I was in Israel during the Lebanon war and met a guy a lot like me at a bus stop. A smart outsider type, too skinny, he had a beard, intelligent eyes, and wore purple crocs on his feet, under a uniform and semiautomatic. He was a reservist going north to Kiryat Shemona. And he told me, All Israel is united in the necessity of this war.
What a deluded guy. Lebanon was a giant mistake. But that's what happens when a country goes to war, and it's a state of the Jews in the sea of Arabs. Ethnocentrism, patriotism. That fervor is reflected in two pieces in Haaretz. One on the terror of expressing dissent, by the great Gideon Levy. And this curious piece by Anshel Pfeffer, an Israeli in the U.S., who sees the Diaspora Jews slowly leaving the Israel party over the Gaza slaughter:
not the widest one, but I believe quite significant – who have more
complex and uncomfortable feelings on the matter. They care deeply for
Israel and understand even why its government felt compelled to launch
the devastating Operation Cast Lead, but they are extremely disturbed
and hurt by the level of civilian deaths and destruction that almost
seems part and parcel of the action. Surely, they say, there must,
there has to be another way of doing this. And they live with those
doubts, often unexpressed, even among families and close friends
because the worst thing they find is that others around them don't seem
to discern between the different nuances, and can't find in themselves
compassion for the dead and wounded on the other side. [brilliantly stated] They begin
asking themselves very awkward questions: Are they surrounded by latent
racists, or is something wrong with them that denies the feelings of
certainty of those around them? Or does everyone have similar doubts
but are simply afraid to express them?
Oh wow. Wheels comin off cart. Only in Haaretz.
