{"id":1248,"date":"2011-05-25T16:31:56","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T23:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/?p=1248"},"modified":"2011-05-25T16:34:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T23:34:18","slug":"netanyahus-speech-to-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/?p=1248","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu’s speech to Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBelow is Uri Avnery’s take on Netanyahu’s speech in Congress. (Very worthwhile read)<\/p>\n

Uri Avnery
\nMay 28, 2011<\/p>\n

\t\t\tBibi and the Yo-Yos<\/p>\n

IT WAS all rather disgusting.<\/p>\n

There they were, the members of the highest legislative bodies of the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

It was worse than the Syrian parliament during a speech by Bashar Assad, where anyone not applauding could find himself in prison. Or Stalin\u2019s Supreme Soviet, when showing less than sufficient respect could have meant death.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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?<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The most depressing part of it was that there was not a single lawmaker \u2013 Republican or Democrat \u2013 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\u2019s anthem. Is there no one in Washington DC who has that simple courage? Is it really Washington IOT \u2013 Israel Occupied Territory \u2013 as the anti-Semites assert? <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

SO WHAT did the great man say to this august body?<\/p>\n

It was a finely crafted speech, using all the standard tricks of the trade \u2013 the dramatic pause, the raised finger, the little witticisms, the sentences repeated for effect. Not a great orator, by any means, no Winston Churchill, but good enough for this audience and this occasion.<\/p>\n

But the message could be summed up in one word: No.<\/p>\n

After their disastrous debacle in 1967, the leaders of the Arab world met in Khartoum and adopted the famous Three No\u2019s: NO recognition of Israel, No [] negotiation with Israel, NO peace with Israel. It was just what the Israeli leadership wanted. They could go happily about their business of entrenching the occupation and building settlements.
\nNow Netanyahu is having his Khartoum. NO return to the 1967 borders. NO Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. NO to even a symbolic return of some refugees. NO military withdrawal from the Jordan River – meaning that the future Palestinian state would be completely surrounded by the Israeli armed forces. NO negotiation with a Palestinian government \u201csupported\u201d by Hamas, even if there are no Hamas members in the government itself. And so on \u2013 NO. NO. NO.
\nThe aim is clearly to make sure that no Palestinian leader could even dream of entering negotiations, even in the unlikely event that he were ready to meet yet another condition: to recognize Israel as \u201cthe nation-state of the Jewish people\u201d \u2013 which includes the dozens of Jewish Senators and Congressmen who were the first to jump up and down, up and down, like so many marionettes.
\nNetanyahu, along with his associates and political bedfellows, is determined to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state by all and any means. That did not start with the present government \u2013 it is an aim deeply embedded in Zionist ideology and practice. The founders of the movement set the course, David Ben-Gurion acted to implement it in 1948, in collusion with King Abdallah of Jordan. Netanyahu is just adding his bit.
\n\u201cNo Palestinian state\u201d means: no peace, not now, not ever. Everything else is, as the Americans say, baloney. All the pious phrases about happiness for our children, prosperity for the Palestinians, peace with the entire Arab world, a bright future for all, are just that \u2013 pure baloney. At least some in the audience must have noticed that, even with all that jumping.<\/p>\n

NETANYAHU SPAT in Obama’s eye. The Republicans in the audience must have enjoyed that. Perhaps some Democrats too.
\nIt can be assumed that Obama did not. So what will he do now?
\nThere is a Jewish joke about a hungry pauper who entered an inn and demanded food. Otherwise, he threatened, he would do what his father did. The frightened innkeeper fed him, and in the end asked timidly: \u201cBut what did your father do?\u201d Swallowing the last morsel, the man answered: \u201cHe went to sleep hungry.\u201d
\nThere is a good chance that Obama will do the same. He will pretend that the spittle on his cheek is rainwater. His promise to prevent a UN General Assembly recognition of the State of Palestine deprived him of his main leverage over Netanyahu.
\nSomebody in Washington seems to be floating the idea of Obama coming to Jerusalem and addressing the Knesset. It would be direct retaliation \u2013 Obama talking with the Israeli public over the head of the Prime Minister, as Netanyahu has just addressed the American public over the head of the President.
\nIt would be an exciting event. As a former Member of the Knesset, I would be invited. But I would not advise it. I proposed it a year ago. Today I would not.
\nThe obvious precedent is Anwar Sadat\u2019s historic speech in the Knesset. But there is really no comparison. Egypt and Israel were still officially at war. Going to the capital of the enemy was without precedent, the more so only four years after a bloody battle. It was an act that shook Israel, eliminating in one stroke a whole set of mental patterns and opening the mind for new ones. Not one of us will ever forget the moment when the door of the airplane swung open and there he was, handsome and serene, the leader of the enemy.
\nLater, when I interviewed Sadat at his home, I told him: \u201cI live on the main street of Tel Aviv. When you came out of that plane, I looked out of the window. Nothing moved in the street, except one cat \u2013 and it was probably looking for a television set.\u201d
\n A visit by Obama will be quite different. He will, of course, be received politely \u2013 without the obsessive jumping and clapping \u2013 though probably heckled by Knesset Members of the extreme Right. But that will be all.
\nSadat\u2019s visit was a deed in itself. Not so a visit by Obama. He will not shake Israeli public opinion, unless he comes with a concrete plan of action \u2013 a detailed peace plan, with a detailed timetable, backed by a clear determination to see it through, whatever the political cost.
\nAnother nice speech, however beautifully phrased, just will not do. After this week\u2019s deluge of speeches, we have had enough. Speeches can be important if they accompany actions, but they are no substitute for action. Churchill\u2019s speeches helped to shape history \u2013 but only because they reflected historic deeds. Without the Battle of Britain, without Normandy, without El Alamein, those speeches would have sounded ridiculous.
\nNow, with all the roads blocked, there remains only one path remains open: the recognition of the State of Palestine by the United Nations coupled with nonviolent mass action by the Palestinian people against the occupation. The Israeli peace forces will also play their part, because the fate of Israel depends on peace as much as the fate of Palestine.
\nSure, the US will try to obstruct, and Congress will jump up and down, But the Israeli-Palestinian spring is on its way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Below is Uri Avnery’s take on Netanyahu’s speech in Congress. (Very worthwhile read)<\/p>\n

Uri Avnery May 28, 2011<\/p>\n

Bibi and the Yo-Yos<\/p>\n

IT WAS all rather disgusting.<\/p>\n

There they were, the members of the highest legislative bodies of the world\u2019s only superpower, flying up and down like so many yo-yos, applauding wildly, every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1248"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1258,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions\/1258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.derykhouston.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}