Here's a nice piece by Jdledell about making a recent "aliyah" visit to Israel--thinking of emigrating there--and getting cold feet. Congrats to TPM for running this. Just when it matters, our press is failing to reflect the bleak/scary reports from over there:
More than in decades past, the Israel I recently visited is a mixture of despair and arrogance. There is a great deal of pride over the Gaza campaign. When I pointed out that was nothing to be proud of since it was like the Pittsburgh Steelers playing against a High School team. Most Israelis felt that while true, "those people" deserved it. The despair comes from a terrible realization that there is no real "just" solution to this conflict. It's a zero sum problem, us or them, and there is a groundswell of support for a "move 'em on out" permanent solution for the Palestinians. With respect to Gaza the solution I heard most frequently was to lock the gates and let them wither away from starvation or bust the gates at Rafah and move to Egypt if they want to eat.
Meanwhile settlement activity continues to grow. The construction in the E-1 corridor is amazing and soon Ma'ale Adumim will extend all the way to Jerusalem cutting off most Palestinian access. Just look at the new settlement of Adam East where Migon settlers will go and the proposed 1400 houses for this new settlement. The construction is going on everywhere. It is getting ridiculous to even contemplate closing some settlements in return for a peace agreement. We went to campaign events for all the major parties and Likud flatly stated no Palestinian state and no closing of ANY settlements. Labor assured people that they would not abandon any settlements and even Kadima was quite circumspect on the subject.
I will be the first to admit that this analysis is anecdotal and limited.
But it does reinforce my primal fear that Israel is losing its soul. There is an indifference to death that is not only chilling but an anathema to the faith I learned as a child.
Meanwhile settlement activity continues to grow. The construction in the E-1 corridor is amazing and soon Ma'ale Adumim will extend all the way to Jerusalem cutting off most Palestinian access. Just look at the new settlement of Adam East where Migon settlers will go and the proposed 1400 houses for this new settlement. The construction is going on everywhere. It is getting ridiculous to even contemplate closing some settlements in return for a peace agreement. We went to campaign events for all the major parties and Likud flatly stated no Palestinian state and no closing of ANY settlements. Labor assured people that they would not abandon any settlements and even Kadima was quite circumspect on the subject.
I will be the first to admit that this analysis is anecdotal and limited.
But it does reinforce my primal fear that Israel is losing its soul. There is an indifference to death that is not only chilling but an anathema to the faith I learned as a child.
re "israel is losing its soul.."
present tense? What is with this disconnect that Zionists exhibit? Israel never had a soul to lose. How can these people expect to keep a "soul" when they force other people off their land and slaughter them?
I don't think Israel is losing its soul. I think it's on track to finally show us exactly what its soul has been all along. Israel was not an expression of Jewishness, but of Zionism; and in Avigdor Leiberman, Zionism has finally found a spokesman who doesn't try to dodge the issue of what Zionism implies (as even Netanyahu does, at least publicly). In a way, I actually hope Leiberman's party does well in the election, not because it would be good for anyone even in the short term, but because it might bring the Israel/Palestinian problem to a head and break through the barriers and illusions that have prevented any real progress from being made for so many years now. Israel has been able to hang onto the world's sympathy because it was never forthright about what it was doing or what its ultimate goals were. Leiberman, like the late Rabbi Kahane, makes no secret of what he thinks or what he intends. With him or someone like him running Israel, the rest of the world would no longer be able to hide from the truth that Israel has no intention of allowing a real Palestinian state to exist, or granting equal rights to its own Arab citizens, or withdrawing from the settlements, or even ceasing to build new settlements in Palestinian territory (after all, it's all Israel to the Zionist mind). The West will then have to choose: either Israel gets treated like South Africa in the '80s, or it will be clear to the Arab and Muslim world that we really don't care about the Palestinians after all.
Israel has always been forthright as to its ultimate goal. The same as it was in the beginning. A Jewish nation where all of the Jews of the world could find refuge when another holocaust looms.
And that is why the world will always retreat when it comes to actually harming Israel. The world knows that they are responsible.
It is clear to the Palestinians that they Arab and muslim world don't really give a shit about the Palestinians. Witness the events in Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Iraq, etc…
OK. So it's always a zero-sum game. With them or against them.
Time to start choosing sides. And influencing your neighbors every
which way you can. Hatfields v Mccoys.
Let the chips fall.
Survival of the fittest.
Got it.