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Originally uploaded by wallatov. Auf die Gedenkveranstaltung für Jitzchak Rabin wies Lila in ihrem Blog schon hin und auch auf die verfahrene Situation:
Und doch war ich stolz, als ich die Menschenmengen sah. Das ist Israel: erbarmungslos kritisch den eigenen Schwächen gegenüber, und bereit, für einen wirklichen Friedensprozess (nicht die Illusion, von der Javier Solana oder Kofi Anan sprechen) viel aufzugeben. Sähe ich eine ähnliche Demonstration auf den Straßen von Gaza oder Ramallah, wäre mir sehr viel leichter ums Herz doch das kann ich mir wohl aus dem Kopf schlagen. von hier
Der Schriftsteller David Grossman, der durch den Libanonkrieg im August seinen Sohn Uri verlor (siehe hier), sprach eindrücklich zu den, geschätzten, 100 000 Versammelten:
It is not easy to take a look at ourselves this year. There was a war, and Israel flexed its massive military muscle, but also exposed Israel’s fragility. We discovered that our military might ultimately cannot be the only guarantee of our existence. Primarily, we have found that the crisis Israel is experiencing is far deeper than we had feared, in almost every way.
I am speaking here tonight as a person whose love for the land is overwhelming and complex, and yet it is unequivocal, and as one whose continuous covenant with the land has turned his personal calamity into a covenant of blood. I am totally secular, and yet in my eyes the establishment and the very existence of the State of Israel is a miracle of sorts that happened to us as a nation - a political, national, human miracle. I do not forget this for a single moment. Even when many things in the reality of our lives enrage and depress me, even when the miracle is broken down to routine and wretchedness, to corruption and cynicism, even when reality seems like nothing but a poor parody of this miracle, I always remember. And with these feelings, I address you tonight. “Behold land, for we hath squandered,” wrote the poet Saul Tchernikovsky in Tel Aviv in 1938. He lamented the burial of our young again and again in the soil of the Land of Israel. The death of young people is a horrible, ghastly waste. …
One of the most difficult outcomes of the recent war is the heightened realization that at this time there is no king in Israel, that our leadership is hollow. Our military and political leadership is hollow. I am not even talking about the obvious blunders in running the war, of the collapse of the home front, nor of the large-scale and small-time corruption.
Die gesamte Rede hat Haaretz in englischer Sprache dokumentiert.
Wer die Rede gelesen hat, empfindet die Worte von Henryk Broder in der Jüdischen Allgemeinen aus dem März 2005 geradezu als obszön:
Es stimmt, Israel ist heute mehr Täter als Opfer. Das ist auch gut und richtig so, nachdem es die Juden fast 2000 Jahre lang mit der Rolle der ewigen Opfer versucht und dabei nur schlechte Erfahrungen gemacht haben. Täter haben meistens eine längere Lebenserwartung als Opfer und es macht mehr Spass, Täter als Opfer zu sein.
Wieviele Philosemiten werden das nachplappern? Sollten vielleicht aber lesen, was Grossman sagt:
Yitzhak Rabin took the road of peace with the Palestinians, not because he possessed great affection for them or their leaders. Even then, as you recall, common belief was that we had no partner and we had nothing to discuss with them. Rabin decided to act, because he discerned very wisely that Israeli society would not be able to sustain itself endlessly in a state of an unresolved conflict. He realized long before many others that life in a climate of violence, occupation, terror, anxiety and hopelessness, extracts a price Israel cannot afford. This is all relevant today, even more so. We will soon talk about the partner that we do or do not have, but before that, let us take a look at ourselves.
Zugleich macht Grossman klar, dass er kein Träumer ist, weiß er doch genau, mit wem man reden kann und mit wem nicht:
Any reasonable person in Israel, and I will say in Palestine too, knows exactly the outline of a possible solution to the conflict between the two peoples. Any reasonable person here and over there knows deep in their heart the difference between dreams and the heart’s desire, between what is possible and what is not possible by the conclusion of negotiations. Anyone who does not know, who refuses to acknowledge this, is already not a partner, be he Jew or Arab, is entrapped in his hermetic fanaticism, and is therefore not a partner. Let us take a look at those who are meant to be our partners. The Palestinians have elected Hamas to lead them, Hamas who refuses to negotiate with us, refuses even to recognize us. What can be done in such a position? Keep strangling them more and more, keep mowing down hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are innocent civilians like us? Kill them and get killed for all eternity? Turn to the Palestinians, Mr. Olmert, address them over the heads of Hamas, appeal to their moderates, those who like you and I oppose Hamas and its ways, turn to the Palestinian people, speak to their deep grief and wounds, acknowledge their ongoing suffering.
Und doch hören wir gerne auf diejenigen, die uns ins Ohr flüstern wollen, dass nur diejenigen existieren, die alle Israelis auslöschen wollen und auch uns Diasporajuden an den Kragen wollen.
From where I stand right now, I beseech, I call on all those who listen, the young who came back from the war, who know they are the ones to be called upon to pay the price of the next war, on citizens, Jew and Arab, people on the right and the left, the secular, the religious, stop for a moment, take a look into the abyss. Think of how close we are to losing all that we have created here. Ask yourselves if this is not the time to get a grip, to break free of this paralysis, to finally claim the lives we deserve to live.
Möglicherweise wird diese Rede (von der ZEIT?) ins Deutsche übersetzt, das wäre wünschenswert, wenn nicht nur Leute wie Lieberman gehört werden, sondern auch Männer wie Grossman.