More followup on the death of Yitzhak Shamir, the rightwinger and former prime minister and terrorist dead at 96.
There is a terrible statement in Haaretz: Netanyahu’s eulogy to Shamir in which he praises him for the racist declaration: “the sea is the same sea and the Arabs are the same Arabs.” Shamir made the remark in 1991 ahead of the Madrid talks, the beginning of the peace process which he did not believe in, and which Netanyahu also does not believe in. Haaretz:
At the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Shamir was correct in his famous statement that “the sea is the same sea and the Arabs are the same Arabs.”
Shamir’s remark was seen as implying that the Arabs had not changed their animosity towards Israel and a desire to throw the Jews into the sea. “With respect to his statements about [Israel's] neighbors, about the distinction between the sea and the land, it’s possible that [although] these remarks … unleashed a torrent of criticism at the time, even contempt, today there are of course many more people who understand that this man saw and understood basic and genuine things,” Netanyahu said.
Shutafut-Sharakah, an umbrella advocacy group involved in Jewish-Arab civil rights issues, said in response to Netanyahu’s comments that the prime minister was making use of the mourning over Shamir’s death to incite against Arabs. “We regret that for Netanyahu, the term ‘Arabs’ includes the embodiment of a demonic people rather than people who live in the country and are entitled not only to equal rights but also protection from incitement.”
Yesterday I focused on Shamir’s giving the order to kill Swedish envoy Folke Bernadotte in 1948. Larry Derfner wrote about this in the Jerusalem Post in 2010 (thanks to Hostage):
After electing Begin prime minister, we elected Yitzhak Shamir, who had been one of the leadership trio of Lehi (the Hebrew acronym for “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”). Lehi went Etzel [Irgun, once led by Menachem Begin] one better – not only did it kill for Israeli statehood, it killed after statehood, too. On September 17, 1948, Lehi men in Jerusalem shot to death Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN’s envoy to the Middle East (who, as a Swedish diplomat during World War II, had saved many thousands of Jews from the Nazi death camps).
At Lehi’s 70th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem last month, National Union MK Arye Eldad (whose father, Yisrael, had been one of Shamir’s partners in the leadership) said from the podium: “Count Bernadotte wanted to internationalize Jerusalem. In response, Lehi killed him. With his death, the concept of taking Jerusalem away from the Jewish people died with him.”
Hooray. And after Yitzhak Shamir dies, there will be highways, neighborhoods, hospitals and schools named after him, too.
Finally, there is a great photo up at the Times site of Barbra Streisand canoodling with Yitzhak Shamir in his office in 1984.
If you want to understand American Jewish attitudes, this picture is helpful. Streisand is a liberal in domestic politics. Here she is aligned with a rightwinger who described Arabs as “grasshoppers.” File this one in the same place as Erica Jong’s chapter title from Fear of Flying: “Arabs and other animals.” And young American Jews, we have much to be proud of in our tradition, including Barbra Streisand and Erica Jong’s leadership as feminists; but it is time we interrogated the racism inside our community.
Imagine if someone in Europe said that about another ethnic group. However, it’s par-for-the-course that one can utter racist statements about Arabs, and it will be accepted in the U.S. to some extent, though that’s going to be a harder sell to many younger Americans be they Jews or non-Jews. Yes, Orthodox Jews are increasing somewhat, but it will be harder to sell hardcore Zionism to younger Americans, possibly. As far as Streisand, her support of right wing Israelis and the same from some other liberal Jews showed that liberalism in America was something they championed because it benefited them as a Jewish minority in America, but they didn’t care if Arabs were under Israeli boots because the Arabs were the minority. However, so many young Jews who are liberal have found Israel has become too extreme that Streisand types are falling out of favor. After all some of the radical Jews are coming after liberal Jews more and more. Israel is far removed from liberal values now.
“…As far as Streisand, her support of right wing Israelis and the same from some other liberal Jews showed that liberalism in America was something they championed because it benefited them as a Jewish minority in America, but they didn’t care if Arabs were under Israeli boots because the Arabs were the minority…”
To be fair, I think it’s kind of the other way around. Jews championed (and champion — look at Obama’s ratings among Jews in spite of all the ranting about how he’s ‘anti-Israel) liberalism until it conflicted with Israel. Israel addresses a lot of Jewish insecurities and needs; many are reluctant to abandon it. Indeed, they still champion liberalism — they just make an exception for Israel/delude themselves that there isn’t a conflict between their support of liberalism and their support of Israel. As I’ve said before, what they want is a ‘nice’ Israel.
