General's Son

1. General Sonography
2. General S Son 1990

The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine. Miko Peled. Just World Books, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. 2012.

There are many powerful books written on the topic of Palestine/Israel but few if any are as masterfully written as Miko Peled’s The General’s Son. Combining a wealth of knowledge and experience, with a strong sense of human compassion and common sense, and with a compelling and forceful narrative, Peled has written a story that needs to be read by anyone interested in Palestine/Israel and the broader Middle East in general.

The author’s writing style craftily weaves together his father’s story, followed by his own story, with comments, anecdotal incidents, and information that draw the reader further into the work. The story dispels the myths created by Israeli society that are used to sustain its posturing domestically and with its foreign policy.

It stars Park Sang-min as Kim Du-han, a gangster who discovers that he is the son of General Kim Jwa-jin. The film is the first in a trilogy, followed by General's Son II (1991) and General's Son III (1992). General's Son was the most highly attended film in South Korea in both 1990 and 1991. HanCinema's Film Review 'The General's Son' 2013/04/05 Kim Doo-Han is a regular street beggar who's just happy to have any sort of stability. But as an excellent street fighter living in the streets of occupied Seoul, he quickly an essential part of the war to take back the streets from the Japanese.

Peled’s father, Matti Peled, was a popular and well-known Israeli general, having fought in the 1948 Independence war and the 1967 war against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Seeing the results of those wars, Matti Peled became a peace activist, essentially arguing that Israel could not prosper as an oppressor country. Miko Peled followed his father’s actions as a child, and after his own stint in as a Red Beret, became increasingly absorbed into his own beliefs concerning the unjust and non-humanitarian Israeli treatment of its Palestinian population.

The work is divided into four sections. The first covers the life of Matti Peled and his strong criticisms of Israeli actions, in particular after the 1967 war. Immediately after the war, Matti Peled said, “Now we have a chance to offer the Palestinians a state of their own.” He believed that holding on to the territories was “contrary to Israel’s long term strategy of building a secure Jewish democracy.” As events continued, as settlements continued, he arrived at the position in which he indicated that the best thing the U.S. could do for Israel would be to stop weapons sales and stop the free money given to Israel.

Miko’s narrative

The second section of the story, Red Beret, follows the author’s own journey of awareness. It starts with his experiences with the Red Berets and the different experiences that forced him to think about his father’s perceptions of Israeli actions. After leaving the military, the influence of karate on his life becomes a dominant theme. The final chapter, Black September, narrates the accounts around the death of his niece Smadar from a suicide bombing.

As with the rest of the book, each chapter serves as a well-defined unit, presenting a particular theme, always related to his own personal growth and awareness and context of the situation he was living in.

These narrative themes carry through The Road to Palestine, the third part of the book concerning his personal involvement and development within the Palestinian peace movement. A Journey Begins describes his first encounters with a Jewish-Palestinian dialogue group in Coronado, California. His first active involvement is recounted in Two Flags, where with his association with the Rotarians, he organizes the delivery of a thousand wheel chairs for Israel and the West Bank.

Countries that have something to hide survive in part by creating fear of an outsider, the enemy, the other. In The Fear Virus, Miko Peled is shocked that in spite of his understanding intellectually of the situation from both his father’s and his own experiences, how deeply embedded his fear was. Beyond his own fears, he recognized the fear was maintained by the state of Israel through its wall building, signage, and checkpoints. His encounters with the Palestinian citizens and their acceptance of him turned the fear to trust, leading him to the point where “Letting go of my fear and placing my trust in these committed young activists was not a choice, it was a mission.” This trust came from activists, husbands and fathers who “deliberately and consistently refused to engage in violence, just as they refused to accept the injustice imposed on them by the Israeli occupation.”

From an encounter at a checkpoint Miko relates the story of The Commanding General’s Orders, an encounter that ends with his assessment that “My own people had arrested me for doing something good. My disillusionment with Israel had sunk to a new low.”

In Who Will Speak for Gaza, he relates his actions of trying to get into Gaza, and recognizes with hindsight that his attempts to cross at Rafah came just three weeks before the Cast Lead attacks against Gaza. He states, “Gaza has essentially been turned into an enormous concentration camp,” with the Egyptian military “assisting Israel’s siege.”

