27. SELBSTMORDATTENTATE in Israel...
admin1 (31. Aug 2004, 16:33)
HAARETZ
Last Update: 31/08/2004 17:34
At least 15 dead in twin suicide attacks on Be'er Sheva buses
By Nir Hasson, Amos Harel and Roni Singer, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
At least 15 people were killed and 91 others were wounded Tuesday afternoon in near-simultaneous suicide attacks on two buses in the southern city of Be'er Sheva.
Hamas claimed the attacks, the first suicide bombings inside Israel in five months.
Five of the wounded were in very serious condition, 10 were seriously wounded and the rest sustained moderate wounds and light injuries.
All of the wounded were taken to the Soroka Medical Center in the city.
The initial investigation showed that both buses departed from the central bus station in the city, and two suicide bombers - one on each bus - blew themselves up at 2:50 P.M. as one bus was on Rager Boulevard, near Soroka Medical Center, and the other was on a street close to the municipal building.
"I heard a blast and I started to run to the site. Within seconds there was another explosion," said Gil Yehezekel, the owner of a business close to the location of the attack.
"When I got there, there were people on the floor, wounded people, limbs torn off," he said. "The police and ambulances arrived in seconds."
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed in the wake of the attacks that, "the fight against terror will continue with full strength."
Sharon will continue with the plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank settlements by next year, his aides said.
Hamas claimed responsibility through a leaflet that surfaced in the West Bank city of Hebron, 50 km from Be'er Sheva, saying the attacks were meant to avenge Israel's assassination of its two top leaders in helicopter missile strikes in March and April.
"This is but one of a series of responses in which the Iz a Din al-Kassam Brigades have vowed to carry out in response to the martyrdom of the leaders of our movement, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi," it said.
The IDF believes that the military wing of Hamas in Hebron is behind the attack. The current local head of the organization, Ahmed Kwasame, was responsible for the attempted attack at the Kafit cafe in Jerusalem two months ago.
"Our religion orders us to respond in kind to aggression against us. You [Israeli people] are the ones who choose your leaders and choose to be their shields. Therefore your shields will suffer more blows," the leaflet said.
"This is a gift to the newcomers who arrived recently to our land," it added in a reference to recent wave of Jewish immigration to Israel. "We say to you: 'This is your fate, so wait'."
Following the blasts, the police bolstered the number of officers across the country. There had apparently been no alert that an attack was imminent.
Palestinian Minister Saeb Erekat said, "the Palestinian Authority condemns any attacks that target civilians, whether Israelis or Palestinian."
Palestinian militants haven't carried out a suicide bombing inside Israel since March 14, when 11 people were killed in the port city of Ashdod.
Earlier Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces soldiers caught a Palestinian man carrying an explosives belt as he tried to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Be'er Sheba is 25 miles west of Gaza City.
Emergency numbers:
Soroka Medical Center: 12-55-177
Immigrant hotline:12-55-80-1010
Be'er Sheva municipality: 08-646-3777
Rescue workers at the scene of explosions on two buses in Be'er Sheva on Tuesday afternoon. (Channel 1)
admin1 (31. Aug 2004, 08:17)
herzl für heute:
Goldbergers Visionen
Ernest Goldberger nimmt für sich in Anspruch, eine Analyse des israelischen Kollektivs geschrieben zu haben. Sie hat nur einen Fehler: Die eine Hälfte der Gesellschaft ist darin schlicht gut, die andere verdammt er völlig....
LUDWIG WATZAL
Der Leser sollte nicht überrascht sein, wenn er das Gute mit links, friedens- und ausgleichswillig assoziiert, das Schlechte mit rechts und friedensunwillig - alles Religiöse ist sowieso des Teufels. Dass die Realität nicht diesem Schwarz-Weiß-Klischee entspricht, weiß Goldberger natürlich, aber er ignoriert es großzügig. In diesem Sinne bekannte er auch kürzlich bei einer Vernissage in Tel Aviv, dass ihn Positives in Israel nicht interessiere.
Er empört sich in seinem Buch gleichermaßen über die fortschreitende Umweltzerstörung, die Aggressivität im Straßenverkehr, die Erschöpfung der natürlichen Ressource Wasser sowie die Atomwaffenindustrie. Das Land sei auf dem absteigenden Ast. Für den Autor ist Israel zudem keine Demokratie im klassischen Sinne, weil das Land ein Viertel seiner Bürger, nämlich jene nichtjüdischer Religion (muslimische und christliche Araber, Drusen), gesetzlich diskriminiere. Die Gründungsväter hätten eben keine klare Trennung zwischen Staat und Religion vorgenommen und einen jüdischen Staat anstatt eines Staates für die Juden geschaffen.
In einem lesenswerten Kapitel weist Goldberger auf die nicht aufgearbeitete und abgestrittene Schuld hin, die Israel im Unabhängigkeitskrieg von 1948 durch die Vertreibung oder "freiwillige Flucht" auf sich geladen hat. Infolge dieser kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen wurden fast 400 palästinensische Dörfer zerstört, die Besitztümer beschlagnahmt, und den Flüchtlingen wurde die Rückkehr in ihre Heimat bis heute verwehrt. "Dieses Unvermögen ist das größte psychologische und psychosoziale Hindernis für eine Aussöhnung zwischen den zwei Völkern."
Die Sorgen über den Fortbestand Israels, die Goldberger formuliert, sind kürzlich auch von den ehemaligen vier Geheimdienstchefs sowie dem ehemaligen Präsidenten der Knesset, Abraham Burg, in einem dramatischen Appell geäußert worden. Auch Shimon Peres hält den Bestand des Landes für noch nicht gesichert. Die politische Elite des Landes reagiert darauf aber weiterhin nur mit gewaltsamer Unterdrückung der Palästinenser. Das sei ein Grund, warum das Land in eine solch existenzielle Krise geraten sei.
Und was hat der Autor als Ausweg für Israel anzubieten? Für ihn wurde bisher von Herzls Vision nur wenig umgesetzt: so die Errichtung des Staates der Juden und deren Recht, jederzeit in dieses Land einzuwandern und die dort geltenden bürgerlichen Rechte zu erhalten. Eine weitere Errungenschaft sei die Anerkennung Israels durch eine Vielzahl anderer Staaten - in den Grenzen von Juni 1967.
Herzl wollte jedoch mehr, und zwar eine Erneuerung des jüdischen Menschen, wie er sie im Roman "Altneuland" darstellte. Israel sollte eine friedensfähige, gerechte, tolerante und fortschrittliche Gesellschaft im Sinne der Aufklärung und des modernen Humanismus sein. Dieses Ziel würde allerdings von den israelischen Politikern verfehlt, meint Goldberger.
Seine eigene Vision besteht in einer Konzeption, die er "Neualtland" nennt. Sie soll Herzls Programm für das heutige Israel aktualisieren. Ob dieses Ziel mit den liberalen Kräften, der "Roadmap" und der "Genfer Initiative" zu erreichen ist, scheint bei der augenblicklichen Kräftekonstellation mehr als fraglich.
Das Buch ist trotz seiner Einseitigkeit und Eindimensionalität eine interessante und überaus lesenswerte Lektüre. Ärgerlich ist, dass der Autor seitenweise Skandälchen aneinander gereiht hat. Teile des Buches erwecken den Eindruck einer Boulevardchronik, wie man sie anhand von einseitigen Zeitungsartikeln über jedes Land zusammenstellen kann. All jenen Israelis, die sich für das Land einsetzen und mit denen der Autor nicht übereinstimmt, verpasst er ein paar Backpfeifen. Trotzdem liefert Goldberger eine Interpretation der israelischen Gesellschaft, die zu oft in Deutschland ausgeblendet wird. Dies macht das Werk für den deutschen Sprachraum so wertvoll.
taz.de
http://www.buecher.judentum.de/fink/basel.htm
Ernest Goldberger: "Die Seele Israels.
Ein Volk zwischen Traum, Wirklichkeit und Hoffnung". Wilhelm Fink Verlag, München 2004, 489 Seiten, 38 Euro
taz Magazin Nr. 7441 vom 21.8.2004, 113 Zeilen, LUDWIG WATZAL
Abdruck mit freundlicher Genehmigung der taz - die tageszeitung, © Contrapress media GmbH, Vervielfältigung nur mit Genehmigung des taz-Verlags
DG
admin1 (31. Aug 2004, 08:07)
31. August 2004
"Der Untergang": Mitleiden mit Hitler?
“Der Untergang“, so nennt Bernd Eichinger seinen Film über die letzten Tage Hitlers im Bunker der Reichskanzlei. Ein Bestseller von Joachim Fest sowie die Erinnerungen der Hitler Sekretärin Traudl Junge liefern den Stoff für den 150 Minuten Film.
Ab 16. September wird der Film in den Kinos gezeigt. Bereits im Vorfeld der Aufführungen ereignet sich Ungeheuerliches.
“Mitleid mit Hitler“
Bruno Ganz gibt in dem Film den Hitlerdarsteller. Der Schauspieler äußerte sich öffentlich über seinen Umgang mit der Figur des Massenmörders Hitler. Herr Ganz erklärte: “Ich habe mich zu Hause geschützt, damit ich nicht zu tief eintauche und mich mit der Figur zu sehr identifiziere“ (AZ-25.8.04).
