M I D - E A S T    R E A L I T I E S - WWW.MiddleEast.Org
***************************************************************
"News, Analysis & Commentary They Don't Want You to Know" ***************************************************************
To get MER regularly email to: INFOMER@MiddleEast.Org
.
LABOUR PARTY WORSE THAN LIKUD SAYS
PROFESSOR ISRAEL SHAHAK
.
MER - Washington - 9/20/97:
     In the next few weeks Israel's Labor Party will be coming to the USA. Shimon Peres and Leah Rabin will be speaking with leading American Jews -- raising money for their return to power of course -- and speaking at universities raising their images.
     Working with their associated groups in the US, "Peace Now" and "New Israel Fund" among them, the Labor Party specializes in rhetorical deception -- and it is very good at it.
     Going back to the 1940s when founder David Ben-Gurion had the Arabs convinced that no separate Jewish State would be established (incidentally Peres was Ben-Gurion's disciple) the Labor party has always portrayed itself one way, but back in the Middle East acted another way.
     Oslo was no exception in this regard. And last year's Qana massacre fit the pattern as well.
     One day soon there could be another "National Unity" government, the Labor and Likud parties uniting as they have done a number of times before in recent history. Or one day in the not too distant future the Israeli political establishment will once again trade jobs, this time Ehud Barak becoming Prime Minister. And so it really is quite important to be aware of what the Labor Party really represents, rather than the images it so carefully manipulates.
     This "MER FLASHBACK" was originally published in January.
--------------------------
.
.
[MER - 1/3/97:
     Labor Zionism has always tried to manipulate its image and portray itself differently than its actual policies. Many forget that Yitzhak Rabin was Yitzhak Shamir's "break their bones" Defense Minister just a few years before his assassination; that Shimon Peres has always spoken in mellow tones while perpetrating such crimes and cover-ups as the Qana Massacre of 1996; and that the Labor Party instigated the "settlements" policy and has prided itself on pushing it forward while pretended otherwise in front of Western cameras. Indeed the "Allon Plan" which Netanyahu has been referring to as similar to his own, is named after the famous Labor Foreign Minister, Yigal Allon, who first publicly suggested "autonomy" and "Palestinian Administration" back in the late 1960s even before there were Israeli settlements. Professor Israel Shahak - a life-long human rights activist, a retired Hebrew University professor, and a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps - wrote the following which recently appeared in the London Review of Books. For many years Dr. Shahak has courageously and singlehandedly translated and commented on articles from the Hebrew press in a monthly journal titled "From The Hebrew Press". He is author of the unique book JEWISH HISTORY, JEWISH RELIGION: THE WEIGHT OF THREE THOUSAND YEARS. This letter is in response to Ira Katznelson's letter critical of Prof. Edward Said's brilliant article which appeared in the London Review of Books several months detailing his recent visit to "Arafat's Palestine."]
.
.
A R A F A T ' S     P A L E S T I N E
LONDON  REVIEW  OF  BOOKS:
     "I hope that you will permit me to rebut the claims of Ira Katznelson in his dispute with Edward Said, about what can, or cannot, be called 'moderate' in Zionism (Letters, 31 October).
     In the first place, Zionism, exactly like its mirror image, anti-Semitism, is a discriminatory movement. It is not necessary to speak of the Occupied Territories in order to establish this irrefutable fact. In Israel itself, 92 percent of the so-called 'national land' can be used (for living, business, etc.) only by the Jews. A major Zionist organisation, the Jewish National Fund, is trying to enlarge 'national land' and close it to Palestinians. Try to imagine that Jews would be denied the use of 92 percent of Britain and a 'Christian Fund' would buy Jewish shops to rent them exclusively to Christians, and you will see some of the routine discrimination practiced by the 'Jewish state'. Thus, in respect of both Zionism and anti-Semitism the real question is which part of an evil movement is less evil than the other parts. If we ignore religious Zionists, who are by far the worst, it can be shown that Labour or 'left' Zionists have been and are much worse than right-wing Zionists, in spite of the fact that the latter bluster more than the former. Let me illustrate this fact with two basic examples.
     The explicit wish to expel all or most Palestinians from the 'Land of Israel', known as 'transfer', is associated especially with Labour Zionism. Most of the major leaders of this tendency expressed themselves in favour of expelling as many Palestinians as possible, and tried to realise this wish in times of both war and peace. It may interest British readers that in 1944 the British Labour Party passed a resolution in favour of 'transferring' Palestinians out of Palestine and this recommendation has never been rescinded. Labour took this step on the recommendation of Mr. Katznelson's friends. Just as I am conscious, as a Jew, of the difference between the anti-Semites who 'only' want to discriminate against the Jews, and those who want to expel them, so I distinguish between Likud Zionists, who 'only' oppress and discriminate against, and Labour Zionists, who wish to establish apartheid, which will lead to expulsion.
     Second, let us look at the structure of the two major secular Zionist parties, Labour and Likud. Likud, and its parent party, Herut, has, since 1949, accepted into its membership any Israeli citizen. For many years Labour only accepted Jews as members and relegated Palestinians to vassal parties which it dominated from the outside. Even now, it does not accept Palestinians as members in its branches. A Palestinian living in say, Haifa cannot belong to the local Labour Party branch, but is relegated to 'an Arab district' to which all Arabs, wherever they reside, belong. Imagine the Jews being forbidden to belong to local branches of a British party and, instead, no matter where they live, relegated to 'a Jewish district' for Jews only, and you will grasp the 'moderation' recommended by Labour Zionists. Let me add that the kibbutz movement, of which they are so proud, is only for Jews. Non-Jews must convert to Judaism to become kibbutz members.
     With all Netanyahu's faults, Labour Zionism, as exemplified by Rabin and Peres and recommended by Mr. Katznelson, is much worse. There will be no progress on anything if this basic fact is not understood."
M I D - E A S T    R E A L I T I E S 
(202) 362-5266, Ext 638      Fax: (202) 362-6965      MER@MiddleEast.Org
***************************************************************
For information about the weekly TV program, MID-EAST REALITIES, send email to
INFOMER@MiddleEast.Org. ***************************************************************
For previous MER information, commentary, editorials & Readers Comments: http://WWW.MiddleEast.Org