Poignant post by Noam Sheizaf about the impending crisis in Israeli society:
For the first time since I started writing this blog, I haven’t written a post in almost two weeks. I have an excuse: I’ve been out of the country for more than a month now, some of the time on the road, so I don’t follow the news as closely as I usually do. But there is more to it. More often than not, I simply can’t bring myself to check what’s going on back home, and when I do, I usually regret it. The Foreign Ministry snubbing the house delegation; the ridiculous campaign the government had launched in order to improve Israel’s image in the world – accompanied by a TV spot that can literally make you sick – the chief scientist for the Minister of Education denies global warming because “god will not let this happen”; my city, Tel Aviv, co-funding a project that deals with preventing Jewish girls from dating none-Jews, and so on, one absurd story follows the other.
When you are in Israel, there is some strange logic to the news cycle. Even if you don’t agree to most of what’s going on, things somehow make sense. I think you simply get used to the craziness. But when you step outside for a minute, everything looks so grotesque, to the point where it seems that whatever you might say or write won’t really make a difference.
This is getting worse lately. I got to meet some friends in the US who care about Israel and follow Israeli politics. Most of them had only one question: what the hell is going on over there?
My answer is so boring, I have troubles repeating it myself: It all goes down to the occupation, and what it did to this country. For sometime now, I am not so sure there is a way back. One way or the other, I think Israel will go through major changes in the next decade or so. Maybe it’s for the best.
