Strong words from Claude Lanzmann about the pro-Hamas Lies in the MSM concerning the Turkish Thug Armada
Claude Lanzmann is a rare bird on today's political landscape. He was an assistant to Jean-Paul Sartre as a young man and inherited Sartre's mantle and legacy as chief editor of Sartre's heavy weight intellectual journal, Les Temps Modernes, after Sartre's death. He had strong words for Hamas and its Western supporters and sympathizers, including those in the French press and media, over the Turkish Thug Armada and the fighting on board the Mavi Marmara on 31 May 2010. We translate below his speech given at a rally in Paris on behalf of freedom for Gilad Shalit on 22 June 2010, as well as presenting the speech in French below that. Lanzmann's pro-Israel position shows once again the falsehood of the "right-left political spectrum" notion, especially but not only in regard to Israel.
Who Is Delegitimizing Israel?
by Claude Lanzmann
What happened after Israel's boarding and seizure of the so-called humanitarian flotilla and what we could read and hear in so many newspapers, on all of our television networks, our radio stations, on a thousand unsupervised blogs, in discussions among web surfers in which hatred fought it out with stupidity, was really frightening. What joy, my friends, my brothers, what happiness in being able once again, without any restraint, to stigmatize Israel, a scapegoat laden with all crimes, and first of all with the original sin of existing. Those who were so prompt to condemn Israel, without having any other source of information than that thundered by Hamas propagandists and their faithful, didn't care one bit about the reality of the facts, of their genesis, of the reasons for the blockade, or of the warnings given by Tsahal to the "peace activists." They were only motivated in fact by one single dream: to get into a fight and thereby tear the veil off the true face of the Jews before the world: drinkers of blood, starvation-causers, thieves, cowards and I won't bother to go on; or, what comes down to the same thing, to unveil the true face of Israel, a pirate state. We instantaneously read and heard this obscene refrain in the dailies, on the broadcasting stations, and the networks, whose names it would be best not to mention.
The blockade has an origin: It is called Gilad Shalit, a young soldier fallen, in Israeli territory, into an ambush set by Hamas, and held hostage for four years now by his kidnappers, who play on the nerves of his family and the country by promising a phantom release. Hamas or Hezbollah have most usually handed back dead bodies for hundreds of live Palestinians that Israel had released, because this pirate state --it has proven it a hundred times-- has always been ready to repatriate its dead or its living at any price.
The second origin [of the blockade] is the Hamas itself, which declares itself in a state of war with Israel, having conducted indiscriminate bombardments of its villages for months without respite. This is the Hamas that calls in its press, its schools, in all its propaganda, for the eradication of the Jewish state. It is first of all by Hamas that the blockade was cynically imposed on Gaza. By Hamas but also by Egypt that, fearing for its regime from the jihadist contagion, has closed its land border at the south of the Gaza Strip. But, as we know, a profitable trade which enriches Arab millionaires brings all the merchandise possible and imaginable to Gaza through tunnels dug in the sands of Sinai.
Know this, detractors of Israel. You are being lied to and you are lying. Gaza is stuffed with goods. You can find there televisions, the most modern computerized gadgets, the IPhones, the IPads, the top of the line refrigerators, etc. And especially, people there eat as much as they need. No one in Gaza is dying of malnutrition nor suffers thirst nor hunger. Where are the fleshless bodies, where the skin hanging from the bones in the photographs of the plump, well-fed high officials of the Hamas government? Have you seen faces of emaciated children, skeletal bodies? We can be certain that if, by chance, they existed, the Hamas' master propagandists would transmit them to us continuously ad nauseam. No, Gaza is not the Warsaw Ghetto, though that may displease the true believers who hurriedly visit for several hours, though that may displease the UNRWA and Mister Goldstone. And let's finish off another lie. Israel never wanted to starve Gaza. It has, as is its right, demanded to inspect the merchandise. It forbids some things for security reasons and sends every day dozens of trucks that, starting from the Ashdod port, unload their contents at the northern entrance to the Gaza Strip.
Out of the six ships of the abovementioned flotilla, five, we know, let themselves be brought to Ashdod after being boarded non-violently by the Israeli navy. What they were carrying was put on the dock, checked and immediately shipped to the northern border of Gaza, where the Hamas people refused to accept delivery. The perishable materials spoiled in place. All that remained under the sun was a comical number of wheel chairs brought by the "humanitarians" for the legless amputees who form --in the "humanitarians'" minds the majority of the people of Gaza.
