290 Trots, "Anarchists" & Zionists unite in "Anti-Fascist" rally in Stockholm (2009)

Trots, "Anarchists" & Zionists unite in "Anti-Fascist" rally in Stockholm (2009)

Lasse Wilhelmson's account of the 2009 Jerusalem Day rally in Stockholm (item 2) is very revealing. It's worth visiting the link to look at the photos.

What's most interesting is the counter-demonstration, in which Trots & "Anarchists" joined Zionists against Lasse's anti-Zionist rally.

Solidarity Movement for Palestine and International Solidarity Movement (ISM) <http://palsolidarity.org/> seem to be Trotskyist. Tanya Reinhart was a participant, and by implication Chomsky and his followers are affiliated.

This is where most of the Leftist Jews (whom Mearsheimer calls "Righteous Jews") mount their activism. Mearsheimer's article is at http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/EventDetails/display/ContentDetails/i/10418

But these people reveal their true colours by joining or aligning with "Anti-Fascist" rallies against the true anti-Zionist campaigners. Only a small % of Jews join the latter, but their participation is important.

I myself do not make much of the Palestinian "Right of Return"; I think it likely to unsettle Jews and thus deprive the anti-Zionist movement of Jewish support. In the same way, suicide-bombings and launching missiles from Gaza or Lebanon are counter-productive. These "Direct Action" methods have only caused suffering to all sides. Peace requires initial steps, which are disrupted by such actions.

But I do think that the Jewish "Right of Return" should also be abolished. Not least because today's Jews are mostly descendants of converts to Judaism.

(1) Leftist Jews join "anti-semitic" forums - but Trots & Zionists unite in "Anti-Fascist" rally
(2) Jerusalem Day rally Stockholm 2009 - disrupted by Trotskyist and Zionist "Anti Fascist" counter-demonstrators
(3) ISM apartment in Hebron broken into - Israeli Intelligence Services suspected
(4) Banned Haaretz report foretold Gaza war crimes
(5) Barak says Israel must allow Palestinians to rule themselves
(6) End Israel's U.S. Allowance So Both Can Gain

(1) Leftist Jews participate in "anti-semitic" forums - but Trots & Zionists unite in "Anti-Fascist" movement
From: Lasse Wilhelmson <lassewilhelmson@bredband.net> Date: 06.05.2010 12:11 PM

5 maj 2010 kl. 11.58 skrev peter.myers@mailstar.net:

> The extremes are truncated - ie Trots at the Left end, and hardcore
> Racists at the right end.

This is similar but not exactly the same as my analyses about what
happend in Stockholm http://lassewilhelmson.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/liberate-al-quds-and-palestine/

If you scroll down to the end you can read about that. Also the young "famous" marxist Andreas Malm who use to attac me in the biggest dailes and have a column of his own in Dagens Nyheter (the zionist headquarter in Swedish press) the other day said that he is now joining the biggest troskyist organisation in Sweden. So the left in general, with the trotsyists in the lead, go together with mainstream (zionised) media when it comes to neglect 911 and zionism, and attac those who join the 911 truth movement and critizise sionism. And the same pattern appear when it comes to the climate- and the svineflu- questions. But in Sweden the left are not zionists in general, but rather filosemites.

Peace

Lasse Wilhelmson

(2) Jerusalem Day rally Stockholm 2009 - disrupted by Trotskyist and Zionist "Anti Fascist" counter-demonstrators

http://lassewilhelmson.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/liberate-al-quds-and-palestine/

Liberate Al Quds and Palestine!

20 september 2009 · Kommentera

My speech and my own account of what happened at the Al-Quds manifestation in Stockholm on the 20th September 2009, with pictures to illustrate what went on.

Written by Lasse Wilhelmson

It should be said that the police played a dubious role, as they did not stop those who tried to sabotage the manifestation. This ought to be a part of their duty to defend freedom of assembly.

