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  Vol. 1 #32 March 20, 1999

Peace of the Brave Incitement

22.3.99- The Israel General Press Office monitors PNA officials and media to prove that they are violating the incitement clauses of the Oslo accord. This is part of a speech by Chairman Yasser Arafat at a gathering to mark the anniversary of the battle of Karama:

"We carried out the longest intifada in history. They [ the Israelis] should know that we can start it again if they try to prevent us from exercising our rights. The state will be established with Jerusalem as its capital whether they like it or not. If they don't like it they can drink from the waters of the Dead Sea. We, the Fatah and the PLO, are ready to fight a new battle of Karameh every single day if anyone tries to stop us from exercising our rights, particularly that of proclaiming an independent state."

The Israel Government Press Office cited the above as proof of 'incitement,' giving Agence France Press of March 19 and the Jordan Times of March 20 as sources.

However, according to Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) Arafat also said: "...We adhere to the option of peace, the peace of the brave. We chose it of our own free will and we strategically adhere to it..."

Funny, the GPO forgot to translate that part.

Letter - RE above article:

Advocate for Israel

It is interesting to see who is so concerned about Palestinian incitement. Below is a letter from an anti-incitement guardian - who has a picture of his hero, Rabbi Kahana at his Web site.

Dear PEACE guys and girls,
Do you REALLY want peace?? Or are you just bent on supporting the Palestinians and antagonizing Bibi's government?? It seems from the above that you only single out ONE of the quotes. The PMO quoted FOUR. Why don't you decry the threats of violence from BOTH sides?? It makes your claim of supporting PEACE much more believable.

Mark Zelunka,
Director, The LINK
"THE LINK is the only student-led Israel advocacy organization in Canada.."
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/5598/
Canada

A. Isseroff replies

The King of Incitement

Dear Mark,
The Israel GPO release quoted one remark of Chairman Arafat only. By chance, I happened to know of another made at the same time. The other remarks were not made by Chairman Arafat and do not carry the same weight.

PeaceWatch readers will be interested to know who is so concerned about PNA incitement, I am sure. Who is the advocate who has arisen to save Israel from us leftists? You want us to decry violence on both sides, as you write. Very well, please look at the PeaceWatch article by Anita Abu-Daya for example. At your web site there is not one word about Israeli violence or incitement or Israeli violations of the Oslo accords, but quite a bit about PNA violations.

Astonishingly, on your page of Jewish Heroes you saw fit to include Rabbi Meir Kahana, along with Yizhak Rabin and Menachem Begin. Kahanists are not Israel advocates, but only a tiny, racist, outlawed segment of Zionist political life – a foreign graft that flourishes better in the soil of Brooklyn N.Y. then in Israel. Begin and Rabin would turn over in their graves. When it comes to incitement, Meir Kahana and his disciples make the PNA look like amateurs.

With advocates like Kahana and his supporters, who needs enemies?

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Terror Cannot Vanquish Peace
Purim 1996

17.3.99 - Purim eve 1996 was a bright, late winter's day, full of promise, the fragrance of orange blossom in the air -- even in the bustling center of Tel Aviv. Purim is celebrated as a masquerade and carnival holiday, a Jewish tradition expanded and anchored in Israeli life. The streets were crowded with Purim revelers -- children in fancy dress, parents indulging them with all sorts of treats and, despite the bus bombings in Jerusalem just a day before, Tel Avivians were determined not to let terrorism ruin their Purim. Among the crowds around the Dizengoff Center -- the heart of Tel Aviv's commercial life -- were two people very dear and close to me: my wife's mother and sister. My wife's mother, Sylvia Bernstein, aged 73, had come to Israel from Johannesburg a few years earlier to escape from the ever-spiraling cycle of crime sweeping South Africa. She and her elder daughter, Gail Belkin, 47, were spending the afternoon with Gail's daughter Lauren, picking out a wedding dress for Lauren's forthcoming marriage. Little did anyone in that Purim crowd realize that death was stalking them and that shortly before 4.00 p.m. on that bright Monday afternoon, March 4, 1996, many of them -- Gail and Sylvia included -- would die at the hands of a suicide bomber, becoming grim statistics in Israel's continuing war against terrorism.