As a group, Jews probably do care about the Arabs: they’re perennially trying to convince themselves that the existence of Israel somehow does not or at least could not conflict with Palestinian rights and aspirations and such. It’s only a small minority (and not a particularly Jewish minority) that takes actual joy in the misery inflicted on Palestinians.
It’s a bit like if I have a hamburger and you’re hungry: I sincerely hope you get something to eat — just so long as it isn’t my hamburger.
Phil, I wanted to let you know of the effectiveness of you and your crew at MW. I sent the link to Nima Shirazi’s piece on Shamir that you posted to a friend of mine. Here is his response:
“This is disgusting. Everyone put your heads in the sand. Even back when he was in office, I didn’t trust him. What newspapers/blogs do you subscribe to? I need to get angrier!”
Chipping away little by little produced Mount Rushmore – so also can Zionism be brought into high relief from the block of ignorance of most Americans.
I call out American Jewish people’s racism all the time. I say to them without hesitation “Jews being racist, how ironic if you know basic 20th century history.” I’ve been doing this for about five years now.
great. thanks youngmassjew
Racism’s a bit like picking your nose. If you do it, it’s one thing. Watching it in someone else can be pretty disgusting.
Phil, another good catch. I commend you and admire you greatly for the work you do as I’ve told you a number of times. By the way, I didn’t know you live in the Hudson Valley. That’s closer to me. But don’t worry. I still won’t stop by your house uninvited. I’m not a fan of Rotweillers anyway. But seriously, though, get off your high horse. Just because you’re out there using your real name putting your reputation on the line doesn’t mean I don’t do admirable work either. By the end of this year it will probably be impossible for me to remain anonymous as I’m engaged in trying to remove Sodastream from the store I work at and all stores for that matter. I’ll be in the news I bet because I don’t recall BDS like activities happening yet in Massachusetts. I talk about Jewish privilege like you, although in a different style, under my real name on Facebook and that puts my a$$ on the line with close people in my life. I’m starting to talk about this with co-workers, although a lot of them are not mature enough to understand political/ethnic/cultural/religious diversity and the nuisances in identity. I just don’t have the experience that your age affords you. You shouldn’t hold that against me my friend. You gain nothing from ignoring me at this point. You only look pretentious to a lot of the regular commentators here, especially to your moderators I bet.
-YMJ
im not holding nothing against you! great that you’re working on sodastream. and whenever you want to write about that under your real name, down the road, we’d love to put it up!
YMJ
There’s a chain of stores here that sells Sodastream that I’d like to address – are there any alternative machines that I can suggest they stock?
The sea is not the same sea. It has been polluted . There are no fish left in it. Zionism and consumerism are a lethal mix.
The Arabs are not the same Arabs. They are on Facebook!
Thats great. Its much appreciated. I apologize for telling you to “get off your high horse” and suggesting you’re being “pretentious.” I look forward, nervously of course, to using my real name, but its inevitable. I always look forward to reading your publications as well. Thank you for trusting me! I know the intense stress you guys are under.
-YMJ
I like a high horse now and then and my wife says I’m pretentious, so who’s arguing?
But seriously thank you for trusting me as I know it must be incredibly stressful dealing with “Zionist sock puppets.”
So in what way are the Arabs different now? They still want to eliminate Israel.
So do I…and I’m different. I didn’t used to want to eliminate Israel.
If I stand in front of a house with a subsidence problem I don’t necessarily have to want it to collapse. But it doesn’t matter what I think about that house.
Eliminate Israel? I think they just want to vote in the same elections you do.
Al Gore and Yitzhak Shamir are forever linked in my mind ever since Gore positioned himself to the extreme right on Isreal/Palestine. I wonder if Gore will have a word to say about the passing of his terrorist buddy. I’m sure his like-minded running mate Joe Lieberman will.
Loved the exchange between Phil and YMJ ! I am in awe of so many of you commenters on this site. So much knowledge , so articulate ; Phil, Adam ,Alex, Annie,,Seafoid ,Schmuel, Hostage , Miko and sooo many others! I can hardly express the good vibes that emanate from my screen as I read on and on every day. Thank you all for your interest and concern over the theme of this site. Great for the morale during such depressing times.
Amazing when you stop and backtrack 20 years and think the internet simply didn’t exist, just references in technology magazines to this ‘information superhighway’ thing which I definitely didn’t understand at the time…
Now here we are, people from all over the world working to get the truth out about Palestine and end that never-ending horror.
Israel’s longest serving prime minister was a terrorist, ethnic cleanser and assassin of a UN envoy. I guess that’s par for the course for the Jewish State.
P.S. Restores my faith in Humanity!!
Uri Avnery on Shamir:
“Two Faces: Israel’s Prime Ministers”
link to original.antiwar.com