תשובה לרב חובל איטלקי. סתם, לבן-דרור ימיני

ימיני כתב
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/966/025.html

וזכה לשבחים רבים משמאלנים לשעבר, מאוכזבי אוסלו כמוהו. סוף סוף תועמלן ימני מנומק, הגיוני, משכנע
נכון? לא נכון

להלן תגובתי

ראשית, ימיני הוא עיתונאי שאני מאד מעריך, ואת ספרו הנשכח "אגרוף פוליטי" קראתי כמה פעמים

דעתו הנוכחית על הסכסוך מנומקת ודעתנית. הסגנון שלו הוא קנאי ומתלהם בדיוק כמו אלה שאותם הוא מבקר, אבל לזה אנחנו רגילים, גם אני כזה, רק בלי הכישרון שלו

דעותיו הנוכחיות מבוססות על חצאי אמיתות, אי דיוקים, מידה מסויימת של גזענות, וגם סתם נימוקים הגיוניים שאני לא מקבל, אבל יש בהם הגיון

נתחיל

ימיני טוען, שמדינת ישראל מעוניינת בהסדר, ואילו הערבים מעוניינים רק בצדק

לדעתי זה שקר. מדינת ישראל היא אוסף של הרבה פרטים, שרובם באמת מעוניינים בהסדר, ומוכנים לשלם את מחירו. אבל הם מונהגים תמיד על ידי ממשלות שלא מעוניינות בשום דבר חוץ מאשר המשך המצב הקיים, ואם חייבים - לשנות אותו רק במידה הנדרשת כדי להישאר בשלטון
כל השינויים שחלו בעמדותיו של השלטון בישראל, בעשרות שנים האחרונות - נכפו על הממשלה על ידי המציאות, המלחמות, המעצמות, לחץ ציבורי או מעשים של קבוצות לחץ, בעיקר המתנחלים. שום יוזמה לשינוי לא התחילה מהממשלה. אני מנסה להיזכר כמה זמן זה כבר כך - ולא מצליח להיזכר בפעם האחרונה שממשלה כלשהי בישראל יזמה מהלך שיצר שינוי. בואו נלך אחורה - ההכרה בצורך במדינה פלסטינית, תכנית מופז, ההתנתקות, תהליך קמפ דייויד, אוסלו, ועידת מדריד, ביטול איסור המפגשים עם אש"ף, ועוד ועוד
הלוואי שהערבים היו מקבלים צדק. אם היה צדק, הם כבר היו מקבלים מדינה שאפשר לחיות בה, ולא אוסף של טלאי קרקע

הצדק של הערבים לא מבוסס על יותר שקרים מאשר הצדק שלנו. לא משנה אם היו כאן ערבים או פלסטינים או פלישתים במשך 1000 שנה או 100 שנה או רק כמה ימים לפני שהציונים הגיעו. מי שגר כאן לפנינו, אין לנו שום זכות לגרש אותו

ימיני באמת רוצה להחזיר את השטחים, אבל טוען שאין לו למי. לדעתי, מתוך פחד בלתי מוסבר מהפלסטינים, הוא מעדיף להשאיר את המצב הקיים, ולשם כך הוא זקוק לתירוצים. העובדה ש"הערבים" סירבו להחלטת החלוקה לפני יותר משישים שנה נראית לו תירוץ טוב

ובכן ראשית, עברו מאז שישים שנה, כל אלה שסירבו אז כבר מתים, והיום חיים כאן בני אדם אחרים. אבל ימיני, שמתנגד לביסוס ההסדר על "צדק", לא נאה מקיים. הוא דורש, איך לא, צדק: אם סבכם וסבתכם סירבו אז להצעת החלוקה, אכלתם אותה. עכשיו אין הסדר

שנית, מי שסירב היו מנהיגים ערבים שאיש לא בחר, ולא צודק שבניהם ובני בניהם ואנחנו ובנינו ובני בנינו נסבול מההחלטה השגויה הזאת