The story of Abu Ansar highlights the importance of education to the Palestinian resistance and how it is organized and presented within the Israeli prisons. It also highlights how former freedom fighters carry “an abundance of calm and patience…their caring and empathy…far stronger than any anger they might be carrying.”

Encounters with the Israeli military in Defiance continue the narratives of earlier incidents. The fear factor and the power and control of the Israeli military are shown against the popular non-violent resistance and the rocks versus guns and armored jeeps aspect of the Hebron ghetto of Kiryat Arba.

Looking Forward

The final section, Hope for Peace, leads to the author’s position that the only way out of the current mess is a one state secular democracy. The force of his logic and the gritty details of his own experiences provide a compelling argument for his perspective.

Working with the children of Palestine through his karate, Miko presents hope for The Next Generation. Military humiliation, arrests, and killings are all rites of passage for Palestinians growing up in the West Bank and Gaza.

He next meets with Abu Ali Shahin, a Fatah commander and leader for two decades of Palestinian prisoners. From Shahin’s lecture, Miko reprises his father’s testimony concerning the Israeli occupation, “…my father said that the Israeli army would become an occupation army and would resort to brutal means to enforce the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian people.” Referring to IDF records, he cites his father, “If we keep these lands, popular resistance to the occupation is sure to arise, and Israel’s army would be used to quell that resistance, with disastrous and demoralizing results.”

While in prison, after resisting efforts to make him ‘talk’ by torturing him, Shahin organized the prisoners into a self-directing democratic body promoting education of the prisoners. Miko says, “I was being exposed to a side of the Palestinians that was truly heroic. And I could see no reason why we can’t share this land in peace and indeed perhaps share a state with a nation that can produce such principled heroism under the harshest conditions.”

Whether it is One State, Two States, Three States, Miko argues that the Zionists are lying about the two state solution. He argues, “We have to change the paradigm from a Zionist one that says Jews must have their own state to a paradigm that sees both Jews and Palestinians as equals living together in a state that is neither Jewish or Arab, and governed by an elected government that represents everyone.”

He argues further, “As long as Israel remains unchanged and the debate evolves around the creation of a Palestinian state in some undefined region, nothing will change. For years the Israelis have been saying that it is willing to give the Palestinians a few pieces of land on which they may establish some sort of mini state….the actors know full well that this is an act. The Israeli settlements in the West Bank expand and the horrors of the ethnic cleansing campaign continue to terrorize the Palestinian people day in and day out.

“The notion that the two parties need to reach a solution as equal partners is inconceivable to the Zionist state.”

When I first heard Miko Peled on You Tube presenting a talk on Palestine/Israel he said, “Zionism…has to go. The Zionist state has to be replaced with a democracy.” As for the IDF in Palestine, “Their entire purpose is terrorism.” While his father was a strong Zionist, Miko believes that he too now would call for a single democracy with equal rights.

Must read

What I have outlined and cited above, while highlighting the points of view presented in The General’s Son, do not convey the powerful nature of Miko Peled’s writing. It is strong, direct, eloquent, forceful, and emotionally moving all wrapped in a personal history that has intersected with one of the major humanitarian-political-military crisis of our time.

Arguments will continue about one state or two states, or a binational state, but the human story presented here underlies whatever solution—or calamity—will occupy the future. This work is a must read for anyone arguing about the past history, the current situation, the humanitarian and military impacts of the occupation and settlements.

There are millions of Palestinian partners for peace. It is time the world stood with them for a sovereign independent democratic state.

Miko Peled (born 1961) is an Israeli-American activist, author, and karate instructor. He is author of the books The General’s Son: The Journey of an Israeli in Palestine^[1] and Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.^[2] He is also an international speaker.