It was only by dumb bad luck that Gail and Sylvia were even at the Dizengoff intersection at the precise moment that the bomber detonated his deadly package. They had turned back to the wedding dress shop to collect Gail's shoes, which Lauren had been trying on with her dress. Lauren went off in the other direction. Had they not returned to collect those shoes, Gail and Sylvia would have been across the intersection and 100 meters away at that fateful moment...

In the aftermath of the tragedy, we were besieged by the media: CNN, NBC, an Australian station, German and Spanish networks, and scores of print media people. And each interview had at least one question in common: "...how do you feel about the peace process now." It was my brother-in-law Larry Belkin -- married to Gail for just a year -- who put a stop to this question once and for all with a pithy, succinct and somewhat scathing response to a report from one of the major networks. After being asked the same question, he shot back: "I find that highly offensive -- don't expect that this tragedy is going to change deeply entrenched principles we have held for years..." The reporter at the sharp end of this response was stopped in his tracks. He held up his hand to his cameraman, called a halt to the interview, and had the good grace to admit that he was at a loss to respond to that answer.

The children of the family responded to the tragedy and its inevitable fallout in similar fashion. To put this in perspective, the make-up of the family must be understood: Sylvia Bernstein had seven grandchildren in Israel. At the time of the tragedy, two of the girls were serving in the Israel Defense Forces, one of the boys was in the Air Force, the others were at still at school. A few days after the bombing, all the younger members of the family made a pilgrimage to Dizengoff Center and were appalled at the graffiti calling for "Death to the Arabs" plastered to the shopping center's walls. They began pulling off offensive posters, trying to wash off messages of hatred. They were physically attacked by passers-by shouting abuse at them. Without batting a collective eyelid, these wonderful kids shot straight back: "Our family died here -- we have more right than you to decide what's displayed here!" These two responses, in essence, still epitomize our attitudes toward the peace process as it affects us; a family deeply and tragically affected by the process and its consequences. On the day of the previous elections, my wife and I were followed to the polling booth by a TV crew from Spanish Television, who filmed us entering and leaving the booth and interviewed us about our choice. We had no hesitation in telling them who we voted for -- and it was NOT the eventual winner of that contest. And the answer will be the same this time around.

Our family were victims for peace, as much as Yitzhak Rabin died for peace and as much as any other victim of terrorism before or since that tragic afternoon. But if we do not choose peace, we must choose the alternative and that is too ghastly to contemplate. So our attitudes are fairly and squarely pro-peace. We believe as much in the principles of peace as we do in the principles of pluralism, of social justice and of the myriad other principles which, if they could only be implemented, would eventually ensure that tragedies such as the one we experienced, would no longer be possible.

Larry Butchins,
Hod Hasharon, Israel
Larry Butchins is a writer and journalist.
{adapted from PS Magazine 17 March 1999}

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One Israel is Born

22.3.99- Ehud Barak's One Israel list was officially launched this evening in Jerusalem. Barak showed that after David Levy, he had yet another rabbit to pull out of the had. General (Res.) Yossi Peled defected from the Likud to join the new list. Later, on an ITV Channel 1 talk show, both Levy and Peled roasted Netanyahu for ruining the economy, deepening divisions in society and killing the peace process. Polls show Barak leading PM Bibi Netanyahu consistently since David Levy's Gesher party and Meimad - the dovish religious list - joined the One Israel list. Surprisingly, the Center party failed to take off, perhaps because people finally noticed that while they have some glittering personages, they have no platform. Center leader Yitzhak Mordehai is trying to convince people only he can beat PM Netanyahu in the second round, but the polls now say that either Barak or Mordechai would beat Bibi. But with more and more recycled Likud people populating the Center and One Israel list, the question arises whether putting Bibi out of office is going to make a difference. It would be a shame to be rid of Bibi, only to find that we are no closer to getting back on the peace track then we were before.