Offensichtlich ist es dem Schauspieler nicht gelungen, eine Identifizierung mit dem größten Massenmörder der Geschichte zu vermeiden. Bruno Ganz meinte, “er habe sogar Mitleid mit diesem armseligen Mann empfunden“. Kein Wort verliert Ganz über die Opfer Hitlers, im Gegenteil, er ist augenscheinlich von der "leidenden Kreatur" Hitler empfindlich in seinem Seelenleben getroffen. Die Seelenqualen des Herrn Ganz macht die Münchner AZ zu einem Thema, indem sie die Leser auffordert, über die Frage “Mitleiden mit Hitler“ zu diskutieren.
Die Entsorgung deutscher Geschichte läuft rasant ab. Mitleiden mit den nazistischen Tätern ist angesagt. Die Opfer des Genozids werden in esoterische Nebel verpackt und wehe jemand versucht, einer empfindsamen Künstlerseele wie Ganz, das Mitleiden mit dem Hauptverantwortlichen des Genozids zu verbieten. Die Normalität des reaktivierten Bösen, verführt den Hauptdarsteller Ganz, seine Figur Hitler historisch zu rehabilitieren. Ganz sagte gegenüber der Berliner Zeitung: “Die Rolle hätte einen Kern berührt, weil es sich um ein zensiertes Thema handelt“ und “Der lebende Hitler vor 1945 sei ein anderer, als der tote Hitler nach 1945 - der wäre durch die Nachwelt geschaffen worden“.
Die AZ fragt ziemlich vorsichtig, auf was der Schauspieler sich bezieht. Den AZ Redakteuren kann geholfen werden, Herr Ganz bezweifelt die Hitlerdarstellung nach 1945. Er wünscht sich offenbar, dass der von ihm gespielte Star Hitler ähnlich betrachtet wird, wie von vielen Deutschen bis 1945. Deshalb klagt Ganz wie die nazistischen Geschichtsrevisionisten über Zensur.
Den Weg bereiten ihm Filmemacher wie Bernd Eichinger, der erklärte: “Wir wollen Geschichte erzählen, nicht kommentieren“. Bernd Eichinger pflegt die Mär der wertneutralen Erzählung. In der Realität stellt sich immer die Frage, wer was erzählt und mit welcher Absicht. Sucht der Erzähler die Wahrheit in den Tatsachen oder in metaphysischen Spekulationen. Filmemacher Eichinger bereitet “wertneutral“ solchen perfiden Schlüssen, wie sie Herr Ganz an den Tag legt, den Weg. Auch der Regisseur Oliver Hirschbiegel hat etwas gegen die Ablehnung des Täters Hitler. Hirschbiegel meinte: “Die Diabolisierung und damit die Vereinfachung der Materie ging mir auf die Nerven, eine objektive Betrachtung geht nur über Hintergrundbetrachtung und nicht über Vorverurteilung“. Der Regisseur Hirschbiegel bestreitet damit kategorisch die historische Faktenlage und das gängige Urteil über die Person Hitler.
Gegen die Erklärungen von Ganz und Hierschbiegel protestierten einige Schauspieler aus der bundesdeutschen Filmszene sowie der bekannte Publizist und Schoah-Überlebende Ralph Giordano. Das Feuilleton der SZ vom 26. August ficht das nicht an. Unter der Überschrift “So perfide brach das Tabu“ wird eine ironische Breitseite gegen die Presse im “perfiden Albion“ (England) abgeschossen. In Wahrheit brachten einige englische Journalisten die Kritik an Bernd Eichingers Film auf den Punkt. Dem deutschen Publikum sollte diese Kritik nicht vorenthalten werden.
Daily Mail: “Vergibt Deutschland Hitler doch noch ?“
Mit dieser groß aufgemachten Schlagzeile erschien in dieser Woche die Daily Mail. Der Berliner Mail Korrespondent Allan Hall erkennt in der “Vermenschlichung“ Hitlers durch den Schauspieler Bruno Ganz den Endpunkt einer Entwicklung. Hall schreibt, “dass die Deutschen vor einiger Zeit damit begannen, sich in einer Opferrolle zu suhlen“. Damit wurde die Kriegsschuld abgeworfen, indem sie ihr eigenes Leid während des zweiten Weltkrieges in den Vordergrund stellten - Alliierte Bombardements, Massenvergewaltigung und Vertreibung. Die Folge ist nach Hall “Nazi-Light“, die sich von einer musealen Tour, “wie vom Besuch einer mittelalterlichen Burg kaum unterscheide“.
Scharf attackierte Hall den Historiker Guido Knopp, eine “Ein Mann Hitler Industrie“, dessen Dokumentationen über Stalingrad und Hitlers Liebhaberinnen “in der Maske ernsthafter Forschung daher kämen“.
Die konservative Tageszeitung Daily Telegraph kritisiert speziell einige Szenen aus dem Film “Der Untergang“. Nach dem Telegraph trete Hitler in dem Film “als onkelhafter Mensch auf, der Schokolade möge und erst in den Wahnsinn abrutsche, als ihm der Lebenstraum vom Tausendjährigen Reich entgleite. Hitler streichelt seine Schäferhündin Blondie und behandelt seine Sekretärin mit Feingefühl und Geduld.“
Auch für die BBC stellt der Film mit Hitler als zentraler menschlicher Gestalt “einen Tabubruch dar“. Solche Einschätzungen werden von den meisten bundesdeutschen Feuilletons nicht geteilt. In der Mitte der Gesellschaft ist man “objektiv“, “kunstbeflissen“ und sehr “mitfühlend“ gegenüber nazistischen Verbrechern.
Max Brym
Produktionskosten ca. 13,5 Millionen Euro.
Subventioniert durch die staatlichen bayerischen Filmförderung. Außerdem erwarb der erste Kanal des öffentlich-rechtlichen Fernsehens (ARD) die deutschen TV-Rechte und trug damit ebenfalls entscheidend zur Gesamtfinanzierung bei.
http://www.untergang.film.de
hagalil.com 26-08-2004
Mahatma Gandhis Enkel in Palästina: Zwischen Gewalt und Gewaltlosigkeit
admin1 (31. Aug 2004, 07:48)
Amira Hass, 31. August 2004, www.hagalil.com
Mahatma Gandhis Enkel besucht in dieser Woche auf Einladung der Palästinenser das Land. Sie wollen die Idee des Volkskampfes gegen die israelische Besatzung vorantreiben. (weiter)
admin1 (30. Aug 2004, 21:37)
JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 30, 2004 17:39 | Updated Aug. 30, 2004 18:39
Jew suspected in arson of social center
By MICHEL ZLOTOWSKI
French police officers stand outside the burned remains of a Jewish community center in Paris yesterday. Arson is suspected.
Photo: AP
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Paris
Paris police arrested Monday morning a suspect in the arson of a Jewish social center.
The soup kitchen located near the Bastille Square was torched early in the morning of August 22. The place was also covered with anti-Semitic inscriptions and swastikas.
According to police sources, the suspect is a Jewish homeless person who was formerly employed as a guard by the center.
"This person was never employed here," one of the volunteers running the soup kitchen told The Jerusalem Post. "Our entire operation is based on voluntary help. How could we pay anyone? The suspect used to come to get some warm food; like others, he sometimes helped around. That's all."
The suspect, Raphael X, a man in his fifties, reportedly told police that management of the soup kitchen had fired him, and he torched the place in revenge. Police said the man had been high on their list of suspects from the start of the investigation.
The arrest of a Jewish suspect is a major embarrassment both to the Jewish community in France and to French political leaders. As in the case of the anti-Semitic attack staged up by a young French non-Jewish woman last July, all political leaders, from French President Jacques Chirac to junior representatives, condemned the malicious anti-Semitic attack. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin shortened a visit in his home city of Poitiers, hurrying back to Paris to visit the premises of the torched soup kitchen. CRIF, the political representative of the French Jewish community, said at the time, "The motivations of those who torch a Jewish soup kitchen are obvious, it's Jew hatred."
In November 2003, the new wing of a Jewish school in the Paris suburb of Gagny was torched. According to the findings of the investigation, the issue had nothing to do with anti-Semitism but rather with an attempt to defraud an insurance company.
In May 2004, a Jewish activist was condemned for having relaying anti-Semitic messages and threats to his own telephone.
Moise Cohen, President of the Paris Consistoire, the body responsible for the religious needs of the Larger Paris Jewish community, called upon Jews "to show a bit more common sense. It is a mistake to react to a news item carelessly. All this is due to media over-exposure and to the impetuosity of political leaders who fear they may have under reacted."
CRIF officials reiterated Monday that false anti-Semitic attacks should not mask the reality of statistics released by the French ministry of Justice, counting 298 anti-Semitic aggressions from January 1st to August 20th, 2004. This is three times as much as during the whole year of 2003, they stressed.
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United Jewish Communities
JPost.com » Jewish World » Article
Aug. 23, 2004 6:55
Jewish center torched in Paris
By MICHEL ZLOTOWSKI AND AP
French police officers stand outside the burned remains of a Jewish community center in Paris yesterday. Arson is suspected.