{photo caption}  Lasse Wilhelmson speaks in Sergels torg. Mohamed Omar to the left. {end}

Speech made on the Al Quds Day in Stockholm, Sergels torg (Sergel’s Plaza), Sunday September 20, 2009. Al Quds, which means Jerusalem in Arabic, is an international day of solidarity for the liberation of Jerusalem and Palestine. They are the symbols of the oppressed peoples of the world who this day gather irrespective of their religious or ethnic affiliations. Large manifestations are held around the world commemorating this day. In London, for example, Muslims and religious Jews manifest together.

{photo caption}  Al Quds Day -- Jerusalem Day {end}

Enough is enough. Now Gaza, on top of everything else. The Palestinians symbolise the ongoing struggle worldwide against USrael’s neo-colonial wars. The Zionist goal for a Jewish state in Palestine cannot be achieved without genocide. To maintain a Jewish state it is necessary to commit crimes that are defined as genocide in The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide signed by the General Assembly on December 9th, 1948. It states:

”Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

At least the demands a, b and c are fulfilled and just one would be enough to define genocide. Suffice it to mention here the extensive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, Al Nakba, the very carefully engineered so-called Plan Dalet, which was documented in detail by Ilan Pappe.

The Zionists’ colonization project has existed over two turns of century. It is a myth that there could ever be a Jewish state in Palestine without genocide of the Palestinian people. Genocide is inherent in Zionism, its innermost core. A Jewish state must have a substantial Jewish majority and this cannot be achieved without the eviction of those who lived on the land. We see the result in a racist apartheid system that discriminates between Jews and non-Jews in Israel itself, in the erection of the Wall, in the nearby Palestinian refugee camps and in ”facts on the ground”, as illustrated by the four maps and now lately in Gaza.

{photo caption}  Palestinian Loss of Land 1946-2000 {end}

Enough is enough. It is more than enough.

A so-called two-state solution involves legitimising genocide in retrospect, as it does not acknowledge the evicted Palestinian refugees’ inalienable right to return, in accordance with UN resolutions.

There is only one solution. A democratic state between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan. Within such a framework, those most involved can discuss various transitional solutions and suggest a timetable for their implementation.

Some would say that this is unrealistic because of the hatred that has been created between Palestinians and Jews. But in that case, those who brought about colonisation, the theft of land and genocide can move somewhere else if they do not wish to live in peace and equality with their ‘victims’ in their own country. The French colonizers in Algeria returned home. In South Africa, the majority chose to stay.

Israel of today is an entity with precious little legitimacy, being a state in the country of Palestine, as shown in my and Snorre Lindquist’s article ‘Revoking Israel’s UN membership‘. For example, Israel is lacking a constitution and internationally recognized borders. Something that is normally required for being recognized as a state. There is little support for the statement that Israel is a creation of the UN. There is nothing to indicate that this entity will ever work in accordance with UN decisions and international human rights, or exist in peace with its neighbours. Quite the opposite.

Today Israel is the biggest threat to a world in peace and Zionism is an ideology whose main task is to justify USrael’s neo-colonial wars while referring to the ”Holocaust” and ”anti-Semitism”, as well as to homemade terrorism in the form of ”False Flag Operations”. The heroic victory of Hezbollah over the Israeli army lately in Lebanon is an example for all peoples. Together with Hamas they show the way towards the liberation of Palestine. Something which however also requires the dethronement of the Jewish Lobby organization AIPAC, as well as the Zionist power elite on Wall Street and in the U.S.’s private central bank, the Federal Reserve.

All resistance to USraeli war politics has our full support. Our support is unconditional. We don’t moralize concerning the political or religious views of our brothers and sisters. Nor over the methods they use. It’s their business to decide. Our support is founded on ethics, compassion and the principles of the equality of all peoples and their right to resist oppression and occupation.

Jerusalem and Palestine are the symbols of all oppressed peoples of the world. The Palestinians’ struggle to free Palestine is part of the same struggle as the Afghans’ struggle in Afghanistan and the Iraqi’s struggle in Iraq, and others.

Because of this we demand today that the Swedish troops should be brought home from Afghanistan, that the U.S. and their allies must leave Iraq and that Israel must be boycotted the same way as was previously done against South Africa.