Early life[edit]

Born in Jerusalem in 1961, Peled grew up in Motza Illit to a prominent Zionist family; his grandfather, Avraham Katsnelson, signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence.^[1][3] His father, Mattityahu Peled, fought in the 1947–1949 Palestine war, and served as a general in the Six-Day War of 1967; later, after the Israeli cabinet ignored his investigation of a 1967 alleged Israeli war crime, he became an advocate for an Israeli dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He condemned the Israeli military for seizing the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights, calling the war a 'cynical campaign of territorial expansion'.^[4] Palestinian activist Susan Abulhawa has described Peled's father, who died in 1995, as 'a man that many of us Palestinians could not figure out whether to love or hate' and whom 'many notable Palestinians' nicknamed 'Abu Salam' (Father of Peace).^[5] His brother is the political scientist Yoav Peled.

Miko Peled followed his father’s footsteps at first, joining Israel’s Special Forces after high school and earning the red beret, but he soon grew to regret his decision. He surrendered his status as soon as he earned it, becoming a medic, and finally, disgusted by the 1982 Lebanon invasion, he buried his service pin in the dirt.^[6]

One evening in 1983, however, he skipped a Peace Now demonstration in Jerusalem to attend karate class, and on that evening a grenade attack by a right-wing extremist killed one of the demonstrators. 'Peled took this as a sign,' according to one interview, and consequently 'followed the path of karate – a practice of non-violence...that teaches one to 'overcome insurmountable obstacles.' This path 'that took him to Japan and eventually to San Diego, where he settled with his wife and family'.^[7] He then distanced himself from activism until 1997, becoming a sixth-degree black belt in karate and moving first to Japan, then to San Diego, California, United States.^[8]

Activism[edit]

In 1997, Peled’s 13-year-old niece Smadar, daughter of his sister Nurit Peled-Elhanan, was killed in an anti-Israel suicide attack in Jerusalem. At her funeral, according to an article summarizing Peled's book, Ehud Barak, who had just been elected to lead the opposition, explained that in order to gain appeal he must disguise his real intentions of becoming a 'peacemaker.” In reply, Peled said, “Why not tell the truth... That this and similar tragedies are taking place because we are occupying another nation and that in order to save lives the right thing to do is to end the occupation and negotiate a just peace with our Palestinian partners?'^[7]

The murder of Smadar, and his sister Nurit’s insistence that it was caused by the occupation, “jolted him back into Middle Eastern reality,” an interviewer has written. “The activist side of me that I’d been suppressing,” Peled has said, “suddenly burst out. It became stronger than anything.”^[7] He joined a Palestinian/Jewish-American dialogue group in San Diego, where he “found that the Jewish Americans he met – with their 'New York humor and deli food' – were more foreign than the hummus, tabouleh and warm hospitality offered by his new Palestinian friends. He was shocked by random anti-Arab venom spewed casually by Jewish Americans he met who assumed he shared their views, in an atmosphere of growing Islamophobia.” He also befriended Nader Elbanna, “a Palestinian from Nazareth who accompanied him on a dual lecture series at rotary clubs.”^[7] Thus began a process whereby, in the words of Abulhawa, Peled “dismantled a lifetime of racist assumptions and replaced them with something more human and tender.”^[5]

Returning to activism, Peled decided that the two-state solution his father had promoted would no longer suffice, and began to support for the creation of a single democratic state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.^[8] Peled thinks that Israel is an apartheid state that must disappear and that a single-state solution is closer than many people think because of the changing mindsets of many Israelis, American Jews, and Holocaust survivors. He calls the Israeli government “a radical Zionist regime,” and Israel a country where 'half of the population lives in what it thinks is a Western democracy while keeping the other half imprisoned by a ruthless defense apparatus that is becoming more violent by the day.'^[3] He has said that 'The State of Israel Will Crumble and We Will See A Free Democratic Palestine from the River to the Sea Sooner than Most People Think'.^[9]

Peled has traveled in Palestine, has taught karate to children in refugee camps and has engaged in nonviolent activism.^[8] In his blog, he calls for the removal of the Israeli West Bank barrier, and the institution of equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians: 'As an Israeli that was raised on the Zionist ideal of a Jewish state', he writes in the blog, 'I know how hard it is for many Jews and Palestinians to let go of the dream of having a state that is exclusively 'our own.' The articles, the stories and the pictures in this blog are meant to make a single point: For the good of both nations, the Separation Wall must come down, the Israeli control over the lives of Palestinians must be defied so that a secular democracy where all Israelis and Palestinian live as equals be established in our shared homeland'.^[3] Peled is a regular contributor to online publications like the Electronic Intifada and the Palestine Chronicle.

