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"What is needed is something completely new, a new act of creation. I
would say: we must prepare the ground for an Israeli
Obama.
Obama means: to kindle hope where there was no hope
before. To demand a change from the foundations up and
believe that it is possible to bring about this change.
To ignite the enthusiasm of masses of young people for a
message that stirs the heart, a message of ending the
occupation, of social justice, of caring for the planet.
The longing for a different system - secular, just,
decent, seeking peace".
...Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery's Address on the eve of his 85th Birthday
by Uri Avnery
DEAR FRIENDS, DEAR PARTNERS,
I have to admit that I am moved. Throughout my long life
I have not been pampered with expressions of affection.
I am much more used to manifestations of hate.
Therefore, please excuse me if I am a bit embarrassed.
PEOPLE ASK ME: How does it feel to be 85?
Well, it is strange. After all, only yesterday I was 42,
the youngest member of the Knesset. I don't feel any
older or wiser than I did then.
85 is (in the old Hebrew way of numbering by letters)
PH. PH can mean "poh", here - and yes, I am here and
fully intend to remain here for a while to come - first,
because I enjoy it, and second, because I still have
some things to finish.
PH can also mean peh, mouth - the mouth that enables me
to voice my thoughts. I would like to take this
opportunity to share with you some of the thoughts that
are occupying my mind today.
What is special about 85-year-olds in Israel? First of
all, we are the generation that founded the state. As
such - I feel - we bear an additional responsibility for
what is happening here. If our state is not what we
imagined it should be - it's our duty to act to change
it.
AND HERE we face a strange paradox. We are partners in a
historic success. And we are partners in a dismal
failure.
Perhaps only members of my generation can fully grasp
the extend of our success in the transformation of the
national consciousness.
Many people ask me: where do I draw my optimism from
when the situation becomes very bad, when good people
are seized by depression and despair? At such moments I
remind myself - and remind the people who listen to me -
where we started from. I bring this up again and again
for those who did not live through it, and those who
have forgotten:
On the morrow of that war, the '48 war, when some of us
said that there exists a Palestinian people and that we
must make peace with them, we were a tiny handful here
and in the whole world. We were laughed at. There
are no Palestinians, we were told. "There is no such
thing as a Palestinian people!" Golda Meir was still
asserting much later.
Is there anyone today who denies the existence of the
Palestinian people?
We argued that in order to achieve peace, a Palestinian
state must come into being. They laughed at us. What?
Why? There is Jordan. There is Egypt. There are 22 Arab
states. That's enough!
Today it is a world-wide consensus - two states for two
peoples.
We said that we must talk with the enemy, and the enemy
was then the PLO. Four cabinet ministers demanded that I
should be put on trial for high treason when I met with
Yasser Arafat in Beirut during the siege. All four of
them later met with Arafat, and the State of Israel
signed official treaties with the PLO.
True, the treaties were not implemented and did not lead
to peace. But the mutual recognition between Israel and
the PLO, between Israel and the Palestinian people,
became a fact. That was a revolution, and it cannot be
reversed.
Today we are saying: we must talk with Hamas. Hamas is
an integral part of the Palestinian reality. And this
idea, too, is gaining ground.
What an uproar we caused when we said that Jerusalem
must become the capital of the two states! Today almost
everybody knows that this must happen, that it will
happen.
I have devoted 60 years of my life to this struggle, and
it is still in full swing. But we have defeated the idea
of a Greater Israel and put forward the alternative of
the two states, which has carried conviction in Israel
and throughout the world. So much so, that even those in
the successive Israeli governments who strongly oppose
the idea are now compelled to pretend to support it in
order to attract votes.
Think about this when you feel despair. Look at the
whole picture, not only at the nearest small part of it.
BUT AS BIG as our victory is our defeat.
It is enough to look at these coming elections: the
three big parties talk almost the same language, and not
one of them puts forward a plan for peace.
There are small parties which say good and honest
things, but at this juncture we simply need more than
that. What is lacking is a major political force that is
ready to come to power in order to make peace.
It is quite clear that the results of this coming
election will be bad - and the only question is whether
they will be just bad, or very bad, or even worse.
Why is this happening? There are many reasons, many
pretexts. We criticize - and rightly so - many things,
the media, the education system, all our successive
governments, the President of the United States, all the
world.
But I miss one criticism - the criticism of ourselves.
My father used to tell me: if the situation is bad, the
first thing to do is to ask yourself if you are alright.
So I am asking: Am I alright? Are we alright?
