E' moro Uri Avnery, l'israelita ottimista che aveva giocato a scacchi con Arafat
Of ROBERT FISH
www.independent.co.uk
It seemed somehow fitting that the first news of Uri Avnery's passing came to me from one of Israel's staunchest enemies, the leader of the Lebanese Druze Walid Jumblatt. A legend that brings sad news of another legend, a socialist preparing to mourn a fellow socialist, which expresses its condolences for the ninety-four-year-old Israeli political philosopher. The same philosopher who, a time, he had been a German Jewish schoolboy, Helmut Ostermann, who refused to give the Nazi salute to Hitler at school, but what it had become, according to the message I had received from Jumblatt, “a mind absolutely indispensable for the understanding of fascism, the greatest destructive factor of the 20th century.” Words by Jumblatt. “Avnery,” he then added [Jumblatt], “he also understood the meaning of Zionism, another ignoble theory based on apartheid, nothing more than an offshoot of fascism.”
Uri Avnery he had a very serious heart attack over the weekend and died on Monday morning. He considered himself a Zionist, or at least a believer in a left-wing Israel, courageous but humble “beacon of light among the nations,” a type of nation to which, in our hearts, I'd like to believe. He was among those Israelis who we, liberals with a tender heart, we hurried to visit as soon as we got in Israel, because they said what we wanted to hear. Read More