Thursday 28th of March 2024

mene mene tekel upharsin …..

mene mene tekel upharsin  …..

I am one of the remaining veterans of the Haganah, who had served in the British Army and thereafter were among the initiators of the Ha'apala [illegal immigration] of Holocaust survivors, struggling with the forces of victorious Great Britain for the right to arrive at the shores of this country.

Its warships and soldiers, those who had just fought and defeated the worst of all enemies, went over to attacking with fury and hatred our cockleshell boats which set to this country from the shores of Italy, full of survivors of the Nazi hell. The warships chased after them, closed around them, sometimes actually crushing them - and shot at them, killing and wounding many of their passengers.

And now I have observed with horror and a broken heart the repetition of the same scenes - but with the roles reversed. It is the soldiers and sailors of the force which boasts of being the 'Israeli Defense Forces' who are now the pursuers and killers. There is no limit to the disgrace, the cruelty and the hypocrisy which wrap our criminal acts with words of lie and malice.

I am depressed to the bottom of my heart ... how could we have fallen so low??? How did we become an unjust and cruel people, turning from persecuted to persecutor?

Yes! It could have been expected! For 19 years we have 'contented ourselves' with a system of a military government over the Arab minority which remained with us after the War of Independence, dispossessing and discriminating them. There followed the 43 years of intoxicating nationalist bravado, which spread through our people like an addictive drug after our victory in 1967, which brought the Greater Israel movement to the power which it since then holds in Israel.

Our golden opportunity as victors, to make peace with the Palestinian people, vanished at once. The fascist Zionist regime, governing in the style of the Italian in North Africa, violent conquest and rapist settlement of the land of Palestine and its people... But with the latest move, the tragicomic charge of the ridiculous Zionist 'armada' in an effort to tighten its stranglehold on an enclave of a million and half miserable Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, our arrogant little people have clearly gone too far.

The huge burden of injustice and mad villainy with which Sicarii Israel is loaded brings about quick disaster. Already in the foreseeable future it is about to finally destroy Israel's chances of survival. The 'Mene Mene' of destruction is already inscribed in blood on our walls. Woe to our children, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to whom we leave such a legacy...

* The Sicarii were Jewish zealots of the First Century. In present day Hebrew the term refers to fanatic nationalists.

Gush Shalom

in the asylum of unreality .....

"I was the child of the survivors of the Holocaust." With that, Roz Rothstein of the activist group Stand With Us that hopes to transform the image of Israel on US campuses sets the moral authority before a small audience at an office on Howard Street, San Francisco. One can, she explains, disagree with Israel, but there are "limits" to such doubting behaviour. Exceeding those limits constitutes the gravest sort of anti-Semitism.

As people devour the food and drink put on by the associates of Blumberg Capital, serious politics is being discussed. "We are being demonised," she insists. Whether she means Israel, Jews or Jews in the US is hard to tell. Presumably, no true distinction is intended.

The gathering teams with Republicans, many of them competing with each other for various posts in upcoming elections. Candidates who are going to be competing for House positions are also there including John Dennis who hopes to undermine Nancy Pelosi. The room smells of political hustling and over-eager libidos.

All are, however, there for one reason: defending Israel. Israel is besieged, the David in a sea of overly keen Goliaths. A good deal of agitprop is necessary to convince the audience, and perhaps the speakers, of this bizarre scenario. Pro-Palestinian groups are swarming across American campuses attacking Jews and pro-Israeli students alike. The UN is "obsessed" with Israel and prefers, we are told, not to look at the stain of character on other states. One must be on the look out for the "Three Ds" suggested by Natan Sharansky. (The speakers intone this in irritating fashion - we are in a kindergarten of ideological instruction. Remember "demonisation", "double standards" and "delegitimisation", for one.)

The language merchants are busy attempting to find the right good to sell. "We must be out there to counter our enemies." Evidently, the Gaza dead, with their galvanic properties must be astonishingly good at public relations - they are, it would seem, the ignoble savages who dare speak from their status as the deceased.

The campaign being waged is yet another indication of how the Israeli lobby, so peevishly dismissed by Israeli supporters as non-existent, arises with effective force when fear is packaged and retailed in this faux salon manner. These are the first people who would insist that such a thing is anathema, only to then gather their forces and funds to effectively provide assistance to a foreign power. Young, well-groomed men listening intently will be doing service at some point with the Israeli Army, a problematic situation given mixed allegiances. The framers of the US constitution would have had something to say about that.

What is most striking in this display is the rehearsed language of doom. (We are "besieged", a "well planned tsunami" is being put into place, argues Rothstein.) The Palestinians do not exist except in the negative, a dark eminence with satanic overtones. Hamas, a body once supported by Israel for Machiavellian purposes, is not a force that can or should be dealt with other than through force. Beware their Charter.

It all comes down to "information". "They do not know the information," explains Dr Michael Harris, who was a founder of San Francisco Voice for Israel before it became the San Francisco chapter for Stand With Us. So, with this in mind, a packet is distributed, bulging with fascinating "facts" rendered on glossy paper. How far it will go is not something these agitprop peddlers make clear.

The canary in the coal mine: the Israeli Lobby in San Francisco