In 2016, Peled generated controversy after tweeting that 'Jews have reputation [for] being sleazy thieves,' leading to the cancellation of his speaking engagements at Princeton and San Diego State University.^[10] Peled spoke at a gathering at the British Labour Party conference in Brighton in September 2017.^[11] At the event, Peled is reported to have said: 'This is about free speech, the freedom to criticise and to discuss every issue, whether it’s the Holocaust: yes or no, Palestine, the liberation, the whole spectrum. There should be no limits on the discussion'. He further went on to compare Zionists to Nazis and 'apartheid South Africa racists'.^[12] Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson said the conference organizing committee would investigate why Peled was given a platform at the event.^[12]

At a meeting at University College London the following November, Peled complained about the 'witch-hunt against antisemites and Holocaust deniers' over the past two years and complimented the 'clear leadership' of Labour's Jeremy Corbyn commenting that Corbyn had 'put away this nonsense about Holocaust denial and this nonsense about antisemitism. You focus on what’s important'.^[13]

General Sonography

Views[edit]

“Israel has been on a mission to destroy the Palestinian people for over six decades,” Peled has said. “Why would anyone not give solidarity to the Palestinian people?”^[14] He has said that Israel's actions in the Six-Day War of 1967 were not a response to a real threat but acts of bald aggression.^[15] And also that “every single Israeli city is a settlement” and that “expressing solidarity with Palestinians is the most important thing people can do.”^[15]

On his Twitter feed, Peled has written that “IDF lusts for blood,” has called the peace process “a process of apartheid & colonization,” and has accused Israeli officials of “ethnic cleansing.”^[16] In his blog posts, he has repeatedly referred to the IDF as an “Israeli terrorist organization” that is part of a “well-oiled ethnic cleansing machine.” He has also written that Israel's educational system is designed to turn Israeli children into racists who view Palestinians “as culturally inferior, violent and bent on the annihilation of the Jews, and...void of a true national identity,” and “as a problem that must be solved and as a threat that must be eliminated.” He has decried “absurd comparisons like that of Yasser Arafat to Hitler, the Palestinians to Nazis, and the Palestinian resistance to Al Qaeda.”^[17]

General S Son 1990

Peled supports the movement for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Giving a talk in Queensland, Australia, he supported a BDS campaign against the Israeli-owned Max Brenner chain of chocolate shops, part of the Strauss group of companies, which, he said, “supports a terrorist organisation, the Golani Brigade.” BDS, he argued, was a “totally legitimate” means of “trying to stop this Israeli armed juggernaut.”^[14]

Peled wrote in a June 2012 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that,

“Israel is faced with two options: Continue to exist as a Jewish state while controlling the Palestinians through military force and racist laws, or undertake a deep transformation into a real democracy where Israelis and Palestinians live as equals in a shared state, their shared homeland. For Israelis and Palestinians alike, the latter path promises a bright future.^[18]

Books[edit]

Peled has described his book, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (2012),^[1] as an account of how he, 'the son of an Israeli General and a staunch Zionist, came to realize that 'the story upon which I was raised ... was a lie.'^[3] The book, he has said, is based largely on long conversations with his mother, on a thorough reading of 'everything my dad had ever written,' and on material about his father's career in the Israeli army archives.^[15]

The book, which has been characterized as 'part confessional, part cinematic epic and part emotional appeal for 'different answers' to the Israeli-Palestinian conundrum,'^[7] contains a foreword by Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple.^[19]

In Peled's book, Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five (2018), he catalogs the trial of the criminalization and dismantling of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, leading to the arrest and jailing of Foundation President Shukri Abu Baker, Chairman Ghassan Elashi, Mohammad el-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulraham Odeh.

