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Avraham Burg, the 'Times' and 'Anti-Zionism'

Authors: Foreign Policy News from The NationAvraham Burg isn’t giving an inch. In a scathing op-ed in the New York Times on August 4, Burg lacerates Israel, its “warmongering” prime minister and its unconscionable treatment of the Palestinians. Burg is an unusual character. Back in 2008, the Times profiled Burg as a critic of Israel whose pedigree, at the very least, is unexpected: he’s the scion of an old-line ultra-religious Zionist clan, and he served as speaker of Israel’s Knesset and as chairman of the World Zionist Organization. His father, Yosef Burg, was one of the chieftains of the old National Religious Party, which was a long-time member of Israel’s ruling coalition. But, as he told the Times in 2008: “I realized something about myself and Israel that frightened me. I realized that Israel had become an efficient kingdom with no prophecy. Where was it going? What is a Jewish democratic state? What does it mean that Jews define themselves by genetics 60 years after genetics were used against them?” So he wrote a book called The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise From Its Ashes. Among other things, he’s suggested that Israel dismantle the memorial of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, which serves as

Read more http://www.thenation.com/blog/169248/avraham-burg-times-and-anti-zionism

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