Jewish rabbi tells it like it is about what Bush and Sharon are doing. .
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I. Bush's Distortions
by Rabbi Michael Lerner
1. Bush claims the right, in the name of the Constitution, to
defend the U.S. by making a preemptive war against another
country.
a. No such right exists in the Constitution, nor could the
Constitution give the U.S. the right to invade another
sovereign country. In fact, it is precisely this which is
explicitly forbidden by the Charter of the U.N. which the U.S.
helped shape and signed.
b. The Constitution gives to the Congess the right to
declare war. Yet Bush joins a long line of presidents who
ignore this by calling the war something else ("police action"
or "action against terror" etc.)
2. Bush claims the US will try to protect Iraqi civilians
a. In the same breath he warns journalists to get out of
Iraq, though journalists have been part of other wars in the
past. Bush knows that the massive assault he plans is
tantamount to nuclear attack in the level of devestation it
will bring, and that no one will be safe anywhere.
b. The pathetic relief efforts for Afganistan show
how little seriousness is given to the fate of the population
being invaded by the US military--and that was without any of
the massive assault currently being planned for Iraq
3. Bush claims to be fighting for democracy
a. Unfortunately, the pathetic array of media people
supposedly asking him questions, while actually competing for
the title of "best presidential press poodle," neglected to
ask him if he would submit to a democratic global vote on
whether the best way to deal with Saddam is through a war. For
that matter, he wouldn't submit to such
a vote in the U.S.
b. The majority of American citizens voted for
Gore, not Bush--democracy is what Bush is for when it
coincides with other intentions, not a principle that he takes
seriously, not for the U.S., not in US relations with other
countries (e.g. the undemocratic regimes in Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan).
4. Bush claims the right of self-defense, citing 9/11
a. 9/11 was not done or supported by Iraq
b. On the same logic, Russia could invade Iran, or
China could invade Pakistan--because domestic terrorists may
have been indirectly aided by, or might at some future time be
aided by, a regime in those countries. This is a precedent
which will legitimate a spiral of 21st century wars.
5. Bush cites the U.N. resolution calling for disarmament of
Iraq to justify unilateral action
a. Israel is in violation of dozens of UN
resolutions. Would China or Russia be justified in deciding
that the UN has failed to take its own resoluitons seriously,
so therefore they have the right to invade Israel, both to
disarm it of "weapons of mass destruction" (it demonstrably
has developed nuclear capacities) and to enforce a rule of law?
b. Does every country get to selectively enforce
UN resolutions in their own way with their own interpretaions,
using violence to do so?
6. Bush says that the U.N. will make itself irrelevant if it
does not stand behind its own resolutions, and he will then
act without its sanctions.
a. The U.S. is making the U.N. irrelevant by
dictating terms based on American economic and political
power. It was this power which essentially coerced the U.N.
into a previous resolution calling for Iraq to disarm. That
resolution was passed because the US made similar threats to
act without the UN unless the UN participated. The UN then
capitulated to that threat, and now is being required to
capitulate once again. In so doing, the US has essentialy
given the UN the following choice: be our rubber stamp, or be
irrelevant since we will act without you. This will be George
Bush's lasting contribution to history: he will be seen as the
President who managed to turn the U.N. into what the League of
Nations became--an essentially irrelevant debating society.
b. The U.N.'s failure here is partly due to the
original failure of nerve of the founders--to not really allow
for a world body that would be representative of the
populations of the world, but instead to base representation
on national entities alone (say, in contrast to the
democratic wisdom of the US founders who set up a bicameral
legislature, one chamber based on states, the other, the
House, based on populations), and then to grant to the biggest
powers a veto right (which meant that the superpowers could
control the UN through the undemocratic mechanism of the
Security Council). Only a more visionary UN will actually
work--not one based on powers using that body to advance
self-interest of nations, but one based on a shared commitment
to protect the planet and its peoples and to enhacne their
opportunities to actualize their human capacities.
7. Bush says he will not be acting alone when the war starts.
a. Of course not. The biggest bully on the block
always gets lots of allies who are willing to go along rather
than face the consequences (in this case, Bush has threatened
to use the oil of the region the US conquers in ways that will
benefit those on his side).
b. Those who support peace owe a debt of thanks to
the peoples of France, Germany, Russia and China who have had
the courage so far to question this war.