Photo: AP
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PARIS
Arson is suspected as fire razed a Jewish community center in eastern Paris before dawn on Sunday. Graffiti with anti-Semitic messages such as "Jews get out" were found, police said.
No one was hurt as flames tore through the center on the first floor of a six-story building. Located near the Bastille square, the facility was a meeting place and soup kitchen for the elderly and disadvantaged.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and other top officials visited the center, the latest target in a continuing wave of anti-Jewish attacks in France.
"I came here today to say that France cannot accept a trivialization of anti-Semitism," the prime minister said. "The perpetrators of such crimes - we can use the term crime here since there is proof of arson and racism - are liable to a stiff penalty of up to 20 years in jail. The country's [police] force will be mobilized so that the culprits [will] be arrested as soon as possible and [will] be severely punished. This is an intolerable attack against the Jewish community, against social workers, and against the inhabitants of this area."
In a statement, President Jacques Chirac condemned the attack and pledged solidarity with the Jewish community. The government is "determined to find the perpetrators of this unacceptable act so that they can be tried and convicted with the greatest severity" allowed by law, Chirac said.
Bertrand Delanoe, mayor of Paris, also came to see the remnants of the Jewish social center. He condemned "the dangerous and unhealthy atmosphere in which these anti-Semitic and racist aggressions tend to multiply. The perpetrators of this arson are assassins of our values. We shall not yield one inch to the barbarians."
Firefighters were called to the scene at about 3:30 a.m. local time and extinguished the flames by early morning. The center's wooden doors and walls were charred by the flames. Apartments on the building's upper floors were not damaged.
Police investigators immediately suspected the fire was set deliberately. They said the arsonist broke into the premises through a back door, daubed the walls with anti-Semitic graffiti, set the fire, and left the way he came in. Inside the building, authorities found anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas scrawled in red marker. Among the messages were "Without the Jews, the world is happy," "Hitler=France," and "SS."
Claude Zaffran, the rabbi of the nearby Don Isaac Abravanel Synagogue, and Haim Musicant, secretary-general of CRIF, the political umbrella group for France's Jewish community, accompanied the prime minister on his visit to the site.
Zaffran said he was "deeply pained and distraught." He told Raffarin that his grandfather was killed in action during World War I while fighting for France. "I was brought up on the ideals of the Republic, ideals of freedom, equality, and fraternity. What is happening now to the Jews in France?" Zaffran asked. He continued, "I have the impression I'm seeing the same movie with the same script. Beyond the declarations and speeches, there must be strong actions to end the string of anti-Semitic acts."
The fire left Serge Benhaim, a local Jewish community leader, in a state of shock. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post a few hours after the fire, he expressed his fear that the center might never reopen. The neighborhood businesses which financed it might simply not be able to bear the cost of repairs.
France has suffered a long wave of anti-Semitic violence since 2000, coinciding with worsening tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Some of the violence has been blamed on young French Muslims, although the Muslim community itself is a frequent target of racist attacks. France has the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe.
The government has already made efforts to tackle anti-Semitism. In December, it announced a broad campaign that includes encouraging French schools to lead class trips to Auschwitz and punishment for anti-Jewish remarks in the media.
Extra security at Jewish places of worship and schools and tough sanctions against anyone found guilty of perpetrating anti-Semitic acts are also part of the policy. Sunday's fire was first detected by police assigned to patrol outside a nearby synagogue.
While many top government officials hurried to publicly condemn the attack, a close adviser to the French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, told The Jerusalem Post he was not sure about "the wisdom of media over-exposure of anti-Semitic incidents."
"We know there are anti-Semitic groups and organizations [and] we are slowly getting at them. However, those idle isolated imbeciles...who know for sure that two swastikas will propel their actions to the headlines, disrupt our work. I do not say we should cover up anti-Semitic acts, but I say our political leaders should think twice before rushing in front of the cameras to denounce aggression that is no less horrible than other racist aggressions - against Muslims for instance."
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom responded to the attack by saying that Israel expresses its "deep concern as a result of the additional, disgraceful anti-Semitic attack in France." Shalom said Israel stands behind France's Jews in the face of these continuing attacks, but was careful not to call on French Jews to immigrate to Israel as a result.
Shalom also made a point to praise the French authorities for the speed with which they reacted to the attack, "especially President Jacques Chirac and the mayor of Paris. We are convinced that the French government will continue to work aggressively and in a determined manner against this despicable phenomenon."
Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky said, "In France the radical Left and the intelligentsia demonize and deligitimize the very existence of Israel... There is a very close connection between that and the existence of anti-Semitism. The government of France doesn't want to acknowledge that and even denies it. Until they see the connection between the demonization of Israel and the deligitimization of Israel, the anti-Semitism will continue, even though they are truly, honestly doing more to combat anti-Semitism than any other government in Europe."
Herb Keinon and Cyril Vanier contributed to this report.
Aug. 26, 2004 19:55 | Updated Aug. 27, 2004 0:37
Anti-Semitic writings found in Paris main library
By MICHEL ZLOTOWSKI
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Several books were recently rubberstamped with anti-Semitic inscriptions at the main public library in Paris, library director Gerard Grunberg revealed Thursday.
"The worrying tide of anti-Semitism and incitation to racial hatred one is noticing in French society is also permeating within the walls of the library. Books were covered with anti-Semitic inscriptions and addresses of websites denying the reality of the Holocaust," the director of the Bibliotheque Publique d'Information (BPI) at the Pompidou Center in Paris said.
"Needless to say," added Grunberg, "we lodged a complaint and we shall do our very best to identify and prosecute the culprits."
A dozen books about the Dreyfus case and legal issues were vandalized. They were rubberstamped on their edge with the words "Against the Jewish Mafia and Jewish Racism" followed by the addresses of a Holocaust denying website and of an Islamic propaganda website.
The BPI library is due to start in a few days a program of meetings, exhibitions and films about the notion of "scapegoat". The program is part of a broader project aimed at combating racism and anti-Semitism.
admin1 (29. Aug 2004, 09:33)
HAARETZ
August 29, 2004
The Jewish problem, according to Theodorakis
By Ari Shavit
ATHENS - Twenty-four hours before the opening of the 2004 Olympic Games, we sat on the penthouse roof. The Acropolis hovered above us. A white security blimp hovered above the Acropolis. And when the burning August sun disappeared in the west, when the orchestra began to play, when the Olympic torch was about to arrive, Mikis Theodorakis placed his hand on mine. And said look how beautiful. Look how beautiful. And just as Goethe wrote: It's like frozen music, the Acropolis. It dominates all of Athens like frozen music.
Afterward he spoke about his music. How his music comes to him. He hears notes in his sleep. He turns on the light and jots down the notes on a piece of paper. He turns out the light and goes back to sleep, until more notes awaken him. So that toward morning, he gets up and gathers the pile of papers from the night. And when the silhouette of the Acropolis emerges from the darkness, he sits at his desk and tries to understand the main thing. The dominant idea. And he checks himself on the grand piano. Slowly but surely he carves out the proper shape from the chaos. The musical structure that will remain.
I'm close to the German spirit, says Theodorakis. Very romantic, but very disciplined. Swept up completely in great feelings, but hard-working and orderly. I admire Beethoven and Wagner, have reservations about Schoenberg. I don't believe in intellectual music. I don't believe in what is cut off from myth, from religion, from human pain. From the terrible pain of death.
Does he think about death a lot? Every day. Every day. Only when he is into music does he feel immortal. But he doesn't delude himself. He celebrates this life, because beyond it there is no other life. And in recent years, his body's betrayal distresses him. Insults him. All his life he was so strong, and suddenly he needs this walking stick. Suddenly he has to lean on me when he rises slowly from his chair.
He is still very tall. He still has his mane of hair as well. A little sparser, a little grayer, but still there. And in his eyes the mischievous glint of a young boy. The self-deprecating humor. And the strong desire to take advantage of every moment. Every thought. Every living thing. Even his great love of women refuses to die. They're so beautiful, your women, Theodorakis whispers to me. Like in the Bible. Flowing with milk and honey.
The root of evil
Question: Mr. Theodorakis, on November 4, 2003 you said in this house the words that shocked Jews and non-Jews across the world. You said that the Jewish people are at the root of evil. What did you mean?
Answer: "For me the root of evil today is the policy of President Bush. It is a fascist policy. I cannot understand how is it that the Jewish people, who have been the victims of Nazism, can support such a fascist policy. No other people in the world support those policies but Israel! This situation saddens me. I am a friend of Israel. I am a friend of the Jewish people. But the policy of Sharon and the support for the policy of Bush darkens the image of Israel. I am afraid that Sharon is going to lead the Jews - just as Hitler led the Germans - to the root of evil."
Even today, 10 months later, you don't think you made a mistake when you uttered those words?
"No, but it's important for me to emphasize that I never said that the Jews are the root of evil. I said they are at the root of evil."
So you have no regrets?
"No. And I was very much hurt by the Jewish reaction to what I said. It was not a civilized reaction. I got hundreds and hundreds of poisonous e-mails from Jews all over the world. I couldn't understand this hatred toward me. I fought against racism all my life. I was for Israel. I wrote "Mauthausen." After all that, how could I become from one day to the next an anti-Semite?"
