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IP: 195.152.54.* 22.11.04, 20:51
Uri Avnery
20.11.
Who’s Next?
George W. Bush is a product of the Wild West myth. He sees himself as the
fast-drawing sheriff who kills the bad guys and maintains order in town.

But in fact he is much more like another stock figure of the Westerns: the
top-hatted vendor of the patent medicine which heals everything: tooth-ache
and belly-ache, cholera and impotence, gunshot wounds and heart attacks.

Bush’s patent medicine is called “democracy”. Democracy will heal all
the diseases of the Middle East and the entire world. If only the Muslim
nations would buy his little flask, all problems would be solved, and
foremost among them the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And since Israel is
already an exemplary democracy, led by that great democrat, Ariel Sharon, all
that is needed now is to impose democracy on the Palestinians. This means
free elections for president and parliament.

A person with limited intellectual capacity needs simple solutions. A
one-dimensional solution that does not demand delving into the complexities
of other societies and civilizations. What’s good for his little Texan town
must be good for Baghdad and Gaza, too.
Since winning reelection, his self-confidence has shot sky high. He has
kicked out the hapless Colin Powell and put a certified yeswoman in charge of
the State Department. From now on, nobody will question his decisions
anymore. Not even if he appoints his horse Chief Justice.

So who is worried? Of all people, Ariel Sharon, his great friend,
teacher and guide.

As fate would have it, Bush achieved his great victory one day before
the sudden, mysterious breakdown of Yasser Arafat’s health. Sharon’s alibi
was buried in Ramallah.

Successive Israeli governments have presented Arafat as a monster and
used his monstrosity as a pretext for undermining any attempt to impose peace
upon them. Peace means withdrawing to the pre-1967 border, more or less, and
dismantling the settlements. Peace means giving up East Jerusalem, more than
half of the “eternal capital of Israel”. God forbid!

The demonization of Arafat helped avoid this. After all, one cannot make
peace with a monster. Even Bush understood that. Therefore he helped Sharon
prevent elections for the Palestinian Authority, in which Arafat was certain
to be reelected by a landslide.

But now Arafat is not there, and Bush is. Sharon is very troubled. And
rightly so.

For four years, the mantra in Washington has been: Fighting
International Terrorism. That suited Sharon fine, since he was riding on
the “fight terrorism” horse anyhow.

For the next four years, the new mantra in Washington may well be:
Democracy for the Middle East. That will suit Abu-Mazen, who is riding the
democracy horse.

Abu-Mazen has been chosen as Chairman of the PLO. Abu-Mazen wears a
business suit, not a uniform. He wears a tie, not a kuffieh. He looks like an
ordinary democratic leader. He is known for his opposition to the suicide
bombings in Israel. Contrary to all Israeli predictions, the Palestinian
transfer of power has taken place in an orderly manner, much as in any
civilized country. Within two months, new elections are to take place.

That puts Sharon on the spot. He cannot object to elections, since they
are the apple of Bush’s eye. He must not raise the slightest suspicion that
he is undermining them. Any complaint about the Israeli army hindering
elections by incursions, roadblocks and “targeted assassinations” may arouse
the ire of the White House.

Sharon is hoping that the Palestinians will sabotage their elections
themselves. Armed factions may disturb the orderly process. Last week there
was shooting during Abu-Mazen’s visit to Gaza – which caused an outburst of
joy and glee in Israel. But the incident passed, all Palestinian factions are
showing restraint and the people are unified in their desire for peaceful
elections.

For Sharon this is a nightmare. The way it looks now, elections will
indeed take place, with several candidates standing – and Abu-Mazen will be
elected president.

For Bush that will be a great achievement: the first Arab democracy
will be on its way. Even if anarchy reigns in Iraq, Palestine will prove that
his vision is coming true. Bush will embrace Abu-Mazen. The way to a “free
Palestinian state” within four years will be open.

For Sharon, there is no greater danger. His plan – to annex 58% of the
West Bank to Israel – will be struck from the agenda. He will be requested to
dismantle most of the settlements, and before that to freeze all of them.

Worse: the intimate, exclusive relationship with Bush will be upset.
The couple will become a triangle, and three is a crowd. Already Condoleezza
is about to meet Abu-Mazen.

So what can be done? Clearly, Abu-Mazen has to be destroyed before he
gets the chance to put down roots. But it is also clear that Sharon cannot
conduct any overt act against him. A strategy of indirect approach is
indicated.

Even before Arafat returned his soul to his maker, Sharon declared that
there will be no negotiations with his successors until after they “put an
end to terrorism”. He hoped that the magic word “terrorism” would make Bush
jump. And since even Arafat, with all his towering authority, did not disarm
Hamas and Jihad, there is not the slightest chance that Abu-Mazen could do it.

The Americans did not fall into this primitive trap, and so Sharon
decided to be a little more sophisticated. This week he announced that he
will not speak with Abu-Mazen unless he immediately stops the “incitement”
against Israel in all Palestinian media and schools.

Abu-Mazen might just as well be requested to pluck the moon from the
heavens. How could the new democratic chairman abolish freedom of speech on
TV and in the press – while incitement against the Palestinians continues in
the Israeli media at full blast, not to mention their dancing on Arafat’s
grave? And how does one change the schoolbooks (most of them Egyptian and
Jordanian in any case) within two months – while in Israeli schools,
especially the religious ones, both orally and in writing, the right of the
Palestinian people to their country is totally denied?

The presentation of impossible demands as a pre-condition to
negotiations is an old trick of Sharon’s. One may assume that the Americans
will not fall into this trap again. Something more extreme and immediate must
happen. For example: bloody attacks, acts of “terrorism” that can be
attributed to the new chairman, civil war, anarchy.

