Israel’s most notorious anti-Arab politician and provocateur, Avigdor Lieberman, spoke at Brookings’ Saban Center Forum in Washington, DC this past weekend. It will probably come as a surprise to most Americans that such a man could rise to the position of Israel’s deputy prime minister and the minister for strategic affairs. He is Israel’s David Duke and yet he was feted in New York and Washington during his visit here.
Initial reporting indicated that Henry Kissinger would chair Lieberman’s session. No surprise there. Both men are advocates of a “land swap” between Israelis and Palestinians, a euphemism for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Israel. Kissinger’s office, however, claims to have sent its regrets to the exclusive gathering.
Lieberman far outstrips Kissinger in the force of his rhetoric with his calls to drown Palestinian prisoners in the Dead Sea, as reported in Ha’aretz, and his declaration that 90 percent of Arabs have no place in Israel but should “take their packages and go to hell.” Clearly, or so one would think, it is racist to strip a minority population of citizenship without that being the wish of the affected group. Indeed, there is no indication Arabs desire to leave Israel for a rump Palestinian state consigned to continual subjugation by Israel.
Meskipun demikian, Kissinger menyampaikan argumennya untuk memindahkan orang-orang Arab keluar dari Israel di Washington Post pada 3 Desember 2004. Sebagai imbalan atas “sekitar 5 hingga 8 persen” wilayah Tepi Barat, “Israel akan mentransfer sebagian wilayahnya saat ini ke Palestina. negara." Dia menyarankan untuk memindahkan “wilayah dengan populasi Arab yang signifikan dari bagian utara Israel. Peralihan tersebut secara simbolis akan lebih signifikan, namun juga akan meringankan masalah demografi.” Dengan kata lain, keluarkan orang-orang Arab dari Israel dan selesaikan pembersihan etnis yang dimulai oleh Israel pada tahun 1948 ketika sekitar 700,000 orang Palestina diusir.
The deputy prime minister is no longer an obscure politician, but the second most popular politician in Israel behind Binyamin Netanyahu. His party, Yisrael Beiteinu, holds nearly 10 percent of the seats in Israel’s Knesset. And his demagogic language has a real appeal in Israel, while evidently not being so vile as to frighten off the Saban Center or the Clintons who were to speak shortly before and after Lieberman. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations welcomed him in New York on Dec. 12.
Such organizations may claim that hosting him does not constitute endorsement, but it does provide him with legitimacy, particularly if he is not publicly and frequently confronted on his unapologetic displays of bigotry.
Sen. Hillary Clinton has certainly never shown qualms in rubbing elbows with Israel’s backers of ethnic cleansing. In 2002 she met with Benny Elon of the Moledet party, which openly calls for the “transfer” of Palestinians.
Dia bukan satu-satunya anggota Partai Demokrat yang bersemangat untuk menghadiri Forum Saban Center yang menawarkan platform bagi Lieberman untuk berbagi pandangan fanatiknya. Perwakilan Jane Harman menyatakan, “Ketika Saban Center berbicara, saya mendengarkan.” Sebagai pembicara yang diundang, dia memiliki “kesempatan” untuk mendengarkan pendukung pembersihan etnis di perusahaan Washington yang sopan. Apakah dia atau salah satu tamu undangan memanggilnya? Ini diragukan dan transkripnya belum tersedia. Kaukus Progresif dan Kaukus Hitam Kongres, yang diharapkan menjadi pemimpin dalam isu-isu kefanatikan, telah memberikan izin kepada para penyebar kebencian ini.
Dimensi unik konflik Israel-Palestina di Capitol Hill adalah tidak adanya perdebatan nyata. Partai Demokrat dan Republik hampir secara universal siap menutup mata terhadap pelanggaran hak asasi manusia yang dilakukan Israel. Hal ini tentu saja terjadi pada musim panas ini ketika para anggota Kongres memuji upaya Israel dalam melindungi warga sipil Lebanon, padahal Israel telah membunuh ratusan warga sipil.
Lieberman’s visit exemplifies American officials’ silence as members of Congress have refused to show moral leadership regarding this bigot from an allied nation. Sen. Joe Lieberman, Rep. Tom Lantos, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with him yet offered no indications that they had directly challenged him on his racism. We would be foolish to think that people in the Middle East are unaware of our shortcomings and double standards.
President Jimmy Carter recently has made some extraordinary comments on our failure in this country to grapple with Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. “There’s never been any debate on this issue of any significance. And the news media are acquiescent, members of the Congress are acquiescent, where the rest of the world debates this intensely, particularly in Israel.” The Washington Post and New York Times completely ignored Lieberman’s visit.
Professors Mearsheimer and Walt opened the door to debate this spring and President Carter has demonstrated enormous courage this fall in calling Israel’s actions in occupied Palestinian territory “apartheid.” Now it is time for a full-fledged debate in the U.S. Congress over the wisdom of permitting and even aiding Israel in what President Carter openly regards as “colonizing the West Bank.”
(Boston-based CAMERA, a member organization of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, resorted earlier this month to revolting rhetoric to rival Lieberman’s when it suggested that Carter was “losing his mind” or perhaps showing signs of “senility.” CAMERA’s words, now deleted from its website, merited public censure from the Conference. It did not happen. Such a rebuke was necessary if that body intended to retain some shred of decency at the very moment it was hosting Israel’s leading racist.)
Presumably, if exposed to the facts, Americans would say that while they care for Israel they do not want to assist Israel – and an attention-seeking racist such as Lieberman – in perpetually dominating the Palestinians. It is time for Congress to take this up with substantive debate.
Michael F. Brown adalah peneliti di Palestine Center. Pandangannya adalah miliknya sendiri dan tidak mencerminkan pandangan Center. Sebelumnya dia adalah direktur eksekutif Partners for Peace dan koresponden Washington untuk Timur Tengah Internasional. Dia adalah anggota Dewan Pembangun Perdamaian Antaragama.
ZNetwork didanai semata-mata melalui kemurahan hati para pembacanya.
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