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Recent
Stories
June
16, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Children of Death
June
14 / 15, 2003
Edward
Said
A Roadmap to What and Where?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pryor Unrestraint: Killer Bill Pryor's
Mad Quest for the Federal Bench
David Lindorff
Rumsfeld v. Belgium
Jennifer
Loewenstein
Suicide's Most Willing Accomplice
Lee Sustar
US Tax System: Rigged for the Rich
Ben
Tripp
Of Dissidents and Dissonance
William
S. Lind
Lies, Damned Lies and Military Intelligence
Joanne
Mariner
Rebellious Judges
Gila Svirsky
A Macabre Alliance
Mickey
Z.
Where We Are
Chris Floyd
Metaphysics as a Guide to Murder
Noah
Leavitt
Peru as Our Crystal Ball?
Yves Engler
and Bianca Mugyenyi
The G8 and Africa
Dr.
Gerry Lower
Dear Rudy, Let's Get Those Damned Liberals
Ted Dace
A Review of Kovel's The Enemy of Nature
Adam
Engel
Midnight at the Apocalyptic Pancake
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Greeder, Albert, and O'Hayer
Website
of the Weekend
AEI: Starts Wars; Creates
Poverty
June
13, 2003
David
Vest
Bush
Roadmap to What?
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded?
John
Chuckman
The Man Who Wasn't There
Jason Leopold
Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence
Michael
Leon
Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media
Negar Azimi
Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America
Saul
Landau
Shiite Happens
Hammond
Guthrie
Then and Now
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/13
June
12, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Intel-gate Row in Britain: a Chronology
Ahmad Faruqui
The Tragic Legacy of the Six Day
War
Wayne
Madsen
Unfit for Office: Time for Rumsfeld to Resign
Laura Carlsen
Hunger and Security
Tarif
Abboushi
Warm and Fuzzy in Aqaba
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
a Former CIA Analyst
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/12
June
11, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
June
10, 2003
Benjamin
Shepard
A Season in the Anti-War Movement
Chris
Floyd
Bush Family Lies About Iraq and Nazi
Germany
Wayne
Madsen
Weaponsgate
Jason Leopold
Powell's Denials Ring Hollow
Richard
Lichtman
Whining, Whimpering Leftists Confront the Logic of American World
Domination
Ray
Close
A CIA Analyst on Why the Lies About
WMD Matter
Hammond
Guthrie
Banking on Saddam?
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/10
June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft is Coming!
Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
Agustin
Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
Poor
Gila
Svirsky
Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Human Worth in Bush's America
Michael
S. Ladah
A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder
Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
June
6, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft the Insatiable
David
Krieger
The Big Lie
Ramzy
Baroud
Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
Gancarski
Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay?
David
Lindorff
Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
Steve
Perry
Greens and
Moore in 04? No
June
5, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear
Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina
Imraan
Siddiqi
Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
Michael
Leon
Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done
Robert
Jensen
Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy
Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
Paul
Dean
How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush
Gary Leupp
When Spooks Speak Out
Website
of the Day
Evidence in Black and White?
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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June
16, 2003
The Rantisi Attack
Children of
Death
By URI AVNERY
A week after the ship of peace was solemnly launched
on its perilous voyage from Aqaba harbor, it was hit by a torpedo.
It is not yet clear whether it is wrecked or can continue on
its way in spite of the damage.
The story of its voyage so far: An Israeli
helicopter gunship tried to kill Abd-al-Aziz al-Rantisi, one
of the leaders of the political wing of Hamas. He miraculously
survived. Immediately afterwards the gunships killed other Hamas
leaders. Clearly, this was the beginning of a campaign to kill
the leaders of all the wings of Hamas--military, political, social,
educational and religious.
Such a campaign is, of course, the outcome
of long preparations, which take weeks and months. It was evidently
planned even before the Aqaba summit conference convened, but
postponed by Sharon in order to afford President Bush his moments
of photographic glory on the shore of the Red Sea.  Immediately after the President and his
entourage went home, radiant with success, the machinery of death
went into action.
In establishing intent, all courts around
the world act upon a simple principle: a person who carries out
an action with predictable results is held to have intended that
result. That is true for this campaign, too.
The killing of the Hamas leaders (together
with their wives, children and casual bystanders) is intended
to attain the following results: (a) acts of revenge by Hamas,
i.e. suicide bombings, (b) the failure of the Palestinian Authority's
efforts to secure the agreement of Hamas to a cease-fire, (c)
the destruction of Abu Mazen's political standing right from
the start, (d) the demolition of the Road Map, (e) compensation
for the settlers after the removal of some sham "outposts".
All five objectives have been achieved.
Blood and fire cover the country, the media on both sides are
busy with funerals and mutual incitement, the efforts to establish
a hudnah (truce) have stopped, Sharon called Abu Mazen a chicken
without feathers, the Road Map is toterring , Bush has mildly
reproached Sharon while directing his wrath at Hamas.
The "dismantling" of the phony
settlement-outposts, a joke to start with, has been stopped.
Construction activity in the settlements is in full swing, and
so is the building of the "fence" that is establishing
a new border deep inside the West Bank. (Both Bush and Blair
have demanded that it be stopped, a boost to the campaign we
started months ago). The closures and blockades have been tightened.
The situation in the occupied Palestinian territories is back
to what it was before, as if the entire performance in Aqaba
had never taken place.