Abu-Mazen and his colleagues know this full well. They are working to
prevent this. Since they lack the means to apply force, they must use
persuasion. The traditional Arab method is “Ijmah” – a round of discussions
that goes on until everybody is persuaded, so that no minority will feel that
it has been vanquished by a majority. Arafat was a past master of this.

If this succeeds, there will be a temporary cease-fire until the
elections. But the main problem will remain: the new Chairman will be unable
to persuade his people to end the armed intifada if he cannot show another
way of ending the occupation and achieving Palestinian independence. If the
Americans want the new regime to take hold, they must bring about the
immediate start of negotiations, with the clear aim of establishing the State
of Palestine within a strict timetable.

Sharon will do everything he can to destroy Abu-Mazen before this
happens. He wrecked the first A
    • Gość: aki smart article, Kto zacz ten uri? IP: 80.51.161.* 22.11.04, 21:01
      ???
      • Gość: Cep Re: smart article, Kto zacz ten uri? IP: *.aster.pl 22.11.04, 21:08
        Sprawdź w Google'u.

        Ja sobie ten artykuł archiwizuję, zobaczymy, co się z niego sprawdzi. Avnery przypomina mi trochę panią Prof. Staniszkis. Superinteligentne analizy i przewidywania, z wyraźną tendencją do nierealizowania się. Chociaż - nie zawsze.

        Tutaj całość:


        www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/uavnery107.htm
      • Gość: !!! Re: smart article, Kto zacz ten uri? IP: 195.152.54.* 22.11.04, 21:08
        1950-1990
        Former Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, "Ha'olam Haze" newsmagazine.
        1965-1969
        1969-1973
        1979-1981
        3 Terms as member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).

        1975
        Founding member, Israeli council for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

        1993 Founding member, "Gush Shalom" (Peace Bloc), Independent Peace Mevement.

        Columnist, Ma'ariv Daily.



        --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Born:
        September 10, 1923, Beckum, Germany.

        Immigration to palestine:
        November 1933.

        Underground:
        Member of the Irgun, 1938-1942.

        Army service:
        Member of Samson's Foxes, commando unit, 1948
        twice wounded in action.

        Prizes:
        Erich-Maria-Remarque peace prize (Germany) for the year 1995,
        awarded 21/6/95.
        Honorary citizenship of Abu-Ghosh near Jerusalem, for his part in preventing
        the eviction of the village, awarded 12.12.53

        Honorary citizenship of Kfar Kassem, Israel,
        awarded 31.11.96, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the war crime, for
        his principal role in exposing it.

        Aachen peace prize for "Gush Shalom with Uri Avnery",
        awarded 1/9/97.

        Kreisky prize for human rights, Vienna, autumn 1997.

        Lower Saxony prize for human rights, awarded 11.2.98
        Palestinian award for human rights, awarded by "LAW", Palestinian Society for
        Human Rights
        Jerusalem 7.6.98

        (Avnery has never received any prize from any official Israeli body.)



        --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Since 1948 has advocated the setting up of a Palestinianstate alongside Israel.
        In 1974, Uri Avnery was the first Israeli to establish contact with PLO
        leadership.
        In 1982 he was the first Israeli ever to meet Yassir Arafat, after crossing the
        lines in besieged Beirut.



        --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Books:


        "Terrorism – The infantile disease of the Hebrew revolution"
        (Booklet, 1945, HEBREW).

        War or peace in the Semitic region (booklet, 1947, hebrew).

        "In the fields of the Philistines"
        (1949, Hebrew, translated into Spanish and Yiddish), best-selling combat diary
        (twelve editions).

        "The other side of the coin"
        (1950,Hebrew), war experiences.(was boycotted because of description of
        atrocities).

        "The Swastika"
        (1961, Hebrew), analysis of growth of the Nazi movement in Germany.

        "Israel without Zionists"
        ("the war of the seventh day") (1968, English - Macmillan us and Britain -
        translated into Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Spanish),
        history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, a plea for a Middle Eastern community.

        "1 against 119"
        (1969, Hebrew), speeches by Uri Avnery in the Knesset, edited by Amnon
        Zichroni.

        "My friend, the enemy"
        (1988, English, translated into Hebrew, French, German, Italian), a personal
        testimony about contacts with the PLO since 1974. German edition with preface
        by Bruno Kreisky.

        "Lenin doesn't live here anymore"
        (1991, Hebrew), about the transformation in the former Sowiet Union and Eastern
        Europe.

        "We wear the shirt of Nessos"
        (1991, German), Israel after the Gulf war.

        "Two peoples, Two states"
        (1995, German), conversation with Uri Avnery,
        preface by Rudolf Augstein.

        "The Jerusalem question"
        (1996, German), conversations of Uri Avnery and Azmi Bishara with Israeli and
        Palestinian personalities.
    • Gość: aki a juz wiem -lewak i oszołom ;-) IP: 80.51.161.* 22.11.04, 21:07
      us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20041112/capt.sge.fob37.121104180219.photo00.photo.default-336x303.jpg
      • Gość: !!! Re: a juz wiem -lewak i oszołom ;-) IP: 195.152.54.* 23.11.04, 00:43
        i liberal, co tez nie pomaga ;-|
        • Gość: kuk Re: a juz wiem -lewak i oszołom ;-) IP: 207.7.192.* 23.11.04, 01:16
          Po Uri, to ja siegam z zamknietymi oczami. Nigdy nie zawodzi ocxzekiwan
          czytelnika i chce sie go czytac jeszcze i jeszcze raz.

          Jeden z nielicznych,dobrych, madrych ludzi, na ktorych niema dzisiaj popytu.


          To zdjecie z Arafatem powinno sie zmieniac na inne z texasbucem. Szok...
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