Legendary Israel PM's grandson is barrier protester

[richards1052]

JERUSALEM (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/070607/world/mideast_conflict_barrier&printer=1">AFP) - A grandson of Israel's legendary right-wing prime minister Menachem Begin is a regular protester against the country's controversial West Bank separation barrier, media reported on Thursday.

The tabloid-style Maariv newspaper published a photograph of 32-year-old Avinadav Begin and a young Palestinian facing off with Israeli soldiers in riot gear during a weekly demonstration against the barrier.

Maariv quoted liberally from websites in which the young Begin declared his desire to "blow up this wall."

"This (barrier) will not help bring peace between Israel and Palestine because none of that exists," the young Begin reportedly wrote...

[richards1052]

1. Scions of Zion turn against Fathers

You know things are deeply disturbed in Israel when you see the children of not one, not two, not three, but four right-wing Zionist political pioneers turn against their fathers' political legacy. It is not really news that Yigal Arens, son of former Likud defense minister, Moshe Arens, is a devoted opponent of the Israeli Occupation. His critics have accused him of once being what they derisively call a "Matzpenist" which is the equivalent of calling someone a "dirty Bolshie" here in the States. He may or may not have been a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matzpen">Matzpen member. To me, Matzpen in its day served a similar role to the SDS here during the 1960s. There is no shame in being a Matzpenist if he was one. And I might point out that Matzpen ended its existence in the 1980s, so we're talking about really old news here.

I wrote here about Dana Olmert, Ehud's daughter http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3261125,00.html">attending a rally during the Lebanon war in which Dan Halutz was charged with war crimes. That must've caused some discussion at the family dinner table. The PM comes from a distinguished Irgun family and grew up in the Beitar youth movement. His daughter really has to cross some political distance from there to publicly denouncing the Israeli chief of staff.

For the past several years, Jewish and Palestinian peace activists have demonstrated every Friday in the village of Bilin, which hugs the Separation Wall. And every week, the Border Police manage in their thuggish manner to beat up and injure peaceful protesters. Maariv reports that one of the regular Israeli protesters for the past two and a half years is another scion of Zion; the grandson of one of the leading lights of the right-wing nationalist movement, Menachem Begin. Aminadav Begin, according to the right-wing tabloid, is an anti-war anarchist who doesn't believe in nations or borders. Imagine how such a story will play in a nation for whom Menachem Begin is a god of right-wing Zionism. Even those who will dismiss the younger Begin's actions with disdain will have to grapple with the question: how this could happen? They will have to wonder whether something has so changed within Israel that the descendants of the ultra-nationalist legacy are turning against it with a vengeance.

If you know Hebrew or want to see photos and video of Begin at the demo http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/592/278.html">go to Maariv.

Finally, Avrum Burg has written a new book, Defeating Hitler (not yet available in English), which promises to be a bombshell because it savagely critiques both contemporary Israel and the entire Zionist enterprise. Burg himself, former Knesset speaker, former Shimon Peres protégé, former Israel Agency director, has left Israel and taken French citizenship. He has abandoned a family legacy of Zionist commitment. His father, Yosef Burg, served for decades as party chair of the National Religious Party. The elder Burg was a German Jew who fled Germany for Palestine. He always stood for a right-wing religious political agenda, but was principled in doing so.

The fact that Burg is quoted as saying that he believes a Jewish democracy is "dynamite" and that the State of Israel is rotting from within will seem like a knife in the back to many Israelis. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=868385">Ari Shavit, himself a principled progressive Zionist journalist, has written of the vehement arguments they had as Burg was writing the book. It promises to be a good read!

Thanks to Sol Salbe for Begin portion of this story.

[henank]

2. The sins of the fathers ... and of the sons

What has any of this got to do with the way of Zionism or anything? It is typical of children to rebel against parents. Leon Trotsky's own great-grandson is now a settler (scroll about 2/3 down):

David Axelrod, the great-grandson of Leon Trotsky, related to me that he told his father: "You said that the Old Way of Torah was no good. You and they kept promising that another 'five year program' would bring heaven on earth. Now after more than fifty years your New Way has led us to hell on earth. I am returning to the Old Way of Torah and to the Land of Israel."

Further research reveals that Axelrod is not your typical religious settler--that would merely be a weird historical twist, that Trotsky's atheistic internationalism morphed over three generations into religious nationalism. Rather, Axelrod is active in the extremist Kach movement founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane--which makes me wonder if fanaticism is to some extent genetic.

Does that reflect on Trotsky? On him? His parents?

It is extremely common in Israel to find children from religious homes who become secular, and also children from secular homes who become religious. Just like there are children of leftists who become rightwingers and vice-versa. The fact that the media makes a big noise about these few people does not imply that they are the entirety of the Israeli political spectrum.

[Shaktimaan]

4. ????

They will have to wonder whether something has so changed within Israel that the descendants of the ultra-nationalist legacy are turning against it with a vengeance.

Why? Israel, and Zionism in particular, have always represented the full spectrum of political ideologies. The far left, communists, radical socialists, single state proponents and pro-palestinian advocates have always been active participants in Israel's political process. If anything, there is less of this diversity now than there used to be, all across the Israeli political spectrum.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Interesting; but political views are not necessarily hereditary!

Two of Reagan's children are liberals. One of our most right-wing Tory MPs, David Davis, is a grandson of a leader of the Jarrow March!

[pelsar]

5. nor should they be...

a child raised properly will examine what he was taught and decide for him/herself if they agree with those teachings....robotic children that believe what they were taught without examing it are nothing to be proud of.

I know many who have gone from religious households (anti state/zionism) to secular, join the IDF and visa versa...the only thing that proves is that israel is a democracy with freedom of speach and freedom of "culture"...in that people can move between different subcultures with the society.

this is usually considered a good thing in countries (except of course israel where somehow people who believe different things from what they were taught or change their views is somehow considered a "knife in the back" to the country.....

interesting how a cornerstone of a democracy is somehow managled in an attempt to show how "corrupt" israeli society has become.

[Lithos]

6. Ah for Jenna to flaunt a Kucinich '08 shirt...

n/t