Let me explain to you the context for this reaction. Many Jews have a renewed fear of Europe. We are afraid that there is a new kind of anti-Semitism in Europe. So when you said what you said there was a feeling of thou too, Brutus. There was a feeling that even our old friend Theodorakis turned against us.
"I don't believe there is anti-Semitism in Europe. There is a reaction against the policy of Sharon and Bush. I think it's artificial to think there is a new anti-Semitism. It's an excuse. It's a way to avoid self-criticism. Rather than ask themselves what is wrong with the policy of Israel, Jews say the Europeans are against us because of the new anti-Semitism. Because they don't love us. And even Theodorakis says we are at the root of evil. This is a sick reaction."
Why? In what way is it a sick reaction?
"Because this kind of reaction is relevant to the psychopathology of the Jewish people. They want to feel victims. They want to have this comforting feeling. We are in the right, we are again victims. Let's create another ghetto. It's a masochistic reaction." The Jews are masochists?
"There is psychological masochism in the Jewish tradition."
Is there sadism as well?
"I'm certain that when Diaspora Jews talk among themselves, they feel satisfied. They feel that now, when we are so close to the greatest power in the world, no one can do anything to us. We can do whatever we like. This is why the claim of new anti-Semitism is not only a sick reaction, it's a sly reaction as well."
In what way is it sly?
"Because it really allows the Jews to do whatever they want. Not only psychologically, but also politically, it gives the Jews an excuse. The sense of victimhood. It gives them a license to hide the truth. There is no Jewish problem in Europe today. There is no anti-Semitism."
Tales of childhood
Let us go a bit deeper. Let us go back in time. When you were a child, before the Holocaust, what were your impressions of the Jews?
"The Jews of Greece were not different from the Greeks. They were entirely Greek. They loved their work and loved their family. At school they were the best. Good friends, good neighbors. No problems."
But there must have been something problematic as well. They were the other. They were different.
"The Jews were picturesque. I remember that for the old women, the Jews were the ones that crucified Christ!
"In 1932 I was in Ioannina. There was a very big Jewish community there. I played with the Jewish boys all the time. My grandmother was very religious. She had a room full of icons. She sang psalms. Much of my music was influenced by her religious singing. And I remember that in springtime she said to me: Now that it's Easter, don't go to the Jewish quarter. Because during Easter the Jews put Christian boys in a barrel with knives inside. Afterward they drink their blood."
Was this story imprinted in your young mind?
"It was a very powerful image. Years later, before I became a communist, I was a member of a fascist youth movement. It was a state-sponsored movement during the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas. We walked up and down the streets in uniform and heiled all the time. It was a bit like the Hitler Youth but comical. One day they gave me an assignment: to talk the next day about communism. I went home and asked my mother what is communism. She said she didn't know but she thinks it's something evil. What kind of evil, I asked. Evil like the Jews, she said. So I asked her if the communists also put little boys in barrels with knives and drink their blood.
"What do I want to say by telling you all this? These things exist. I wasn't aware of it before, but now, through your questions, I realize it is there."
Would you agree with me that for Christian Europe the Jewish people is not just another people. The Jews have a unique role in the inner theater of the European mind.
"I don't know about Europe. It's different than Greece. Different religion, different culture. We don't have religious dogmas. We are not fanatic."
Do you think the Jews are fanatic?
"Something that is very negative can also be positive. If the Jews didn't have fanaticism, they wouldn't have existed. There is no evil without good. The Jews need this fanaticism. What one might call Jewish fanaticism has more to do with self-defense. It was through their religion that Jews were interconnected and kept together."
You seem to be fascinated by the Jews. Why?
"To be a community that disregards all dangers and remains true to its origins - that's a mystery. Look at France, for example. There is a huge community of Jews in France where there is a great civilization. But do the Jews become French? No. They speak the French language perfectly. They succeed in their work. But they are not French. They always think of going back to Jerusalem."
So there is something unique about the Jewish way of existence?
"It's a metaphysical phenomenon. It cannot be explained."
In your opinion, what is it that holds us Jews together?
"It is the feeling that you are the children of God. That you are chosen."
Do you think Jews have a feeling of superiority because of this intimate relationship with God?
"There is that element too. Not all Jews have it. But very religious Jews do."
Is there something a bit arrogant and aggressive about the Jews?
"Yes."
Do you see in Sharon's Israel an expression of that element of the Jewish psyche?
"No, I wouldn't say that. But this question of superiority is not just a feeling. Because in the Jews' battle for self-defense they became distinguished. There are 200 Jews who won Nobel prizes. Christ, Marx and Einstein were Jewish. The Jews offered so much to science, art and music. They hold world finance in their hands. So it's only natural that they would see themselves as very strong. This gives them a feeling of superiority."
The Jews have international finance in their hands?
"They control a great deal of the world's finances."
So today's globalized capitalism is controlled very much by the Jews?
"Since we speak frankly, I will tell you something else. The Jewish people control most of the big symphonic orchestras in the world. When I wrote the Palestinian national anthem, the Boston Symphony was planning a production of my work. It is controlled by Jewish people. They didn't allow the concert to go on. Since then I cannot work with any great orchestra. They refuse me."
You ran into this problem with other orchestras too?
"Wherever there are Jews. Wherever there are orchestras controlled by Jewish people, they boycott my work."
You really feel Jews control much of the music world?
"Yes."
And the same applies to world finance?
"In America the Jewish community is very strong. It controls much of the economy. Certainly the mass media.
"Let me make myself clear: When the State of Israel was established, we were on the side of Israel. There was great sympathy toward Zionism because of what they suffered in the war. This is one side of the Jews. But the international Jewish community is also a negative phenomena. The Jewish people now appear to control the big banks. And often the governments. So whatever bad or evil comes from the governments, it's natural for ordinary people to associate that with the Jewish people."
You yourself think that the Jews, the international Jewish community, have control of the banks, Wall Street, the mass media?
"Yes."
And you say that now, through its influence on Bush, it has control of world affairs?
"Yes."
What is the Jewish influence on the Bush policy?
"I believe that the war in Iraq and the aggressive attitude toward Iran is greatly influenced by the Israeli secret services."
The Jews have so much power that they can direct the policy of the world's only superpower?
"There is a group of Jews who surround Bush and control the policy of the United States."
So the Jews pull the strings behind Bush?
"No. They are in the front."
America, the great superpower, is actually controlled today by the Jews?
"Yes."
What are the intentions of the Jews who control President Bush?
"The main front is the Arabs. They believe that by hitting the Arabs they could help Israel survive. They give a military solution to the problem of the future existence of Israel."
But the present American policy is a reaction to 9/11. It's a response to the threat of bin Laden.
"First you have to ask who is bin Laden. There are peculiar things here. He worked for the Americans in the past. Even when 9/11 happened, he could have been working for the U.S. secret services.
"I don't want to say that those who hit the Twin Towers were Americans themselves. It would be madness to say it. But American technology was used in 9/11."
Is it possible that it was a provocation?
"In the U.S., there are many forces. There are super patriots there. I think the part bin Laden played is suspicious."
What you are saying is that there was some sort of American conspiracy here.
"I don't believe that these barefoot men of Afghanistan did it. That's a joke. Not even Japanese technology could do it. Not even German technology."
Is it possible that the Mossad played a part in 9/11?
"The Mossad has the technology. But even they are not a superpower. American controls everything."
Divulging the family secrets
After a few hours of conversation, he was already Mikis. I was Ari. He asked about my son and my daughter, told me about his son and daughter. Entrusted the greatest family secrets to me. And when he tired of talking, he said now we'll hear some music. And when he sat in the leather armchair, his feet on the footrest, Theodorakis enthusiastically conducted the stereo system by means of the remote control in his hand. When the powerful sounds flooded the room, when the hymnal music filled everything with profound, heart-shattering emotional pathos, the interviewee smiled excitedly. And he turned and stared with wet eyes at the Carmel-like landscape outside: dry pine trees, dusty cypress trees, the ancient rocky soil of Athens.
I don't understand, he said angrily. I don't understand why God has to be such a strict judge. Why is the Judeo-Christian religion so judgmental? And why does it try to implant fear in man? Why does it cause him to feel that he was born in sin? Is making love to Eve a sin? Love is the most beautiful thing there is. And if there is a God, he gave us our lives so that we would live them. Live them with our bodies. With our eyes, with our ears, with our sexual organs. And so we could celebrate this life, which is so short. And so we could say thank you for this life. Let's thank God and dance with the women.
I look at him. He's impressive, he's full of life, he's totally lucid.
Although only two days ago he left the hospital to which he is scheduled to return, he is gaining strength before my eyes. As though these conversations are doing him good. Are lifting some heavy burden from him. And when he lectures me on his thoughts about life, about love and about death, something in his presence emanates a profound human warmth. Emanates existential density. Maybe even greatness.
But this charismatic man he says the things he says about the Jews without any sense of how they sound. How they reverberate. And to the strains of the music that he plays for me, the entire matter becomes clear. All that lies there between Christian Europe and its Jews. This profound tragedy. This perverted intimacy. This 1,000 year saga of loving hate. Of hating love.