Palestine, you are in our hearts. Free Palestine – All of Palestine!

My account of what happened to me in Sergels torg

When I arrived in Sergels torg (Sergel’s Plaza) there was an ongoing manifestation against the current regime of Iran. The manifestation was dominated by exile Iranians and Iranian flags carrying the symbol of the Shah, and members of the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI) who handed out leaflets.

{photo caption}  The Counter Demonstrators. {end}

There were many Swedes who sold the Trotskyist newspaper Internationalen, and different autonomous, anarchist and syndicalist groups in their characteristic clothing. I recognized leading persons from Palestinagruppperna (PGS) (Solidarity Movement for Palestine) and from ISM (International Solidarity Movement) in Sweden. Both organizations had denounced the Al Quds Day manifestation and urged all friends of Palestine not to take part on the grounds that the speakers, namely Mohamed Omar and Lasse Wilhelmson, had made “statements” that they were unable to support. They did not specify what those “statements” where. There were also Jewish Zionists familiar to me who photographed the demonstrators for future identification. The groups mentioned stayed behind in order to protest against the ensuing Al Quds manifestation.

{photo caption}  The Zionist Jonathan Leman from eXpo (a Swedish anti-racist magazine) and SKMA (The Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism (Swedish: Svenska Kommittén Mot Antisemitism)) with his camera crew. {end}

I arrived in Sergels torg on the “wrong” side, i.e. above the large and wide stairs towards Åhlen’s. Before I could walk around to the other side, where the speeches where to be made, a handful of young persons from ISM and possibly from the Swedish AFA (Anti Fascist Action) spotted me. They of course know who I am and what I look like. The biggest and most aggressive of them badmouthed me, violently pushed me and wrestled me down on the street. The others helped to squash the placards that I had brought with me. The placards said “Free Palestine”, “Boycott Israel”, “Shut down Israel”, “Long Live Hezbollah and Hamas”, “Warsaw and Gaza” (in a cross, in Swedish; ”Warszawa och Gaza”, with the Z as the common letter), “Zionism” (crossed over), “No to USrael’s War Politics – Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Somalia, the same occupation” and “Al Quds Jerusalem Day”.

{photo caption}  Lasse Wilhelmson with his broken placards. {end}

I called for help from bystanders and especially one middle-aged Palestinian man resolutely and successfully interfered in my defense, but also a younger person. A band of boys in their lower teens discovered what was said on the placards, informed me that they where Palestinians, and that they wanted to “beat up” the hoodlums and asked me who they where. But I managed to dissuade this arguing that there were some really big guys there. They where, however, rather touching and warmed my old heart.

Shora Esmailian (Andreas Malm’s woman), who has for a long time been a leading person within ISM in Sweden and who is of Iranian family background, afterwards approached me when I was collecting the remains of my plackards. She said that “[people] such as yourself should not be allowed here” (I recognize her very well since many years and we have also previously worked together in the Boycott Israel Network, and taken part in public debates). Then she walked over to the person who had jumped on me – I know him from before, he was standing four meters away – and gave him a hug and kisses on his cheek. Shora later took part in the counterdemonstration.

I wasn’t hurt but I filed a police report on the assault and the infliction of damage, on the prompting of a police officer who overheard me telling the organizers what had happened to me. I did this because the organizers asked me what had happened to my placards as they were broken. The officer explained that this was important in principle since what had happened had political motives and can be viewed as a hate crime, which is an aggravating circumstance.

{photo caption}  The counterdemonstrators threw eggs and fruit even at women and children. {end}

The counterdemonstrators were about 500 – somewhat more numerous than us. They had gathered in the wide stairs and on the “balcony” above the plaza, which was physically sealed off by a long line of police vehicles and by plastic ribbon fencing. They were chanting slogans against Islam and Arabs, so that it was difficult to hear our speeches. They even threw eggs and fruit at women and children, who were about half of the demonstrators.

The majority of the demonstrators where Muslim Arabs. Even so, the Al Quds manifestation was conducted as planned. Palestinian youths led the speech choirs.