Ami Isseroff,
Rehovot, Israel

<Top>

Professor Said's 'Solution'

Edward Said, Columbia University's renowned professor of literature, is also a vocal critic of the Mid-East peace process. In recent articles in American and British publications, he advocates a "one-state solution" embracing both Israelis and Palestinians. His opposition to the peace process begun at Oslo remains, but is expressed in more conciliatory terms.

During the Rabin and Peres years, he opposed the very peace forces in Israel which he now seems to cultivate. As Prof. Said indicates, the idea of a bi-national state had many advocates in Israel at one time. Still, the Zionist peace camp has long recognized the two-state solution as an historical necessity. Prime Minister Netanyahu's government has given Said an easy platform to launch his argument against Oslo. As Said notes, predominantly-Arab East Jerusalem, most of the West Bank, and much of the Gaza Strip remain under Israeli control. He also states, correctly, that Yitzhak Rabin's chief aim in agreeing to Oslo was "separation." Netanyahu's policies, which encourage the expropriation of Palestinian property and the demolition of homes, sadly substantiate his view of Oslo as a formula for domination by Israel. But Said misses what should be obvious: One of the two contracting parties, the government of Israel, no longer believes in Oslo--certainly not in the same framework conceived by Rabin and Peres.

Prof. Said advocates that both peoples give up their maximal aspirations: "Greater Israel" and a Palestine which is "an inalienable" component of the Arab Islamic world. Both the Law of Return for Jews and the right of return for Palestinian refugees "have to be considered and trimmed together." The form of the state he envisions might consist of Jewish and Arab"cantons" joined in some sort of federal union.

Indeed, one can envision modifications to the Law of Return--e.g., "returning"Jews need not receive immediate citizenship and converts need not automatically be included, but Jews must retain the right of a safe haven from anti-semitism. And the Palestinians' "right of return" to their former homes (most of which no longer exist) might be replaced by an international compensation fund which assists Palestinian economic development.

However, Said's approach is flawed, as are most theoretical blueprints. It does not allow for both peoples to evolve organically a one-state solution should they come to grasp this as the best option. Both peoples need their sovereign rights to come to this conclusion on their own.

The task for those of us who care about the future of Israel is to cultivate conditions of maximum rights and dignity for Palestinians. This would defuse tensions which threaten violence and thereby engender maximum personal security for Israelis. Said wrongly belittles Israeli security concerns, but rightly points out that the lives of Palestinians are constricted both within Israel proper and in the territories. Palestinian rights to farm land and build homes are transgressed by Israel, and their civil liberties are trampled upon by Arafat's National Authority.

Like most pro-Palestinian critics of Oslo, Said would wish away the power differential between the Palestinians and Israel. He sees injustice in the fact of Israel's military superiority. But it is Israel's ability to defend itself, as Rabin sagely realized, that makes compromise possible. Israel's strength permits magnanimity toward the Palestinians. Said at least understands that neither side can totally defeat the other, and that both peoples must strive toward a new beginning that respects the rights and sensitivities of the other.

Ralph Seliger,
USA

Ralph Seliger is Secretary of Meretz USA, and co-editor of its publication, Israel Horizons (no relation to Horizon Magazine by the way).
<Top>

The Law and Arieh Deri

The trial of Arieh Deri, brilliant politician and leader of the Israeli religious Shas party, has been going on for nine years. It began before the election of Yitzhak Rabin. The peace process began, and Deri was on trial. Rabin was assassinated and Deri was on trial. People were married and got divorced, and Deri was still on trial. Wars were fought and won or lost, and Deri was still on trial. Postponing, maneuvering, refusing to testify and testifying. Children have been born who do not remember when there was no Deri trial. The leaders of the ultraorthodox Shas party, which does not quite want to recognize the authority of the Israeli courts, threatened civil war if Deri was convicted. Terrible things would happen - the sky would fall.