תירוץ אחר שימיני אוהב להשתמש בו, הוא ש"כך עשו כולם". אנחנו הפגזנו אזרחים בלי הבחנה? גירשנו? אנסנו? לא מכחיש. אני רק טוען, שכולם עשו כך, ולכן זה נסלח. ובכן, זה לא נסלח, לא צודק וראוי לתקן ולפצות על כך. המחקר ההיסטורי, כולל של שמאלני לשעבר כמו בני מוריס, מוכיח שלישראל היה חלק גדול בהיווצרותה של בעיית הפליטים. יש הרבה מומחים גדולים יותר מימיני שטוענים, שבעיקר הפלסטינים מעוניינים בהצהרה, בהודאה באחראיות, וכמובן בפיצויים, אבל לא במימוש בפועל של זכות השיבה. אבל את ימיני זה לא מעניין. הוא, הליברל הגדול, שמעוניין בשיבה אל שולחן הדיונים בלי תנאים מוקדמים - מציב תנאי מוקדם: על זכות השיבה אפילו לא מדברים. טוב, אז לא מדברים, רק נלחמים. לחברה מילטאריסטית כמו ישראל זה בוודאי יותר קל

ימיני מבסס חלק מטיעוניו על ראיית האיסלאם כמייצג של תרבות נחותה מבחינה מוסרית. בעיניו, האכזריות והאלימות הם מאפיינים של האיסלאם. זוהי בעיני השקפה גזענית, גם אם היא עטופה בים של הצדקות כביכול ונתונים היסטוריים. כפי שאמרתי פעמים רבות, זה לא האיסלאם אלא הסיטואציה הפוליטית. הוכחה חדשה לכך קיבלתי בסדרת מאמרים שעשה איתי אנגל על רואנדה, אם זה מעניין אתכם אז נדבר עליהם בדיון הבא. בעיני זה מדהים ומרתק

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3809832,00.html
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3809920,00.html

ואחרון, ההשוואה בין הפליטים היהודים לערבים
הדומה בין שני המקרים הוא ששניהם גורשו ושרכושם הוחרם. לכן ראוי לדרוש פיצוי בשני המקרים
אם סך הרכוש היהודי גדול יותר, אז שהיהודים יקבלו פיצוי גדול יותר, אין לי בעיה. זה רק כסף, והכסף יימצא אם זה מה שיפתור את הסכסוך. אבל אני חושד, שגם כאן ימיני לא ממש מעוניין בפתרון. נשמע מדבריו, שהוא מקווה שהדרישה לפיצוי גדול יותר תכשיל את העיסקה

מה שלגמרי לא דומה הוא, שהערבים גורשו ממה שהם רואים כביתם, ואילו רוב היהודים לא רצו להישאר בארצות ערב, ולא רוצים לחזור לשם. ולכן אני לא בטוח, שבהשוואה בין האובדן ייצא, שהיהודים איבדו יותר. אבל שוב, זה עניין למשא ומתן

לסיכום, ימיני הוא בעצם מצביע "מרצ" הקלאסי. הוא מעוניין לסיים את הכיבוש, ולהחזיר את כל השטחים, מהסיבה הלא נכונה. פשוט נמאס לו לראות ערבים, הוא רוצה אותם שם ואותנו כאן. לא מעניין אותו לפתור את הסכסוך בגלל חוסר הצדק שבו, אלא בגלל שהסכסוך לא נעים לו ולא טוב לעסקים. לא מעניין אותו לראות את התמונה מהצד השני, לא מעניין אותו להשתלב במרחב הים תיכוני - למרות שהוא בעצמו מזרחי! זה פרט מעניין ולא מובן

כל עוד הרוב בישראל ימשיך לחשוב כך, והרוב לדעתי חושב כמו מר"צ למרות שהוא מצביע ל"ימין", אם להיות בעד מדינה פלסטינית זה היום ימין - כל עוד הרוב ימשיך לחשוב שרק אנחנו צודקים ורק אנחנו הקורבנות, הסכסוך הזה לא יסתיים. אבל רק להזכיר לכם, יש זמנים שבהם גם אנחנו סובלים ממנו. עכשיו יש פסק זמן, שאותו הממשלה שלנו מנצלת כהרגלה כדי לבזבז את הזמן. אבל אין סטטוס קוו באזורנו - ויגיע זמן שבו שוב אנחנו נובל במקום להוביל

"GILO IS NOT A SETTLEMENT" (is it not?)