{photo caption}  "Israel is a colonial state based on apartheid and racism." {end}

I must confess that it was a rather strange experience to watch people from the organization for Palestinian solidarity in Sweden, and from the ISM and assorted leftists – who call themselves friends of the Palestinians –, together with Marxist and royalist Iranians hostile to the Islamic Republic disturbing a solemn manifestation for Palestine and booing when we chanted “Boycott Israel” and “Free Palestine”. What happened here will surely have far-reaching consequences for the anti-imperialistic work in Sweden, and especially for the solidarity work for the Palestinians.

{photo caption}  Shora Esmailian from ISM protesting against Arab Muslims who are chanting ”Boycott Israel” and ”Free Palestine”. {end}

It is only on the Al Quds Day that anti-Zionist manifestations are arranged in Sweden in support of Palestine, and so it is since several decades. On all other prior occasions the Zionist organization Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Sweden (JIPF) has been allowed to control the main slogans which therefore never have included the most basic demand of the Palestinians evicted in Al Nakba, namely their inalienable right to return — which the UN made a condition of its decision to grant Israel membership in 1948.

PS1 I wish to express my sincere gratitude to those people who assisted me when I was attacked and I feel great happiness and honour to have been allowed to be one of the two main speakers at the Al Quds Day manifestation in Stockholm in 2009. I will never forget the tears flowing down the old Palestinian man’s face when he embraced me and thanked me for my speech. He told me how he had personally experienced al-Nakba 1948.

PS2 While writing this I notice that the chairman of the magazine FiB Kulturfront (membership organisation and cultural review published monthly) has in Svenska Dagbladet’s editorial blog (second largest daily newspaper) now joined in with those who distribute lies and distort my political views. He falsely attributes to me the opinion that Judaism, that is the Jewish religion, is an important factor of power in world politics. Everyone who has read my articles knows that even though I’m critical of Judaism, Jewish identity, Jewish mentality and Zionism are my targets and my criticism of “Jews” is never categorical, since it is mainly directed against the Jewish mafia in the power elite and the fact is that this mafia is a factor of power in world politics.

Al Quds Day is a time to show broad unity in the struggle against Zionism and boundless solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinians as a symbol for the oppressed people of the world.

Al Quds Day in Stockholm on the 20th September 2009 was defined officially by the poster and by the advertised content of speeches to be held by two guest speakers, together with banners and placards that appeared among the demonstrators. Additionally, things were said in Arabic, which I do not understand; possibly less suitable things said in response to provocations endured from saboteurs. Of course we must be critical of this and discuss in a comradely fashion how to avoid the same thing happening next year, although it did not in any way detract from the overall direction of the demonstration. Nor should we judge too harshly, because tackling the situation that occurred correctly demanded considerable political experience of all the participants. It is easy to lose one’s cool in the heat of a situation.

There is every reason, on the other hand, to congratulate the Al Quds committee and the demonstrators on their courage in carrying out the demonstration despite violence and sabotage of freedom of expression and assembly. My thoughts go especially to women and children who were not spared from physical attacks.

I believe that Al Quds Day should avoid being a general tribute to Iran or any specific religious leader. Of course, on Al Quds Day we defend Iran’s independence against threats posed to the country as we do for Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. What we are celebrating is opposition to Zionism and this allows us to highlight Iran’s role as a NATION and its president as a HEAD of STATE, just as we – who are not Muslims – celebrate Hizbollah and Hamas, not for religious reasons but because they oppose Zionism and its Jewish state.

My understanding of Al Quds Day is that it is a broad manifestation for the liberation of Jerusalem and Palestine as they are symbols for people worldwide and their struggle against Zionism; a day when Muslims invite non-Muslims to pay tribute to global solidarity. Those who wish to honour the current regime in Iran, or one of the branches of Islam, are of course free to do so, but not on Al Quds Day – the day we demonstrate together, regardless of ethnic, national or religious persuasion.

