William T. Hathaway

"There could be no greater calamity than a permanent discord between us and the Arab people. Despite the great wrong that has been done us, we must strive for a just and lasting compromise with the Arab people.... Let us recall that in former times no people lived in greater friendship with us than the ancestors of these Arabs." ~ Albert Einstein, 1939

Einstein was opposed from the start to the setting up of a Jewish state and to mass emigration into Palestine. He was also one of the signatories to an Open Letter to the New York Times in 1948 denouncing the terrorist activities of Menachem Begin and the massacre carried out in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. (Source)

Now that the "greater calamity" has occurred, Einstein's prescience takes on a heartbreaking dimension, because it could have been avoided. A "just and lasting compromise" was possible, and it would have benefited both peoples. Jews and Arabs could be living in harmony, mutually benefiting from their different cultural gifts. But the imposition of a Jewish state, mass immigration, and ethnic cleansing destroyed that possibility, and now they are dying from nationalism and mutual atrocities.

Worldwide we are caught in the deadly fallout of the Holocaust. It traumatized the Zionists to the extent that they lost standards of justice and ethics that had been built up over centuries. Their efforts to turn Palestine into Israel have led to 60 years of fighting which is spreading to more and more countries. This battle is a major but unstated reason for US military aggression in the Muslim world, and the trillions of dollars wasted in that is a major but unstated reason for the global economic crisis.

Germany was the site of the previous act of this tragedy. But what unfolded there had its roots in the trauma the Germans went through in the 1920s and '30s. At the outbreak of the Second World War, W.H. Auden looked back on the suffering imposed on the Germans by the Versailles Treaty and wrote in his poem "September 1st, 1939": "Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return." - The former victims become the perpetrators, now in the Mideast. We are trapped in an ongoing chain of linked cataclysms.

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Stephen Lendman

Israel occupies Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank illegally. Its settlements, closed military zones, tourist sites, and commercial areas control over 40% of the West Bank, including its most valued resource rich parts - notably water. Its expanding settlements steal more. When completed, its Separation Wall will control about 12% of the West Bank.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled [the Separation Wall ] illegal. It said its route and associated gate and permit system violate international law. It ordered completed sections dismantled, and "all legislative and regulatory acts related thereto" repealed or rendered "ineffective forthwith."

It also mandated reparations for the "requisition and destruction of homes, businesses, and agricultural holdings (and) to return the land, orchards, olive groves, and other immovable property seized."

In addition, it mandated member states reject the illegal construction and demand Israel comply with international law. Few have. Israel defied the ruling. Construction continues.

When completed, it'll extend over 800km. It'll be twice the length of the Green Line, four times as long as the Berlin Wall, and in some places twice as high. Palestinian communities are destroyed. Many are isolated.

Thousands of Palestinians are displaced. Weekly protests are held. Israeli security forces confront them violently. Land theft continues daily. Israel wants all valued areas and Jerusalem as its exclusive capital.

Palestinian rights don't matter. Neither do international laws or ICJ rulings. Only what it wants counts. That's how police states rule - through barrel of a gun ruthlessness against opposition.

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Gilad Atzmon

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy was criticised [on March 20] for comparing the killing of three children and a rabbi in a shooting attack in France to the situation in Gaza.

At the “Palestine refugees in the changing Middle East” conference in Brussels, Baroness Ashton, described the murders in Toulouse as a “terrible tragedy”, but she then added:

“When we see what is happening in Gaza and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives.”

Seemingly some prominent Jewish and Israeli leaders couldn’t agree less. For them Jewish suffering exceeds all other suffering and Palestinian’s in particular.

The London Jewish Chronicle quoted some of the outraged critics. “Even when read in context, Ashton’s words are beyond unacceptable,” said Oliver Worth, the British chairman of the World Union of Jewish Students. He said they were “truly outrageous and revolting” and called for her to resign because she had “lost all credibility”. And yet, Mr Worth fails to explain why is it “outrageous and revolting” to equate Jewish suffering with Palestinian one.

“Baroness Ashton’s remarks were both crass and wholly inappropriate,” said the chief executives of the Board of Deputies, yet he also fails to provide any reasoning.

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Gilad Atzmon

■ Ali Abunimah and Gilad Atzmon at the OK Corral

In the clip [on the left], I elaborate on Ali Abunimah’s attitude towards history and culture.

I contend that since Israel defines itself as the Jewish State and its tanks are decorated with Jewish symbols, we are entitled to ask ourselves who are the Jews and what is Judaism and Jewishness? In my work I try to grasp the role and the impact of Jewish culture on Israeli and Jewish politics - something I believe necessary to bring peace to the region and beyond.

But Ali Abunimah doesn’t agree. In reference to a talk I gave at the Stuttgart One State Conference (Dec 2010), he suggested that history and politics are detached from culture - an unusual approach which contradicts all recognized, intellectual and philosophical understandings of humanity, history, politics as well as culture. Abunimah says

“Talking about Jewish culture, is wrong because such arguments can be made about anyone. We could blame German culture for the history of Germany...”

Someone should tell Abunimah that this is exactly what intellectuals, historian and political scientists do. They search for the origin of political thoughts in culture, ideology, religion and heritage. For instance, those who study the Nazi eratry to comprehend the impact of Wagner, the German symphony, Protestant culture, German philosophy, Martin Luther’s “The Jews And Their Lies”, Hegel and the German Spirit, German Early Romanticism, Lebensphilosophie, Heine, Athens vs. Jerusalem and so on.

It is obvious to me that, Abunimah didn’t think it through. However, it is never too late to admit a mistake and get it right.

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