I am pleased and honored to host here a post from the blog of my dear second cousin, the distinguished Avi Galanti. Following is my (inevitable) response.





I was born in Gilo in 1973 and spent most of my childhood there. On weekends we would go to Bethlehem and shop at the main market. It was a relatively peaceful time and for the most part Jews and Arabs got along...

Gilo was taken back by Israel during the Six Day War in 1967. Prior to 1948 Jews were living in Gilo, today a beautiful mountain top neighborhood, located southwest of Jerusalem’s old city. During Israel’s Independence War in 1948 the Egyptians fought hard in that front trying to make advances towards capturing Jerusalem, and although ultimately defeated, Gilo remained under Arab control.

Since 1967 Israel developed Gilo and it is now home to over 60,000 people. Not settlers, just ordinary people, representing Israel’s entire political spectrum. Gilo, unlike the settlements, is home to Left-wing Labor Party and Shalom Achshav (Hebrew for: Peace Now) advocates, as well as right-wing supporters. Gilo is in Israel’s consensus as Kansas City is to Americans.

Gilo is connected to other Jerusalem neighborhoods and is an integral part of the city. The proposed addition of 900 units is on the north side of Gilo, towards other established Jerusalem neighborhoods. That is to say that the addition will not be to the south towards Har-Gilo or Beit-Jalah.

I think Barack Obama’s criticism is misplaced, misguided, and irresponsible. In his remarks Mr. Obama said the approved construction could prove "very dangerous" by fuelling Palestinian anger and harming prospects for peace; in essence fueling anger among Palestinians!!

Israel’s isolation in the world is growing deeper and any chance for reconciliation with the Arab world is quickly diminishing. Obama in his attempt to appease the Muslim world has turned a cold shoulder to Israel and demanded something that was never an issue before - a full stop to all settlement activities, without distinction, as a pre-condition for sitting down and negotiating a peace deal. The Palestinians seized the moment and immediately clenched to this demand. They clearly saw this, and openly declared it, as a momentum against Israel.

Settlements were one of the critical elements discussed during peace negotiations between Mr. Abbas and Mr. Olmert. However, construction for natural growth in the settlements and building in East Jerusalem, were never a reason for halting talks. Thanks to Mr. Obama’s infinite wisdom and worldly diplomatic gravitas, the peace process is all but dead, Mr. Abbas is threatening to leave office shuttering any vague hopes for renewing negotiations, and Palestinians are contemplating launching a third Intifada and declaring statehood unilaterally.

Rather than creating this deadlock by making unrealistic demands, Mr. Obama should have studied the comprehensive and far reaching peace deal Mr. Olmert had offered Mr. Abbas, and focus on having Mr. Abbas and Mr. Netanyahu sit and talk peace. Mahmoud Abbas by the way, was too foolish or too scared (or both) to accept the peace offer. He missed an incredible historic opportunity to bring peace to the two people and equally important, to take a brave stand against radicals in the Palestinian camp (Hamas and others) who have no interest in ending the conflict.

Other countries around the world were also quick to jump on the bandwagon and hold Israel’s actions responsible for failing to move the peace process forward. Israel is heavily criticized by its European allies, Russia and neighboring Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan, following the tone coming out of The White House and the U.S. State Department. The interesting thing is, the current Israeli government has done nothing more to aggravate the situation than previous governments (left and right) had done in the past.

Funny world we live in - Iran is deceiving the world and making progress in its pursue of nuclear arms, North Korea has been doing it for years, the world’s economy is still struggling to overcome a deep recession, the war in Afghanistan is a disaster where the most corrupt government on the planet is running the show, the war in Iraq is ongoing, Pakistan, a nuclear power, is fighting growing elements of Taliban forces inside its borders, Lebanon is all but taken over by Hezbollah, China continues to manipulate its currency and do nothing about human rights... and while all this is going on, Mr. Obama, followed by other world leaders, are quick to condemn Israel for approving the construction of a hotel in Jerusalem on land owned by Jews, or 900 units in a neighborhood that is as much Israeli as Tel Aviv is.

