Common Grounds

Our Friday News Analysis | A Balance of Power Through a Balance of Terror?

August 19, 2022

By Abraham A. van Kempen

"Remembering the Past is Committing to the Future…"

To remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear war.

To remember Hiroshima is to commit to peace.

To remember that the city's people have suffered is to renew our faith in humankind, the ability to do good, the freedom to choose what is exemplary, and the determination to turn disaster into a new beginning.

Faced with the calamity for humanity that is all war, humanity repeatedly reaffirms that waging war is not inevitable or unchangeable.

Self-destruction is not our destiny.

Clashes between ideologies, aspirations, and needs can and must be regulated and resolved by means other than war and violence.

Humanity is obliged to resolve differences and conflicts by peaceful means.

The broad spectrum of problems that place many peoples at various cultural, social, and economic development gives rise to international tension and conflict.

We must solve these problems for humanity by the ethical principles of fairness and justice, safeguarded by the main agreements and institutions.

A System of laws should give the international community a mandate that regulates international relations and maintains peace, just as legal norms protect the national order.

Those who cherish life on earth should encourage Governments and decision-makers in the economic and social fields to act in harmony with the demands of peace rather than narrow individual interests.

Peace must always be the goal: peace pursued and protected in any circumstance. Let us not repeat the past, a past of violence and destruction.

Let us embark on the arduous path of peace, the only approach that suits human dignity, the only way that leads to the proper fullness of human destiny, the only path to a future in which equity, justice, and solidarity are realities; not just distant dreams."

Click here for full text: Saint Pope John Paul II at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, Japan 25 February 1981

19 August 2022

By Abraham A. van Kempen

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive?

Ohrid, Macedonia, 19 August 2022 | If you know of any story that is decisive, tell the world. We're still searching.

In Gratitude

Permit me to start this edition with a message I sent to our Wednesday News Analyst, Tanja Dzamtoska, who selected as part of this week's Wednesday News Analysis Richard Silverstein, 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: No Solutions, No Illusions.'

"Dear Tanja,

The article by Richard Silverstein affected me miraculously.

It so happened that, this morning, I felt low spiritually. I'm unsure if I fully caved into my medical and physical handicap. Nonetheless, I felt melancholy. I saw people walking to and from the beach, and I reminisced that before the accident, I'd be walking to the castle and back or just about everywhere around here. I should be swimming from one end of the lake to the other.

Ironically, Silverstein's article, which perhaps should have depressed me even more, lifted me. Inside my soul, I responded to the report with YES! There had always been a solution, not an illusion.

Where there is a will, there is a way. It's the 'will' that is lacking. The solution is in our hands despite the reality of conflicting interests that cannot come to a fair and equitable, and amicable agreement. And yes, there is inevitably a win-win solution sometime soon, still in my lifetime. I do believe that.

Then, I broke out of my depression and realized there was still much to do despite my trauma. Thank you, Tanja, for selecting this profound and newsworthy article."

Paradoxically, Mr. Silverstein concluded his pessimistic view with a sliver of hope:

"We have waited 70 years. Russian Communism lasted for 75 years. Rome fell after centuries. But eventually, a house, the house of Israel-Palestine, divided against itself, cannot stand."

The Olympic Games, Munich, Germany, 4 September 1972, aka the Munich Massacre | This was my 9/11 moment. When I woke up and heard the news, a stone's throw away from the Israeli section, my world turned upside down. On that day, I lost my innocence, my youth. The Olympic Village turned into a warzone. Heavily equipped security agents in military uniform, protected in armored vehicles, replaced the former security force previously dressed in pastel colors – pastel blue, pastel green, pastel orange, and pastel yellow. In retrospect, they looked silly. But Germany wanted to contrast the 1972 Olympics with Hitler's militaristic 1936 Olympics. Before the massacre, a day of infamy that shocked the world, the inner sanctum inside the Olympic Village was one big multi-cultural festivity. It felt like an affable tug-of-war. Of course, everyone pulled for their home team, especially when inching beyond sobriety at the Hofbrauhaus, where the Bavarian beer flows freely. We also celebrated a mutual feeling of togetherness, a unity of divergent cultures with non-violent – and not always friendly -- international competition as our common bond.