Don't imagine, good people, that Gaza is a brotherly, classless society. There are poor and rich in Gaza, billionaire land owners, living on the heights of luxury residences, who never raised a finger to help their supposed brethren of the poor neighborhoods and the refugee camps.
It was necessary that Gaza remain --and this is what Jean-Paul Sartre reproached them for before me in 1967, three months before the Six Day War-- a morbid focus of attention, a canker sore defying any solution (while it would have been so easy for the oil rich to help them) , thus making it possible to condemn Israel forever. That continues. The unanimous concert of loud, angry voices aroused by Israel's refusal to allow the humanitarian convoy to pass is the best proof of that. On the sixth boat, chartered by the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian branch, the Israelis were awaited by armed men determined to make Jihad. That is, to kill and be killed, certain of being immediately received in Allah's dwelling by caressing maidens.
If we do not have the right to rebuke Israel for boarding and seizing the ships, we may be astonished at the impressive naiveté with which the soldiers acted. The naval commander had told them: "You will be greeted with spitting, insults, burning cigarettes. Above all, don't retaliate." What happened was entirely different: Coming down from a helocopter in a geostationary position above the Mavi Marmara, the soldiers slid down one by one on a smooth rope, letting themselves be picked off by long clubs, sling shots, iron bars, long knives, etc, before even touching the deck. Many were injured, some very seriously, one being thrown from the upper deck to the lower deck. He was found with his back broken. It is the rule in the Israeli army: the soldiers have the right to shoot if their lives are in danger. This was the case.
The investigating commission formed by Israel, a model democracy, will give its conclusions and it should be believed. The barking dogs understood moreover that they had gone too far and are now putting a muffler on their vitriolic invective. In such circumstances, we Jews have a duty of solidarity toward Israel in danger, threatened in the North as in the South by Ahmadinejad's allies. Meanwhile Ahmadinejad is readying his nuclear arsenal. The same duty of solidarity commands us to express and to bring, as rightful citizens of the French Republic, a severe judgment of contempt for the pathetic fools who call for a boycott of Israel and demand removing Israeli films from a schedule, which is a way of calling for its death. We will not allow that. It is not the policy of Israel that delegitimizes that state, as some would have us believe. It is first of all the irredentism of the Arab extremists and, we regret that a certain number of complacently conformist Jews, who have been silent up till now, were not more perceptive when they signed a text which, as the flotilla affair has unmistakably demonstrated, was a tissue of unrealistic ideals, unrealistic principles and unrealistic aspirations.
(a speech given on 22 June 2010 in Paris, during the demonstration organized by the CRIF, in support of Israel and Gilad Shalit) [the CRIF is the umbrellas organization of French Jews]
(Allocution prononcée le 22 juin 2010 à Paris, lors de la manifestation, organisée par le CRIF, de soutien à Israël et à Gilad Shalit; voir ici)
Who Is Delegitimizing Israel?
by Claude Lanzmann
What happened after Israel's boarding and seizure of the so-called humanitarian flotilla and what we could read and hear in so many newspapers, on all of our television networks, our radio stations, on a thousand unsupervised blogs, in discussions among web surfers in which hatred fought it out with stupidity, was really frightening. What joy, my friends, my brothers, what happiness in being able once again, without any restraint, to stigmatize Israel, a scapegoat laden with all crimes, and first of all with the original sin of existing. Those who were so prompt to condemn Israel, without having any other source of information than that thundered by Hamas propagandists and their faithful, didn't care one bit about the reality of the facts, of their genesis, of the reasons for the blockade, or of the warnings given by Tsahal to the "peace activists." They were only motivated in fact by one single dream: to get into a fight and thereby tear the veil off the true face of the Jews before the world: drinkers of blood, starvation-causers, thieves, cowards and I won't bother to go on; or, what comes down to the same thing, to unveil the true face of Israel, a pirate state. We instantaneously read and heard this obscene refrain in the dailies, on the broadcasting stations, and the networks, whose names it would be best not to mention.
The blockade has an origin: It is called Gilad Shalit, a young soldier fallen, in Israeli territory, into an ambush set by Hamas, and held hostage for four years now by his kidnappers, who play on the nerves of his family and the country by promising a phantom release. Hamas or Hezbollah have most usually handed back dead bodies for hundreds of live Palestinians that Israel had released, because this pirate state --it has proven it a hundred times-- has always been ready to repatriate its dead or its living at any price.
