From: "Francisco Javier Bernal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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KID SISTER
By Israel Shamir
Just before the Intifada, the US Congress adopted a resolution supporting
Israel, and calling the Palestinians to accept their fate stoically. Now,
four months and 400 dead later, the Congress has confirmed its position and
sent a full-hearted blessing to General Sharon. You would not get such
result even in the Israeli parliament. That is why a UN commission, sent to
investigate the war crimes, received the short shrift: how dare they speak
of war crimes? The Mitchell commission also got brushed aside last week. As
the response, the US warplanes bombed … Iraq (surely some mistake?)
Innocent outsiders must question how Israel can get off scot-free with war
crimes and receive the blessings of the US congress as a bonus? Could it be
the Divine intervention? The answer is no. There is another agent to thank
for this state of affairs. We, Israelis, enjoy full immunity, and have no
doubt, if and when our government decides to turn the Palestinians into
canned meat, the New York Times will celebrate its nutritional values. If
that is their intent, they should hasten the process, because with the
present blockade, the Palestinians are losing weight with every passing day.
All is fine on the Israeli side of the barricades. The Israeli shekel
remains strong. Even George Soros knows that it would not be healthy to take
a position against it. The Tel Aviv stock exchange rallies on the news that
Intel has decided to invest a cool five billion dollars in Israel. The
beauty of it all is that the siege of the Palestinians and the prosperity of
Tel Aviv are maintained at the expense of the American taxpayer and
investor. Since 1967, we have received some 170 billion dollars from the
people of the US. This money could be used to feed and school all the
underprivileged kids of America. It could pay to compensate the descendants
of the African slaves and help them out of their hardship. It could save the
sick and comfort the miserable; it could turn Africa into a paradise. But it
was kidnapped and shipped to our shores. Every dollar invested by the
Israeli lobby into senators and congressmen has been returned a hundred
fold, as promised by the Bible.
Besides the taxpayer’s money, the supporters of Israel – business executives
- invested billions of dollars that their shareholders entrusted them with.
There is no sound business reason behind Intel’s investment, or other
similar investments – Israel has no pool of qualified workers, they have to
be imported like everything else. The risk of the investments in our country
is great and the profits are meager. But then again, they are playing with
somebody else’s money.
Israel’s supporters fleece America in a grand way, but they also go after
other prey. In England, a Czech Jewish émigré who adopted the name of Robert
Maxwell, stole millions of dollars from the pension funds of his British
employees and shipped the money to Israel. He was found dead in suspicious
circumstances, but Israel never refunded the stolen goods. In another
English scandal, Dame Shirley Porter, daughter of salesman Jack Cohen, the
supermarket chain owner and the one-time mayor, misappropriated 50 million
dollars and presented lavish gifts to the Tel Aviv University, built on the
ruins of the destroyed Palestinian village of Sheikh Munis. She was found
guilty by the British High Court and sentenced to the fine of 27 million
pounds. As all her property had already been transferred to Israel, the fine
remains unpaid. Again, Israel did not return the stolen goods.
Moving on to France, a group of Israeli and local Jewish financiers
transferred to Israel some 40 million of public funds and disappeared to Tel
Aviv. A Russian Jew and Israeli citizen Lev Cherny, a great supporter of
Yeltsin’s democracy, ‘privatized’ the Russian aluminum industry, which has
the biggest reserves in the world. Now the income from that industry flows
directly to lovely Savion, the Beverly Hills of Israel. While back in the
frozen wastes of Siberia, the population has been reduced to poverty. The
Swiss and the Germans keep paying umpteen billions of dollars to Israel for
the confiscated property of Jews, though Israel never paid even one penny
for the confiscated Gentile property. The Europeans meekly comply under
threat of the toughest of brothers Cray, the mightiest enforcer of Jewish
loans, the US.
Israel’s supporters overseas are like a giant Hoover machine, sucking out
money and sweat from all over the world. Witness Mark Rich, the thieving
billionaire, pardoned by the best supporter of Israel, Bill Clinton? He was
a Mossad agent. Remember Fujimori, a thieving ex- president of Peru? Israeli
banks helped him to launder the money. Sometimes, the Palestinians and their
friends bemoan their inability to build up their own Arab lobby to
counteract the Israeli lobby. They miss the most important point. The
Israeli lobby should not be just a Palestinian concern, but the concern of
all Americans. When oil runs out of a tanker’s hulk, it should concern the
crew and the owners, not only the fish. Israel’s supporters swindle all
Americans of their money, and antagonize America’s potential friends abroad.
Many American politicians support the swindle in order to remain in power.
For personal political ambitions, they betray the trust of their voters.
John F. Kennedy told Gore Vidal, that in 1948, Harry Truman was on the verge
of losing the presidential election, but a Zionist supporter brought to him
2 million dollars cash and saved his skin. It caused America to vote for the
creation of the Jewish State. This pattern perpetuates itself. The
politicians take bribes, sell pardons, accept ‘donations’, and help the
Israeli lobby to rob the people of America.