גדעון לוי על המצוינות החולנית של הנוער שלנו

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1106441.html

שיר הלל לחקלאות בישראל

ישראלית עאלק... כמעט כולם שם תאילנדים

CyberTorah: Remembering Who We are

My Rabbi, David Booth, sent us this wonderful weekly column:


I was struck during Pesach by how much we talk about our stories and our experience. We as a Jewish people experienced oppression and poverty and we rejoice in having found freedom. So we tell of the plagues and we sing dayenu and remind ourselves of our stories.


The Hagaddah loves our stories of oppression and redemption. We go right from the four questions, when we expect to hear of the Exodus from Egypt, and start hearing about Lavan’s oppression of Jacob. Louis Ginzberg argued that this odd passage is really code and that the Rabbis are telling of their own experience under Roman persecution.


Later in the Seder the door is opened and in traditional Hagaddot we ask God to “pour out Your wrath.” This passage, written immediately following the Crusades, puts yet another moment of Jewish darkness into the narrative of the Hagaddah. As an aside, every year I invite one guest to tell us how to treat this somewhat disturbing passage. So some years we have read it as is with explanation about context. Other years we have omitted it and focused only on hope. And in still other years we have read other texts, including the medieval revision titled “Pour out Your love.”


In all these places, we tell our own stories of darkness embedded in the hopeful quality of the Seder. Just as God once brought us through the darkness of midnight to the dawn of redemption, so also in each of our stories of darkness there is the possibility of light. And for this we pray.


Yet the Seder, for all its hopefulness, is inwardly focused. Only on the margins do we recall the stories of others, or see ways in which the narrative expands. Many of us have the custom of removing a drop of wine for each plague to recall the suffering of the Egyptians. Many of us recall hunger and poverty more generally when reading of the bread of affliction. But overall, the Hagaddah focuses us on the particular rather than the universal.


There is a strength to this inward focus. The Seder focuses on Israel to remind me that Israel ought to hold a special place in my heart. Suffering and darkness are found elsewhere, but I take as my special responsibility the challenges facing Israel. That inward focus also reminds me that my own problems and challenges matter and that the light of a new dawn waits for me too. Trivial as my issues may feel at particular moments, they matter and are part of this narrative.


Yet the Seder, by telling these stories, by reminding us that there is a new dawn yet to come, invites us to see anew the sufferings and difficulties of others. It is from the particular that we learn the universal. We tell our own story of oppression and loss of freedom and that inspires in us a concern for those oppressed or suffering from poverty around the world. We have the courage to tell even of our own anger and so remember how oppression and destruction can lead to anger and away from peace. And the dawn promised by the Seder provides a new light that gives us the strength to see the sufferings of others and to strive to help.


I intend to use the occasion of this Passover now past to bring the other narratives that hover in the margins of the Hagaddah more front and center in my own life. I want to do more especially at this time of economic hardship to feed those still eating of the bread of poverty. I want to do more to bring an end to oppression, terror, and violence throughout the world. And I want to look at my own closed off places, the places where I bring darkness into the lives of others, and find a new light of renewal for me that engenders greater compassion in me.


Shabbat Shalom & Happy Hametz


Rabbi David Booth

Israeli Elections 2009

...A reflection

and a prediction at the end

So, another elections campaign is over, the 18^th in 61 years, which will determine the 32^nd Government of Israel. Sounds wired to Western ears, doesn’t it? Maybe not if you are an Italian. But in most other democratic countries, it is pretty odd, that there would be so frequent political changes. (Is Israel a democratic country?... well, that’s a whole separate topic, I don’t know if I want to go there right now. But in short, my answer is Yes, partially).

Yeah, especially when you are an American, it must be extremely strange to hear that the elections in Israel do not take place on a regular basis. I mean, in the US, elections happen on the first Tuesday of November, exactly every 4 years. In 233 years, four presidents have died while in office, another four have been assassinated, and one resigned. Nonetheless, all were succeeded by their vice presidents, but elections were never pulled in.

