For a start Ariel Sharon’s responsibility relating to the brutal massacre of 2,000 Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla, Beirut in September 1982 is well known. Following an international and domestic uproar, the Israeli government was forced to hold an inquiry. The resulting Kahan Commission laid direct responsibility on Elie Hobeika, the leader of Lebanon’s fascist Phalange militia that carried out the bloodbath, but said that Sharon bore “personal responsibility”. He was forced to resign from his post in 1983 although he remained in the cabinet.
I think it is pertinent to recall what the Fourth International said about Palestine in 1947-48. One cannot but be struck when reading its statement, Against the Stream, written nearly 60 years, how extraordinarily prescient its warning was. It insisted that Zionism was both utopian and reactionary and denounced the 1947 UN decision to partition Palestine into two tiny states. “By partition a wedge is driven between the Arab and Jewish worker. The Zionist state with its provocative lines of demarcation will bring about the blossoming forth of irredentist (revenge) movements on either side. There will be fighting for an ‘Arab Palestine’ and for a ‘Jewish state’ within the historic frontiers of Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel). As a result, the chauvinistic atmosphere thus created will poison the Arab world in the Middle East and throttle the anti- imperialist fight of the masses, while Zionists and Arab feudalists will vie for imperialist favours.” The Fourth International said: “The Jewish state, this gift of Truman’s and Bevin’s, gives the capitalist economy of the Zionists a respite. This economy rests on very flimsy foundations. Its products cannot compete on the world market. Its only hope is the inner market from which the Arab goods are debarred.... The continuous flow of Jewish immigrants, who would come with the remnants of their possessions, is apt to increase the circulation of goods. It will allow the bourgeois producers to dispose of their expensive wares. Mass immigration would also be a very useful means of forcing down wages which ‘weigh so heavily’ on Jewish industry. A state engaged in inevitable military conflicts would mean orders from the Hebrew Army, a source of Hebrew profits not to be underrated at all. A state would mean thousands of snug berths for Zionist veteran functionaries.” Jewish workers would have to bear the cost in the form of high prices and heavy taxes. Separated from their Arab brothers and sisters and prevented from fighting as a united class, they would be at the mercy of their class enemies, imperialism and the Zionist bourgeoisie. As Chaim Weitzmann, who was to become the first president of the new state, said, “The Jewish state will stem the communist influence.” In answer to the question, “And what promises does the Jewish state hold out? Does it really mean a step forward towards the solution of the Jewish problem?” the Fourth International warned, “The partition was not meant to solve Jewish misery nor is it ever likely to do so. This dwarf of a state, which is too small to absorb the Jewish masses, cannot even solve the problems of its citizens. The Hebrew state can only infest the Arab East with anti-Semitism and may well turn out—as Trotsky said—a bloody trap for hundreds On Nov 2, 4:13 am, mrchat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > news bywww.mrchat.net > > sraelis from across the political spectrum on Friday slammed a > decision by two television channels to air the first-ever interviews > of the extremist Jew who assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. > > The interviews come on the eve of the 13th anniversary of Yigal Amir's > assassination of Rabin at a Tel Aviv rally on November 4, 1995, which > aimed to torpedo the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians. > > The decision to air the interviews hit a raw nerve in the Jewish > state, which remains deeply divided over the Middle East peace process > that has made little progress since the collapse of the Oslo talks in > 2000. > > Amir, 43, who is serving a life sentence, was able to speak on the > phone to reporters from the privately-run Channel 2 and Channel 10 > without the prison service's knowledge in recent weeks. > > He told Channel 10 his act was influenced by the rhetoric of right- > wing politicians and generals, including former prime minister Ariel > Sharon and former army chief of staff Rafael Eitan, whom he said made > it clear the 1993 Oslo agreement "would lead to disaster." > > "Wither in prison" > > Amir has never expressed any remorse for the killing. > > The full interviews were to be broadcast on Friday evening but have > already drawn sharp reaction from the media and both sides of the > Jewish state's political world. > > "Yigal Amir ought to wither in prison for the rest of his life and he > should under no condition be part of the mediates public debate," > Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who today heads Rabin's centre-left Labor > party, said in a statement. > > The chairman of the right-wing National Religious Party Zevulun Orlev > also slammed the decision. > > "I think that the interviews with the despicable murderer have broken > the boycott and ostracizing that exists, and ought to exist, on Yigal > Amir... I regret that the race for the golden calf of ratings between > the private news channels has distorted this principle," Orlev told > public radio. > > Most Israeli media were critical of the decision to air the > controversial interviews. > > "These interviews contribute nothing to the freedom of expression. > Nothing. The legitimization process of this wretched murderer has been > going on for a long time," wrote Ben Dror Yemini, an editorialist for > the mass-selling Maariv daily. > > Sever Plotzcker, a senior correspondent for the Yediot Aharonot daily, > said that "broadcasting the interview with Yigal Amir is a > contemptible journalistic act, which no stammering can excuse." > > "Whoever seeks to air the rapist's ruminations and the murderer's > statements is motivated by one urge: To make money out of trash," he > said. > > Channel 10 anchor Ofer Shelah defended the decision to air the > interview. > > "The Israeli society decided not to face the question and remain in a > bubble saying that Yigal Amir does not exist," Shelah said. > > full > newshttp://www.mrchat.net/dummy-article/politics/israel-outraged-by-inter... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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