Now there has been a verdict. Deri was found guilty on counts of bribery totaling over $155,000. In an unprecedented move, the verdict was read out live on Israeli radio. The court went out of its way to accuse Deri of attempting to fabricate evidence, suborn witnesses and drag out the trial.

Deri, a master of public relations, held a press conference live in prime time. He managed to get more favorable publicity from his conviction then Ehud Barak had gotten from his exoneration in the Tse’elim Bet case. Deri cried, denied the charges, counseled patience like a true martyr. At his side, the venerable Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual mentor of the Shas party, provided moral support. He also caused a commotion when he prevented reporters from asking questions.

The Deri trial will undoubtedly go on, as he is appealing the verdict, and in any event, a new trial, on other charges, is in the offing. There will, it seems, always be a Deri trial. But strangely enough, the sky did not fall. At least not yet. Israelis have rallied around the rule of law. In his press conference, Deri said that the Lord had visited this injustice on him to test his faith. Perhaps the Lord has visited Deri on us to test our faith in democracy. For now, we have not been found wanting.

Ami Isseroff,
Rehovot, Israel
<Top>

 The Incitement that Wasn’t

Israeli right-wing groups love to tell us about the incitement to violence in Palestine National Authority media and education. People who do not speak or read Arabic have no way of judging the truth of these allegations. Some are undoubtedly true. For example, the PNA has posted at its Web site an "analysis" of Zionism and Judaism by the French holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, who they paint as a hero of the anti-Nazi resistance. However, it seems that the anti-incitement watchdogs have often been trying to kindle a fire where there is only smoke

One of the best known examples of ‘incitement’ is the TV footage of a little girl saying she wants to be a ‘Shaheed’ - a suicide bomber - to the applause and approval of adults. This footage, with translation by Israeli right-wing groups, has been shown in the U.S. Congress and in the Israeli Knesset. It was cited recently by U.S. Senator Connie Mack (R-Fla) on the Senate floor. I was surprised to learn, through friends on the Shalom -V-Salaam e-mail forum, that the translation is apparently incorrect, and completely distorts the meaning of the TV footage. Roger Froikin, a supporter of the Israeli right but a fair man, wrote:

"I saw the news stories in the US and Israeli press, indicating that a Palestinian TV children’s show had a little girl dressed as a terrorist, saying that she hoped to be a suicide bomber and to liberate Jerusalem. The comments went on to say that the adults applauded the girl's remarks, and so encouraged them.

When I heard the above, I told people that I would like to either hear or see the performance before giving a definitive opinion, given the rhetoric of the articles. When the opportunity came to see a tape, I learned the following: (1) The girl did not call herself a "suicide-bomber" or any such thing. She referred to herself in much milder terms as any child who hears things at home might. (2) The adult encouragement and applause she received were for the performance of a small nervous child, just as any adults applaud and encourage a child in such a situation regardless of content of what the child says. My reaction was that it was a bit of a stretch to assume that the adults were endorsing what she said rather than generally encouraging a little girl to get up and perform.

Perhaps the adults in the tape should have told the little girl or her parents what was appropriate before the performance or perhaps after the performance, given the political situation. That, maybe, is a function of experience on the air to anticipate that children might say things that are not the best. At the same time, to deplore it or to warn against it on the air would not have been appropriate either. To applaud the girl's efforts, as with any child, was appropriate regardless of content.

Roger Froikin,
USA

So it seems that Senator Connie Mack, addressing the President of the United States and urging President Clinton to block Palestinian attempts at independence,. was basing policy decisions on a bad translation. Is it possible that nobody actually bothered to view this tape and determine what it really says?

Reality is bad enough, perhaps. We should beware of people working overtime on both sides to make it worse. In the Middle East, as elsewhere, things are often not what they seem to be.

Ami Isseroff,
Rehovot, Israel
<Top>

Mid-East Humor

A new Web site features satires on Mid-Eastern culture and political figures. No cows remain sacred:   http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2506/index.html

This is not a PEACE group initiative - but don’t we all wish it were? Humorous submissions are welcome!

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