Translation of an article
in Ma'ariv 24-04-2001
[Uri
Avnery] /
21.4.01
April
[hebrew]
"People, Atten-tion!!!"
The voice comes from thousands of loudspeakers covering the whole
country: "Fourth glass, d-r-i-n-k!"
"Attention – m-o-u-r-n!"
"At ease – r-e-j-o-i-c-e!"
There are no loudspeakers in
reality. No such orders, either. This is not the Soviet Union. What the
hell, here we have democracy! Everyone can do what he bloody well wants!
Provided, of course, that he does what the state demands of him or her.
April is the month of Zionist
indoctrination. Between the 14th of Nissan and the 5th
of Iyar, according to the Hebrew calendar, an intensive course implants
the collective myths into the souls of every person in Israel. Anyone
who wants to understand Israel must study the events of this month.
Specially recommended to Palestinians.
It starts on Passover eve. The
ceremony was fixed in its final form centuries ago, but it suits the
most modern insights of psychology and pedagogy. It is an exercise of
suggestion, bordering on genius.
It takes place in the most
intimate family circle. The atmosphere conveys warmth and security.
Everyone, from oldest to youngest, participates. Everyone has a
well-defined task. Every detail is fixed: how many glasses of wine to
drink and when, how and what to eat. All senses are activated: seeing,
hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. The ceremony imprints on the mind
of the small child an impression that will last for life. It is
reinforced by annual repetition.
The book read aloud on this
occasion is the "Hagada" (literally: "The Telling"). It fixes the
national myth forever in the mind of the child. "We were slaves of
Pharaoh in Egypt"- the basic image of the Jewish people as the victim.
"In every generation, they tried to annihilate us" – the knowledge that
"they", all the nations, in all the countries, at all times always tried
and always will try to annihilate the Jewish people. From this emanates
the conviction that the Jewish people is unique, a people alone, the
eternally persecuted, different from all other nations and separate from
them. And the climax: "Pour your wrath on the Goyim!"- a call to God to
take revenge for the Jews.
The word Goyim has a double
meaning. In classical Hebrew, Goy is simply a synonym for people. The
Jews too are a Goy, albeit a "holy Goy". In the course of time, the word
assumed the meaning of "the other peoples", and from there it became
attached to the individual. Today, a Goy is any non-Jew – may he be Arab
or Russian, Ethiopian or Alaskan. An abyss exists between Jews and
Goyim. The Kabbala, a trend that is becoming more and more important
within the religious community in Israel, considers the Goy closer to
animals than to humans – who are, of course, the Jews.
One must bear in mind that the
Hagada was born in the diaspora, when Jews were defenseless and unable
to take revenge for their suffering. But when the Hagada is read in the
new State of Israel, which has a huge army, it becomes a dangerous
message: Don’t trust the Goyim.
A few days after Passover comes
the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust. This is a day of collective
memory, submerging all the media for 30 hours and more, pushing
everything else aside. Dozens of official ceremonies fill the TV
screens. All places of amusement are closed. At 10 a.m., the country
stands at attention, every person freezes where he is.
About six million Jews were
annihilated by the Nazis. Many were shot by the SS Einsatzkommandos,
many were gassed in the death factories, many died of hunger and disease
in the closed ghettos. It was not the only genocide in the 20th
century, nor the only genocide perpetrated by the Nazis. But the Jews
vigorously assert, not without justification, that the destruction of
the Jews was totally unique.
The remembrance of the Holocaust
after 56 years is considered a moral duty to the victims, but it is also
a powerful political and propaganda instrument. It tells the Jewish
child: all the peoples of the world were partners in the Holocaust.
Those who did not murder, helped the murderers. Those who did not help,
were silent. The Holocaust is indeed unique, but it is only one link in
the long chain of persecution – one link and not the last one. Even a
Jew who resides securely in Miami knows deep in his heart that tomorrow
it can happen to him, too. Therefore he must support Israel, the safe
haven for future victims. Don’t trust the Goyim.
Professor Yeshayahu Leibovitch,
himself an observant Jew, said that the Jewish religion is dead, and
that the Holocaust is the new religion uniting Jews around the world.
After all, every Jew – even one who lived at the time in Palestine, or
Morocco, or Canada – knows that had he fallen into the hands of the
Nazis, he, too, would have ended up in the gas-chambers of Auschwitz.
Politically, the memory of the
Holocaust is a powerful instrument indeed. It is claimed in Israel that
the Palestinians are not rising up against the Israeli occupation but
simply continuing the acts of the Nazis. Yasser Arafat is the successor
of Hitler, as was Gamal Abd-al-Nasser before him. After what happened to
the Jews in the Holocaust, Israel, the "State of the Victims", is
allowed – indeed obliged - to take any action, cruel as it may be, to
defend the survivors and prevent a second Shoah. Foreigners must not
criticize Israel’s actions. If they do, they are anti-Semites, heirs to
the Nazis.
A week after Holocaust Day comes
great comfort. After the slavery in Egypt came redemption in the
promised land. That was a miracle. After the Holocaust came the State of
Israel, and that was a miracle, too.
But between the Holocaust and the
Resurrection, a day is devoted to the Price. The Day of Remembrance for
the fallen heroes lets every child participate in mourning those who
gave their lives for the state. Again every Israeli freezes where he is
and the whole people stands at attention when the sirens sound. As they
tried to annihilate us in every generation, so did the Arabs try to
destroy us when, at last, we set up our own state, and since then they
have tried again and again. In order to defend ourselves we went to war
after war. The military cemeteries are full, and continue to get bigger.
Here they lie, row after row.
And then, in the evening, the day
of mourning fades into the joy of Independence Day, the day of our
miraculous redemption, our victory, the day when we stood up, the few
against the many, and won. Again we defeated those who wanted to
annihilate us, again God poured his wrath on the Goyim, again we are
ready, united and righteous, to withstand the next pogrom, to defeat the
next Hitler. As the jolly Israeli song goes: "We survived Pharaoh, we
shall survive this too."
Teachers and parents know that
the children in the first grades mix up all the festivals and days of
mourning. They do not know who among the persecutors of Israel came
before who: the Greek (Hannuka), the British (Independence Day), the
Babylonians (9th of Av), the Nazis (Holocaust Day), the Egyptians
(Passover), the Arabs (Memorial day), the Romans (again 9th
of Av). It’s all mixed up. It’s all one and the same story. They are all
evil Goyim. The mental world of Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres and Ovadia
Josef was forged in the same workshop as the mental world of other
Israelis.
Thus, Israel is bound by steel
shackles to the Jewish myth, looking backwards, unable to act like a
normal state, that looks forward and is able to make peace, to a live
with its neighbors, to find its place in the 21st century.
Ein Entwurf zur Diskussion:
80 Thesen für eine neue Friedensbewegung
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