Avrum Burg is the quintessential Israeli insider or as they are called in Israel, “prince.” His father, Yosef, served in every Knesset starting with the first until his retirement. Almost from the start, Yosef also served as a government minister in every coalition his party was a part of. In his time, he was considered one of the post powerful Israeli politicians. Avrum followed in his father’s footsteps, although he was a bit more to the left on the Israeli political spectrum. Besides serving in the Knesset for many years, Burg was the head of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. He also made several unsuccessful attempts to run for the head of the Labor party (with hopes of becoming Prime Minister). Most Israelis viewed him as passionate, intelligent and articulate, even if they didn’t agree with his political views.
Recently Avrum Burg has staked out a position on the Israel/Palestine conflict which is quite similar to my own. People find this particularly shocking, since Yosef Burg was a founder and always served as part of the National Religious Party (NRP), which is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of the settlers movement.
You can see/read an interview with Burg on Democracy Now:
And then I said, “Why isn’t it [The Geneva Accords] working? So many efforts, and it’s not working, doesn’t bear fruits.” And the reason for me is the—a primary reason, before the ’67 reason, and this is the grip of the Holocaust over our life. And if we will not get a little bit more relaxed about it and understanding, as difficult and as painful as it is, it cannot be the only sole prism through which we see the world.
And then I came to the inner realization that never again for me, it’s not never again for Jews only and therefore we should have the thickest walls around us and the deepest shelter on top of us, but never again is never again for whomever needs my protection. Never again—whomever is the victim today needs the help of the yesterday’s victim to prevent his or her own victimization, be it a battered woman, be it Darfuri, be it somebody in the inner city of Detroit, be it whoever it is. Victims are all over the place. And the Holocaust is not mine only to say, “I have a monopoly over suffering, and that’s it.” Oh, no.
And from the New York Times article:
WHAT are Mr. Burg’s prescriptions? He wants a new Jewish identity focused not on the particular but on the universal, asserting that “if we do not establish modern Israeli identity on foundations of optimism, faith in humans and full trust in the family of nations, we have no chance of existing.” He wants Israel to dismantle the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and replace it with the headquarters for theInternational Criminal Court, making it the epicenter of international prevention of genocide.
Tags: Israeli Politics