AMOS OZ ON THE ISRAELI INVASION IN LEBANON: "HOW TO MAKE AN OMELET WITHOUT BREAKING ANY EGGS"

Saturday 29-7-06:
453 Lebanese civilians dead, thousands injured,
over a million refugees, and rising

Amos Oz is is an Israeli novelist and essayist, a member of the Israeli peace movement. His most recent work is "How To Cure a Fanatic". He has repeatedly condemned the occupation of Palestinian lands and the implantation of Jewish settlers there. But this time he backs up the Israeli invasion in Lebanon.

I find his reasoning much worse than Olmert's.

Olmert says, "we are the Chosen, we are strong, we have God (Yahve) and the US along, so we can righteously act as we like, you resist and you threaten us, therefore you are our enemies, and we'll righteously exterminate you".

Oz says, "you are right, we have been opressing you all these years, stealing your land, denying you a homeland, acting like a bully in the region, giving the Islamic fundamentalists the perfect allibi for blowing up any hope of peace, and you are right, we should hand over the Occupied Territories and dislocate the settlers we've been bringing there all these years. But you have the right to be right, only as long as you don't react. I told you, you are right, what else could you possibly desire??? You are right only as long as you don't threaten us, and if you do, then you lose your right and you become our enemies, so we'll righteously exterminate you".

Amos Oz's tactic reminds me of some cunning people I know, who smile at you and play friends, only to let you down when their friendship demands the slightest ACTION or SACRIFICE from their part.

They could be saying "I will do ANYTHING for you, my friend, provided that you never ask me to"

So someone would be right to ask: What would *you* do, Mr Gatos, if you were in Amos oz's position? Your country at war, rockets falling around?

First of all, I would ask my government to stop the war immediately. And give at last an end to the situation of instability in the Middle East that they have created all these years, along with the radical Islamists from the Palestinian side, by immediately withdrowing from the Occupied Territories and offering at last a REAL and SINCERE hand of friendship to the Palestinians.

Greeks and Turks, after centuries and centuries of continuous wars, after terrible massacres and atrocities and ancient hatred and lost homelands for millions of people, shook hands in 1922 and live in peace ever since, with problems, yes, but in peace. Why can't possibly the Israelis and the Palestinians do the same????



I won't say more. Here is Amos Oz's declaration. Judge for yourselves.


Hezbollah Attacks Unite Israelis
The usual domestic divide dissolves in the face of rockets.

By Amos Oz,
July 19, 2006

Many Times in the past, the Israeli peace movement has criticized Israeli military operations. Not this time. This time, the battle is not over Israeli expansion and colonization. There is no Lebanese territory occupied by Israel. There are no territorial claims from either side.

Last Wednesday, Hezbollah launched a vicious, unprovoked attack into Israeli territory. This was also an attack on the authority and integrity of the elected Lebanese government, as Hezbollah has, by attacking Israel, hijacked the prerogative of the Lebanese government to control its territory and to make decisions on war and peace.

The Israeli peace movement objects to the occupation and colonization of the West Bank. It objected to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 because the invasion was aimed at distracting world attention from the Palestinian problem. This time, Israel is not invading Lebanon. It is defending itself from daily harassment and bombardment of dozens of our towns and villages by attempting to smash Hezbollah wherever it lurks.

The Israeli peace movement should support Israel's attempt at self-defense, pure and simple, as long as this operation targets mostly Hezbollah and spares, as much as possible, the lives of Lebanese civilians (not an easy task, as Hezbollah missile launchers are too often using Lebanese civilians as human sandbags).

There can be no moral equation between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah is targeting Israeli civilians wherever they are, while Israel is targeting mostly Hezbollah. Hezbollah's missiles are supplied by Iran and Syria, sworn enemies of all peace initiatives in the Middle East.

The real battle raging these days is not at all between Beirut and Haifa but between a coalition of peace-seeking nations — Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia on the one hand — and fanatic Islam, fueled by Iran and Syria, on the other.

If, as we all hope — Israeli hawks and doves alike — Hezbollah is going to be defeated soon, Israel and Lebanon will be the winners. Moreover, a defeat of a militant Islamist terror organization may dramatically enhance the chances for peace in the region.

AMOS OZ