J Street has published an "I am scared" letter from an Israeli describing his society’s slide toward authoritarianism and the necessity of "pressure" from outside to save Israel. The word "apartheid" appears, and the statement that most Israelis don’t want peace. Remember when people said that Max Blumenthal’s Feeling the Hate video was B.S.? Read Michael Omer-Man’s letter and you see this is a quiet call for BDS.
[Apropos] the denial that American Jews live in regarding Israel… I think most believe that regardless of the day’s current events, most Israelis (and more importantly their government) are aiming towards peace at some level or another. I can no longer say that this is the case. .. I do not see an Israeli government that is working towards, let alone is interested in, attaining peace. The "peace process" is always there because it is necessary to keep the world on our side. But the existence of a peace process is not necessarily indicative of official efforts to make/attain peace.
Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni all came to the realization – at different times – that the perpetuation of the occupation will lead to either an apartheid state or a bi-national state. Both of these situations take away one half of the "Jewish-Democratic" nature of Israel, something that is vital for the idea of Zionism that I understand and believe in. I fear that the current government does not see the urgency in dealing with these issues, or even worse, is not bothered by the outcomes.
The constantly expanding settlement enterprise is one of the policies that most devastatingly damages the prospect of Israel remaining both democratic and Jewish. They are not just putting Jews in Palestinian areas, they are making Palestinian areas Jewish; this is a huge demographic problem in the context of a Jewish democracy. The current government – a great portion of their constituents are from the settler movement – has promised that they will go back to building at full speed once the almost laughable 10-month moratorium is over. In other words, they are serious about expanding settlements, not about controlling or reigning them in. While this may seem like a small issue from the outside, it is in all actuality, one of the biggest hurdles in the way of a two-state solution. I don’t intend to go issue-by-issue to explain why I dislike Israel’s current government, but I want to make the point that Bibi’s government is not just a nudnik, they are working against peace and they’re doing it well.
The messages that are broadcast in English and the messages that are broadcast in Hebrew are very different. There has been this idea growing lately in Israel that the source of all of its problems are its bad "Hasbara" (PR/making the case for Israel). To this I say: it’s not the message, it’s the policies. That the occupation of the Palestinians has gone on for 43 years now is too much to be able to fix with better spokespeople. The flotilla incident is merely a symptom of this larger issue. While those activists may have been protesting the blockade of Gaza in this instance, for them it is all in the context of the ongoing occupation and military control over the Palestinians.
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It is my opinion that American Jews are so obsessed with defending Israel’s right to exist (which is important, necessary and legitimate) that they are all too willing to overlook what Israel has become. I am in no way advocating that American Jews stop defending Israel’s right to exist. However, I think that liberal American Jews need to make the extremely difficult decision to realize that the country they are constantly defending is slowly becoming (I hope that it’s still repairable) a state which their [conscience] wouldn’t allow them to support were it not Jewish.
I believe that because of the direction Israel has been moving in in recent years (both the public and the governments it has elected), the only way for positive change to come about is through outside pressure. This is uncomfortable for any Jew, even those furthest on the left; we all fear the fine line between criticizing Israel and anti-Semitism. However, the reality is that if most people personally saw the effects of the occupation, they would be appalled. This is not the Israel that most American Jews support, and they are in the strongest position to affect change. It is extremely uncomfortable, but I believe it is the reality.
You mention that you believe Meretz is in the best position to provide leadership to bring change for the better to Israel. You say that you wish they had better leadership. Unfortunately, their leadership is only a very small part of the problem. Israeli society has moved to the right in a much more extreme way than most people are willing or able to understand. I just came back from a Peace Now rally, where the loudest and most prominent chant was, "Ohevim et HaMedina, Mitbayshim b’Memshala" ("We love our country, but we’re embarrassed by our government"). A police force of thousands was required to protect the participants, not from terror attacks, but from other Israelis. In the middle of the rally, a military-grade smoke grenade was thrown into the middle of the crowd. I was called a traitor for wearing a shirt that said only, "Shalom Achshav" ("Peace Now"). I was scared – not for my personal safety, but for the state of Israeli society.