The actual direct contribution of American Jews for the welfare of Israel is
quite small and tax exempt. It would hardly cover the cost of the missiles
and nerve gas to kill Palestinians, much less support the Israeli life style
to which we have become accustomed. But what Israel supporters collect in
campaign contributions is enough to bribe politicians and embezzle a good
chunk of American money from the US treasury. If such a swindle would be
hatched by, say, the Libyan lobby, the media would rightly demand these
people be registered as foreign agents of influence. That is where the
Israeli lobby cashes in on the solidarity of the many American Jews and
right- wing Christian Zionists in the national media.
Ahmed Amr, an independent journalist from Seattle, Washington, has lamented
the total absence of the Arab-Americans in the American media, saying ‘Could
it be, that like white men can’t jump, the Arab- Americans can’t write?
Could it be that mainly Jewish gentlemen can write?’ Well, he should know
better. Even Jews, who can write but fail to support Israel, are also
deprived of access to the national mainstream media. Israel’s supporters
have silenced the voice of Americans who would speak up for the
Palestinians, including notable Jewish intellectuals like Chomsky. They
silenced also the “native” voice of Americans. The stock exchange rises and
falls, but there is no new Faulkner out of the South, no new Cheever in New
England, no new John Barth from Maryland. The Hollywood-made films have
degraded into sheer escapism and production of Arab-hate crap.
The enemy of Palestinians and of ordinary Americans, British and French
citizens is not ‘the Jew’, as some people tend to think. There are thousands
and thousands of wonderful folk of Jewish descent – doctors, artists,
rabbis, unemployed. A lot of them object to Israeli crimes and to AIPAC
policies. Some of them are on the front line of the struggle for human
rights. Now the time has come for us to stand up and be counted.
The hesitating American Jews are in the position of the elder sister in
Raymond Chandler’s Big Sleep, who covers up the crimes of her wild kid
sister. Probably you remember it by one of the best American movies of all
times, scripted by William Faulkner, directed by Howard Hawks and acted by
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. As the cover up continues, the young
sister comes to believe that she has immunity and keeps on her killing
spree. Eventually her crimes endanger the seemingly secure position of the
elder sister. It is not a day too early for misguided Lauren to call for
Bogart and to rein the crazed youth in, before she will bring the house down
on the heads of her blind supporters.
In spiritual terms, the blind support of Israel divided the Jews into the
sheep and the goats (Mt 25:32), into sons of saints and sons of Mamon
worshippers, the descendants of prophets and of their killers, those who
profess unity of mankind and adepts of national exclusivity, those who wait
for the saviour of man and those who expect the enslaver of gentiles. The
former ones will make the name of Jews blessed, but those who would partake
in the starving of poor peasants under Israeli-imposed siege, those who
would let them rot in jails, they will certainly bring shame to all of us.
The covenant of Israel’s supporters is not an ethnic monolith. It admits
Gentiles, as well; it is enough to disregard the poor, the weak, the
oppressed, and you can enter it. On the other hand, every Jew can opt out of
it by rejecting Israeli crimes. There is no biological guilt or virtue. The
believing Jews of Naturei Karta opted out and supported the Palestinian
right to life. So did Jews for Justice, and many others who did not care to
join a political group, but stood away from evil. Wise French noblemen opted
out of the Ancienne Regime in 1789; they did not wait for the ‘national
razor’ of 1793.
It is in interests of Americans, Jews and Gentiles alike, to start with a
full embargo of Israel. The idea of an exclusive Jewish state is as wrong as
the idea of an exclusive Aryan or White State. Palestine/Israel should
become a democracy based on the principle of ONE MAN – ONE VOTE. Do not
worry for us, Israelis and Palestinians, – we, the sons of Abraham, can live
together. Just cut off the supplies to the Generals’ Junta, and we shall see
the light.
A democratic Israel/Palestine will turn off the Zionist Hoover machine. The
long madness of Don Quixote will be over, and he will be called again Don
Quexana the Good. The fruits of labor will come to those who need it, not to
Israeli generals. Americans will again become welcome guests in the Middle
East. Who knows, maybe even the great American cinema will be reborn from
its golden ashes.
Jaffa, 17.2.2001
Israel Shamir is one of best-known and respected Russian Israeli writers and
journalists. He wrote for Haaretz, BBC, Pravda and translated Agnon, Joyce
and Chandler into Russian. His articles The Rape of Dulcinea and The Test
Failed could be found on many Internet sites, { HYPERLINK
"http://www.thestruggle.org" }www.thestruggle.org, { HYPERLINK
"http://www.antiwar" }www.antiwar, { HYPERLINK "http://www.NileMedia"
}www.NileMedia etc. He can be reached at {HYPERLINK
"mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]"}[EMAIL PROTECTED] l, or write
P.O.B. 23714 Tel Aviv 61236
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