Elbanna-Peled Foundation[edit]

Peled is, with Nader Elbanna, co-founder of the Elbanna-Peled Foundation. Established in 2010 and based in Coronado, California, it describes itself as being 'committed to peace, justice and equality by operating exclusively for charitable and educational purposes, including, but not limited to the following:

1. Humanitarian aid to civilians who were injured as a result of Israeli Palestinian conflict.
2. Support existing educational efforts that promote Israeli Palestinian reconciliation.
3. Support local grassroots organizations that work together (Israelis and Palestinians) toward a non-violent resolution of the conflict.'^[20]

The foundation describes itself as working closely with Rotary International. According to its website, 'Peled and Elbanna sent 1000 wheelchairs for Palestinians and Israeli children, and have been part of numerous project to help the people of their shared homeland.'

The foundation, however, was established under the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) categories 'Foreign Affairs' and 'National Security.'Its exempt status, moreover, was automatically revoked by the IRS because it failed to file a Form 990 ('Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax') for three consecutive years.^[21]

Martial Arts America[edit]

Since 28 May 1989, Peled, a sixth-degree black belt, owned, operated, and taught at Martial Arts America, a school in Coronado, California, which 'is dedicated to teaching leadership skills and non-violent conflict resolution through martial arts.' In October 2012, he sold the business to his top student of over twenty years, David Michael Adams, in order to focus on promoting his book The General's Son.^[22]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abc'The General's Son: the Journey of an Israeli in Palestine'. Just World Books. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
2. ^Peled, Miko (1 February 2018). Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five (1st ed.). Just World Books. ISBN9781682570869.
3. ^ ^abcd'About Miko'. mikopeled.com.
4. ^'Book Review: The Generals Son - Journey of an Israeli in Palestine'. Muslim Link.
5. ^ ^abAbulhawa, Susan (29 November 2012). 'Miko Peled Sets the Record Straight on Palestines Dispossession'. Electronic Intifada.
6. ^'The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine'. War Resisters League. Archived from the original on 21 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
7. ^ ^abcdeDitmars, Hidani (8 April 2013). 'Following in the footsteps of his father, a Zionist hero, toward a free and democratic Palestine'. Haaretz.
8. ^ ^abcDitmars, Hadani (8 April 2013). 'Following in the footsteps of his father, a Zionist hero, toward a free and democratic Palestine'. Haaretz.
9. ^Miko Peled: The State of Israel Will Crumble and We Will See A Free Democratic Palestine from the River to the Sea Sooner than Most People Think, September 21, 2018
10. ^Georgetown SJP to Host Speaker Who Tweeted Jews Are Known for Being ‘Sleazy Thieves’, October 15, 2020
11. ^Harpin, Lee (25 September 2017). 'Israeli-born anti-Zionist calls Israel a 'racist settler regime' at Labour conference'. The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
12. ^ ^abWeaver, Matthew; Elgot, Jessica (26 September 2017). 'Labour fringe speaker's Holocaust remarks spark new antisemitism row'. The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
13. ^Thomas, Alastair (12 November 2017). 'Miko Peled: Zionists do not deserve a platform'. The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
14. ^ ^abMcllroy, Jim (7 October 2011). 'Generals son condemns Israeli oppression, supports BDS'. Green Left.
15. ^ ^abcSilver, Charlotte (3 October 2012). 'Palestine freedom battle will be won: interview with author Miko Peled'. Electronic Intifada.
16. ^'Miko Peled'. Twitter.
17. ^Peled, Miko (20 December 2011). 'Ethnic Cleansing of Invented People'. mikopeled.com.
18. ^Peled, Miko (6 June 2012). 'Six Days in Israel, 45 Years Ago'. Los Angeles Times.
19. ^'archives'. The Madison Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2012.
20. ^'About'. Elbanna Peled Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013.
21. ^'ELBANNA-PELED FOUNDATION'. Guidestar.
22. ^'Welcome to our website'. Coronado Karate.

External links[edit]

• Video of Peled interview with Chris Hedges, 10 May 2016; and a video of Peled's second interview with Hedges, 24 September 2016
• Video of Peled's talk in Seattle, USA, 9 October 2012
• Interview with Miko Peled by Alternate Focus; and Second interview with Miko Peled by Alternate Focus
• interviews with Paul Jay of The Real News