The Political Implications of Al Quds Day in Stockholm 2009

The chairman of the magazine FiB Kulturfront (Membership organisation and cultural review published monthly) has in Svenska Dagbladet (Second largest daily newspaper) denounced me as a member of this organisation, without mention of the content of my speech or of those who sabotaged the demonstration. Palestinagruppperna (PGS) (Solidarity Movement for Palestine) and The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) have urged all friends of Palestine not to take part in the demonstration with reference to the guest speakers’ previous “statements”, saying that the organisations cannot support these, but with no specification. It is obvious that the reason for this indecisiveness to take a stand against Zionism is the fear of being subjected to accusations of “anti-Semitism”.

You cannot, at the same time, defend freedom of expression, including the right to demonstrate, and avoid being drawn into these accusation campaigns, as their very aim is to strangle freedom of expression. FiB Kulturfront has chosen not only to sacrifice its main slogan – defence of freedom of expression – but also to voluntarily subject itself to the Zionified cultural elite’s hegemony in Swedish debate. In the same way that PGS and ISM did before the demonstration by urging friends of Palestine not to attend. This voluntary submission is, in fact, as deplorable as Swedish foreign policy’s caving in to illegal neo-colonial wars. Zionism powers these wars of aggression, and is currently the most significant expression of imperialism. Anti-war efforts are weakened generally because the Zionist power elite, mainly in the US, is granted exemption and permitted to operate undisturbed.

This breakdown is due to the fact that the left has not yet come to terms with its past history concerning Zionism. As long as the anti-imperialist (un)movement, including the Palestine solidarity movement, is controlled by some ten politically experienced Marxist-Leninists from the ´68 movement, and the “peace group” Jews for an Israeli/Palestinian Peace (JIPF), all cooperation with these organisations, which in fact defend the Jewish state, weighs heavily on anti-Zionists and should therefore, for the time being, be avoided.

Al Quds Day in Stockholm has already created a division between anti-Zionists and Zionists both to the left and to the right. The discussions now being held will lead to parts of the left positioning themselves against Zionism (the worst form of racism), and parts of the right will define their position against racism and their views on immigrants and immigration policy. We will also see closer cooperation between the Zionified sections of the political right and left, where the Trotskyites will take on a leading role together with the Zionist front organisation EXPO and the Jewish “peace organisation” JIPF.

These events will make it possible to create an anti-Zionist unified front in Sweden, free from party politics or religious convictions. This is necessary because of Zionism’s hegemony in the West. The crossroads is being approached all over the Western World and is a sign that contradictions are growing between the people of the world and the Zionist power elite’s efforts to create a new world order with a Big Brother state and national states that dissolve in ever-lasting wars.

Long Live Al Quds Day in Stockholm 2009, next year we will be tenfold more.

Lasse Wilhelmson

(1) Israel and ‘The New American Century’

(2) Zionism – more than traditional colonialism and apartheid http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/Jan/26%20o/Zionism%20%20more%20than%20traditional%20colonialism%20and%20apartheid%20By%20Lasse%20Wilhelmson.htm

(3) Maps of ”facts on the ground” http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/photos/maps/landloss.html

(4) Revoking Israel’s UN Membership http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14445

(5) Will the World Change Now? http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/08/lasse-wilhelmson-will-the-world-change-now/

(6) ”Anti-Semitism” as a political weapon http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story1444.html

(7) Why is the Truth so Dangerous?

Photographs from Nationell.nu

(3) ISM apartment in Hebron broken into - Israeli Intelligence Services suspected

From: Sami Joseph <sajoseph2005@yahoo.com> Date: 05.05.2010 05:19 AM

http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=65657&s2=04

International Solidarity Movement

ISM, May 3, 2010

In the early hours of the morning on Saturday 1st May, the International Solidarity Movement's Hebron apartment was broken into. Laptops, video cameras, photo memory cards and USB flash drives were stolen. Cash and credit cards that had been left in the apartment were not taken.

Similar items were taken by the Israeli military when they twice raided the ISM office in Ramallah in February of this year.

