Monday, December 29, 2008

Sane Voices from Israel II: Dov Khenin

I thought I would share this item from politico.co.il here

Dov Khenin: "The role of the Left is to say 'No' to a crazy war."

Khenin claimed that the media is ignoring the voices of those opposed to the war. "The true Left in Israeli society has to make its voice heard precisely in those moments of consensus. "

Khenin dismissed the claims that he and his colleagues in the Hadash faction didn't react in a similar fashion when Kassams were fired against the settlements in the South, and noted that the faction visited Sederot and participated in the funeral of of a woman who was killed by a Kassam. "We came to express our opinion that Kassams are a disaster and are criminal. But when Israel once again goes out to wage a crazy war, I think that the role of the Left is to stand up and say, "No" to war.

It is important for progressives outside of Israel, such as those who labored hard to get Barack Obama elected in the US, to get to know Khenin and to support the New Israeli Left, as opposed to the wimpy Old Israeli Left. The New Israeli Left is represented mostly by the Hadash Arab-Jewish party (and some of the younger elements of Meretz). Its loyalty to progressive policies and human rights is untainted by the illiberal forms of nationalism rampant in the Old Israeli Left.

 

 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mystery Professor,

Very helpful post. I can only speak for myself (a non-Jewish American Catholic); but I suspect there are many other Americans who feel the same way I do.

I would like nothing better than to support Israeli's who are committed to peace and coexistence.

Any additional information you can provide about this would be most appreciated.

Peter Drubetskoy said...

For those reading in Hebrew, please, also visit the "official unofficial site of supporters of Hadash and Dov Khenin"!

No matter what, don't be silent. Not in order to tell your children that you were the "good ones" when everybody else was "bad". And not in order to be able to say to others "I told you so!" when everything turns into a huge pile of shit. Everybody who opposes this war has to talk because otherwise the only thing that will be heard is that "this is a just war".

Anonymous said...

May our boys soon achieve the victory and drive the Hamas hooligans into the sea!