important friend in the Middle East for decades: the
> Turkish army. Turkish politics has been changing over
> the last two years; Turkey wants to position itself as
> a Middle East superpower, and wanted to mediate between
> Israel and the Moslem world. And let's assume we didn't
> like the fact that Turkey moved closer to Iran. What
> did we do? We united all of Turkey in hatred for
> Israel. Was it worth it?
>
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