[Peace-discuss] Israel's dissidents are saving the country
David Johnson via Peace-discuss
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
Fri Jun 13 08:39:16 EDT 2014
Israel's dissidents are saving the country
The dissidents do not need to apologize for anything. Their country
owes them a great deal.
By Gideon Levy <http://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/gideon-levy-1.402> |
Mar. 24, 2011 | 2:53 AM | 43
Imagine a different Israel in the eyes of the world. There is no
B'Tselem, no Breaking the Silence, no Anarchists Against the Fence, no
Gush Shalom. There is no New Israel Fund and no small band of radical
and dissenting intellectuals and journalists. Imagine a different
Israel, which silences and crushes every such voice. Imagine how it
would look to the world.
The little sympathy Israel still receives it owes to these groups. The
campaign of delegitimization against it, the real one and the one we
invent, we owe to Avigdor Lieberman and Israel Beiteinu, to Benjamin
Netanyahu and the flood of anti-democratic laws of his people and of
Kadima, to the unbridled Israel Defense Forces and to the settlers who
know no boundaries. One day of Operation Cast Lead did Israel more
damage than all the critical articles taken together; the fatal attack
on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara dragged down Israel's image more than all
the anti-Israeli lectures taken together; the "Nakba Law" stank more
than all the petitions.
The ever-growing initiative to boycott, excoriate and ostracize Israel
was born out of the pictures of Gaza and the scenes from the Marmara.
The fact that there are Israelis who have joined the criticism can only
be chalked up to Israel's dwindling credit in universities in the United
States, in the academic world of Europe and in newspapers in both
places. Just imagine how Israel would look without them: North Korea.
The government's ambassadors and its propagandists can barely persuade
anyone in the world, except themselves. The destroyers of Israeli
democracy can only stoke the fire higher and higher against it. The
critical voices still being heard, in commendable freedom, arouse the
world's esteem. The dissidents are now the best explainers of Israel,
whose regime is still to its credit.
About two weeks ago, I was invited to the Jewish Book Week in London,
following the publication in English of my book "The Punishment of
Gaza." The Jewish establishment in Britain threatened to boycott the
event, the organizers considered hiring security guards, and roughly 500
people, mainly middle-of-the-road Jews, filled the hall, asked questions
and mainly, in their modest way, expressed great sympathy. I spoke, as I
always do, against the occupation, the injustices and the damage it does
to Israel and to the Palestinians, against the attacks on Israeli
democracy as I have written in the hundreds of articles that have been
published in Haaretz in Hebrew and in English, and as I did at the
London School of Economics and Trinity University in Dublin.
As on previous occasions, a "spy" from the Israeli Embassy was sent to
Trinity - this one, an Israeli student who was asked to write down what
I said and convey it to the embassy. The embassy quickly dispatched a
report to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, and the Foreign Ministry
quickly leaked it to a well-known newspaper, which published only my
harshest statements, without context - and there you have it: the
indictment of a dissident.
One can ignore the way the embassy spies on journalists, evoking dark
regimes. I would be glad to see a government representative at my
lectures who was not under cover, if they have any interest. But one
cannot ignore the message conveyed by such conduct - that of a witch
hunt against a journalist whose opinions diverge from the party line.
In the new high-tech world, there is no longer a difference between what
is written and what is said from here or from there. In the new world,
which is mainly hostile to Israel, there is significance to alternative
voices coming out of Israel, voices other than the official, threatening
and harmful. These voices belong to Israel's true patriots, who fear for
its fate and are concerned over its image much more than the people who
are threatening to silence them. The dissidents do not need to apologize
to their country for anything. Their country owes them a great deal:
They are the force that is saving its image in the world. "Thy
destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth from thee"?
(Isaiah 49:17 ) Indeed, indeed. Netanyahu and Lieberman, the lawmakers
on the right and the instigators of nationalism and racism, the hilltop
youth and the indifferent of Tel Aviv. Ask (almost ) any European or
American intellectual.
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