Nicholas Kristof has a great column in the Times today on the two Israels, describing the abuses against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, including the baseball-bat beating of shepherds by colonists that I picked up here ten days ago. Times-watcher Jerome Slater says, and I agree, that "something is afoot" at the Times, this is a significant moment. I think Kristof is at last dusting off the Anthony Lewis chair, so long abandoned, that station on the Times Op-Ed page where the great emeritus Lewis once stood up for Arabs' human rights. Eclipsed since by war-drum-bangers Friedman and Kristol.
Kristof's other Israel–to the savage occupier–is the Israel of freedom, symbolized by human rights groups like B'tselem. That Israel is a thriving democracy, he seems to say. I don't know Israel, have only spent ten days there two years ago, but I wonder how toughened that society has become to its own corruption. Juliano Mer Khamis describes Israel as a place tilting more toward South Africa than Europe. I also received the romantic view of Israel as a young Jew in America, the view Kristof seems to endorse, but I wonder whether the Haaretz's and B'tselem's aren't the noble dissenters in a dark place. Dunno. In the meantime, this is a real step forward…