So how does Bush get away with this? The absolute capitulation
of the Democratic Party and the refusal of the media to give
voice to those of us who publicly challenge Bush's policies,
except to the extent that we organize huge protests--but even
then, it is the fact of the demonstrations not the content of
our message that gets covered by the media.
A cominbation of opportunism and actual absence of moral
vision explains the Democrats. Their front-running candidates
for 2004 have either endorsed the war, or else kept quiet
about their opposition (notable exception: Dennis Kocinich,
see his interview in the March/April edition of Tikkun
magazine, which you can subscribe to at www.tikkun.org).
Instead, the Dems have told themselves that they can defeat
Bush by focus on the economic issues. But there are 3 problems
with this: 1.Many people recognize that the economic downturn
had already started in the last months of the Clinton
presidency so they are unwilling to assign all the blame to
Bush 2. The strategy was tried in the mid-term elections with
disastrous results. People do not vote only on economic
issues--because issues like "the larger picture" are central
to them 3. The strategy reenforces the Democrats' greatest
perceived vulnerability: that they don't have the counrage of
their own convinctions, so no matter how good they sound, you
can't count on them to fight for their own beliefs, so why
trutst them? Bush, understanding this, has made a point of
showing that he does follow through on what he believes in,
and that the people who elected him to fight for a right-wing
agenda can count on him doing just tha--the opposite of what
they believe about the Democrats, who can't be counted on to
fight for a progressive agenda no matter what they say when
running for office. No wonder, then, that at times of natioanl
insecurity such as that which has surrounded us since 9/ll,
people feel more trsuting of a Bush type character who will
follow through on his word, then on Democrats who seem
incapable of articulating an alternative vision of national
security, and incapable of standing up for what they privately
say they believe in. One of many reasons to come to
Washington DC June 1-4 is to help put into public prominence
an alternative vision of how to build security for the U.S.
and for Israel--a vision that we will be articulating at the
Teach-in to Congress. And what you can do right now is to
register for that conference (at www.tikkun.org), and make
sure that your elected representatives agree to attend the
Teach-In (in the House of Representatives Rabyburn Office
Building, June 3 from 10-noon), and then agree to meet with
the constituents that will visit them (if you come and you
help us bring people from your area) that afternoon. More
info: robyn@tikkun.org or marisa@tikkun.org.
II. The article below by Shulamit Aloni which appeared in
ha'aretz,Israel's most respected newspaper on March 7th,
assumes that you already know that every single day there are
Palestinians being murdered by the Israeli occupation, homes
being destroyed, and dozens being wounded or maimed, hundreds
being tortured.
We at TIKKUN blame this not only on Ariel Sharon but also on
the disgusting acts of terror by Palestinians, acts which have
given a political mandate to the most fascistic elements in
Israeli society. We unequivocally condemn those acts of
terror, most recently the suicide bombing of a bus in Haifa
(killing over 14 people, including a young American girl
participating in a project of Arab-Israeli cooperation).
Though these acts are in response to the far higher level of
violence and murder perpetrated against Palestinians by the
Occupation, they are still immoral acts which explicitly
target innocent civilians.
Still, we must listen carefully to the argument being
made by Shulamit Aloni, the former Member of Knesset who was
leader of the peace party Ratz which then became Meretz. Aloni
served in the Cabinet of former Labor governments. And her
point is that no matter how awful the acts of terror, they do
not justify the acts of Israel which is engaged in a
systematic destruction of the Palestinian people. Please read
her analysis--which challenges those who say that comparisions
to Hitler are always are a wild distortion. While not exactly
having death camps, Aloni argues, there is a systematic wiping
out of the Palestinian poeple going on now. And we are in
denial if we don't look at it.
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Murder of a population under cover of righteousness
By Shulamit Aloni
We do not have gas chambers and crematoria, but there is no
one fixed method for genocide.
Dr. Ya'akov Lazovik writes ("Academic Genocide", "Ha'Aretz", 4
March)that in the State of Israel it is impossible that the
regime and the nation will plan and commit a genocide. It is
difficult to determineif this is naivety or
self-righteousness. As we know, there is no single fixed
method for murder and not even for genocide. The author Y. L.