The second origin [of the blockade] is the Hamas itself, which declares itself in a state of war with Israel, having conducted indiscriminate bombardments of its villages for months without respite. This is the Hamas that calls in its press, its schools, in all its propaganda, for the eradication of the Jewish state. It is first of all by Hamas that the blockade was cynically imposed on Gaza. By Hamas but also by Egypt that, fearing for its regime from the jihadist contagion, has closed its land border at the south of the Gaza Strip. But, as we know, a profitable trade which enriches Arab millionaires brings all the merchandise possible and imaginable to Gaza through tunnels dug in the sands of Sinai.
Know this, detractors of Israel. You are being lied to and you are lying. Gaza is stuffed with goods. You can find there televisions, the most modern computerized gadgets, the IPhones, the IPads, the top of the line refrigerators, etc. And especially, people there eat as much as they need. No one in Gaza is dying of malnutrition nor suffers thirst nor hunger. Where are the fleshless bodies, where the skin hanging from the bones in the photographs of the plump, well-fed high officials of the Hamas government? Have you seen faces of emaciated children, skeletal bodies? We can be certain that if, by chance, they existed, the Hamas' master propagandists would transmit them to us continuously ad nauseam. No, Gaza is not the Warsaw Ghetto, though that may displease the true believers who hurriedly visit for several hours, though that may displease the UNRWA and Mister Goldstone. And let's finish off another lie. Israel never wanted to starve Gaza. It has, as is its right, demanded to inspect the merchandise. It forbids some things for security reasons and sends every day dozens of trucks that, starting from the Ashdod port, unload their contents at the northern entrance to the Gaza Strip.
Out of the six ships of the abovementioned flotilla, five, we know, let themselves be brought to Ashdod after being boarded non-violently by the Israeli navy. What they were carrying was put on the dock, checked and immediately shipped to the northern border of Gaza, where the Hamas people refused to accept delivery. The perishable materials spoiled in place. All that remained under the sun was a comical number of wheel chairs brought by the "humanitarians" for the legless amputees who form --in the "humanitarians'" minds the majority of the people of Gaza.
Don't imagine, good people, that Gaza is a brotherly, classless society. There are poor and rich in Gaza, billionaire land owners, living on the heights of luxury residences, who never raised a finger to help their supposed brethren of the poor neighborhoods and the refugee camps.
It was necessary that Gaza remain --and this is what Jean-Paul Sartre reproached them for before me in 1967, three months before the Six Day War-- a morbid focus of attention, a canker sore defying any solution (while it would have been so easy for the oil rich to help them) , thus making it possible to condemn Israel forever. That continues. The unanimous concert of loud, angry voices aroused by Israel's refusal to allow the humanitarian convoy to pass is the best proof of that. On the sixth boat, chartered by the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian branch, the Israelis were awaited by armed men determined to make Jihad. That is, to kill and be killed, certain of being immediately received in Allah's dwelling by caressing maidens.
If we do not have the right to rebuke Israel for boarding and seizing the ships, we may be astonished at the impressive naiveté with which the soldiers acted. The naval commander had told them: "You will be greeted with spitting, insults, burning cigarettes. Above all, don't retaliate." What happened was entirely different: Coming down from a helocopter in a geostationary position above the Mavi Marmara, the soldiers slid down one by one on a smooth rope, letting themselves be picked off by long clubs, sling shots, iron bars, long knives, etc, before even touching the deck. Many were injured, some very seriously, one being thrown from the upper deck to the lower deck. He was found with his back broken. It is the rule in the Israeli army: the soldiers have the right to shoot if their lives are in danger. This was the case.
The investigating commission formed by Israel, a model democracy, will give its conclusions and it should be believed. The barking dogs understood moreover that they had gone too far and are now putting a muffler on their vitriolic invective. In such circumstances, we Jews have a duty of solidarity toward Israel in danger, threatened in the North as in the South by Ahmadinejad's allies. Meanwhile Ahmadinejad is readying his nuclear arsenal. The same duty of solidarity commands us to express and to bring, as rightful citizens of the French Republic, a severe judgment of contempt for the pathetic fools who call for a boycott of Israel and demand removing Israeli films from a schedule, which is a way of calling for its death. We will not allow that. It is not the policy of Israel that delegitimizes that state, as some would have us believe. It is first of all the irredentism of the Arab extremists and, we regret that a certain number of complacently conformist Jews, who have been silent up till now, were not more perceptive when they signed a text which, as the flotilla affair has unmistakably demonstrated, was a tissue of unrealistic ideals, unrealistic principles and unrealistic aspirations.