Tears are rolling down my cheeks as I share my heartfelt thoughts. To this day, I can neither grasp nor fully comprehend the reality I witnessed with eyes that saw and ears that heard on that tragic day. King Hussein of Jordan, the only leader of an Arab country to denounce the attack publicly, called it a "savage crime against civilization ... perpetrated by sick minds." [32] On 5 September, Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, appealed to other countries to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed." She also stated, "if we [Israel] should give in, then no Israeli anywhere in the world shall feel that his life is safe ... it's blackmail of the worst kind." [31]

The hostage-takers demanded the release of 234 Palestinians and non-Arabs jailed in Israel, along with two West German insurgents held by the West German penitentiary system, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. They were founders of the West German Red Army Faction.

The hostage-takers threw a lifeless body out of the residence's front door to demonstrate their resolve. Israel's response was immediate and absolute: there would be no negotiation. Israel's official policy at the time was to refuse to negotiate with terrorists under any circumstances, as, according to the Israeli government, such talks would incentivize future attacks.

Chancellor Willy Brandt and Minister for the Interior Hans-Dietrich Genscher rejected Israel's offer to send an Israeli special forces unit to West Germany.[34 U.S.President Richard Nixon privately discussed several possible American responses, such as declaring a national day of mourning (favored by Secretary of State William P. Rogers) or having Nixon fly to the athletes' funerals. Nixon and U.S National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger decided instead to press the United Nations to take steps against international terrorism.[33]

I am happy that "Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas walked back the widely condemned accusation he made a day earlier that Israel had committed '50 holocausts' against Palestinians, claiming he had merely been intending to highlight Israeli' crimes.'" (See 'Amid furor, Abbas walks back '50 holocausts' claim, says he meant Israeli' crimes,' Times of Israel, 17 August 2022.) In democratic Germany, it is unlawful to denigrate the Jews and Israel publicly. In all due respect to Mr. Abbas and my brothers and sisters in Israel-Palestine, he could have soothed the audience with humility by keeping his cool.

What if Mr. Abbas said something like:

"What happened that day is wrong.

What has happened and is still happening to my people is unconscionable.

I am here to tell you that most Palestinians are good people.

Yes, I want to apologize in the name of decency.

May I propose that on that day when all the people in Israel-Palestine can join hands in peace, the governments of Israel and Palestine can reciprocate with apologies as a start to forgive and forget."

Learn from the German experience

I would like to invoke the people of Germany to help expand our horizons. Germany can help forewarn Israel on what NOT to do, that enough is enough and that Auschwitz's tragedy should remain in ad infinitum in a permanent state of NEVER AGAIN. Without exception, every German I know will always preface any conversation concerning the Israeli-Palestinian Quest to Peacefully Co-exist with:

"We Germans may not discuss this matter (publicly). If we say anything for or against the Israelis, we might be labeled anti-Semitic, and no German may give the impression of anti-Semitism."

But most Germans know intuitively and instinctively that the Israeli policy is disastrous for Israel and the world. It leads toward permanent war, empowering radical fundamentalist Islam throughout the Region and the isolation of Israel in the world as an occupation-state in which the Jews will become an oppressing minority.

Germans, especially those in my generation, really don't want to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian Predicament. But if pressed, and it's not easy, just about all of my German friends will gradually release their inner thoughts on the subject, carefully and methodically, typical of the Teutonic mind. Every German I know confides how happy they are for the Jews to be now living in their own proclaimed homeland.

My friends in Germany tend to be 'pro-Israeli' and 'pro-Palestinian' in the sense that they believe Palestinians and Jews must work toward peaceful co-existence. They both have the right to live together and must find ways to co-exist peacefully without German intervention or interference. But, of course, my conversations reach a climax when I try to get my German friends to give me their understanding and opinions of the Israeli modus operandi: the Israeli pretext of defending themselves against a defenseless people whom the Israelis subject to a systematic series of blitzkriegs complete with lethal military invasions, confiscation of personal properties, displacement, and dispossession at gunpoint, causing the indigenous people to flee their homes and to live a life, many for life, as refugees, behind fortified walls in bondage, poverty, and servitude.

