holocaust education in israel

it is very rare to have physical violence in the israeli parlament, but even this happens now and in what a context:

Here is the exchange between religious Member of the Knesset(MK) Yakov Cohen and Justice Ministry official, Attorney Amnon De Hartog, erupted after they left an Education Committee meeting.

MK Cohen: "You’re destroying the Torah world"
Attorney De Hartog: "You are a beast, shut your mouth"
MK Cohen: "you’re worse than the Germans; they wanted to destroy the body and you want to destroy the soul"
Attorney De Hartog: "If you don’t shut up I’ll slap you"
MK Cohen: "I’m waiting"
Attorney De Hartog: is slapping MK Yacov Cohen.

The day after in the media attorney De Hartog apologizes for incident, explains he lost family in the Holocaust.

MK's from both sides of political divide rush to attorney's defense!!!
(ynet 07.10.07)

une ministre francaise rendant george bush responsable des attentats du 11-septembre ?

Pour le collectif ReOpen911, pas de doute. Sur son site Internet, qui exhume une vidéo de novembre 2006, les tenants de la théorie "conspirationniste" des attentats de New York et Washington affirment : "Le gouvernement français, représenté par Christine Boutin, envisage la responsabilité de G. W. Bush dans les attentats du 11 septembre 2001."

La ministre Boutin et le 11 septembre
envoyé par ReOpen911

the death of the palestinian cause

because the importence of this editorial, here it is in its original version as published on http://english.daralhayat.com
we will have to wait for having this sincear attitude from our occidental media...

The Palestinian Cause and the Cause of Palestinians
Hazem Saghieh, Al-Hayat 24.06.07

Perhaps the gravest thing that happened in Gaza, as many observers noticed, is that the "sacred cause" and the "primary Arab cause" is no longer a concern.

This result exceeds the impacts of the 1967 defeat, raising substantial questions about our minds, societies and peoples, and even about our individuals and their daily lives. Since 1948, we have shaded ourselves with that cause; judged the world on the grounds of its stances on it, and judged our regimes and thoughts on its standards. Our rulers practice despotism under its name, and aspirants reach their political, prestigious, cultural or financial ambitions by climbing its ladder. Civil wars and epical collapses find their justifications in it, and sinners are forgiven merely because they show an inclination to it.

Scientific and technical revolutions have blown from behind our heads, and there have been economic shifts to which we paid no attention because we were so preoccupied with the "cause."

However, that was a big lie. Let us imagine a historian who decided - after a while - to write about the stage we live in today, and let us borrow from him a paragraph which he can't escape writing: "After less than a year from what the Lebanese Hezbollah considered a victory over Israel and a victory for the Palestinian cause, this cause is dying in Gaza. It is now required - after scores of years of calling for Arab unity - to unite the two parts of Palestine, as well as uniting Iraqis and the Lebanese."

This means that a certain approach is responsible for what happened and happens, pointing out the limits of absurdity and rashness which are costly not only to peoples and communities but also to mind and meaning. Perhaps, we may say - in this context - that our life without a "sacred cause" has a liberating effect, just as people are liberated when an unchangeable, undoubted, unaccountable state of things collapses. Moreover, this may lead to a certain emancipation from our "mother" cause and our entrance in the realm of maturity where children - after becoming adults - can run their own affairs without firm, binding and predetermined references.

It was wished that the Palestinian cause would have withered away after being resolved justly. Nevertheless, such a solution has been impossible because of the Americans and Israelis; yes, and also because of us, Palestinians and Arabs alike. Now we are before a potential opportunity although it has been produced by a terrible and bloody context.

However, we know that this opportunity - in this situation we are witnessing - is very theoretical, and that fragmentation in Gaza and Iraq turns all the gold we hold in our grip into dust. This may turn the atrophy of the Palestinian cause into promoting hostility against the Palestinians, especially because of the Syrian exploitation of some of them and others as well, not to mention the ethnic conflicts in the region.
If this happens, things will be very grave and appalling. The end of the Palestinian cause which - in other circumstances - would have created opportunities for the concerned communities does not mean the end of the cause of Palestinians, the victims of Israel, the victims of us, Arabs, and the victims of the Palestinian cause in particular.