(a speech given on 22 June 2010 in Paris, during the demonstration organized by the CRIF, in support of Israel and Gilad Shalit) [the CRIF is the umbrellas organization of French Jews]
| «Qui délégitime Israël ?», par Claude Lanzmann |
Ce qui s’est passé après l’arraisonnement par Israël de la flottille soi-disant humanitaire, ce que nous avons pu lire, voir et entendre dans tant de journaux, sur toutes nos chaînes de télévision, nos stations de radios, sur mille blogs incontrôlés, dans des discussions entre internautes où la haine le disputait à la stupidité, est proprement effrayant. Quelle joie, mes amis, mes frères, quelle félicité de pouvoir à nouveau, sans retenue aucune, stigmatiser Israël, bouc émissaire chargé de tous les crimes et d’abord du péché originel d’exister. Ceux qui étaient si prompts à condamner Israël, sans avoir aucune autre source d’information que celle tonitruée par les propagandistes du Hamas et leurs affidés, se souciaient comme d’une guigne de la réalité des faits, de leur genèse, des raisons du blocus, des avertissements prodigués par Tsahal aux « activistes de la paix » qu’un seul rêve animait en vérité : en découdre et dévoiler ainsi au monde le vrai visage des Juifs buveurs de sang, affameurs, voleurs, lâches et j’en passe, ou, ce qui revient au même, le vrai visage d’Israël, Etat pirate. On a lu et entendu instantanément cette obscène rengaine dans des quotidiens, des stations et des chaînes, dont il vaut mieux taire le nom.
Le blocus a une origine : elle s’appelle Gilad Shalit, jeune soldat tombé, en territoire israélien, dans une embuscade tendue par le Hamas, et otage depuis maintenant quatre années de ses ravisseurs, qui jouent sur les nerfs de ses proches et du pays en promettant une libération fantomatique. Hamas ou Hezbollah ont le plus souvent restitué des cadavres contre des cen taines de Palestiniens bien vivants qu’Israël relâchait, car cet Etat pirate —il l’a cent fois prouvé— a toujours été prêt à rapatrier ses morts ou ses vivants à n’importe quel prix. La deuxième origine, c’est le Hamas lui-même, qui se déclare en état de guerre avec Israël, ayant procédé pendant des mois et sans répit à des bombardements indiscriminés sur ses villages, le Hamas qui appelle, dans sa presse, dans ses écoles, dans toute sa propagande, à l’éradication de l’Etat juif. C’est d’abord par le Hamas que le blocus est imposé cyniquement à Gaza. Par le Hamas, mais aussi par l’Egypte qui, craignant pour son régime la contagion djihadiste, a fermé sa frontière de surface au sud de la bande de Gaza. Mais, on le sait, un fructueux trafic, qui enrichit des millionnaires arabes, amène, par des centaines de tunnels creusés dans le sable du Sinaï, toutes les marchandises possibles et imaginables à Gaza. Sachez-le, détracteurs d’Israël : on vous ment, vous mentez, Gaza regorge d e biens, on y trouve les téléviseurs, les outils informatiques les plus modernes, les Iphone, les Ipad, les réfrigérateurs de grand luxe etc. Et surtout, on y mange autant qu’il se doit : nul à Gaza ne meurt de malnutrition, ne souffre de la soif ou de la faim. Où sont les décharnés, où la peau sur les os, dans les photographies des membres bien en chair du gouvernement du Hamas ? Avons-nous vu des visages d’enfants émaciés, des corps squelettiques ? Soyons certains que si d’aventure ils existaient, les maîtres propagandistes du Hamas nous les repasseraient en boucle ad nauseam. Non, Gaza, n’en déplaise aux dévots pressés, visiteurs de quelques heures, n’en déplaise à l’UNRA et à Monsieur Goldstone, n’est pas le ghetto de Varsovie. Et finissons-en avec cet autre mensonge : Israël n’a jamais voulu affamer Gaza, il a, comme c’est son droit, demandé à contrôler les marchandises, interdit certaines pour des raisons de sécurité et envoie chaque jour des dizaines de camions qui, à partir du port d’Ashdod, déchargent leur contenu à l’entrée nord de la bande de Gaza. Sur les six navires