Yad Vashem Sells Foxman’s Attack on ‘The Israel Lobby,’ But Not ‘The Israel Lobby’

Christopher Varley sent along another email reflecting on his trip to Israel, which was a lot of fun, but mentally very tiring.

Israel‘s much vaunted
history feels freshly minted and somewhat contrived.  I saw evidence of
this everywhere.  The Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv is beautifully sited
and appointed, for example, but signage in the stamp pavilion omits the
reference to protection of Arab rights included in the Balfour Declaration.
That’s like removing a line from the Declaration of Independence.

To give you another example, the
bookstore at Yad Vashem stocks Abe Foxman’s critique of Mearsheimer and Walt’s
"The Israel Lobby", but not "The Israel Lobby" itself.

And then there’s
Masada , once viewed by Jews as a symbol of stupid fanaticism,
now brandished as a symbol of grand heroism.

This sort of calculated revisionism,
collective amnesia, and self-censorship is worrisome, and added to my sense
that I was living in a bubble.

As for a solution to the conflict
with the indigenous population, I’ve never thought that bi-nationalism
would work, and now that I’ve seen what’s left of the Arab West
Bank, think that talk of a two state solution is just a cruel joke.  The
U.S. bears much
of the blame for this.

My wife compares
Israel ’s relationship with the
U.S. to
that of a rebellious teenager with an indulgent parent. [Weiss: So does Tony Judt] Israel’s endless
promises to stop building settlements and take down checkpoints is just bull-
like a kid repeatedly promising to have the car home by 10:00 p.m., then
staying out for the night.

The
U.S. is the one with ‘no one
to talk to’ today.  Perhaps American politicians should stop
humiliating themselves with their endless trips to
Jerusalem and pledges of eternal support at
Yad Vashem.  Maybe they should just ignore
Israel ‘till it decides to get
real and grow up

That’s not going to happen of
course; and because it’s not going to happen, I think
Israel can continue to gently squeeze the
Arabs’ balls- to ethnically cleanse the country on both sides of the
green line- without much fear of international boycotts or reductions in
U.S. aid.

If this doesn’t bother you,
that’s fine.  Lots of other countries behave the same.  But don’t
be a hypocrite.  If Chinese oppression of Tibetans makes you angry, but
you think Palestinians are getting what they deserve, I’d say you have a
problem.