A Great Miracle by Uri Avnery 12.11.05
Media Monitors Network - Nov. 15, 2005 http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/22608 North African immigrants on the periphery of French cities are torching them. North African immigrants on the periphery of Israel this week carried out a democratic revolution in our country. In the Labor Party primaries, the members of "Eastern" descent voted massively for Amir Peretz and defeated Shimon Peres, who enjoyed the support of the upper class, mostly Ashkenazi, party members. ("Eastern" is the now generally accepted term for Jews from Arab and other Muslim countries and their descendents, who used to be called, erroneously, "Sephardim". The "Ashkenazim" are immigrants from European countries and their descendents, named for the Medieval Hebrew appellation for Germany.) A week ago, this column called upon the Labor Party voters to elect Peretz. "Haaretz" published that article on election day. If it convinced even one person to change his or her vote, I am glad. Because the election of Peretz is, in my view, an event that far transcends party affairs. It may well change the future of the country. I REMEMBER a debate that took place shortly after the 1982 Lebanon war. Some dozens of veterans of the radical Israeli peace movements gathered on the roof of a Tel-Aviv building and discussed the possibility of creating a new peace party, after the dissolution of the Sheli Party (which I had represented for some years in the Knesset). I said that we would not succeed in effecting a real change if we did not reach the Eastern Jewish public. To this community, the peace camp looks like an Ashkenazi affair, belonging to the upper socio-economic strata. In our demonstrations, one hardly sees any Eastern faces. We have failed to reach half the Israeli population. As long as this situation prevails, there will be no peace. Since then, 23 years have passed and the situation has not changed. The masses of the Eastern public have boycotted the whole Israeli "Left". They particularly loathed the Labor Party, which in their eyes represented all the bad things: discrimination against the towns and neighborhoods where the Eastern public is concentrated, disdain for social values, support for an economic policy that makes the rich richer. They had special contempt for "ethnic politicians", seeing them as mercenaries of the Ashkenazi elite. The peace camp is identified with the "Left". When, once a year, a hundred thousand people congregate (like this evening) in Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square to commemorate the slain leader, the Eastern people are conspicuous by their absence (apart from members of the leftist youth movements.) Arguments often heard are "You are concerned only with the Arabs, not with us!" or "Ramallah is more important to you than Ramleh!" (Ramleh is an Israeli town mainly populated by North African immigrants.) The whole idea of peace is somehow considered an elitist, Ashkenazi affair, which does not concern the inhabitants of the Eastern towns. There are several reasons for the deep-seated hatred felt by many Eastern people, even of the second and third generation, for the Labor Party. One of them is the feeling that North African immigrants in the 1950s were received in Israel with contempt by the establishment, which at the time entirely belonged to the Labor Party. The immigrants were expected to give up their cultural heritage and traditions in the Israeli "melting pot" that imposed a western, secular pattern. >From generation to generation, a (true) story was passed on about the Moroccan immigrants who were driven to a place in the middle of the desert and told to build a new town for themselves. When they refused to get out of the truck, its tipping mechanism was activated and they were literally "poured" out, as if they were a load of sand. Also, the immigrants felt humiliated when, upon arriving in the country, their hair was sprayed with DDT. True, the same happened to immigrants from the European refugee camps, but in the memory of the Eastern immigrants the insult has left an indelible mark. The Eastern people of the second and third generation believed that the "Left" had created a closed world whose gates were shut to them. This feeling did not disappear when individuals of Eastern origin reached high position, entered the office of the President of the State, became cabinet ministers, professors or successful entrepreneurs. Statistics show that most of the Eastern people are to be found in the lower socio- economic classes, that many of them live below the poverty line and that they are overrepresented in the prisons. As a result, they voted en masse for Likud, which was also for a long time "outside" the establishment. Even to this day, the