"WAR IS much too serious a thing to be left to military men," in Talleyrand's memorable words. In the same spirit, one could say: The American presidential elections are much too serious to be left to the Americans.
The US is now the only super-power on earth. It will remain so for quite some time to come. The decisions of the President of the United States affect every human being on this planet.
Unfortunately, the citizens of the world have no part in these elections. But they may, at least, voice an opinion.
Availing myself of this right I say: I am for Barack Obama.
FIRST OF ALL I must confess: my attitude towards the US is one of unrequited love. In my youth I was a great admirer. Like many others of my generation, I grew up on the legend of the new, idealistic country of pioneers, the world's torch of freedom. I admired Abe Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who hastened to the rescue of besieged Britain, when it stood alone against the Nazi monster, and who entered World War II at the decisive moment. I grew up on Wild West movies.
Gradually, I lost my illusions. Joe McCarthy helped me along the way. I learned that with depressing regularity, the US is seized by some hysteria or other. But every time, just before the brink of the abyss, it draws back.
During the Vietnam War I took part in demonstrations. I happened to be in America in 1967, and participated in the legendary march of the half million to the Pentagon. I reached the entrance of the building and saw before me a line of cold-eyed soldiers who seemed to be just itching to open fire. At the last moment it occurred to me that it would be unseemly for an Israeli Member of the Knesset to be implicated, so I jumped from the ledge of the entrance and twisted my ankle.
Somehow I got on the CIA (or was it the FBI?) black list. I managed to obtain a visa only with great difficulty, and was struck forever from the list of invitees to the American embassy parties in Tel Aviv. I don't know if this happened because of those protests, or because of my friendship with Henri Curiel, a Jewish-Egyptian revolutionary who helped us in our contacts with the PLO. The Americans held him, quite mistakenly, to be a KGB agent.
At the same time, my name was struck by the Soviets from every list of people invited from Israel. Perhaps they considered me a CIA agent (as I was called in the Israeli Communist party paper). So I was one of the few people in the world who appeared simultaneously on the black lists of both the USA and the Soviet Union - a source of moderate pride to me.
My friend Afif Safieh, now the chief PLO representative in the US, argues that there are two Americas: the America which exterminated the Native Americans and enslaved the blacks, the America of Hiroshima and McCarthy, and the other America, the America of the Declaration of Independence, of Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt.
In these terms, George Bush belongs to the first. Obama, his opposite in almost every respect, represents the second.
ONE CAN arrive at Obama by a process of elimination.
John McCain is a continuation of Bush. More attractive, probably more intelligent (which doesn't mean much). But he is more of the same. The same policy - a dangerous mix of intoxication with power and simple-mindedness. The same world of the Wild West myth, of Good Guys (Americans and their stooges) and Bad Guys (everybody else). A macho world of sham masculinity, where everything is seen through the sights of a gun.
McCain will go on with the wars, and may start new ones. His economic agenda is the same "swinish capitalism" (Shimon Peres' phrase), which has now brought disaster on the economy of the US, and the economy of all of us.
Eight years of Bush are enough for us. Thank you.
Hillary? True, there is something very positive in the fact that a woman is a potential candidate for the leadership of the most powerful country in the world. As the old Jewish blessing has it: Blessed art thou, the Lord, our God, who let us live to see this day. I believe that the feminist revolution was by far the most important one of the 20th Century, since it overturns the social patterns of thousands of years, and perhaps also the biological patterns of million of years. This revolution is still going on, and the election of a woman president would be a milestone.
Uri Avnery is a longtime Israeli peace activist. Since 1948 has advocated the setting up of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. In 1974, Uri Avnery was the first Israeli to establish contact with PLO leadership. In 1982 he was the first Israeli ever to meet Yassir Arafat, after crossing the lines in besieged Beirut. He served three terms in the Israeli Parliament (Knesset), and is the founder of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc). Visit his Website.
sit on the sidelines, unable to influence a choice that is very likely to affect me greatly. Whatever happened to «No taxation without representation» ? And I'm not kidding about taxation - while I don't directly pay for the follies of Messrs Bush and Cheney, I am forced willy nilly to pay for the soldiers that my tinpot government here in Sweden has sent to Afghanistan in order to demonstrate our unbreakable loyalty to the Empire, a number which it has promised to increase this year. What the hell does the Swedish military have to do in Afghanistan ? Please come home, boys and girls, hopefully without any deaths on your consciences and without a PTSD diagnosis....
Like Mr Avery, I am hoping that the person who swears the oath of office in Washington DC on 20 January next year will be Barack Hussein Obama (and that he doesn't get assassinated shortly thereafter or before). But admit it's a strange sort of election - and a strange sort of «democracy» - when one is forced to justify one's choice of candidate, one of three that «have groveled at the feet of AIPAC», by hoping that he doesn't really mean what he has said about one of the most immediate and pressing issues of the day....
Henri
by
mhenriday (0 articles, 11 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 152 comments)
on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 10:02:54 AM
Wow, I am pro-Obama and didnt even realize he said that
re: "There is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel, you're anti-Israel and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel."
That is exactly my position with regards to Jewish and Israeli issues and has been for a very long time. That he said this indicates that he really knows his stuff and what is going on and does have a huge measure of courage regarding this situation. Fantastic.
by
Steven Leser (228 articles, 49 quicklinks, 34 diaries, 1647 comments)
on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 11:09:59 AM
My hats off to you, Uri! I wish there were more like you in Israel. It takes courage to do what you have been doing for years on end. May be some day, some time, hopefully before the 'ugly' chics hatched by one Israeli Govt after another come to roost, a majority of Israelis will stop hatching such chics and have a real change of heart which could convince Israel's neighbours as being so!
by
syed mahdi (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 126 comments)
on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 2:29:03 PM
Do you suppose the Warlike Woman thing is a matter of OVER-compensation?
Just recently I heard some Neanderthal say "We can't have a woman president! The rest of the world will think we're weak"
As much as I'd like to see a woman rise to this position in the US of A, I worry about JUST such an over-zealous compensation for this attitude where Hillery is concerned.
by
Bia Winter (1 articles, 2 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 169 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 6:34:14 AM
5 comments
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