The author shared the following anecdote with Phil Weiss, who asked permission to publish because it demonstrates the degree to which Europe is done with the current regime in Israel. And this was before the Danish cyclist video went viral.
I had an interesting "coffee" with one of my ex-stepmothers ('67-'77) at the airport. She lives in England, I seldom see her. It may be the only time I've ever spent an hour alone with her. She's 68, is on the borders of (or in) the Establishment, married to a City guy who was a Euro MP for a while. Upper class but still striving. She has a pedigree, with dukes and prime ministers among her forebears. She's smart but not educated-- very busy, well organized, dominating personality-- works for a faintly neoconnish think tank and is starting a sort of "community relations" center for London's poor. She's quite formidable. Anyway, in our talk, she said among other things that Israel is finished. All the smart Israelis leave or will leave. There won't be any two states, it'll be one state. These are quotes. Very surprising, given the kind of person she is.
Well, it’s over then!
link to youtube.com
an impersonation of her and her neoconnish think tank cohorts?
nice divert for a top comment.
She was described as being a member of the British upper class–as if that was supposed to impress us. It don’t. If you have to explain it . . .
i get it, really no different than a radical anti zionist leftie saying what she said. thanks for the clarification, your humor flew over my head.
Just thought of that sketch. :)
I love it how you guys reassure each other with these stories.
I have and idea though where Scott McConnell can stick a fork…
oleg, what did you think of “works for a faintly neoconnish think tank”?
granted, she lives in the UK. don’t you think it’s normal or rational even neocons would be concerned with the national religious influence lately. you don’t find them a tad wacky? or invasive? or do you think this might be a temporary phase that will roll over sometime in the relatively near future?
The national religious movement is not a monolithic one
there are people in that movement whose ideas i view as
dangerous/insane/idiotic
but i find some elements of the Israeli left to be just as dangerous/insane/idiotic .
I loath fanatics and extremists wherever they come from on the political spectrum. Usually they are people that have no doubts regarding the “truth”.
Regarding their influence on Israeli politics, they certainly have some, but as the Gaza withdrawal showed us it is overestimated by their
political opponents.
i find some elements of the Israeli left to be just as dangerous
do tell. last i heard they didn’t have much representation in the knesset. what/where/who compared to the kind of traction the national religious movement has at this time? (btw, i didn’t reference them as monolithic, that’s a far cry from the miniscule influence of the dangerous left)
“I loath fanatics and extremists wherever they come from on the political spectrum. Usually they are people that have no doubts regarding the “truth”. OlegR!!!!
Every day, I count on Mondoweiss for that nice big laughing fit I need to clear my esophagus and put me in a good mood for the day. Thanks to OlegR, I am ROTFLMSJAO!!!!
So Oleg, you want to give us the moderate, universally accepted facts pertaining to “the Jews” and their claim to Palestine? You know, the ones it takes no religious fanaticism or irrationality to accept?
I loath fanatics and extremists
They’re always so full of hate, aren’t they.
“They’re always so full of hate, aren’t they.”
And they twist things so. Why, I’ve heard there are a group of fanatics (I forgot whjat they call themselves) who want to take the stories in the various Bibles as facts, and as land titles. Can you imagine?
Thank God OlegR is not among them!
/do tell. last i heard they didn’t have much representation in the knesset. /
That’s not the point is it ? At the moment the radical antizionist left
has very little representation in the knesset which is a good thing.
the radical antizionist right (yes i mean it antizionist) has more representation which is a bad thing i think it’s a temporary like everything else in human affairs .
How temporary ? No idea but the political pendulum in Israel swings both ways now it goes to the right as long as it doesn’t go too far we will be ok.
As a citizen i have a duty to make sure as much as i can that it doesn’t and that’s about sums it up.
/They’re always so full of hate, aren’t they./
Yes they are.
“As a citizen i have a duty to make sure as much as i can that it doesn’t and that’s about sums it up.”