Peretz wrote about "the righteous cat" who does not spill
blood, but only suffocates.
The government of Israel, using the military and its
instruments ofdestruction, is not only spilling blood, but it
is also suffocating. What other name can be given to the
dropping of a one-ton bomb over a dense urban area, when the
justification uttered is that we wanted to murder a dangerous
terrorist and his wife? The rest of the citizens who were
killed and injured, among whom are children and women, do not
count, of course.
How is it possible to explain the expulsion of citizens from
their homes at three o'clock in the morning on a rainy night,
thendepositing bombs in the house and then departing without
warning?When those expelled returned to their home, the bombs
were exploded and a brutal murder and destruction of property
was thus committed.
And what is the justification for what happened in Jenin? We
did not destroy the whole neighbourhood, just 85 houses; it
was notslaughter, we killed only 50-some citizens. How many
does one need to murder and destroy for it to be a crime? - A
crime against humanity, as determined by the Laws of the State
of Israel, not only the laws of Belgium.
And more: A curfew and closure of an entire city so that a
few celebrants from the racist bunch in Hebron could walk to
the Cave of the Fathers, and tanks destroying fruit and
vegetable stands, and bulldozers that destroy houses, and
Generals who, in their arrogant hubris, are willing to destroy
a whole neighbourhood for the convenience of a group of
settler hooligans. Curfew, closure,brutality, murder,
destruction of homes of suspects, while we keep parroting the
incantation that a person is innocent until proven otherwise
(as in the case of our Prime Minister and his sons).
The order that Ariel Sharon gave to the soldiers who went to
wreakrevenge in Qibiah: "Maximize losses in life and
property", has not been forgotten. Today Sharon, Mofaz and
Yaalon, the three Generals who manage the policy of this
government, behave like that self-righteous cat - suffocating
all the time. Curfew and another curfew, arrests and more
arrests, destruction of roads, brutality to the residents at
road stops. Benny Alon, (a minister in the present
government), already said: "make their life so bitter that
they will transfer themselves willingly".
This is done on a daily basis, in addition to the destruction.
The Chief of Staff, Yaalon, already announced that he is
"destroying for re-building". One can understand from his
moves that the "building"is building of more and more
settlements. So that they will not be obliged, as military
rulers, to take care of the residents'well-being, the army
uses sorties, followed by retreats. They enter a village,
they kill, they destroy and they arrest, and then they
retreat. Those who remain on the ashes and the ruins will
take care of themselves.
Many of our children are being indoctrinated, in religious
schools,that the Arabs are Amalek, and the bible teaches us
that Amalek must be destroyed. There was already a rabbi
(Israel Hess) who wrote in the newspaper of Bar Ilan
University that we all must commit genocide,and that is
because his research showed that the Palestinians are Amalek.
The nation is not planning to commit genocide; the nation
really does not want to know what's happening in the
territories. The nation isfollowing orders given by the
legitimate representatives of the regime. After the
legitimate Prime Minister who wanted to bring peace was
murdered, the hand is loose on the trigger, greed is
paramount, and there is always some reason to brutalise all of
the residents of a city that number tens, if not hundreds of
thousands,
because there arealways people there who are on the "wanted" list.
It is sufficient that one person is wanted to bomb and kill,
by mistake, of course, also women, children, workers and other
humans - if indeed we still count them as humans.
Of course with our self-righteousness, with our self-adoration
in our "Jewish ethics" we make sure to advertise how
beautifully thedoctors take care of Palestinian victims in the
hospitals. We do not advertise how many of those are executed
in cold blood in their own homes.
So it's not yet genocide of the terrible and unique style of
which wewere past victims. And as one of the smart Generals
told me, we do not have crematoria and gas chambers. Is
anything less than that consistent with Jewish ethics? Did he
ever hear how an entire people said that it did not know what
was done in its name?
(The author Shulamit Aloni was an MK and a minister, member of
Meretz. She has written for Tikkun and appeared at Tikkun
confereneces--and she is invited to speak at the teach-in to
Congress June 1-4 in Washington DC-- to reserve go to
www.tikkun.org) |