Yes, we have voiced the right ideas. Our ideas have won.
But what have we done to realize these ideas in
practice, on the political battlefield?
Politics is a matter of power. What have we done to
create a progressive political force in Israel? How did
it happen that the Left, the camp of peace and progress,
has almost been eradicated from the political map? Why
don't we have political power, why don't we have, for
example, even one newspaper, radio or TV station? How
did the Israeli Left lose, in the last generation, all
its levers of power?
We in the peace camp include many wonderful men and
women, who confront the army every week in the fight
against the Wall, who monitor the checkpoints, who
refuse to serve in the occupation army, who fight
against the occupation in dozens of ways. Many of us, of
all ages, take part in these actions.
But while we stand and protest, the settlers rush ahead.
Another goat and another dunam (1000 square meters),
another hill and another outpost. Sometimes I, too, have
the feeling that the dogs bark and the caravan moves on
- and I am not content with being the dog. We chase the
mosquitoes, but the swamp that produces the mosquitoes
gets bigger and bigger.
The swamp is political. Only a political force can drain
it. In other words: only a force that can confront the
ruling powers, influence the decisions of the government
and the Knesset.
That is a historic failure, and we bear the
responsibility for it.
IF I may be permitted to voice a birthday wish: the day
after the elections I would like us to start thinking
about the next elections.
We have to think anew. From the ground up. Examine
everything we have done up to now and find out where we
went wrong.
Why did we not succeed in convincing enough of the
young, of the Oriental Jewish community, of the
immigrants from Russia, of the Arab community in Israel,
of the moderate religious sector - that there is
somebody to talk with, that it is possible to bring
about change, that indeed - we can! Why did we not
succeed in touching the heart of the young generation
that is disgusted by politics - by the politics they
know?
What is needed is something completely new, a new act of
creation. I would say: we must prepare the ground for an
Israeli Obama.
Obama means: to kindle hope where there was no hope
before. To demand a change from the foundations up and
believe that it is possible to bring about this change.
To ignite the enthusiasm of masses of young people for a
message that stirs the heart, a message of ending the
occupation, of social justice, of caring for the planet.
The longing for a different system - secular, just,
decent, seeking peace.
The new message must address the mind and the heart,
speak to the emotions and not only to the intellect. It
must arouse again the idealism that is hiding in many a
heart and dare not show its face.
The great obstacle to such an explosion is despair. It
is so much easier to despair. So much more comfortable.
It doesn't demand anything. It is easier to say that
everything is lost. That they have stolen our state. But
pessimism, as is well known, does not give birth to
anything, it just leads to internal or external
emigration.
I refuse to be pessimistic. In my 85 years I have seen
too many unexpected, surprising, amazing, things - both
good and bad - for me not to believe in the unexpected.
Obama was unexpected, and here it happened before our
very eyes. The fall of the Berlin wall was unexpected,
and nobody could even have imagined it a moment before
it happened. Even the victory of the Greens in the
recent municipal election in Tel-Aviv was like that.
I WANT to propose the start of a new endeavor a day
after the elections. I would like the best of the
intellectuals and the peace activists, the social
activists and the fighters for the environment to gather
and start thinking together, in order to bring about the
Israeli miracle.
Perhaps there should be a grand congress of those who
want change, a Sanhedrin of peace and human rights
activists, a kind of alternative Knesset.
From the heights of my 85 years I want to call all those
to whom our future here is close to the heart, Jews and
Arabs, and especially the young, to mobilize for a joint
effort to prepare the ground for the big change, for the
Other Israel, for a state where it will be fun to live,
an Israel we can be proud of.
This is not a game that can be played between existing
organizations, but a completely new political creation,
that will speak a new language, that will bring a new
message.
I believe that this will happen, if not tomorrow then
the day after. I wish for myself, and for all of you
present in this hall, that we shall see it with our own
eyes, that we shall be partners, that we shall be able
to say: we have succeeded, we are entrusting the state
to good hands.
AND NOW I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all of
you, my friends, who have come to mark my birthday with
me by exchanging views and debating the issues that are
so important to all of us.
Heartfelt thanks to the moderators and the speakers, who
have bared the issues for us, to the organizers of this
beautiful event, to the members of Gush Shalom who made
it possible. Thanks to all of you, who have come from
near and afar, and thanks for the good wishes you have
showered on me.
I couldn't imagine a more enjoyable and exciting
birthday. Thank you.
Uri Avnery, an Israeli journalist (elected as the
youngest member of the Knesset)
courtesy: tikkun.org, December 27, 2008
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