Israel Palestine Infos
Uri
Avnery
May
5,
2012
A
Putsch
Against
War
GENERALS
AND
secret
police
chiefs
get
together
for
an
attack
on
the
politicians.
In
some
countries,
they
arrest
the
president,
occupy
government
offices
and
TV
stations
and
annul
the
constitution.
They
then
publish
Communique
No.
1,
explaining
the
dire
need
to
save
the
nation
from
perdition
and
promising
democracy,
elections
etc.
In
other
countries,
they
do
it
more
quietly.
They
just
inform
the
elected
leaders
that,
if
they
don’t
desist
from
their
disastrous
policies,
the
officers
will
make
their
views
public
and
precipitate
their
downfall.
Such
officers
are
generally
called
a
“junta”,
the
Spanish
word
for
“committee”
used
by
South
American
generals.
Their
method
is
usually
called
a
“putsch”,
a
German-Swiss
term
for
a
sudden
blow.
(Yes,
the
Swiss
actually
had
revolts
some
170
years
ago.)
What
almost
all
such
coups
have
in
common
is
that
their
instigators
thrive
on
the
demagoguery
of
war.
The
politicians
are
invariably
accused
of
cowardice
in
face
of
the
enemy,
failure
to
defend
national
honor,
and
such.
Not
in
Only
in
IT
STARTED
with
the
most
unlikely
candidate
to
lead
such
a
rebellion:
the
ex-Mossad
chief,
Meir
Dagan.
For
eight
years,
longer
than
most
of
his
predecessors,
Dagan
led
the
Mossad,
Nobody
ever
accused
Dagan
of
pacifism.
During
his
term,
the
Mossad
carried
out
many
assassinations,
several
against
Iranian
scientists,
as
well
as
cyber[ ]attacks.
A
protégé
of
Ariel
And
here,
after
leaving
office,
he
speaks
out
in
the
harshest
terms
against
the
government’s
plans
for
an
attack
on
This
week
he
was
overshadowed
by
the
recently
relieved
chief
of
the
Shin
Bet.
(Shin
Bet
and
Shabak
are
different
ways
of
pronouncing
the
initials
of
the
official
Hebrew
name
“General
Security
Service.”)
It
is
equivalent
to
the
British
MI5,
but
deals
mostly
with
the
Palestinians
in
For
six
years,
Yuval
Diskin
was
the
silent
chief
of
the
silent
service.
His
shaved
head
could
be
seen
entering
and
leaving
meetings
of
secret
committees.
He
is
considered
the
real
father
of
“targeted
eliminations”,
and
his
service
has
been
widely
accused
of
extensive
use
of
torture.
Nobody
ever
accused
him
of
being
soft
on
Arabs.
And
now
he
has
spoken
out.
Choosing
a
most
unusual
venue
– a get together
of
some
two
dozen
pensioners
in
a
small-town
cafe
-
he
let
fly.
According
to
Diskin
–
and
who
would
know
better?
–
Going
further
than
Dagan,
he
stated
that
the
only
factor
preventing
peace
negotiations
with
the
Palestinians
is
Netanyahu
himself.
Israel
can
make
peace
with
Mahmoud
Abbas
at
any
time,
and
missing
this
historic
opportunity
will
bring
disaster
upon
As
chief
of
the
Shin
Bet,
Diskin
was
the
No.
1
official
government
expert
on
Palestinians.
His
agency
receives and collates
all
the
evidence,
spy
reports,
interrogation
results
and
information
gathered
from
listening
devices.
Leaving
no
room
for
doubt,
Diskin
said
that
he
knew
Netanyahu
and
Barak
from
close
up,
did
not
trust
them
and
thought
they
were
unfit
to
lead
the
nation
in
a
crisis.
He
also
said
that
they
are
deliberately
deceiving
the
people.
He
did
not
omit
to
mention
that
they
live
in
extreme
luxury.
Anyone
who
thought
that
these
accusers
were
lone
voices,
and
that
the
whole
choir
of
current
and
past
security
chiefs
would
rise
and
condemn
them
unanimously,
was
disappointed.
One
after
another
these
experts
were
quoted
by
the
media
as
agreeing
with
the
two
in
substance,
though
not
necessarily
on
their
style.
Not
a
single
one
questioned
their
assertions
or
denied
what
they
said.
The
current
Chief
of
Staff
and
the
Mossad
and
Shin
Bet
chiefs
let
it
be
known
that
they
share
the
views
of
the
two
on
THE
COUNTER-ATTACK
was
not
late
in
coming.
