[Marxism] Elie Wiesel, Huckster Extraordinaire, Mourns Plight of Israel's Ku Klux Klan

["M. Junaid Alam" <alam1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 The Dispossessed

By ELIE WIESEL

IN 1991, when Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles fell in a deafening din on
Tel Aviv, some Palestinians danced in the streets and on the roofs of
their houses. I saw them. I was in Jerusalem, and I could see what was
happening in the Arab quarter of the Old City. It happened again later,
each time a suicide terrorist set off a bomb on a bus or in a
restaurant. I evoke these scenes with sadness, and for a reason: we have
just seen them repeated in Gaza.

The images of the evacuation itself are heart-rending. Some of them are
unbearable. Angry men, crying women. Children, led away on foot or in
the arms of soldiers who are sobbing themselves.

Let's not forget: these men and women lived in Gaza for 38 years.
Successive governments, from the left and the right, encouraged them to
settle there. In the eyes of their families, they were pioneers, whose
idealism was to be celebrated.

And here they are, obliged to uproot themselves, to take their holy and
precious belongings, their memories and their prayers, their dreams and
their dead, to go off in search of a bed to sleep in, a table to eat on,
a new home, a future among strangers.

From far away, we watch them on television screens and in the pages of
newspapers. Some have behaved in an offensive and undignified manner.
They insulted and wounded soldiers; they spat on officers - including
some who are decorated heroes, all of them ready to give their lives for
their country. But the majority have responded in a dignified way: with
tears. As though united in the same despair, soldiers and evacuees cried
together, even to such an extent that certain commentators have
reproached them, saying: our warriors of yesterday and tomorrow
shouldn't give way to easy emotion.

On a strictly military level, the operation is a success. For that, and
for his brave decision to pursue future peace even at present political
cost, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon deserves praise. But starting now,
Israelis and Palestinians must face the question: What next?

And here I am obliged to take a step back. In the tradition I claim, the
Jew is ordered by King Solomon "not to rejoice when the enemy falls." I
don't know whether the Koran suggests the same.

I know only that in my opinion, what is missing from the chapter now
closing is a collective gesture that ought to be made, but that hasn't
been made, by the Palestinians.

Let's imagine it, if you will. Let's imagine that, faced with the tears
and suffering of the evacuees, the Palestinians had chosen to silence
their joy and their pride, rather than to organize military parades with
masked fighters, machine guns in hand, shooting in the air as though
celebrating a great battlefield victory. Yes, imagine that President
Mahmoud Abbas and his colleagues, in advising their followers, extolled
moderation, restraint, respect and a little understanding for the Jews
who felt themselves struck by an unhappy fate. They would have won
general admiration.

I will perhaps be told that when the Palestinians cried at the loss of
their homes, few Israelis were moved. That's possible. But how many
Israelis rejoiced?

And now, where are we? A lull is imperative. The tears must be allowed
to dry and the wounds to heal. Haste, in this delicate moment, is
dangerous. Any pressure from outside risks being counterproductive.

Why these words of warning? Because last May, at an official dinner
offered by King Abdullah II of Jordan, I spoke with the Palestinian
prime minister, Ahmed Qurei. When I asked him what he thought of Mr.
Sharon's courageous decision regarding Gaza, it was with a wave of the
hand that he objected, adding with disdain: "All that is worth nothing,
means nothing. If Sharon doesn't begin right away to negotiate
definitive borders, a great catastrophe will be the result." He repeated
those words: "right away" and "a great catastrophe."

The optimist in me wants very much to believe that those were just
words. Gaza, after all, is but one chapter in a book that must
ultimately be about peace.

Elie Wiesel, a professor of humanities at Boston University, was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. This article was translated from the
French by The New York Times.



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