Theodorakis cuts me off. He says that he misses the Israeli audience very much. That there's no audience in the world like the Israeli audience. Once, after a performance in Caesarea, a senior army officer approached him and said: If you tell us now to march into the sea, we'll march into the sea after you. And he asks about Yael Dayan. He really loved Yael Dayan.
And he tells me about Moshe Dayan. How Moshe Dayan offered him help on the day of the colonels' coup in Athens. He also speaks of Yigal Allon. About the heart-to- heart talks that he had with Allon on the shore of Lake Kinneret. And how it was Allon who sent him to Arafat. Sent him with a message of peace and determination to Arafat.
Theodorakis plays the Palestinian anthem for me twice. Once in a vocal rendition, once in an orchestral rendition. And he bangs out the beat of the march on the floor with his walking stick. The beat of a justified struggle for liberation. And he tells me how Arafat pressured him for years to write an anthem for the Palestinians. And how, when he brought the tape with the anthem to Beirut, the members of the revolutionary council rose and cheered and cried. He composed the anthem based on a Greek partisan song. Based on a song of sacrifice sung by fighters against the Nazi regime.
Mikis Theodorakis, on several occasions, when criticizing Israeli policy, you used the Nazi analogy. Criticism of Israeli occupation is justified. But why use terms such as "Israel's Nazi mentality" or "Israel's Nazi barbarity"?
"To me it seems very natural to make this comparison because Israel is very much connected with Nazism. I wrote this to you this morning: After the Holocaust, the Jew is the anti-Nazi. Forever. You are condemned to be that. Six million voices are calling on you. They are calling out, never again camps. They cannot even imagine that Israel would adopt similar methods. There is no need for Israel to create the gas chambers. If you kill women and children, it's a similar thing."
Israel is doing wrong in the West Bank and Gaza. No argument about that. But why not compare it to the French in Algiers or the Dutch in Indonesia. Going for the ultimate analogy of evil seems to prove an inability to accept the Jews as gray. If they are not white, they are the darkest black. If they are not victims, they are murderers.
"Until the Holocaust the Jewish people were victims. One day they said, I don't want to be a victim any longer. I'll create a state. I'll show that I'm strong. The question is whether this is not a historical trap. If you didn't embark on the road to revenge."
What do you mean?
"After World War I, the Germans were victims. The Germans felt they were victims. They felt they were just. Others did them wrong and they were just. That was the seed of Hitler."
So the Jews of today are like the Germans of the twenties and thirties?
"Hitler, too, said we are not going to be victims any more. We'll arm ourselves and we'll have revenge. Look where it led. That is something that could happen to Israel."
That's exactly my point. You want us as sheep. You even love us as sheep. But you cannot come to terms with the idea that we may use force like any other nation.
"The Jews escaped from the wolves' teeth. And you got on boats to go to the land of your ancestors. Who wasn't with Israel then? I was. We all were. You took a barren land and you turned it green. You created the kibbutz, which is the only successful example of democratic communism. You created a civilized nation. And when we saw you defend yourselves after half of you remained in the gas chambers, we were with you. You were David and we stood by you.
"But this changed. Israel became a superpower. It has nuclear arms. It is very strong. And whom are you fighting? A million women and children and poorly trained Palestinians. So you are Goliath now. Palestine is David. And I am with David."
But it goes further than that? You think there was a dramatic transformation here. You think the Jews were transformed from being the Nazis' victims to being the new Nazis.
"It was a gradual process. The fact that the Jews were led to the gas chambers in a peaceful way, almost like lambs, troubled them deeply. They wanted to show that they are not sheep. That they can become wolves.
"Up to a point this is natural. It's human. But you should have become wolf dogs, not wolves.
"I think there is an element of racism here. You Israelis begin to think that you are superior to the Arabs just because you have financial power and a strong army and an alliance with the superpower."
Do you think we developed a Nazi-like superiority complex?
"When you go and blow up houses, what is it? It's similar to Nazi behavior. When you uproot trees, what is it? It's Nazi behavior. When you order people out of their homes within an hour, what is it? It's Nazi behavior. It's Nazi mentality."
Let's leave politics aside. When you look at us Jews as a whole, what do you find impressive and what is intolerable?
"When I was in Israel, I loved the madness of the people there. The brains.
The joy of life. The drunkenness. A normal person gets drunk when he drinks
wine. A Jew gets drunk without wine. You too. You don't have to drink at all.
You are drunk already.
"I also loved the girl in the kibbutz who would wake up in the morning to work the land and have her gun with her. She knew how to protect her country and fight for her country. I found that very attractive. She was a beautiful girl. Like honey, and when she was holding the gun, she was even more beautiful. I was much younger then. I was attracted to the heroism of Israel. The Jews are a historic phenomenon that attracts me enormously. I am envious of it. I don't think anyone can be indifferent to it."
And what don't you like about us?
"On a personal level, nothing. You are not different to me or anyone else. But what I don't accept in the Jewish people is what I don't accept in the Freemasons. The Masonic Lodge is a group of people who help each other just because they are members of that lodge. That happens among the Jews as well. Especially in sensitive areas like art and music. I don't accept that."
The Jews have too much power?
"In certain areas - yes. I don't like these small groupings that support one another. I view them as expressions of a racist approach. National or religious or Mafia clans are cancerous growths."
What troubles you is that Jews maintain a ghetto attitude even when they are not weak anymore. When they are powerful.
"Yes. I ran into it in music, but it happens elsewhere. Especially in finance. And in the mass media. This is what makes the Jews unattractive."
You think there is a Jewish tendency to dominate?
"To dominate? Yes. And it comes with a superiority complex."
So the sense of superiority and the tendency to control are a feature of the Jews?
"Yes. Yes. I think that the Jewish religion that teaches a child from a very young age that our God is very strong gives him a sense of security. So there is a contradiction there: The people that were historically the most fearful, are mentally the less fearful because of their religion. But now, when they have great power, this attitude becomes dangerous."
Learning from the Greeks
From the point of view of the Israeli peace camp, Mikis Theodorakis' practical political views are at least reasonable. He recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist as a Jewish state. He believes in a two-state solution. He also thinks that the Palestinians should learn from the experience of the Greeks, and understand that return is impossible. About 2 million refugees from Asia Minor were absorbed in Greece in the 1920s, including the family of Theodorakis' mother.
As opposed to a significant proportion of his colleagues on the European left, Theodorakis doesn't think that Zionism is a colonialist movement. He is aware that the Jews needed a country of their own, which had to be established in their homeland. Since he is a romantic Greek, he says, he has a romantic weakness for the romantic dimension of Zionism. In his eyes, the fact that the Children of Israel returned to the historical womb from which they emerged is very beautiful.
In the future, when the occupation comes to an end, he will support Israel's joining the European Union. Europe has a moral obligation to the Jews, he says. From a cultural point of view as well, Israel is part of Europe. Therefore, Israeli membership in the EU will be only natural.
One night he wrote me a letter. The conversations between us had aroused thoughts that caused him insomnia. In his handwriting, in pencil, in cramped Greek letters, he wrote that he's afraid of the rise of a new Nazism. That he thinks the role of the Jews is to come out against the new Nazism. And that therefore, Israel stands today at a critical crossroad. It must choose Europe rather than America. Peace rather than war. It must be faithful to its historic destiny.
Afterward he admitted that his relationships with Jews are love-hate relationships. And again he described to me the audience that hung from the rafters of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv in the early 1970s. And he played the song that the Israelis most liked to hear. And translated the words for me (So profound is the sorrow). And played the requiem that he wrote after the death of his father. Said that he wanted to die after his father's death. Until suddenly the sounds of this religious music came to him. That's how he started to compose: Every Sunday he would write a new work for the church choir. Just like Bach, he laughs. And that's why now, after the death of his father and the death of his mother and the death of his brother, he has found some consolation in this Passion. Because although he isn't religious, he has some religion in him. He doesn't believe in the Church, he doesn't believe in an afterlife, but he loves Jesus' love. Is moved to tears when he thinks about Jesus' sacrifice. His sufferings on the cross.
With your permission, I'd like to go back to your upbringing. To what you were taught at a very young age. How do you explain your grandmother's fear of the Jews?
"I think it came from religion. From the priests."
It had to do with the killing of Christ?
"Yes. My grandmother was not a well-educated woman."
I am trying to understand her. Not to judge her. Perhaps the fear of the Jews had to do with the fact they killed the son of God. If someone has the power to kill the son of God, he has enormous power.
"I think that the attitude of the Greeks toward the Jews has its roots n the way the Jews behaved themselves. In small communities like ours, there were no secrets. We knew that among the Jews there were secrets they did not share with us. They wanted to be different. To keep separate. I understand that. It comes from a need for self-defense."
Can you give me examples?
"Very often there were love affairs between Jews and Greeks. But the Jewish families did not want their young to marry Christians. But this closeness and secretiveness, it provokes. They never invited me to a Jewish home. I had Jewish friends. They came to my house. But I was never invited to their homes. I wanted to go in and I was not allowed. So I began wondering why not. What's happening there. The Jews paid a price for trying to keep their Jewishness. Their closed society."
Were there other reasons for the special attitude toward the Jews?