But maybe the hardest thing to comprehend, for a non-Israeli, is the fact that the winning party, Kadima, which won the most number of votes and parliament seats once again, will not form the next government.

Strange, ha?

Well, this is the way the Israeli system works. The Prime Minister has to win the support of the Parliament on every major item on the agenda, such as the Budget; so He (or, if Kadima really won, it would be She) must form a Coalition of parties which would constitute an absolute majority among the 120 seats in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. Kadima, with its 28 seats, just can’t do that, while all the rest of the “Left” parties combined have only 27 seats. When counting the 27 seats, I even included Shas, which is a sectarian, ultra-orthodox, kind of Right-Center party, and which will be in any coalition, Right or Left. However I did not include the Arab parties, because nobody takes them into account for a government – not even the Arab-Jewish party Hadash.

Following the elections, everybody loves to hate Evet (Avigdor) Lieberman. Well, maybe except for the 13% who voted for his party, “Israel is Our Home”⁽¹⁾. The Left is mad at him – because Lieberman, whom they see as a Right-wing, hard-liner racist, is the big winner of the elections in which everybody else lost, especially the Leftist flagship, Meretz ⁽²⁾. The Likud ⁽³⁾ feels uncomfortable with him, because the last thing that the Likud wants is to establish a conservative narrow coalition, which will have to carry out its ambitious lunatic ideology, with nobody else to “soften” its agenda.

Personally, I think that there is more than a bit of hypocrisy here. After all, as brutal and frightening Mr. Lieberman might seem, all he wants to do is what the Likud, Kadima and the Labor parties have actually been carrying out all along – to alienate and oppress the Palestinian inhabitants of this land, both citizens and occupied, to the point where they would just want to leave or give up their Israeli citizenship. The difference is that those more “moderate” parties never declared it as their policy. But that’s where the hypocrisy is.

Lieberman, formerly Netanyahu’s cabinet general manager, formerly a member of the “Transfer Party” ⁽⁴⁾, and further formerly, a Kahana ⁽⁵⁾ member, this time ran on a ticket that calls for revoking the citizenship of Palestinians who wont adhere to the notion that Israel is the State of the Jews; and for “exchanging land” with the future Palestinian state, in such a way that thousands of Palestinians would have to give up their Israeli citizenship.

Let’s take a look at the actual policy of former governments, regarding the Palestinians.

The Oslo Accord was signed in 1993, by the Yitzhak Rabin government. It was an attempt to establish a permanent solution to the conflict. But alas, since then, under the governments of Netanyahu (Likud), Barak (Labor) Sharon and Olmert (Kadima), the population of the settlers in the Occupied Territories has more than doubled (from 110,000 – to 219,000 in 2001, that’s even before the Sharon government!). In 2003, the Or Inquiry Commission, an official government-appointed commission that followed the violent incidents of October 2000, stated that the Arab citizens of Israel have been discriminated against constantly by all governments.

Therefore, I think that for most people in Israel, Lieberman serves as a scapegoat, or a Kaparot rooster; just like the custom in Yom Kippur (“Day of Atonement”), which is being practiced to this day: to take a live chicken and fly it over the head, and then send it for slaughter. This way, just like with the rooster, we project all of our sins upon Lieberman, and then we can feel clean and purified.

So, what happens next? Let me put my reputation at stake, and make a prediction: Netanyahu is the next Prime Minister of Israel. His party (27 seats) will form a coalition with Lieberman, Shas, “Judaism of Torah”, “the Jewish Home” and maybe “the National Unity”. That’s a total of 65 seats, enough to have a majority of votes in the Knesset. But past experience shows, that any government which is based on less than 70 Parliament members tends to by unstable. This is because at times of crises, sometimes small parties will quit, hoping to get better deals from the other major party, after the following elections. In addition, as I said before, a narrow right-wing coalition is Netanyahu’s nightmare. So, he is eager to have either Kadima or Labor join as well, to form what is known as a Unity Government (and usually turns out to be a Paralyzing Government). Well, the current Labor people have no ideological problem sitting with any of the Right-wingers, even the most extremists. But it seems that this time, they are afraid to completely loose face in the eyes of their voters.