ISM activist Beatrice Smith says, "It seems likely that this was Shin Bet [the Israeli Intelligence Service]. Our neighbours have told us twice in the past week or so that soldiers have been coming up to our apartment when we're out and they've been looking through the windows. If it was a normal robber, why would they have left cash and credit cards, but taken USB sticks and memory cards? This person wanted information, not money".

Ms Smith's argument is supported by a recent affidavit from Shin Bet to the Israeli High Court of Justice. In it, they admit that they have been keeping close surveillance on ISM activist Bridget Chappell, seemingly for the past several months.

Smith says, "It is clear from the surveillance and arrest of our activists, from the previous raids on our office in Ramallah, and now from the break-in here in Hebron that the Israeli authorities are determined to do all they can to stop us working here. They know that we?re non-violent, but they are scared because they don't want the outside world to know what they are doing here. Anybody who comes here to bear witness to the occupation is a threat to them".

(4) Banned Haaretz report foretold Gaza war crimes

From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences) <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu> Date: 19.04.2010 10:55 PM

Report foretold Gaza and Bad faith in the holy city

Monday, April 19, 2010

Jonathan Cook was published by Maan News Agency http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=277725.

"Did banned media report foretell of Gaza war crimes?" By Jonathan Cook

A Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament is demanding that a newspaper be allowed to publish an investigative report that was suppressed days before Israel attacked Gaza in winter 2008.

The investigation by Uri Blau, who has been in hiding since December to avoid arrest, concerned Israeli preparations for the impending assault on Gaza, known as Operation Cast Lead.

In a highly unusual move, according to reports in the Israeli media, the army ordered the Haaretz newspaper to destroy all copies of an edition that included Blau's investigation after it had already gone to press and been passed by the military censor. The article was never republished.

Blau has gone underground in London after the Shin Bet, Israel's secret police, demanded he return to Israel to hand back hundreds of classified documents they claim are in his possession and to reveal his sources.

He published several additional reports for Haaretz in 2008 and 2009 that severely embarrassed senior military commanders by showing they had issued orders that intentionally violated court rulings, including to execute Palestinians who could be safely apprehended.

Haneen Zoubi, an MK who previously headed an Israeli media-monitoring organization, said it was "outrageous" that the suppressed report was still secret so long after the Gaza attack. She is to table a parliamentary question to Ehud Barak, the defense minister, today demanding to know why the army suppressed the article and what is preventing its publication now. Barak must respond within 21 days.

She said publication of the article was important both because Israel had been widely criticized for killing many hundreds of civilians in its three-week assault on Gaza, and because subsequent reports suggested that Israeli commanders sought legal advice months before the operation to manipulate the accepted definitions of international law to make it easier to target civilians.

"There must be at least a strong suspicion that Blau's article contains vital information, based on military documentation, warning of Israeli army intentions to commit war crimes," she said in an interview.

"If so, then there is a public duty on Haaretz to publish the article. If not, then there is no reason for the minister to prevent publication after all this time."

Zoubi's call yesterday followed mounting public criticism of Haaretz for supporting Blau by advising him to stay in hiding and continuing to pay his salary. In chat forums and talkback columns, the reporter has been widely denounced as a traitor. Several MKs have called for Haaretz to be closed down or boycotted.

A Haaretz spokeswoman refused to comment, but a journalist there said a "fortress mentality" had developed at the newspaper. "We've all been told not to talk to anyone about the case," he said. "There's absolute paranoia that the paper is going to be made to suffer because of the Blau case." ...

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel.

(5) Barak says Israel must allow Palestinians to rule themselves

From: Sami Joseph <sajoseph2004@yahoo.com> Date: 20.04.2010 04:21 AM

'Palestinians will rule themselves' says Ehud Barak

Page last updated at 10:04 GMT, Monday, 19 April 2010 11:04 UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8629158.stm

Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said Israel must, eventually, allow the Palestinians to rule themselves.

In an interview with Army Radio he said in the future there would be a separate Palestinian state "whether you like it or not".

The interview comes as Israelis mark Memorial Day, commemorating Israeli soldiers killed in action.