"Yes. There was something else. When a Jew progressed, especially to control commerce or to have economic power, it provoked envy. You have that kind of envy for successful Greeks as well. But in the case of the Jews, the perceived wisdom was that he became rich not because of his talent but because he was a Jew. And the Jews could pull strings to help one another to progress."
So for you it was the secretiveness and closeness of the Jews that was the most troubling. Not the role of the Jews in the Jesus story.
"At that time, that story did not interest me. For the Greek Orthodox Church, it was important. Anyway, during the war the Jews were chased like animals. And we in the progressive movement saved tens of thousands of Jews. The Jews of Thessaloniki were the victims of the rabbis who didn't let them come and hide in the mountains with us. For us, the Jews of Greece were not different from the Greeks. They were entirely Greek."
Later you did become preoccupied with the Jews. Why? When? "When I started searching for the springs of humanity. I realized the importance of the two streams, the Jewish and the Hellenic. I realized that these are the two pillars of western civilization.
Judaism had two contributions to civilization. One was positive: morality. The other was negative: an autocratic mental structure. The idea that there is one God that we must obey comes from Judaism. Later it was exploited by secular powers. It created a society that is vertical. Hierarchical. Very different from the Hellenic democracy."
What are the consequences of this mental-autocratic structure of Judaism?
"You have traditions of pride. It derives from your religion. The belief that God loves you and you are the chosen people. This gave you the power to survive against all odds. Every time you emerged as heroes. But it also created a great danger. It gave birth to racism."
So we have to learn from the Greeks?
"In Greek mythology, there is no evidence of the concept of Hellenic superiority. In the Bible, you find the seed of the concept of superiority. Of Jewish superiority. The whole Bible wants to prove that God loves only one people, and that is the Jewish people."
Do you think that the seeds of Sharon and Bush lie in this biblical tradition? "It could be possible."
And what is the story that shaped your mind? Was it not the Jesus story?
"The myth of Christ inspired all big composers. In the end, the story of Christ is the most important. It's more important than the tragedy of Sophocles."
But the role of the Jews in the story is problematic. It is not pleasant.
"This is very strange. Christ was Jewish. But the Jewish people for some reason are against a Jew that all the others love. So the position of the Jews is very special. Very special. Suppose Christ was Greek, and everybody likes Christ but we Greeks don't. It's very strange. Very strange."
The Jews rejected the most important Jew?
"Yes. They are very special. The Jews are the most important. Millions and millions of Catholics and Orthodox believe in a Jew, Christ, whom the Jews don't like. I think this explains your position.
"The world is as it is because the Jews were not listening at the right time. It's difficult.
"Yes. It's difficult. This is the drama of the Jewish people in this world. You are against yourselves. I don't know why you are against the message of love of Jesus."
Mikis Theodorakis, this is a great moment for Greece. You are Greece's great cultural hero. And here you are, spending four days with an Israeli journalist. Why?
"I owe it to Israel. Especially to my friends in Israel. I know they are very upset. The false interpretation of what I said in November 2003 deeply wounded a whole people. The Jewish people."
And now, as we bring this interview to a close, would you say that you want a reconciliation with the Jews? Do you want to shake their hand once more?
"I never withdrew my hand. Throughout my life I paid a great price so I could always look at myself in the mirror. It would be tragic for me to remain an enemy of your people. It is unjust. It is very very unjust. I am a true friend of the Jewish people."
A life of acclaim and struggle
Mikis Theodorakis was born on July 29, 1925. At the age of 12 he began to compose. In his youth, he belonged to a fascist youth group, but in 1942, after he was arrested by the Italian occupation regime, he became a communist. He took an active part in the struggle against the Germans, and in the Greek civil war. Time after time he was sent to jails, detention camps and remote islands. He was injured and tortured, and he fell ill. During all this, he didn't stop composing.
During the 1950s, Theodorakis studied in Paris. He composed classical music, wrote works for the ballet. In the early 1960s he returned to Greece and developed his unique musical style, which immediately enjoyed sweeping success. Theodorakis also composed music for many films. The most famous of them is "Zorba the Greek" (1964). After the murder of opposition leader Grigoris Lambrakis, Theodorakis became a political activist and a left-wing member of parliament. After the colonels' coup in 1967, he went underground, was arrested and detained on a remote island. Three years later he was released and left for exile in Paris.
During the 1970s, the exiled composer made a series of visits to Israel. His concerts in Caesarea, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem attracted huge crowds. Theodorakis became a favorite of Israel's upper crust, and an ally of the peace movement. Later on, when he identified with the Palestinian struggle, he was harshly criticized by right-wing circles. His visits to Israel tapered off until they stopped altogether.
In Greece itself, Theodorakis is considered a provocative public figure. His transition from left to right to left drew quite a lot of criticism. In spite of that, his name is still mentioned as a possible candidate for president. His status as the most important Greek musician is unquestioned. Even in France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, Theodorakis is a cultural figure of the first rank. Some consider him a person whose work and life embody the spirit of the contemporary European left.
In recent years, Mikis Theodorakis has adopted a militant anti-American approach. He criticized the NATO bombings in Serbia, and opposed the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. In 2002 he led the mass anti-Israel rallies in Athens and in Thessaloniki. In November 2003, he aroused an international furor when he was quoted as saying that the Jews are the root of evil. Since making that statement, Theodorakis has not agreed to grant an interview to any Israeli media outlet.
admin1 (26. Aug 2004, 07:48)
JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 26, 2004 0:21 | Updated Aug. 26, 2004 0:50
EU allowed greater role in peace process
By HERB KEINON
Israel has taken a "major step forward," agreeing to institutionalize a role for the European Union in regional peace process and non-proliferation issues, EU Ambassador Giancarlo Chevallard said Wednesday.
Chevallard, summing up 15 hours of negotiations Tuesday between EU and Israeli officials over Israel's participation in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), said that Israel has agreed to institutionalize the political dialogue with the EU on a number of key topics, something it has never agreed to do before.
Israeli diplomatic officials, however, said that although progress was made in the negotiations, there is still a long way to go.
One official said that it does not look as if the agreement will be finalized before the new European Commission takes over in November.
An agreement by Israel to upgrade the EU's political involvement would constitute a shift in Israeli policy. Only last month did Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom tell EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana that Europe could be frozen out of the Middle East peace process because of its failure to consider Israel's security needs.
The ENP is an initiative to upgrade the EU's relations with a circle of some 14 countries bordering the enlarged EU, with the ultimate goal being to allow free access to and from the EU of goods, services, capital, and people from the countries involved in the initiative.
The action plan currently under discussion has two "baskets," a political one and an economic one.
Under the understandings being worked out, Chevallard said Israel would recognize in writing a willingness to involve Europe in a formalized political dialogue on issues such as the peace process, terrorism, small arms, non-proliferation, and human rights. This is what constitutes the political basket.
Chevallard said the idea is not only to hold a dialogue on these issues, but also to come up with common action. He pointed out that the title of this part of the agreement is "political dialogue and cooperation."
Israeli officials said there are still some "land mines" on the way to agreeing on the framework for the political dialogue. He said the goal is to upgrade the dialogue and cooperation without highlighting the different EU-Israeli positions on a number of issues.
Chevallard said the EU recognizes that Israel has made a "big step forward" in accepting the principle of an institutionalized role for the EU on political issues, and that the EU understands that in exchange "there must be other advantages" for Israel.
These "advantages" are to be found in the second basket in the agreement, the "economic" basket, which in addition to economic issues also deals with science, transportation, and the environment.
As a result of joining the Europe Neighborhood program, Israel wants to gain entrance to a number of different institutions and programs that are currently closed to non-EU members, such as the European Space Agency and European Environment Agency. Israeli officials said that as of yet the EU has not been overly generous in this area.
Chevallard said that the goal of the negotiations now is to "find the proper balance between the different baskets."
What this means in non-diplomatic jargon, according to diplomatic officials, is that if Israel is going to institutionalize a political role for Europe in various different areas, it expects to be duly compensated by gaining entrance to key economic, scientific, and technological programs that are currently closed to it.
admin1 (26. Aug 2004, 07:45)
JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 25, 2004 20:30 | Updated Aug. 26, 2004 8:22
Labor compromises on unity talks
By GIL HOFFMAN
Labor Chairman Shimon Peres reached a compromise with his opponents in his party on Wednesday night that enabled both sides to claim victory following an arduous three-hour meeting of Labor's governing bureau.
According to the compromise, Labor will continue to back legislation that advances Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan and the party will hold Sharon accountable if the plan does not get implemented. The decision makes no mention of initiating primaries to replace Peres and is deliberately ambiguous about whether coalition talks with the Likud can continue.
"Coalition negotiations were stopped and are no longer taking place," the compromise said. "If there are new developments, they will be brought to the bureau for a discussion. Labor sees general elections as the solution to the political crisis and this requires Labor to prepare properly."
Peres interpreted the decision as allowing him to decide how to proceed in negotiations with the Likud as long as he brings any eventual coalition deal for approval. He said he was glad that he successfully averted attempts by his opponents to pass a proposal to break up Labor's negotiating team. He added that agreeing to prepare for elections was not a concession because every opposition party must pursue elections and he believes that there is no chance of elections any time soon.
