The Baron and the Goat
February 12, 2002
Beautiful as ever spring came to Palestine. It is lovely time,
when pale fire of almond blossom lit the mountain valleys, grass
is unusually green (soon it will be scorched by sun), sky is
blue and soft, without its summer glare, and plump white sheep
crawl uphill. Creator of Spring is apparently unconcerned with
the human doings, or He knows better.
On the 16th month of Intifada, ease of Israeli intrusions into
the autonomy areas makes transparent the legal fiction of the
Palestinian quasi-state. Friends of Palestine were worried the
Autonomy will become an Arab Bantustan in the Greater Israel. We
can rest assured: the Autonomy is not up to a Bantustan. It is a
big game reserve. Probably Sharon and his Minister of Tourism,
the settler Beni Elon, consider it will attract adventurous
tourists to Israel, instead of South Africa or Kenya.
Edward Herman of Znet wrote of approaching ‘final solution’ for
the Palestinians, along the lines of German ‘final solution’ for
the Jews. The same thought occurred to the IDF. Our generals
learn from the German suppression of Warsaw Ghetto rebellion,
Haaretz reported . They are excited by extremely low casualties
of Wermacht in 1943, and hope to repeat their feat if and when
they will crush the remainder of the Autonomy.
On the other hand, there are more signs of civil disobedience
and Israeli officers’ refusal to implement ‘the final solution’.
I went to the demonstration at the Tel Aviv Museum, and found
there many wonderful young men and girls, standing next to old
peace fighters. It was real peace camp, without quotes. They
applauded a message of Arafat, supported the refusing officers.
Peace Now, a Labour-affiliated movement, didn’t join: they feel
uncomfortable with any refusal to obey army orders. It is never
easy to refuse orders, though IDF is quite tolerant to dissent.
The rebels will be discharged from the commanding posts, at
worst, not court-marshalled. Their refusal to serve on the
Palestinian territories is a blow for the Israeli war machine,
though hundreds of other soldiers and officers expressed their
desire to fill the vacated place at checkpoints and snipers’
nests. They made an important first step by deciding to stay
away from evil.
Local weekly, Ha-Ir, published brief (less than 100 words each)
explanations of the soldiers why they decided to refuse orders.
It is a grim reading, replete with checkpoint mistreatment,
torture and starvation of the Palestinians. Murder of children,
an integral feature of the Jewish state, occupies a prominent
place in this table of horrors. The anti-Semites of old claimed
Jews murder Christian children. This revolting bloody myth was
shattered and destroyed in Israel. We murder Muslim children as
easy as Christian ones, without prejudice. Even Ami Ayalon,
tough, lean, bald, mean ex-Head of the dreaded State Security
Service, wondered aloud why so few Israeli soldiers refuse to
kill children.
I am a notch less jubilant than I should be, as Israelis have a
wonderful facility to use protest in their own interests. For
instance, after the Sabra and Shatila massacre there was a giant
demonstration, of a few hundred thousand persons. But it was
utilised to make Israelis feel good. Another seventeen years
passed until the torture centre al Hiyam was closed and
occupation of the South was over. Sharon, the butcher of Sabra
and Shatila, was elected as a Prime Minister. There is danger
that the brave act of the officers will be used to promote good
feeling among Israel supporters, instead of changing things. An
Israeli friend of Palestine, Henry Lowe wrote, “In America,
right-wing apologists for colonialist Israel are already using
the reservists' statement to say: "See, only in Israel can this
happen. This is a clear indication that Israel is a democracy,
while the Arabs are…” Moreover, their insistence on the sacred
character of the Green Line is somewhat naïve, at least.
How now, Israel and Palestine? What will happen next?
II
Sharon could try to push on with the Final Solution, creation of
Palestinian-free Palestine. Until now he hoped the Palestinians
will run away from the unbearable living conditions. Relatively
wealthy and well-connected people do emigrate until better days.
But the Jews leave much faster. Young Israelis move abroad, to
study, and do not come back. A gifted musician, Adi Schmidt, my
friend’s son, announced his intention to leave for good and
performed on his farewell concert in Tel Aviv. Shekel entered
the free fall zone, investments zeroed. That is why the
government has to make bold steps.
They would love to provoke a civil war among Palestinians. More
pressure in connection with this or other action of militias,
meetings with some PA ministers, demands to arrest and surrender
activists were supposed to cause it. But unexpectedly the
Palestinians do not rush into self-destruction.
Failing that, Sharon has means to provoke the Palestinians and
Israel’s neighbours, and to cleanse the land from its Goy
inhabitants in the aftermath of the provocation. He can break
into Al Aqsa Mosque, the beautiful complex built by Umayyad
Caliphs in 7th century, the naked nerve of Palestine. In 1996,
Bibi Netanyahu opened a tunnel near the Mosque, and caused 96
deaths. Sharon’s own violation of the Mosque 16 months ago
launched the Intifada. Recently Sharon obtained a useful
recommendation of the Shabak to open the Mosque for the Jewish
prayer.
In normal circumstances, non-Muslims are allowed to visit al-Aqsa.
Its broad and shady courts, the supreme harmony of Qubbet as-Sahra,
the Dome of the Rock, spacious naves of the main building of the
mosque make it a perfect place for a pleasant stroll, rest and
contemplation. Millions of tourists, and tens of millions of
believers used to come here. But for a long time, Israeli
government stops Muslims from coming to the place where the
Prophet, peace upon him, prayed with other prophets. A Jerusalem
Muslim has to be over forty years of age to pass the Israeli
police blocks on his way to prayer. A Muslim from Gaza or
Ramallah can not come to pray hither at all. The mosque leaders
do not want to see the strangers in their home, while their sons
are not permitted to enter.
