A Time For Shame and Atonement – Third Force (1956)

From ‘Peace News: The International Pacifist Weekly’, November 23, 1956, London, UK; statement dated October 31 and November 1, issued by the Central Committee of Third Force in Israel

At this moment we can only say the following: Our hearts are filled with disgust and shame.

It is a lie that our attack on Egypt has been caused by Arab provocations. It is we that have provoked the terrible hatred which surrounds us.

It is we that have driven out hundreds of thousands of people from their native country and filled their hearts with hatred and despair.

It is we that shoot at children and women who steal their way across the border in order to meet their parents or husbands.

It is we that have robbed, oppressed and humiliated the Arabs who chose to live with us in Israel.

Shock troops of colonialism

For tens of years we did our best to thwart the efforts of the Palestine Arabs to obtain self-government. We not only collaborated with the Mandatory Power, but incessantly clamoured for more consistency in its reactionary policy, for a stronger hand.

Now we act in the same way on an international scale. It is not the Suez Canal, nor the Suez Company, that is the main concern of the imperialists.

Their chief aim is to stop the awakening of the Asian and African nations, to crush in bud the struggle of these nations for freedom and independence, for a human life.

And in this battle waged by colonial lords against the most exploited and downtrodden peoples Israeli Jews serve as spear-heads, as shock-troops.

Victims of Hitler emerge as his heirs. What a disgusting and dreadful spectacle!

The attack of Israel and her imperialist allies on Egypt is a crime against our brothers and all other oppressed nations, a most serious crime against Israel, which may endanger mankind.

Israel not ruled by socialists

We, therefore, call on sincere socialists and liberals, and on all true friends of Israel, wherever they are, to do their utmost in order that the above wanton attack be stopped, and that all conquests made by the attackers, be annulled without delay.

The present events should put an end to the blindness of socialists and liberals as regards Israel. Israel is not ruled by socialists — of whatever denomination — but by zionist-socialists, i.e., by Jewish national-socialists.

The “kibuzim” are not socialist or communist or anarchist communes, but politico-economic strongholds of zionist-socialism.

It is the “kibuzim” that have grabbed most of Arab land in Israel. It is members of “kibuzim” who were at the head of Jewish organisations for the boycott of Arab work and trade in Palestine, and it is they who led the war against the Arabs in 1948 and are now leading the “second round.”

Wicked tools in Wicked hands

The accusing excusing assertion that Israel is only a tool in the hands of the imperialists is a misleading half-truth.

The rulers of Israel ARE a tool in criminal imperialistic hands. But it is a tool that SEEKS to be used by wicked hands.

It is a tool with wicked initiative, and wicked desires. It is a wicked tool in wicked hands.

And the Israeli rulers’ policy is supported by a great majority of Israel’s population. What Israel vitally needs is not only a change of government, but also and chiefly a change of its public mind.

Justice and atonement

It is, therefore, most important, not only for the sake of justice, but also for the good of Israel, that the wrongs done by Israel to the Arabs, should be redressed and atoned for by Israel. Only a JUST peace between Israel and the Arabs will be a true and stable peace.