Exclusion of the revenge-related, retaliatory and racial logic toward them, as well as the exclusion of converting them into more impoverished and marginalized categories is an indisputable humane and moral condition. It is also an element of stability of Arab nation-states; this is only if supposing that such stability would emerge.

In the same sense, we can say that only the establishment of such stable and confident nation-states can meet the conditions of thinking of a just solution for the Palestinians and their causes. We should notice here that the question of Palestinians, as well as Kurds, labor market, water and security... etc. is of the kind that crosses national borders, which naturally allows for large-scale overlapping between wills and interests of neighboring countries, and raises countless sensitivities and fears. All this is an additional reason for the consolidation of Arab nation-states which are motivated by self-confidence and satisfaction about the future, with which these states will solve the issues that must be solved.

The cause of Palestinians tops these issues, especially after the sun of the Palestinian cause has set.

la cause "palestinienne" a cessé d'exister selon le journal arabe al-hayat

La conséquence la plus importante de ce qui se passe à Gaza est probablement que la "cause sacrée", la "priorité absolue des Arabes" [à savoir la cause palestinienne], a cessé d'exister. En cela, il s'agit d'un événement plus important que la défaite de 1967, qui nous met face à des questions considérables, au niveau des individus, de nos peuples et sociétés, et de nos modes de pensée. Depuis 1948, notre vie tournait autour de cette "cause". C'est à son aune que nous mesurions les pays étrangers et jugions nos propres régimes, qui, à leur tour, s'en servaient pour justifier leurs méthodes dictatoriales.

Toutes les ambitions politiques, culturelles ou bassement matérielles y ont cherché leur prétexte ; les guerres civiles y ont puisé leurs ressources ; on a pardonné les pires travers à tous ceux qui s'en réclamaient. Des défaites cinglantes et des échecs retentissants y ont trouvé leur explication. Des révolutions scientifiques et techniques ont eu lieu sans que nous nous en apercevions et des transformations économiques majeures se sont produites sans que nous leur accordions d'importance, car nous étions embourbés jusqu'au cou dans les sables de la "cause". Mais notre comportement se fondait sur un mensonge.

On avait espéré dépasser la cause palestinienne en lui trouvant une solution juste et équitable. Or une telle solution a été impossible, non seulement par la faute des Américains et des Israéliens, mais également - eh oui - par celle des Palestiniens et des Arabes eux-mêmes. Cette "cause sacrée" a été dévoyée. Elle a alimenté dans la région toute une série de luttes entre factions, et a été exploitée par des régimes arabes, comme le régime syrien.

Il y a quelque chose de libérateur et de jubilatoire dans le fait de quitter cette cause. C'est un peu comme la chute d'un régime totalitaire monolithique, fermé à toute contestation, ou comme le moment où l'enfant, atteignant l'âge de raison, se libère de l'omniprésence de sa mère et s'occupe lui-même de ses affaires, sans en référer en permanence à une autorité incontestée et incontestable.

Toutefois, il faut veiller à ne pas verser dans l'excès inverse qui consisterait à basculer de la sacralisation de la cause palestinienne à la haine des Palestiniens. Un tel retournement serait à la fois ignoble et dangereux : car la fin de la cause palestinienne ne signifie pas la fin des problèmes des Palestiniens, victimes des Israéliens, des Arabes et de leur cause elle-même. Il faut surtout ne pas succomber à la logique de la vengeance et du rejet raciste, qui marginalise les Palestiniens et les paupérise. Voilà les conditions humaines et morales pour parvenir à un début de stabilité de nos sociétés.

Hazem Saguieh, Al-Hayat (Courrier International),(publie sur www.upjf.org le 01.07.07)