Parts of the Mosque grounds were already confiscated by the
Jews. The broad square at front of the Western Wall was the site
of a picturesque Mughrabi neighbourhood. It also belonged to the
mosque, but after Israeli conquest of Jerusalem in 1967, it was
razed. Some of its dwellers remained buried under the ruins;
such was the haste of the conquerors to eliminate the
Palestinian presence. The Western Wall is a part of the Mosque
grounds, too. According to the age-old tradition, confirmed by
the British authorities, the Wall belongs to the Mosque, while
the Jews are entitled to pray at it. After 1967, it was
confiscated, as well as the Southern Wall.
The Jewish nationalist right wing would like to build a Jewish
temple on the ruins of the mosque. They believe the mountain has
magic qualities, and while in Jewish possession, it would
forever enshrine Jewish supremacy over the Christian and Muslim
world . The Jewish temple will overshadow the Holy Sepulchre, as
well. For them, takeover of the mosque is not just a means to
provoke more violence, but the end itself.
This opinion is shared by the ‘Christian Zionists’, an American
religious group which effectively denies the New Testament,
rejects Eucharist and the Virgin and believes in chosenness of
Jews. The Christian Zionists consider their duty to serve Jews
by hastening the big war. As the rise of such a sect at the end
of the days was prophesied by the Church fathers, their
opponents call them ‘The Church of Antichrist’. The US President
George W. Bush and some of his advisers are extremely close to
this church of ‘Armageddon wishers’. They will oblige the Jews
and threaten Israel’s neighbours, Iran and Iraq with nuclear
destruction, while Israel takes over the mosques.
If the takeover will pass peacefully, Sharon will confirm his
name next to that of King Herod, the builder of the previous
Jewish temple. If it will cause big disturbances, Sharon will be
able to kill and expel the Palestinians. If it will cause a big
war, Armageddon-wishers will be well pleased.
III
There is a contingency plan for less starry-eyed. Sober if
devious Zionists considered the election of Sharon as a certain
stage in the realization of Oslo strategy. The Palestinians
rejected Barak’s proposal of an ‘independent Palestinian state’
i.e. a chain of Bantustans without refugees’ return, without
Jerusalem, without own borders and without hope. But they
suffered so much since then, and lost many best men and women.
A Jewish folk tale tells of a man who felt miserable in his
small and crowded house. His Rabbi advised him to take in his
goat. The man came a week later in tears, as now it was truly
impossible to move in the house. The Rabbi allowed him to remove
the goat, and he became a contented and happy citizen.
Sharon is the goat of this fable. When he will be removed, the
Jewish media of the US will praise our great humanism. Europeans
will bless us for our benevolence. The nice guys that refused to
serve in the territories will become heroes. The place of bloody
Sharon will be taken by his not less bloody Minister of Defence
Fuad Ben Eliezer, or by Avrum Burg, the second man in the Labour
party. The army will withdraw from Nablus and Ramallah. Happy
Palestinians will agree to Oslo plan in Barak’s interpretation
minus end-of-conflict declaration. They will return into their
enclaves, into slow strangulation of Barak’s days. They will
have to forget about their confiscated lands and houses, about
al Aqsa mosque, about Jerusalem.
Israeli right-wing and its allies in AIPAC will present it as an
American betrayal, to be quoted next to General Eisenhower’s
orders of 1956. Independence of the US administration from the
Jewish lobby will be confirmed. The painful events of intifada
and its end will be presented as victory of Good over Evil. They
will not mention that the Zionist Good and the Zionist Evil sat
around the same table and planned it together. But for an
objective observer it would mean something different. Again, for
the nth time, the ‘bad cop’ passed his softened Palestinian
victim into tender paws of the ‘good cop’.
Yes, the soldiers and the officers who refused to participate in
the oppression are very good guys and they did a good deed. But
I am worried it will be used to promote good feeling of Israel’s
supporters, to legitimize the very structure of apartheid. Their
brave words are used to support the ‘unilateral separation’, a
code word for fencing the Palestinians into one big well guarded
zone. One can’t change the paradigm of the Jewish state, the
paradigm of oppression and apartheid, from within. A character
of Raspe’s book, Baron Munchausen (probably familiar by Terry
Gilliam’s movie) extracted himself and his horse out of deep bog
by pulling up his plait (see the picture below). If you believe
this “tall story”, you may believe that the good guys can change
Israeli Jewish society from within, without joining forces with
Palestinians.
A much better solution was offered by the Jewish religious
Orthodox congregation of Neturei Karta, the sons of pre-Zionist
Jewish community of the Holy Land. They were mistreated almost
as much as other native sons of Palestine, mainly for their
steadfast refusal to participate in Zionist atrocities. These
wise men in big black hats, like my Tiberias uncle, a peaceful
and pious Rabbi, remind me that the Jews once lived like good
neighbours with the Palestinians. In impassioned call, they say:
“the crux of the problem is the very existence of the ‘Jewish’
state. The only realistic hope for a lasting peace is, with the
assistance of the United Nations, the total dismantling of the
Israeli state and return of sovereignty over it, to Gentile
auspices”.
Once, Stalin jokingly asked, how many battalions the Pope can
field? Still a Pope saw the Soviet Union dismantled. Neturei
Karta Jews have no battalions, but I think they will see the
state of Israel dismantled and a new Palestine, a country of all
its sons and daughters will take its place.
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