Lana Turner
By Israel Shamir
My friends asked me to comment on the letter
of Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish. They spoke against what they
feared might be my anti-Semitism. I am certainly pleased with
their principled stand. As a Jew and a man, I salute them. Any
irrational aversion to Jews should be certainly eradicated and
condemned. While saluting their good intentions, I consider
their judgment to be somewhat premature. It is based on my
Easter greetings which they failed to understand. Christopher
Bollyn of The SPOTLIGHT stated it well. He wrote:
“I realize that neither of you are probably
deeply immersed in Christianity, but you must understand that
Shamir …compares the Israelis, Jews, and Americans to spectators
of an execution that they can do something to prevent.
"I say to you, each one of us has to see
oneself as is he personally stands on Via Dolorosa, and decides,
whether the execution will be carried out. If we keep our mouth
shut, we deserve to be called 'Christ killers'. If we stop it,
we shall change history. The sins of the past, scarlet as blood,
will become white as snow," Shamir wrote.
He is demanding that Jews, Israelis, and
Americans do something to prevent the bloodbath that is
occurring in Palestine as we speak.”
Indeed, while the Jews of old provide
background to the Passion, all of us are the background of the
present suffering of the Palestinians, which was the theology
behind my Take Two. In other words, all of us, Jews and Gentiles
alike, are ‘the Jews’ of the Palestinian Passion.
I perceive the excitement of Mr Abunimah and
Mr Ibish could be generously explained away by their relative
innocence of theology and history. They even put the exclamation
mark of ‘sic’ after my words, failing to recognize the quotation
from the prophets (scarlet sins and white snow) which is a part
of Yom Kippur liturgy. They are not attuned to read what I
wrote.
Anyway, Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish are
entitled to their opinions. Their concern for the purity of the
Palestinian banner meets my approval. However, my appreciation
of their position is slightly diminished by some additional
facts. The present accusatory letter is not the first, nor the
second they composed in connection with my humble self. In their
previous letters, the accusation of anti-Semitism was absent,
but they called me alternatively a Mossad agent, a pursuer of
Arab money, and even a false pretender to the high rank of an
Israeli Russian journalist and a Vesti columnist. Such
insistence combined with inconsistence makes one wonder if their
goals were limited to fighting anti-Jewish prejudice. If I were
a suspicious man, I would probably suspect their motives.
But I am ready to give Ali Abunimah and
Hussein Ibish full benefit of any doubt. It is probable that
they were motivated not by spite and envy, not by a fear of
competition or of ‘rocking the boat’, not by working in cahoots
with the Jewish lobby, but by nobler feelings. They remind me of
the young police officer in this period piece movie, LA
Confidential, who tries to arrest a blond Lana Turner
look-alike, and proclaims: “a hooker who looks like Lana Turner
is still a hooker, not Lana Turner.” His colleague stops him:
“she IS Lana Turner!” The kid made a silly mistake.
In plain words, I do not pretend to be a
friend of Palestine: I am a friend of Palestine. I am quite used
to this sort of accusations, they are the professional hazard
for whoever is engaged in the struggle. A fainthearted man
should fight for the well-being of whales, as it is a noble
cause that brings no flak.
Now I shall refer to other concerns raised by
Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish. As for my alleged comparison of
the Jews with ‘virus’, I quote the lines of Ellen Cantarow, who
was present at the talk.
“I do want to stress that the comment about
"viruses" cited by Ali in his letter was taken out of context. I
was there; I heard the talk. This is NOT what Shamir said. Which
makes me feel that THE JERUSALEM POST reference should be looked
up in context. I do not feel it wise, when one has not read the
entirety of a text, especially in a controversy like this one,
to fan the flames by circulating partial statements. For those
on the limited list to whom I send this note, in the Tufts talk
Shamir referred to the movie "Matrix," with its references to
"organic" "mammals" and to predatory viruses. He then said that
the original Palestinian population had an "organic" relation to
the land in Palestine, whereas the European-Jewish immigrants
and colonists did not, and in their consequent actions,
expelling the original inhabitants, destroying villages with
beautiful architecture, etc., could be compared to the
"viruses" in "Matrix." I find this in perfect keeping with his
"Dulcinea" essay and other pieces”.
I would add to it, that in my opinion every
man, Jew or Gentile, can choose whether to behave like a virus
or like a mammal, or even as a vulture. It is actually an idea
deeply rooted in the Zionist discourse of Hertzl and Borochov,
who wished to reconnect Jews and soil as the means of
rejuvenation of the Jewish people. In my opinion, it failed
because the settlers did not connect to the native inhabitants
of the land.
Let us move on to the blood-libel accusation
in the Jerusalem Post, repeated by Ali Abunima and Hussein Ibish.
This Conrad Black newspaper wrote: “One of NIF's beneficiaries
is the Israel-Palestine Friendship Center in Tel Aviv. The
center promotes the Palestinians' 'right of return' to their
pre-1948 homes. Two weeks ago, Russian-language journalist
Israel Shamir told a largely Jewish audience: ‘Jews only exist
to drip the blood of Palestinian children into their matzas.' No
one protested.”
It is obviously rubbish. I certainly did not
say the words they attribute to me. Have no doubt, the nice
middle-class Jewish audience in Tel Aviv, where the misquoted
talk was given, would protest such silly stuff instead of
pouring their love on the speaker. The purpose of the JP
allegation was to smear these wonderful people, who work very
hard on charity lines to feed the hungry and clothe the needy in
the besieged villages. It is to be regretted that Ali Abunimah
and Hussein Ibish were deceived by the right-wingers’ blood
libel against Israeli supporters of Palestinian rights.
As for the blown out of proportion question
of whether I write for Vesti, one answer was given by the
brilliant columnist of a Jerusalem newspaper, Kol Ha’ir, Haim
Baram. He wrote: “Who cares if Mr Shamir writes in Vesti or not?
His articles are interesting and his approach non-conformist.
Somehow, I don't really believe that you were out to vindicate
Shamir, but rather to discredit him. I reject your dubious
endeavour (on behalf of the fascist settlers?) with utter
contempt.”
Just for the sake of clarity I may add that I
was asked to discontinue my regular column CONTRA in the Vesti
newspaper after the Rape of Dulcinea was published, at the
request of a certain American Jewish journalist attached to the
staff of JP. It is a loss of income and of means to access my
Russian Israeli audience, but I can bear it without regret.
What I do regret that at the time Sharon is
bombing Lebanon and re-conquering Gaza I have to waste the much
needed time of myself and of you on such silly accusations. I
thank all of you who wrote me letters of support. Now enough of
this stuff, I shall not refer to it any more and I ask you to
refrain from writing more to me on this subject. Let us
concentrate on the question of Palestine.
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