"The goal was not to win or lose but to maintain party unity," Peres said.
"We are not crawling into any government. We are contributing to the historical advance of peace." Peres said he has not spoken to Sharon recently, but he believes the prime minister is seeking a majority in his party to advance disengagement. He called upon Sharon to pursue a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip even without the Likud's support.
Mocking his rivals in Labor, Peres said he did not surprise anyone when he said last week that he would be Labor's candidate for prime minister, because he never said he would not run. He said he would allow primaries in the party even if elections are moved up.
The so-called rebels in Labor, led by MKs Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Matan Vilna'i, and Ephraim Sneh interpreted the compromise as ending all coalition negotiations with Likud and initiating the process of internal elections in Labor. They each claimed credit for writing the proposal.
"We never had an interest in inflaming the party," Sneh said. "This was what we wanted all along." Labor bureau member Danny Cohen, a vocal Peres critic, said that "Peres surrendered to pressure." He said the decision means that Labor can no longer negotiate without receiving a mandate from party institutions and predicted that elections are on the way.
But MK Eitan Cabel, who opposed a national unity government from the start, expressed disappointment with the decision.
"Once again my colleagues talked like fighters for a day but when push came to shove, they avoided the main issue, which is moving up the election for Labor chairman," Cabel said. "This compromise will certainly not lead us back to running the country."
During the meeting, Labor negotiating team member Moshe Shahal angered the crowd by predicting that Jewish blood will be shed during the evacuation of Gaza Strip settlements. MK Ophir Pines-Paz also raised an uproar when he said the Likud "crucified Labor worse than Jesus."
Prior to the bureau meeting, the Israeli Masorti (Conservative) Movement called upon Labor not to concede in coalition talks on matters of religion and state.
Likud coalition team chairman Yoram Raved met late Wednesday with United Torah Judaism MKs Avraham Ravitz and Moshe Gafni in an attempt to finalize a coalition agreement.
admin1 (26. Aug 2004, 07:39)
HAARETZ
August 25, 2004
Between violence and non-violence
By Amira Hass
The Mahatma Gandhi's grandson is visiting the country this week at the invitation of Palestinians who want to advance the idea of a popular struggle against the Israeli occupation. Gandhi is slated to speak to Palestinians about non-violent struggle, but it is a discussion that we Israelis should also conduct. As occupiers.
The original violence, the primordial, ongoing violence, is the violence of the side that imposed through its military superiority a reign over another nation. Can Israeli society be attentive to the popular Palestinian struggle, and conduct the necessary internal revolution to truly disengage from the colonialist characteristics of the state of Israel?
Even without tanks and helicopter fire, the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza is violent and has been since 1967, including the years 1994-2000, when most Israelis liked to believe that we had left the territories. Violent are the orders expropriating Palestinian land for "public purposes" that is only for Jews; violent is the way Israel distributes water - as much water as they want for the settlements near villages that aren't even connected to water lines; violent are the occupation lawyers who defined "state land" as land Palestinians are not allowed to develop, and Civil Administration inspectors who take note of every new vine and olive planted in that land; violent is the Shin Bet officer who pleasantly tells someone who needs a travel permit "to help us and we'll help you," and those who send that person on his mission; violent are the planners who drew boundaries around the Palestinian towns and surrounded them with settlements and security roads; violent are the bureaucratic arrangements that create queues in which people wait for hours and days to see a Civil Administration clerk; violent is the Israeli prohibition that prevents native-born West Bankers and Gazans from returning to their homes if they happened to be out of the country in 1967; violent is the concept that Divine Promise is a license to impose a regime of discrimination based on ethnicity.
The Palestinians who to try to waken in their society a recognition of the efficiency of the unarmed popular struggle belong publicly and unequivocally to the "two-state solution" school. These are mostly veteran, determined Fatah activists as well as members or associates of the People's Party, the former Communist Party, which supported the two-state solution long before the PLO adopted it. Their job is to persuade their constituents that a popular struggle is far more effective than an armed struggle.
They face two main obstacles. The first is an Israeli talent to excuse everything with "security concerns" or "military needs" - which in turn relies on the brainwashing that the Palestinians only want to destroy us, and that the current conflict has nothing to do with the Israeli occupation.
Let's assume that as part of a non-violent popular struggle, the Palestinians decide to send out 50,000 people one day to plant olive trees in an area defined as "state lands" near their villages.
Would the IDF impose a curfew or closure on the villages and roads on the grounds that armed men might infiltrate the planters, or that there is a risk to a nearby settlement? And let's assume that 20,000 Palestinian planters decide to take the chance and ignore the army's order closing the area; can we be sure that no Israeli commander would order soldiers to shoot - first tear gas, and then live fire - on the thousands of people carrying only hoes?
And assume that there would be a few hundred people carrying olive saplings ready to be wounded, indeed even killed. Would they, as casualties, manage to shake Israeli society? And let's say that the IDF makes do with uprooting the saplings, over and over, and not shoot? Would Israeli society then understand that it is the Palestinians' right to develop their land, even if it is not privately owned?
That is the second obstacle, and it is much tougher. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis - and possibly more - have an interest in the settlements remaining in place, constantly expanding, and in new highways that connect every remote settlement to Kfar Sava and Beit Shemesh, and Israeli control over all the water sources in the West Bank.
There is the interest of Israelis whose country does not offer them any hope for improvement in their standard of living unless they move to settlements in the territories. There is the interest of Israeli companies that build the settlements, the security industries that manufacture equipment and trains people to defend the safety of the settlers, and of anyone who has a direct or indirect connection to settlers: family, employers, employees, Shin Bet officers and their families, officials from the educational and health systems.
For decades, a complex web of interests has grown. This complex network, combined with the well-known mantra about an existential security risk emanating from the Palestinians - as opposed to the real, personal risk faced by soldiers and civilians - has made the Palestinian resistance silent to most Israelis. Those interested parties will back the army, whatever means it uses to put down any popular struggle.
The armed Palestinian struggle did not manage to halt the Israeli settlement enterprise. Does that mean nothing can stand in the way of the violence of the occupation?
Eine Begegnung mit israelischen Kindern der besonderen Art!
admin1 (24. Aug 2004, 18:33)
Am Montagabend, 23. August 2004, wurde im "Park im
Grünen" in Rüschlikon ein Begegnungsabend mit Schweizer Freunden
arrangiert. Das Ziel dieses Begegnungsabends war, den Kindern zu
zeigen, dass sie nicht allein sind und auf engagierte Freunde auch
ausserhalb Israels zählen dürfen. Eine Delegation der Organisation
"Israel Forum" besuchte diese Kinder im "Park im Grünen". Der nachfolgende Kurzbericht beschreibt diese Begegnung (weiter)
admin1 (12. Aug 2004, 12:53)
JERSUALEM POST
Aug. 12, 2004 0:05 | Updated Aug. 12, 2004 8:53
EU may vote for Israel sanctionsBy HERB KEINON
The European Union is likely to support a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for sanctions against Israel over the security fence if there is not a dramatic change in the diplomatic situation before mid-September, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said Wednesday.
The EU voted en masse in July to accept the International Court of Justice's decision on the fence and vote for a Palestinian resolution demanding that Israel dismantle the security fence and pay compensation to the Palestinians for damage caused.
Since then Israel has been lobbying the 25 EU countries, whose votes at the UN influence another 25 countries who follow their lead, not to support the Palestinians when they bring the issue to the Security Council and the General Assembly with a request for sanctions.
Israel expects the Palestinians to present another resolution to the General Assembly in September, and then to present a resolution calling for sanctions to the Security Council.
It is widely expected in Israel that the six votes needed on the Security Council to stop this resolution from passing will not be found, and the US will use its veto.
It is then expected that the Palestinians will present another resolution to the General Assembly calling for sanctions against Israel. Unlike Security Council resolutions calling for sanctions, General Assembly resolutions calling for sanctions are not binding.
As things stand now, according to the senior diplomatic official, there is no reason to expect that the EU which voted for the resolution in July will not do so again when sanctions are attached.
According to this source, the EU vote will not be taken in a vacuum, but will be in the context of whether the EU believes Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is committed to carrying out the disengagement plan, whether he is willing to give the EU a role in it, and whether the defense establishment makes changes in the fence's route as called for by the recent High Court of Justice decision.
"If the vote were to be held today," the official said, "I think the EU would support the Palestinians."
The official said that the Europeans are looking for signs that Sharon is serious about the plan. According to the official, what they are finding instead are signs of a lack of seriousness. These include:
The failure by Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to allocate a shekel in the 2005 budget he presented last week for disengagement.
Sharon's failure to remove the unauthorized settlement outposts.
The difficulty Sharon is having in forming a coalition that would vote for the legislation that will come before the Knesset soon after it returns from recess on a wide variety of issues connected to the disengagement – first and foremost the law regarding compensation for the evacuated settlers.
Although a General Assembly resolution calling for sanctions has no teeth, diplomatic officials are concerned it could harm businesses' interests, as large international companies may think twice about doing business with Israel if their home countries voted for the resolution.
admin1 (12. Aug 2004, 12:48)
HAARETZ
Last Update: 12/08/2004 09:05
Arab-Israeli soccer team Bnei Sakhnin set to make history
By Ori Lewis
Bnei Sakhnin will set a precedent in European soccer Thursday evening by becoming the first Arab side to compete in a UEFA competition, when they play Partizani Tirani of Albania at the National Stadium in Ramat Gan.