Initially, the Teutonic mind idles in neutral and responds objectively and analytically. From them, I hear: "It takes two to tango. The Palestinians have caused lots of problems, too. Both people are cut from the same cloth. They are equally stubborn." But after a few beers too many, the threshold of truth becomes more fluid. This is when all of my German friends show their true colors, vehemently expressing antifascism.

Every German I know despises fascism: radical far-right authoritarian nationalism. Few dares say out loud (other than in closed quarters) that what the Israelis have done since 1948 brings back memories of conversations with parents or grandparents describing the days leading toward Nazi Germany. My friends in Germany have taught me as much about the dark side of Nazi Germany as the dark side of Israel. Their warnings, stemming from their collective experiences and guilt, could be Germany's contribution to effectuating positive results in the Region.

The Haaretz Editorial of 17 August 2022 states: "The wall-to-wall condemnation of the comments by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin this week caused his office to release a clarification:"

'The Holocaust is the most heinous crime in modern history, it reads. In his statement, he had no intention to deny it. The crimes Abbas spoke of were the massacres perpetrated against the Palestinian people since the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948 and the permanent displacement of a majority of the Palestinian Arabs by Israeli security forces. Crimes that haven't been resolved to this day.'"

Indeed, we Jews are a product of the Holocaust. The Holocaust has shaped our being. We are more than the Holocaust. We are built on principles of equality, tolerance, and pluralism. Yet our democracy still resembles an 'ethnocracy, 'Jews uber alles.

Israel's Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General Yair Golan, Called for National Introspection

Serendipitously, on 4 May 2016, the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, Israel's Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General Yair Golan, spoke at Israel's Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies. Mr. Ori Nir from Americans for Peace Now reported: "He called for national introspection" and evoked a dark time in the history of the Jewish people, and riveted his listeners to engage in soul-searching. Every German can relate to the words uttered by General Golan as he compassionately addressed the Israeli people everywhere:

"The Holocaust must lead us to a profound reflection on the responsibilities of leadership and on the quality of society. It must lead us to think thoroughly about how we – here and now – treat the foreigner, the widow and the orphan, and those similar to them.

The Holocaust must lead us to think about our public life, and even more so, it must encourage all who can—not just those who want—to bear public responsibility.

Because if there is something that scares us about the memory of the Holocaust, it is identifying nauseating processes that occurred in Europe in general and Germany in particular, 70, 80, and 90 years ago, and finding evidence of their presence here among us, today, in 2016.

There is nothing easier than hating the alien. Nothing is more straightforward than provoking anxiety and horror. Nothing is simpler than brutalization, jadedness, and self-righteousness.

On Holocaust Memorial Day, it is appropriate to discuss our ability to uproot from our midst signs of intolerance, signs of violence, and self-destruction on the path toward moral deterioration."

Measurably More Accommodating

General Golan could never have stated his convictions, presented from a prepared text and in full uniform to an audience, including senior government officials, at the height of Nazi Germany. Neither would the Nazis then grant Ms. Haneen Zoabi, the Palestinian political leader in the Knesset, the time of day to speak his mind freely. The far-right authoritarian nationalism in present-day Israel might be measurably more accommodating than the far-right radical authoritarian nationalism or Fascism in Nazi Germany. For too long, it has been considered politically obtuse and socially uncouth– insensitive and cruel – for advocates of Palestinian rights to compare Israel's treatment of Palestinians – the ethnic cleansing of 1948 and 1967, the massacres and other war crimes, the massive violations of human rights, etc. – to the actions of Nazi Germany. But often, it helps to open wounds to drain the 'bad' blood.'

What Matters Most

In her own words, Knesset Member Ms. Haneen Zoabi, reportedly the most militant spokesperson for Palestinian rights in the Knesset, boosts the preponderant precepts urged by General Golan:

"How can you teach the lessons of the Holocaust when you don't discern the frightening similarity between what is happening today all around us and what happened in Germany in the 1930s?