Mr Barak, a former top ranking soldier, leads the Labour Party which is part of the current government coalition.

"The world isn't willing to accept, and we won't change that in 2010, the expectation that Israel will rule another people for decades more," he said.

"There is no other way, whether you like it or not, than to let them rule themselves," he said, speaking about the idea of a separate Palestinian state.

'Alienation'

He also warned of a growing rift between Israel and the United States. He said the government of Benjamin Netanyahu had "done things that didn't come naturally to it", like agreeing to a 10 month pause in settlement building and moving toward accepting the principle that there should be two states, one for Palestinians and one for Israelis.

"But we shouldn't delude ourselves, the growing alienation between us and the United States is not good for Israel," he said.

Israel's Memorial Day commemorates some 22,600 soldiers killed in action and the 1,750 Israeli citizens killed in attacks by Palestinian militant groups.

It coincides with the celebration of Israel's 62nd independence day.

(6) End Israel's U.S. Allowance So Both Can Gain

From: IHR News <news@ihr.org> Date: 26.04.2010 03:00 PM

Celestine Bohlen -- Bloomberg

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-30/end-israel-s-u-s-allowance-so-both-can-gain-celestine-bohlen.html

End Israel's U.S. Allowance So Both Can Gain: Celestine Bohlen

March 30, 2010, 7:15 PM EDT

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- The crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations isn't going away. If anything, it keeps getting worse, precisely because it has exposed and crystallized a gap between the goals, expectations and even the national interests of these old allies.

The basic relationship may still be "rock solid," as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it recently, but it is being tugged in opposite directions. Maybe now is the time to take money out of the equation.

Israel will get $2.7 billion in military aid from the U.S. this year -- or 18 percent of Israel's military budget. By 2013, that will lock into an annual level of $3.15 billion for five years. It also has almost $4 billion outstanding in available U.S. loan guarantees, left over from $9 billion extended at former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's request in 2003.

That makes Israel the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world, if you don't count Iraq and Afghanistan. It also benefits from some of the easiest terms: Unlike other recipients, which must buy 100 percent American, Israel can spend about one quarter of its U.S. military aid at home, which amounts to a significant boost to its defense industry.

The problem with this kind of largess is that it muddies the picture, both for Israel and the U.S. The best thing for the relationship would be for the U.S. to cut Israel's allowance.

U.S. Pressure

Under that scenario, Israel could pay less heed to U.S. pressure and do what it thinks it must for its own national security. Many would argue that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing that anyway. The difference would be that the U.S. wouldn't be there to help pay for it.

Housing blocks for Jews in East Jerusalem? Pursuit of terrorists in the Gaza Strip, even in southern Lebanon? A security fence that rings the whole country? If this strategy makes Israel feel more secure, maybe it should just pursue it and not complain about "restraints" imposed by the U.S.

Then Israel could start thinking seriously about what its defensible borders should look like, perhaps even question the logic and the cost of tying up its military protecting unsustainable settlements in the West Bank.

Once freed from its reputation as a stalking horse for the U.S., Israel could explore deeper relations with more moderate Arab states as a counterweight to Iran.

Stubborn Opposition

The advantages for the U.S. are obvious: It would save money at a time when the federal debt is zooming out of sight. The sums aren't great -- a drop compared with the $1.4 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2009 -- but it would take some of the sting out of Israel's stubborn opposition to U.S. policies.

Severing the financial links could also correct the perception that the U.S., as Israel's patron, can't be an honest broker in the Middle East.

That assumption, widely held in the Arab world, was put on the record by General David Petraeus, head of the U.S. military's Central Command, when he told the U.S. Congress that the festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict "foments anti- American sentiment due to a perception of U.S. favoritism toward Israel."

Similar words have been used by James L. Jones, the U.S. national security adviser, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The message is clear: Failure to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians isn't just about Israel anymore. It's about U.S. national-security interests. ...

To contact the writer of this column: Celestine Bohlen in Paris at cbohlen1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this column: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net