As a citizen of Israel, you better do what you are told, by your leaders. What are you some kind of anti-Semite, OlegR. You will do what is best for the Jews, and what will ensure Jewish survival. You have neither the equipment nor the training, nor the experience to think or act for yourself.
“No idea but the political pendulum in Israel swings both ways”
Oh, absolutely! WHy I can’t count how many times the Occupation has been abandoned, then re-instated when things swung to the right.
I don’t get you Oleg. Are you really this dumb, or do they tell you in Israel that everybody except Israelis like you is an idiot?
How touchingly naive you are, or affect to be, since it saves you having to face the reality.
People who are convinced that they got something right really should watch this lecture
link to youtube.com
Hard to know what to make of this short anecdote. On the whole, good news. But the policy-makers and media are still within the ambit of UK’s (and EU’s) version(s) of AIPAC and the USA’s strong-arm tactics still matter.
Let’s hope for much more well-publicized talk.
israel today is like having that gay friend that is in denial – you (and everyone else) know that your friend a real screamer and when they come out of the closet they’ll blast the doors off, but for now they refuse to admit what everyone else already knows … with israel it is clear to the whole world that it must become a secular, pluralistic state and end its endless repression, humiliation and abuse of the locals – the Palestinians
love the one of my ex-stepmothers.
“one of my ex-stepmothers.”
I can’t even begin to think what that means. I am at a complete loss when it comes to modern ex-family family relations.
sounds like a box of chocolates mooser. ;)
I only wish my family was like a box of chocolates. At any rate, I’m sure I’ve got a soft, Jewy center.
I’m sure I’ve got a soft, Jewy center.
no nuts?
;)
>> no nuts?
I’m thinking they’re either south of the center, or all in his head. ;-)
“no nuts?”
I am not going to be drawn onto another discussion on circumcision. That discussion has been cut off.
And yes, plenty of nuts, both manufactured by unendurable stress, and born that way, or both. But you stick ‘em in a state hospital, and move to the suburbs, and everything is alrightnik. But then, oy vey you have children, and what did we do to deserve this?
When all these jews leave the middle east, are they going to take their tanks, helicopters and nuclear weapons with them in their luggage? Why do people think Israel is weak? It is a regional superpower, with a very high standard of living, with an armlock on the most powerful country in the world, the USA. Israel has everything it needs to continue its abhorrent policies for a long time.
No no, it’s on the verge of collapse. Despite all that (and its amazing, powerhouse economy) it bothers people in the 510 area code–and is, thus, doomed.
Do you really believe that the status quo can be maintained for another 5, 10 or 20 years?
Once the MSM pendulum swings and the world is fully aware of the Israeli depredations, it will be South Africa redux.
I think upsidedownism is right. Israel has such a stranglehold on American public opinion (not to mention our congress and our purse strings) that it can do whatever it wants pretty much indefinitely.
The last months of French Algeria, when it was clear that Muslim rule was coming, was when the pieds noirs European settlers really went off the deep end, supporting the OAS in its final paroxysm of terrorism. The pieds noirs, thank God, did not have nukes. (Although the Algerian Sahara was where France had been testing its nukes, and there were some fears, during the final coup attempts in Algeria, that the rebellious French army might get its hands on them.)
If the war-weary world had the courage, it would have stuck a fork in Israel and pronounced it stillborn when Zionist terrorists unilaterally and illegally declared its existence in 1948. This would have, as Truman’s generals predicted, saved the world a lot of trouble:
link to countercurrents.org
The status quo cna be continued as long as good people (?!) continue to look the other way. It takes energy, courage, money, time, even perhaps ex-mothers-in-law to ACT for the good which is not to your own benefit. That is what the common first article of the 4 Geneva Conventions purports to bind tghe nations to do: to ENSURE that the conventions are respected in all circumstances. My, my, how convenient it has been for the nations to ignore that!
Yes, status quo is in safe hands.