The
entire
battery
of
politicians
and
media
hacks
went
into
action.
They
did
what
Israelis
almost
always
do:
when
faced
with
serious
problems
or
serious
arguments,
they
don’t
get
to
grips
with
the
matter
itself,
but
select
some
minor
detail
and
belabor
it
endlessly.
Practically
no
one
tried
to
disprove
the
assertions
of
the
officers,
neither
concerning
the
proposed
attack
on
Both
Dagan
and
Diskin,
it
was
asserted,
were
embittered
because
their
terms
of
office
were
not
extended.
They
felt
humiliated.
They
are
venting
their
personal
frustration.
They
are
speaking
out
of
sheer
spite.
If
they
did
not
trust
the
Prime
Minister,
why
did
they
not
get
up
and
resign
while
they
were
in
office?
Why
didn’t
they
speak
out
before?
If
this
was
a
matter
of
life
and
death,
why
did
they
wait?
Alternatively,
why
don’t
they
continue
to
shut
up?
Where
is
their
sense
of
responsibility?
Why
do
they
help
the
enemy?
Why
don’t
they
speak
only
behind
closed
doors?
Diskin,
it
was
added,
has
no
idea
about
Sources
“close
to
the
Prime
Minister’s
office”
also
had
another
explanation:
Dagan
and
Diskin,
as
well
as
their
predecessors,
were
just
stupid.
Taken
together
with
Dagan’s
and
Diskin’s
assertion
that
Netanyahu
and
Barak
are
not
rational
(and
perhaps
not
quite
mentally
balanced)
this
means
that
our
national
security
depends
entirely
on
a
group
of
irrational
and
stupid
leaders
–
and
that
this
has
been
the case
for
years.
A
frightening
thought:
what
if
everything
they
say
about
each
other
is
true?
THE
MAN
accused
by
his
security
advisers[ ]of
messianic
tendencies
was
exposed
to
personal
scrutiny
by
another
event
this
week.
His
father,
Ben-Zion
Netanyahu,
died
at
age
102,
having
remained
of
clear
mind
to
the
end.
At
the
public
funeral,
he
was
eulogized
by
Binyamin.
As
could
be
expected,
it
was
a
kitschy
speech.
The
son
addressed
his
dead
father
in
the
second
person
–
(“You
taught
me”…”You
formed
my
character”
etc)
-
a
vulgar
practice
I
find
particularly
distasteful.
He
also
shed
tears
on
camera.
There
is
no
doubt
that
the
father
had
a
huge
influence
on
his
son.
He
was
a
professor
of
history,
whose
whole
intellectual
life
was
centered
on
one
topic:
the
Spanish
inquisition
–
a
traumatic
chapter
in
Jewish
history
comparable
only
to
the
Holocaust.
Ben-
It
seems
that
he
didn't
have
such
a
high
opinion
of
his
second
son.
He
once
remarked
publicly
that
Binyamin
was
unfit
to
be
prime
minister,
but
would make
a
good
foreign
minister
–
an
uncannily
accurate
judgment,
if
one
sees
the
job
of
the
foreign
minister
as
marketing.
The
home
in
which
“Bibi”
grew
up
was
not
a
very
happy
one.
The
father
was
a
deeply
embittered
man.
As
a
historian,
he
was
never
accepted
by
the
academic
world
in
The
myth
of
the
Great
Historian
laboring
at
his
titanic
task
was
a
daily
reality
at
home,
in
All
this
shaped
the
character
and
world view
of
“Bibi”
–
the
specter
of
imminent
national
annihilation,
the
role
model
of
the
fiercely
rightist
father,
the
shadow
of
the
older
and
much
more
admired
brother.
When
Binyamin
now
speaks
endlessly
about
the
coming
Second
Holocaust
and
his
historical
role
in
preventing
it,
this need not be
just
a
ploy
to
divert
attention
from
the
Palestinian
issue
or
to
safeguard
his
political
survival.
He
may
–
frightening
thought!!!
–
actually
believe
it.
The
picture
that
emerges
is
exactly
that
painted
by
Yuval
Diskin:
a
Holocaust-obsessed
fantasist,
out of contact with
reality,
distrusting
all
Goyim,
trying
to
follow
in
the
footsteps
of
a
rigid
and
extremist
father
–
altogether
a
dangerous
person
to
lead
a
nation
in
a
real
crisis.
Yet
this
is
the
man
who,
according
to
all
opinion
polls,
is
going
to
win
the
upcoming
elections,
just
four
months
from
now.