Apologia by Azmi’s Brother
Marwan Bishara pretends to speak for all Israeli Arabs in his International Herald Tribune Op-Ed about his brother Azmi:
For Israel’s one million Arab citizens, allegations of treason against Azmi Bishara, a former Arab member of the Israeli parliament is the latest demonstration of a 60-year-old dilemma: How does an Arab live in dignity in a Jewish state without being treated as a strategic threat?
But there’s at least one Israeli Arab who’s not buying it. Khaled Abu Toameh writes in the Jerusalem Post:
Azmi Bishara not only betrayed the state, but also the 70,000 people who voted for him in the last parliamentary election. And the damage he has done to the cause of Israel’s entire Arab minority is almost irreparable. . . .
The majority of Israeli Arabs would have liked to see Bishara fight for equality and better government services in the Arab sector. They would have preferred to see him exploit his position as an MK to obtain more funds for local Arab councils and municipalities and to absorb a higher number of Arab university graduates in the public sector.
But Bishara knew very well that his chances of winning media attention were not going to come from dealing with sewage or overcrowded classrooms in the Arab sector.
On the other hand, meetings with Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah or Syrian dictator Hafez Assad, and later his son, Bashar, were the best means to make headlines. Bishara has repeatedly come under fire from many Arab reformists for allying himself with the Assads’ ruthless regime.
Marwan’s apologia comes on the heels of another by his brother, Azmi, in the Los Angeles Times.
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