“Of all the beautiful phrases in Barack Obama's inauguration speech, these are the words that stuck in my mind: "You are on the wrong side of history."
He was talking about the tyrannical regimes of the world. But we, too, should ponder these words
In the last few days I have heard a lot of declarations from Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Olmert. And every time, these eight words came back to haunt me: "You are on the wrong side of history!"”
These words are the opening of an article by Uri Avneri – it really warmed my heart to discover such an Israeli journalist and peace activist (a former Irgun and Knesset member).
To my shame I had never previously been aware of the life and work of this great man. His website address is: http://www.avnery-news.co.il/
I stumbled across the full article on Ekklesia.co.uk
2 comments:
Malcolm
Interesting article.
Would it be too utterly oversimplified if I offered the following course correction.
A. What I observe is a constant blaming...you did this, you did that, you did this, you did that, you did this, you did that, we didn't deserve that, we didn't diserve that, we didn't deserve this, etc., etc.,
B. Perhaps, the opposite might have the power to shift things: This is what we did, and it was wrong, and then we did this and that was also wrong, although it made sense at the time, and then we did this and it was also wrong, and we did this, and that, and that, and this, and it was also wrong.
And we resolve to do as well as we can.
And yes if you try to kill us we will protect ourselves, but we will primarily wait till you reach across the table by also talking about what you have done wrong.
Then maybe, just maybe.
Oh, and if you don't do that, and you don't accept what we admit, etc., that's your choice, but our main message is that
every one of our actions moving forward other than direct self defense will be to shine light and create justice...even in the context of those who would snuff out light and foster injustice.
Tim
Malcolm, Thanks for finding this jewel. I appreciated the article and have bookmarked Avnery's website.
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