Likud is perceived as an opposition party - in spite of the fact that it has already been in power for a long time. THERE ARE, of course, more profound reasons for the tension between the Eastern public and the peace camp. Most immigrants from Arab countries did not arrive as Arab-haters - they became Arab-haters here. This is a well-known phenomenon in many countries: the most discriminated class of the ruling nation provides the most radical enemies of national minorities and foreigners in general. Those who are trampled-upon trample those beneath them. After being robbed of their self-esteem, they can regain some self-respect only by belonging to a "master race". Thus the poor whites in the United States. The same in France. Moreover, the Ashkenazi ruling class openly despises the Arab manners, diction and music that the Eastern immigrants brought with them. This overtly racist attitude towards the Arabs became a covert racist attitude towards the Eastern Jews. These reacted defensively by adopting an extreme anti-Arab attitude. In the discussion 23 years ago I said that no one of us Ashkenazis can effect the necessary change. Only an authentic Eastern leader can imbue the Eastern community with a new spirit. He can remind them that for 1400 years, while European Jews saw pogroms, the Inquisition and the Holocaust, Jews were not persecuted in Muslim countries and, indeed, for long periods in Spain and elsewhere, were partners in a marvelous Muslim-Jewish symbiosis. Such a leader can give back to his community the pride in its past and the ambition to take up its natural mission of serving as a bridge between the two peoples. That did not happen in the years that have passed. It can happen now. THE ELECTION of Amir Peretz completely changes the political scene. For the first time, the Labor party is headed by an authentic representative of the North African community - not an "ethnic" politician, but a national leader who is proud of his roots. And indeed, before the election he declared that "the first thing I shall do after being elected is to organize a mercy killing for the Ethnic Demon." For the first time since 1974, the Labor Party is now headed by a person who did not grow up in the army or the defense establishment. His main agenda is social- economic. He puts an end to the abnormal situation that has prevailed in Israel for a long time, when the leaders of the "Left" supported an extremely rightist economic policy. He can put an end to the situation where the huge defense budget, together with the massive investment on the settlements, devour the resources needed for reducing the gap between rich and poor, which is now wider in Israel than in any other developed country. >From the beginning of his career, Peretz has never wavered in his consistent support for Israeli- Palestinian peace. His social message is connected with his peace message, which is as it should be. All this is not yet a reason for dancing for joy in the streets. We may be disappointed. Peretz is facing a daunting series of tasks: to unify his party, to clear away the Peres heritage, to infuse new blood into the party, to win the next general election, to become Prime Minister, to introduce a new social policy, to make peace. He must now prove himself in all of these, phase by phase. But there is room for optimism. The frozen fronts between the parties have been broken. It is the beginning of a Peretztroika. Whole communities can now change their allegiance. A new political scene can be created, one much more suited to peace-making. In France, the discriminated North African neighborhoods are going up in flames. In our country, a member of the discriminated North-African community has become candidate for Prime Minister. Six weeks before Hanuka, the Jewish festival with the ancient adage "A Great Miracle Has Happened Here", we have some reason to be happy. Source: by courtesy & © 2005 Uri Avnery *** ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 6:25 PM Subject: Hundreds of LA Times Readers Protest Firing of Columnist Robert Scheer Hundreds of LA Times Readers Picket Outside Times Building To Protest Controversial Firing of Popular Columnist Robert Scheer Publisher Jeff Johnson Refuses to Schedule Meeting with Delegation of Readers LOS ANGELES -- Hundreds of irate Los Angeles Times readers gathered today outside the Times Building in downtown for a lively protest against the firing of longtime popular columnist Robert Scheer. Chanting ‘‘No Scheer, No Times’’ and ‘‘Bring Back Bob,’’ protestors carried signs that read '‘Firing Scheer is Scheer Madness’’ and “Fire Johnson, Not Scheer.’’ Protesters distributed slices of Wonderbread to passersbys to signify the blanding of the paper. Several of the activists in costume performed a guerrilla theater skit, portraying Jeff Johnson as a willing tool of a corporate billionaire. With only 48 hours advance notice by e-mail announcement, the word had traveled fast with Times readers traveling from as far away as Orange County to participate. A delegation of protesters requested a meeting with publisher Jeff Johnson, who reportedly has privately told people that he hated every word that Scheer wrote. Johnson refused to commit to attending a meeting with readers instead he referring them instead to Editor of the Editorial Page, Andrés Martinez and Op-Ed Editor, Nicholas Goldberg. The protestors declined the offer explaining they wanted to speak to the person who fired Scheer and had the power to re-hire him. It was officially announced on Friday, Nov. 11th that LA Times publisher Jeff Johnson fired Robert Scheer, who had worked at Times for 30 years, the last 12 as a weekly columnist on the op-ed page. Scheer had a substantial following, and very often his columns would be on top of the paper's list of most e-mailed stories. On Sunday, November 13, an e-mail announcement of the protest went out to grassroots activists reading in part: ''Robert Scheer's anti-war voice is critical. Los Angeles Times readers will not tolerate the Paper's op-ed page tilting further to the right with the firing of Scheer and the inclusion of far-right columnists Max Boot and Jonah Goldberg with no one holding Scheer's spot as a passionate and contrarian national progressive voice.'' ''We want to read a full-spectrum of voices on the LA Times op-ed page and know that our daily newspaper will fully cover the anti-war movement in Los Angeles,'' said Marcy Winograd, one of the organizers of the protest. "For many of us who have subscribed to the Times for decades, this is a sad and ominous moment." As soon as word got out that Scheer had been fired, readers launched an e-mail campaign of letters of protest to LA Times editor Dean Baquet and publisher Jeff Johnson. Many subscribers have canceled their subscriptions in protest of the firing. The protest also addressed complaints that the Times has provided very little coverage of significant anti-war events in Los Angeles, such as an Inglewood teach-in on the Downing Street memo, a protest of Hilary Clinton's pro-war stance at her Hollywood fundraiser and the largest gathering to date of Southern California Gold Star Families who have lost relatives in Iraq. . Robert Scheer's Nov. 11th statement:: "On Friday, I was fired as a columnist by the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, where I have worked for thirty years. The publisher Jeff Johnson, who has offered not a word of explanation to me, has privately told people that he hated every word that I wrote. I assume that mostly refers to my exposing the lies used by President Bush to justify the invasion of Iraq. Fortunately sixty percent of Americans now get the point but only after tens of thousand of Americans and Iraqis have been killed and maimed as the carnage spirals out of control. My only regret is that my pen was not sharper and my words tougher." LA Times Reaction to readers protests: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-martinez15nov15,0,3078274,print.column A note to our readers ANDRÉS MARTINEZ *********** An Evening with David Barsamian and Sonali Kolhatkar Friday, November 18th @ 7pm Immanuel Presbyterian Church Westminister Chapel 3300 Wilshire Blvd. LA, CA 90010 (at Berendo) Guest Speakers: David Barsamian: Speaking on "Another World is Possible" David Barsamian is founder and director of Alternative Radio, the independent award-winning weekly series based in Boulder, Colorado. He is a radio producer, journalist, author and lecturer. He has been working in radio since 1978. His interviews and articles appear regularly in The Progressive and Z Magazine. His latest books are Imperial Ambitions with Noam Chomsky and Speaking of Empire & Resistance with Tariq Ali. His earlier books include Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky; Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire and The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting. Sonali Kolhatkar: Speaking on "US policy in Afghanistan & Afghan resistance to it" Sonali is the Co-Director of the Afghan Women's Mission, a non-profit US based organization that does solidarity work with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). She is also the host and co-producer of KPFK Pacifica's popular morning program, Uprising (90.7 fm in Los Angeles and 98.7 fm in Santa Barbara). Handmade crafts from RAWA's Income Generation project on sale at this event For more information please call (323) 687-1193 or send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ### ------------------------ Yahoo! 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