The Holocaust obligates us not to be silent when Israel legislates racist laws; not to be silent when Israel exiles natives; not to be silent when Israel steals their land and properties; not to be silent when Israel bombs entire neighborhoods and entire families,wiping them off the face of the earth; and not to be silent when Israel detain, imprison or execute political activists.

Out of respect for the Holocaust, its victims, and its lessons, I appeal to you and beg you to deal critically with the Israeli usage, which exploits and minimizes the Holocaust; to educate Israelis on critical thinking and moral awareness; to open their eyes to the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people."

Breaking the Ice with Oil and Vinegar

Despite the appeals officially delivered by General Yair Golan and by Ms. Haneen Zoabi, I can't help but feel that I'm walking on thin ice with a sword hanging on a thin thread above my head. Breaking the ice between the Germans and the Israelis is like mixing oil and vinegar. Combined, they add zest to a tossed green salad to make it come alive. Let's forge a sustainable solution – not a band-aid – to empower the Israelis and the Palestinians to live together.

An aversion to Nazi crimes has led many Germans to struggle to build a better and moral world, not just faster and more comfortable cars, in which there is little room to spare for bigotry and intolerance. Yet, in Israel, the hailstorm "of racist bills in the Knesset, those already adopted and those in the works, strongly resembles the laws adopted by the Reichstag in the early days of the Nazi regime," says the late Israeli activist, Mr. Uri Avnery. He continues:

"Some rabbis call for a boycott of Arab shops.

The call 'Death to the Arabs,' reminiscent of 'Judah verrecke,' is regularly heard at soccer matches.

A member of parliament has called for the separation between Jewish and Arab newborns in hospitals.

A chief rabbi declared that God created goyim (non-Jews) to serve the Jews.

Our ministers of education and culture are busy subduing the schools, theatre, and arts to the extreme rightist line, in German, 'Gleichschaltung.'

The minister of justice is relentlessly attacking the Supreme Court, the pride of Israel.

Gaza is a ghetto, and many Israelis are still entranced and enraptured to the Revised Zionism ideology; but, for how long?"

The American Folk Song: "If I Have a Hammer …"

Some pick up their hammers to shatter glass, to harm, injure and destroy. Others work their hammers to forge steel, to shape something that lasts.

"Israel is far from a monolithic society," says Mr. Uri Avnery.

"We have a government of the extreme right, but there is also a peace camp.

Some soldiers refuse to remove settlements, while others refuse to guard settlements.

Many [Israeli] people devote their time and energy to the struggle against the occupation, sometimes exposing them to physical danger in the process."

Against this backdrop, Mr. Avnery continues: "the Netanyahu government has paid lip service to the two-state principle and is violating it daily. It has rejected a full freeze on settlement activity in the territories, which all governments, including the German government, agree should become the state of Palestine. It is building at a frantic pace in East Jerusalem, which, according to Germany, must become the capital of Palestine. It is carrying out in Jerusalem something which comes very close to ethnic cleansing."

"Such Israeli attitudes mock the claims of American politicians such as Hillary Clinton, "that Israel is built on principles of equality, tolerance, and pluralism… And we marvel that such a bastion of liberty exists in a region plagued by intolerance."

In January 2016, the Israeli Knesset rejected a bill that would have secured equality for all the country's citizens," says Professor of history Mr. Lawrence Davidson in his article 'Zionism Begins to Unravel.'

General Golan prophetically concluded his speech with:

"On Holocaust Remembrance Day, as we remember the six million of our people who were slaughtered in Europe, it is incumbent upon us to remember the 6.5 million, those living now, and to ask ourselves what is the purpose of our return to our land. What is appropriate to sanctify and what is not, what is proper to praise and what is not?

Most of all, we should ask how it is that we are to realize our purpose as a light unto the nations and a model society.

Only this kind of remembrance can serve as a living and breathing monument for our people – a worthy monument, a monument of truth.

May we know how to live a worthy life; for the sake of the memory of the victims and the sake of generations yet to come? And may we be grateful for all the good that we have been blessed with, and may we be blessed with guarding it.

We will fight to the end if we must, against any enemy, protecting our right to build and our duty to do what's right."

When is Enough, ENOUGH?