Excitement is mounting in the small town set in the verdant Galilee hills in northern Israel, as the team prepares for its UEFA Cup second qualifying round tie. Sakhnin earned its place after last May's emotional 4-1 State Cup victory over Hapoel Haifa.
"As the kickoff nears, excitement is growing," club spokesman Mondar Halaila said Wednesday. "This is a historic moment for us."
Interest in Sakhnin's exploits has spread beyond Israel's borders, as soccer fans throughout the Arab world are tuning in. Offers for funding to help the poorest club in the Israeli Premier League have also come from donors in the oil-rich Gulf states.
Israel's Arabs have long been ostracized by their fellow Arabs from neighboring countries, most of which do not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
Sakhnin's cup final win in Tel Aviv in front of 40,000 spectators - double the town's population - was hailed as a triumphant sporting first for Israel's Arab minority, which numbers some 1.1 million, or nearly a fifth of the population.
The team is made up of Arab and Jewish players and a foreign contingent from Africa and Eastern Europe.
Fingers crossed
Halaila appealed for support from both Jewish and Arab fans. "We hope that both Arabs and Jews will unite for 90 minutes and will keep their fingers crossed for us," he said. "We are representing the state, but to do this honorably, we need the support of everybody."
Sakhnin has no home ground as the town's cash-strapped municipality is unable to complete its rebuilding. The town was planning to give its team a facility in line with Premier League requirements, but ran out of money and work on the project stopped.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged $2 million in state funds to help, but a new stadium is nowhere in sight.
Regardless of its home ground status, Sakhnin is only allowed to host its UEFA Cup matches in Tel Aviv, as European soccer's ruling body has stated that all matches sanctioned by them must be played in Israel's commercial capital, due to security concerns.
Expected Sakhnin line-up: Energy Mirambaduro, Nidal Shalata, Ernest Etchiti, Bassam Ganayem, Avi Danan, Tomer Eliyahu, Abed Rabah, Abbas Suan, Ilan Masoudi, Angui Alumeida, Calber Rodriguez.
admin1 (12. Aug 2004, 12:46)
HAARETZ
August 12, 2004
Analysis / Fence, roadblocks kept Jerusalem safe
By Amos Harel
The bomb attack south of the Qalandiyah roadblock yesterday was the first in greater Jerusalem after a hiatus of almost six months. This is the longest lapse the capital has known since the start of the current intifada.
This lull was achieved by an improvement in the IDF and Shin Bet's intelligence capability and the coordination between them, but also by two very unpopular means: the separation fence and IDF roadblocks.
Suffice it to examine the route made by the militants who laid the bomb. The Tanzim's military wing in Jenin, which claimed responsibility for the attack, operated in the city before Operation Defensive Shield. It used to launch dozens of suicide bombers to the north of the country with no difficulty, with the help of Islamic Jihad and sometimes Hamas groups in the city. This route has been blocked by the fence.
At first the activists tried to send suicide bombers via the north of the Jordan Valley, but when the IDF improved deployment there, only one course remained: south, toward Jerusalem.
The fence's construction around the city is being delayed, so its entrance is still open. The investigators are still examining the possibility that the militants' target was not Jerusalem but a more northern town. The fence forced them to make an especially long detour. They reached Jerusalem by car, with no great difficulty.
The B'Tselem human rights group claimed in a report published this week that Road 60, from the north of the West Bank to Jerusalem, is still mostly blocked to Palestinian traffic. But in fact, the IDF lifted the closure on Jenin a few months ago, following the fence's construction and the effective roundup operations.
Yesterday, after the bombing, the closure was renewed. At the same time, the number of roadblocks was reduced and some of the restrictions on Palestinian traffic were removed.
The bomber's way to the center of Jerusalem was blocked by a last-minute warning from the Shin Bet, which led to a swift deployment of forces in the north of the city, forcing the militants to change their plans. Consequently, the casualties were innocent Palestinians. Six border policemen were injured, three seriously, but the center of Jerusalem remained relatively safe.
In the justified criticism of the injustices caused by the fence and roadblocks, one should remember that the relative quiet in the center of the country is no coincidence; it is the result of a huge effort by all the security branches.
admin1 (12. Aug 2004, 12:40)
Haaretz Last Update: 12/08/2004 10:30
UN: Israel, Palestinians violating int'l law, undermining peace
By The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS - Both Israel and the Palestinians are violating their international legal obligations and undermining prospects for peace, a senior UN official told the UN Security Council.
Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast, in what he called a "depressingly familiar" monthly briefing, said Wednesday that there was little reason to believe that either side would take the first steps to implement the "road map" peace plan or stop violating international law.
"Until and unless both the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel take the necessary first steps to restore momentum towards peace, the stalemate will continue and there will be no lasting ceasefire," Prendergast warned.
Israel has an obligation "to protect Palestinian civilians and not to destroy their property unless this is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations," but the scale of destruction being carried out by the Israeli military "raises concerns about collective punishment," he said.
The Palestinian Authority also has obligations under agreements with Israel, international humanitarian law, and the road map "to protect Israeli civilians from attacks emanating from territories in its control."
"It has failed to live up to those obligations, and Israeli civilians continue to suffer attacks from Palestinians," Prendergast said.
He cited "a new and worrying pattern" where Palestinian militants launch Qassam rockets into Israel, and Israel retaliates with helicopter missile strikes into the Gaza Strip and ever deeper incursions into areas adjacent to Israel.
"For each side to cite the actions of the other does not in any way excuse it from fulfilling its own obligations," Prendergast told the council. "There can be no preconditions to the observance of humanitarian law and international agreements."
The "road map" peace plan, which was drafted by the so-called Quartet of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia, outlines a series of parallel and reciprocal steps to achieve an independent Palestinian state, alongside Israel, by 2005.
"The Palestinian Authority, despite promises made by its president, has made no progress on its core obligation to take immediate action on the ground to end violence and combat terror," Prendergast said.
Progress on Palestinian security reforms also "continues to be slow, and mostly cosmetic," which can only be explained "by a lack of political will to advance along that "to assess the situation on the ground and examine appropriate courses of action." Donors will also meet in New York in September to examine how they could assist in turning a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank "into a true beginning of a genuine peace process," he said.
UN Undersecretary General Kieran Prendergast speaking to the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East and the Palestinians areas in New York on Wednesday. (AP)
admin1 (11. Aug 2004, 21:39)
HAARETZ, July 11, 2004
More Jewish graves vandalized in France and Czech Republic
By Amiram Barkat
Vandals daubed swastikas and slogans on 56 graves and a war memorial in eastern France on Monday evening. The attackers also used black paint to scrawl slogans glorifying Adolf Hitler, and declaring "Resistance to the Islamist invasion" on some of the graves in a cemetery in Lyon, France's second-biggest city.
French President Jacques Chirac, the government, opposition and Jewish leaders condemned the attack yesterday, which prompted calls for tougher action to prevent such vandalism.
Meanwhile, some 80 tombstones were found toppled yesterday at a 17th-century Jewish cemetery in the Czech Republic town of Hranice, 300 kilometers east of Prague. The culprits have not been found, police said.
"It is very symbolic to see graves that bear the Star of David defaced by a swastika," Richard Wertenschlag, Lyon's chief rabbi, said at the cemetery. "It is an indescribable shock."
He noted that the attack coincided with the 60th anniversary of France's liberation from Nazi occupation in World War II, and described it as an attack on the Jewish community. The war memorial that was vandalized had been built to commemorate the Jewish soldiers killed in World War II.
The Lyon cemetery is the third Jewish cemetery in France to be vandalized since the beginning of the year. More than 300 tombs or graves have been desecrated in eastern France since April - many in Jewish cemeteries but also some Muslim and a few Christian graves - despite a drive led by Chirac to eradicate racism.
Racist and anti-Semitic acts in France soared in the first half of 2004, the Interior Ministry says, totaling 135 physical acts against Jews and 95 against other ethnic groups. The ministry recorded 125 physical acts against Jews in all of 2003.
Relatives of people buried in the Lyon cemetery started arriving Monday night to see if their relatives' graves had been desecrated, but police kept them out. The cemetery was closed yesterday to allow investigators to search the site.
Police said they were questioning two people who were in the area when a warden found the graffiti on Monday evening, but had no evidence against them. They have failed to identify those responsible for other recent attacks.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the attack was odious, Chirac called it cowardly, and Justice Minister Dominique Perben visited the cemetery. All expressed solidarity with the Jewish community and vowed to fight anti-Semitism.
But patience with the authorities is running out, and alarm is growing among France's 600,000 Jews and five million Muslims - Western Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities.
"A crackdown is needed to make these [attackers] realize the consequences of their acts," Wertenschlag said.
Their words echoed those of Abdellah Boussouf, rector of Strasbourg mosque, after 15 Muslim graves were desecrated last Friday. "I can no longer be content now with the condemnations and solidarity pledges of political rulers," he said last week. "I want results."