May 26, 2011
Netanyahu on the Hill Bibi and the Yo-Yos
By URI AVNERY
It was all rather disgusting.
There they were, the members of the highest legislative bodies of the
world's only superpower, flying up and down like so many yo-yos,
applauding wildly, every few minutes or seconds, the most outrageous
lies and distortions of Binyamin Netanyahu.
It was worse than the Syrian parliament during a speech by Bashar Assad,
where anyone not applauding could find himself in prison. Or Stalin's
Supreme Soviet, when showing less than sufficient respect could have
meant death.
What the American Senators and Congressmen feared was a fate worse than
death. Anyone remaining seated or not applauding wildly enough could
have been caught on camera and that amounts to political suicide.
It was enough for one single congressman to rise and applaud, and all
the others had to follow suit. Who would dare not to?
The sight of these hundreds of parliamentarians jumping up and clapping
their hands, again and again and again and again, with the Leader
graciously acknowledging with a movement of his hand, was reminiscent of
other regimes. Only this time it was not the local dictator who
compelled this adulation, but a foreign one.
The most depressing part of it was that there was not a single lawmaker
Republican or Democrat who dared to resist. When I was a 9
year old boy in Germany, I dared to leave my right arm hanging by my
side when all my schoolmates raised theirs in the Nazi salute and sang
Hitler's anthem. Is there no one in Washington DC who has that simple
courage?
Is it really Washington IOT Israel Occupied Territory as the
anti-Semites assert?
Many years ago I visited the Senate hall and was introduced to the
leading Senators of the time. I was profoundly shocked. After being
brought up in deep respect for the Senate of the United States, the
country of Jefferson and Lincoln, I was faced with a bunch of pompous
asses, many of them nincompoops who had not the slightest idea what they
were talking about. I was told that it was their assistants who really
understood matters.
<snip>
Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He
is a contributor to CounterPunch's book The Politics of Anti-Semitism
<http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html> .
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery05262011.html
<http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery05262011.html>