de ladite flottille, cinq, on le sait, se sont laissé conduire à Ashdod après leur arraisonnement non violent par la marine israélienne. Ce qu’ils transportaient a été mis à quai, vérifié et expédié immédiatement à la frontière nord de Gaza, où les gens du Hamas ont refusé d’en prendre livraison. Les matières périssables ont pourri sur place, seules demeurent sous le soleil un nombre comique de chaises roulantes apportées par les « humanitaires » pour les culs-de-jatte qui dans leur esprit forment la majorité du peuple de Gaza. N’imaginez pas, braves gens, que Gaza est une société fraternelle et sans classes. Il y a à Gaza des pauvres et des riches, des très riches, milliardaires propriétaires des terres, vivant sur les hauteurs dans de somptueuses demeures, qui n’ont jamais levé un doigt pour venir en aide à leurs prétendus frères des bas quartiers et des camps de réfugiés. Il fallait que Gaza —et c’est ce que Jean-Paul Sartre leur reprochait déjà devant moi en 1967, trois mois avant la guerre des six jours— reste un abcès de fixation, un chancre défiant toute solution (alors qu’il eût été si facile aux opulents du pétrole de leur venir en aide) et permettant de condamner Israël pour l’éternité. Cela continue, le concert unanime de vociférations suscité par le refus de laisser passer l’escadre humanitaire en est la meilleure preuve. Sur le sixième bateau, affrété par la branche turque des Frères Musulmans dont le Hamas est la branche palestinienne, les Israéliens étaient attendus par des hommes en armes résolus au Djihad, c’est-à-dire à tuer et à se faire tuer, certains d’être reçus aussitôt chez Allah par de caressantes pucelles.
Si on n’a pas le droit de reprocher à Israël l’arraisonnement des navires, on peut s’étonner de la naïveté formidable avec laquelle ses soldats ont agi. Le Commandant de la marine leur avait dit : « On vous accueillera avec des crachats, des insultes, des cigarettes enflammées. Ne ripostez surtout pas. » Ce fut tout autre chose : à partir d’un hélicoptère en position géostationnaire au-dessus du Mavi Marmara, les soldats qui glissaient un par un sur une corde lisse se faisaient cueillir avant même d’avoir touché le pont par de longues matraques, des lance-pierres, des barres de fer, des coutelas, etc. Beaucoup furent blessés, certains très grièvement, l’un d’eux fut balancé du pont supérieur vers le pont inférieur, on le retrouva avec le dos brisé. C’est la règle dans l’armée d’Israël : les soldats ont le droit de tirer si leur vie est en danger. C’était le cas. La commission d’enquête formée par Israël, démocratie exemplaire, rendra ses conclusions et il faudra la croire. Les aboyeurs ont d’ailleurs compris qu’ils avaient été beaucoup trop loin et mettent maintenant une sourdine à leurs vitupérations. En de telles circonstances, nous autres Juifs, avons un devoir de solidarité envers un Israël en péril, menacé au Nord comme au Sud par les alliés d’un Ahmadinejad, qui fourbit son arsenal nucléaire. Et le même devoir de solidarité nous commande de l’exprimer et de porter, en tant que citoyens de plein droit de la République française, un jugement lourd de mépris sur les tristes imbéciles qui appellent au boycott d’Israël et demandent la déprogrammation de ses films, ce qui est une façon de crier à la mort. Nous ne le permettrons pas. Ce n’est pas la politique d’Israël qui, comme on a voulu le faire croire, délégitime ce pays. C’est d’abord l’irrédentisme des extrémistes arabes et l’on regrette qu’un certain nombre de Juifs bien-pensants, et qui se taisaient jusque là, ne s’en soient pas avisés avant de signer un texte dont l’affaire de la flottille démontre sans fard l’angélisme.
(Allocution prononcée le 22 juin 2010 à Paris, lors de la manifestation, organisée par le CRIF, de soutien à Israël et à Gilad Shalit; voir ici)
Labels: Claude Lanzmann, France, Gilad Shalit, Hamas, MSM, Paris
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