In the greater scheme of things, Israel, with all its might, is but a spec of dirt, not worthy of igniting another World War, contrary to populist fears. This Israeli house of cards built on ideas envisaged during post-revolutionary Russia that trickled into the ideological mindset of post-World War I Europe – Hitler's Germany, Franco's Spain, Mussolini's Italy, King Boris Bulgaria notwithstanding Vichy France and other populist regimes driven by radical nationalism in Croatia, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria – can and will eventually collapse. According to Iranian propaganda, it doesn't take much to obliterate Israel. Countries in the Region now at each other's throats could fuel a pact to subdue Israel, the nemesis common to all. They're getting close to reaching the point of 'enough is enough,' the point of no return. Enemies who are enemies against a common enemy could become, geopolitically, comrades in arms.

I want Israel to survive; I want Palestine to be Palestine. Neither can exist without the other. Both must reconcile with each other. Neither can get away with murder nor can either get something for nothing. Both are presently on the path of self-destruction. "Today's status quo absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained. It's not sustainable," said Secretary of State Mr. John Kerry in 2016.

I cannot be more long-winded and as persuasive. Their only choice: build the bridge and come together.

"Both sides are guilty of invoking the Holocaust to justify their positions. Mahmoud Abbas is only the latest to do so.

If the Palestinian misuse of these analogies is utterly wrong, their abuse by Zionists has been malicious. Israeli leaders have called any Palestinian or Arab leader they disliked a "new Hitler" to justify aggression and war against Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, and others. Before their trilateral attack on Egypt in 1956, Israel and its co-conspirators, France and Britain, portrayed its pan-Arab leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, as "Hitler on the Nile."

"Benny Gantz, who has met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas three times in the last year, refused to rule out further in-person meetings despite the former's widely criticized Holocaust remark."

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's statement that Israel had committed "50 Holocausts," made during a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, upset the chancellor and the Israeli public – as well as Abbas' closest advisers.

His aides were quick to realize that the 87-year-old president hadn't given much thought to his use of the term "Holocaust," much less in front of the German chancellor and on German soil and that Israel would be quick to leverage his remark for public relations purposes to influence global opinion. They also realized they had failed to sufficiently prepare the president for the press conference. German journalists predictably flooded the leaders with questions about the Holocaust and the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Israel's public diplomacy machine and Israeli politicians' exploitation of the incident for campaign purposes combine to boost Abbas into the headlines. The Israeli responses quickly followed, from Prime Minister Yair Lapid to the last Knesset member. Phrases like "Holocaust denier," "there is no partner," and "his true face has been revealed" recurred in almost every press statement and tweet by elected politicians.

Every day, Abbas' office puts out statements and messages about the Palestinian Authority's desire to promote a diplomatic solution, but these don't interest Israelis. His remark on Tuesday fell on Israel like manna from heaven. A few days ago, Israel was on the public relations defensive due to pictures of civilians killed during its recent operations in the Gaza Strip.

But now, all the fire is being aimed at Abbas."

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Next week's News Analysis will focus on "Smoke and Mirrors."

We'll compare and contrast the news or noise coming from Moscow, Kyiv, Tehran, Beijing, and Washington DC. Prepare yourself for a shock or two.

Can the world reach a balance of power without a balance of terror? When will humanity learn from the lessons of history? Read all about it next week.

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Related articles by Abraham A. van Kempen:

Last Week's News Analysis, 'What's Mine is Mine, What's Yours is Mine Also.'

Friday News Analysis, Blood is Thicker than Water

Friday Edition, Israel's Twin Sister?

Friday Edition, Not in My Backyard (Part 3)

Friday Edition, Not in My Backyard (Part 2)

Friday Edition, Not in My Backyard (Part 1).

Friday Edition: Who Are They Fooling? Us or Them or None? Do the Russians Know Their Game?

Friday Edition: Why Should Ukrainians Die for Europe, the Eu-US Coalition of the Willing?

Friday Edition: Who's Wise (Part 8: The Coalition of the WISE Versus the Coalition of the WILLING)

Friday Edition: Let's Talk About Oil and Gas (Not part of the 8-part series)