Kadima, on the other hand, is not a real party. It was formed by former Prime Minister Sharon, for one purpose only – to carry out his “Disengagement” plan (= the pulling out of Gaza strip). Most of its members are just opportunists who will join whoever gives them a position in government. To be perfectly honest, I thought that Kadima would cease to exist after the Disengagement was over (in 2005), but Kadima, headed by Olmert, won the 2006 elections on a similar ticket – the “Convergence” plan, which was the plan Olmert devised to pull out of parts of the West Bank as well (needless to say, that never happened). As such, Kadima cannot stay in Opposition to the government; this takes some ideological tradition, and some partisan backbone, which even the Likud has, but not Kadima. True, Kadima has some dignified people (that’s in Politics standards), such as its leader, Tzipi Livni. But it consists of too many Likud and Labor deserters who have no problem crossing the lines again in any directions (whatever “lines” there are left between those three parties). Therefore, my wild prediction is that this party will break apart. Those of Kadima who must be in the government, headed by the party’s no. 2, General (Ret.) Mofaz, who took a quick “time out” from politics after losing the leadership to Livni (but he never meant to take the full, 1-minute time out, but rather the shorter 20-second one), will join the Netanyahu coalition. The former Prime Minister will thus get back in office for a while. In that short period (one to two years maybe), he will surrender to growing pressure from the Obama administration to make “concessions”, after which ideologues such as Benny Begin ⁽⁶⁾ will quit, for the second time. But Dr. Begin has nothing to worry about, as the next government wont lead the country towards any real peace solution. As weak as Netanyahu is personally, he will pretend to make compromises, just to stay in power for a few months more; however he will not go as far as needed to establish a real peace agreement. So he will just expose the simple fact, that the Right really does not have a real option to both keep the state of Israel democratic, and to maintain the occupation. So there is some good in all that evil after all.

And after that what? A total war? A nuclear war? A civil war? That I don’t know. What am I, a prophet?...

____________________________________________________________

(1) A secular, radically Right-wing party, mainly based on immigrants from former Soviet Union; got 13% of the votes, up from 9%.

(2) Won 3 seats, down from 5 in previous elections, and down from 12 in the past.

(3) The Right-wing leading party, headed by former Prime Minister Netanyahu.

(4) “National Unity”, a radical Right-wing party which at that time included Moledet, which advocated the Transfer of Palestinians to Jordan.

(5) “Kach”, the party of Rav Meir Kahana, a party so extremely to the Right that it was banned from participating in the elections.

(6) Dr. Benny Begin, an honest man (a species almost extinct from politics), the son of the late Menachem Bagin who was the first Prime Minister from the Likud.

What American Jews don't want to know

I was invited to speak with some of my friends at the annual "Feast of Jewish Learning/A Night of Jewish Unity", in Congregation Etz Chayim, California.

http://www.bjesf.org/adults_feast.htm

For a moment, we thought that this was a good opportunity to share our thoughts about the Middle-Eastern situation, to a big audience of Jews who rarely hear these kinds of views.


Then, we received this from the Feast moderator:

Dear Sarah Anne, Avner, Joel, Neil, and Beverly,

I am very sorry at this late date to say that as the chair of The Feast of Jewish Learning/A Night of Jewish Unity, I have canceled your class.
I have done so because it has become obvious that the passions on this issue are such that there are plans to attend by hotheads on all sides of the issue,
and that is the antithesis of what it is that we have worked so hard to create these past ten years, which is, A Night of Jewish Unity.

Also, we have a theme: Lost and Found, that the other classes have, in some respect, adhered to, while your session is less in that mold.

Again, I am very sorry to cancel something you have worked on. I apologize for the late notice, and for the disappointment you must feel.

If you wish to call me, you may do so, but I am between being with a dying member of my congregation and getting ready for Shabbat, which comes around five thirty tonight.
Please use this number: 650-813-9011 (home study phone and fax)

I am emailing you all because I don’t know which one of you to call, and I hope I will reach at least one of you more quickly this way.

Ari Cartun
--
Rabbi Ari Cartun
Congregation Etz Chayim