The decision to kill Rantisi was, therefore, a decisive point
in the history of Israel. And the first question must be: who
was it that took this decision?
It is easy to say who did not take it.
Not the government, which has become
a choir of flatterers and yes-men. Sharon treats them with contempt.
He would not dream of consulting them.
Not the Knesset, which has reached an
unprecedented low. It now openly includes representatives of
the underworld, a murderer who has asked for (and received) a
pardon, and some small politicians who look as if they had been
picked at random from the street. The Speaker is known as an
entertaining character.
And not the public at large, of course.
All public opinion polls show that the public wanted the road
Map to succeed. All believed that Sharon was serious about seeking
peace. On the left, too, there were many simpletons who lauded
Sharon for changing his spots. Nobody asked the public if it
wants to start a new round of violence. Indeed, the latest poll
indicates that 67% of the public did not support the attempt
on Rantisi's life after it happened. But Sharon knew that the
public would accept his decisions and follow him like the sheep
on his ranch.
If so, who took the decision?
That is no secret. The decision was taken
by five generals:
- The Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, a
retired two-star general.
- The Minister of Defense, Sha'ul Mofaz, a retired three-star
general.
- The Chief-of-Staff, Moshe Ya'alon, a serving three-star general.
- The Mossad chief, Me'ir Dagan, a former one-star general.
- The Security Service chief, Avi Dichter, with a rank equivalent
to a three-star general.
This military quintet is now making decisions
about the fate of Israel, perhaps for generations, perhaps for
ever. In Latin America they would be called a Junta (military
committee).
We have spoken more than once about the
special status of generals--in and out of uniform--in our state.
It has no equivalent in the Western world. In no democratic country
does a general now serve as prime minister. In no democratic
country does a professional soldier serve as minister of defense,
certainly not one who was wearing a general's uniform right on
the eve of his ministerial appointment. In no democratic country
does the Chief-of-Staff attend all cabinet meetings, where he
serves as the highest authority in all "security" matters--which,
in Israel, include practically all matters of national policy.
The rule of the generals is based on
an extensive infrastructure. An Israeli general leaves the army,
as a rule, in his early 40s. If he does not join the top leadership
of a political party (Likud, Labor and the National Religious
Party are at present led by generals, and Meretz is practically
led by a colonel), or manage to get elected as a mayor, his comrades
help him to settle down as the director of a large government
corporation, university or public utility.
The hundreds of ex-generals who man most
of the key posts in government and society are not only a group
of veterans sharing common memories. The partnership goes much
deeper. Dozens of years of service in the regular army form a
certain outlook on life, a political world-view, ways of thinking
and even language. In all the years of Israel, there have been
no more than three or four exceptions to this rule.
On the face of it, there are right-wing
and left-wing generals, but that is an optical illusion. This
week it was particularly obvious: after the assassination attempt
on Rantisi and the Hamas revenge-attack, dozens of generals appeared
in the media. (An Israeli general, however stupid he may be,
automatically becomes a sought-after commentator in the media.)
For the sake of "balance", generals-of-the-right and
generals-of-the-left were brought on screen, and lo and behold,
they all said the same thing, more or less, even using the same
terminology.
More than in the "commentaries"
themselves, this found expression in two Hebrew words: Ben Mavet
("Son of death", meaning a person who must be killed).
As if by order, this week these two detestable
words entered the public discourse. There was hardly a general,
politician or correspondent who did not roll them on his tongue
with obvious relish. They had never been heard before in the
media. Now, suddenly, everybody has started to use them. Rantisi
was a "son of death". Sheikh Yassin was a "son
of death". The other Hamas leaders were "children
of death". Perhaps even Yasser Arafat himself.
The expression appears in the Bible,
II Samuel, XII. King David has committed a heinous crime, deliberately
arranging for his most loyal officer, Uriah the Hittite, to be
killed in battle, so he can have his wife, Bath-sheba, for himself.
The prophet Nathan denounces him for this deed, telling him the
story of the rich man who slaughtered the only sheep of a poor
man. David gets very angry and tells the prophet: "As the
Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing is a son of death!"
To which Nathan replies: "Thou art the man!"
Ironically, the Bible applied the term
to the greatest leader of the people of Israel, who has committed
an abominable crime. Now it is used by the leaders of the state
of Israel against Palestinians.
But this is not the most important point. It is more significant
that the Prime Minister and his small group of generals introduce
these two words, and all the people repeat them like a giant
flock of parrots, without thinking, without protesting. This
is rather frightening in itself, but when these words reflect
a disastrous national decision and the public accepts it without
question, that is even more frightening.
It is not yet clear whether Sharon has
succeeded in scuttling the boat of the peace initiative. Perhaps
President Bush will after all show some resolution and save the
initiative, in which he has invested his personal prestige. But
in the meantime the dance of death continues, and the blood flows--quite
literally--in the streets of Israel and Palestine.
Uri Avnery
is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He
is one of the writers featured in The
Other Israel: Voices of Dissent and Refusal. He can be
reached at: avnery@counterpunch.org.
Yesterday's Features
David
Vest
Bush
Roadmap to What?
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded?
John
Chuckman
The Man Who Wasn't There
Jason Leopold
Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence
Michael
Leon
Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media
Negar Azimi
Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America
Saul
Landau
Shiite Happens
Hammond
Guthrie
Then and Now
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/13
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