Avraham Burg OK's State of Judea?

Avraham Burg not long ago, published an article in the Israeli newspaper "Yediot Aharonot" - it was re-printed in The Forward, the International Herald Tribune, and The Guardian - entitled, "The End of Zionism". It's about the state of Israeli society, the "occupation", and all those juicy subjects that Leftists like to lament over as they contemplate how the "Right" is destroying the country.

More recently, Jewish Agency head Sallai Meridor strongly criticized Labor MK Avraham Burg in front of an Israeli Zionist Congress meeting. Meridor was responding to that series of articles by Burg, a former head of the Jewish Agency. "He revealed a degree of understanding for baby killers," said Meridor of Burg.



In a conversation about Burg, his articles, and the Left's general tendency to incite hatred against the Right Wing of Israeli politics, an "illumination" came over me. Immediately, I had a "clear and true" understanding of another "Burgism" that the able, former speaker of the Israeli Knesset - the Israeli Parliament - spewed forth last year, while still the speaker.

During the height of an evacuation of one of the so-called "illegal outposts", then Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg (Labor) called the people at the Gilad Farm in Samaria, "Jewish Hamas." Just because they were protesting the expulsion of people from their homes on legally owned Jewish land, that for political - i.e. Leftist - purposes, the Sharon government found convenient to expropriate, they were called "Jewish Hamas"?

The "illumination" went like this. What do you do with Hamas? Targeted killings of course, that's what. Burg wants to shoot missiles at Jewish kids on a near empty hilltop in Samaria? No that can't be, Burg and the Israeli Left doesn't even want to target real Hamas terrorists in Gaza. They want to talk peace with them. They want to "negotiate". They want to surrender and withdraw the "occupation" troops. They want to give the Palestinians and Hamas an independent state.

That's it, it must be. They certainly wouldn't think of treating Jews differently than Arabs - that's discrimination - and we all know how careful the Left is about discriminating against people. They must want to talk peace with them. They must want to "negotiate". They must want to surrender and withdraw the "occupation" troops. They must want to give the Judeans and Samarians and Jewish Hamas an independent state.

Avraham Burg can rightly be called the founder of the State of Judea!

Three cheers to the very able son of the former government minister and leader of the National Religious Party, Yosef Burg. It must be that Avraham Burg's early Religious Zionist education has caught up with him. Below his tiny kippa - yarmulke - is a thinking head after all. And to think, we all thought he had lost it, and was chumming with the likes of Meretz MK Yossi Sarid and Shinui Party head and Justice Minister Yosef "Tommy" Lapid in their hatred of all things religious and especially Jewish "settlers".

And why would one think that? Just because Burg recently turned to Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with the intention of filing criminal charges against the "Forum of Rabbis for the Jewish People & the Land of Israel", numbering some 500 religious leaders? The rabbis it seems committed the unthinkable, they released a proclamation that the government does not enjoy the support for its policies vis-à-vis the US' Road Map plan or any steps towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Rubinstein stated that the written proclamation does not constitute a violation of the law. But Burg continues to look for ways to persecute those who disagree with his "peace" ideas. He has recently been with his friend Yossi Beilin in Geneva making "agreements".

No, it must be that Burg is the Right's "Trojan Horse". It must be, no other reasonable explanation could exist for his constant calls for removing Israeli forces from historically Jewish areas or the "Jewish Hamas" quip. He must be trying to cultivate sympathy for the Jewish "settlers". He did publish an article in Le Monde recently where he said; "My mother was born in Hebron in 1921. I am a son of Hebron of the eighth generation. The emotional tie that attaches us to this city..."

Because of his "Jewish Hamas" statement, some might have accused Burg of "racism" - a catchall phrase used mainly by the Left in Israel - to frighten its opposition into submission and silence. But, its use is obviously inappropriate. Some might have accused him of Anti-Semitism, but as the Arabs have pointed out ad nauseum, since they're also Semites they can't be Anti-Semites. So, obviously that term can't apply here either.

No, clearly, Judeo-Path is the term of choice. Avraham Burg's outburst is nothing if not Judeo-Pathic. His and his Leftist friend's hatred of Jews who want to cling to their Jewish homeland and Jewish heritage is pathological. Although I'm not a Doctor or Psychologist or Psychiatrist - I wouldn't want to be accused of practicing without a license - there is an area of study called Political Psychology, and some people write Psycho-Histories. May I suggest that, given Burg's family background, he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome passed onto him through his family's experiences?

As he himself describes in that Le Monde article, "Half of the members of my family had their throats cut by the pogromists" in the 1929 Arab massacre of Jews in Hebron. Obviously he still suffers till today the trama of that attack. "The other half [of my family], my grandfathers, uncles, aunts and my mother were saved by the Arab owner of their residence." I want to point out here, to help remove his family - "the Jews" - from Hebron.

Burg continues, "My family has since been divided into two. Half will never have confidence in the Arabs again, especially those of Hebron. The other half, where I line up, will never give up seeking avid neighbors of peace, in order to save with them, the world which is common for us." He obviously had a schizophrenic upbringing. Now we can understand why he so much seems to hate the Jews of modern day Hebron, who returned to live there, while his family didn't - notice his recent outburst against them on Israel TV's "Politica" - yet he still seems to be "promoting" a State of Judea.

"Clearly" Avraham Burg is the Israeli Right's "Trojan Horse". What else could it be?

Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko

(c) 2003/5764 Pasko