In the wake of the Gaza brutalism, Seyla Benhabib, a Yale scholar of Jewish-Sephardic-Turkish extraction, has a dream of a confederation of Israel and Palestine in one state, with people living where they like. Chomsky is for something like this too. Two provocative points she makes, both true, I think:
There is no perfect security and total invulnerability in this new
world at least since September 11, 2001 – if there ever was such a
thing as total invulnerability in the political realm! It is this
knowledge and this vulnerability that is making Israel act more and
more belligerently towards its neighbors. Even having the nuclear bomb
provides no security for Israel, and not because Iran could acquire it
as well, but because the use of nuclear weapons against targets in
Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza strip, the West Bank and Jordan would make
Israel itself unlivable by spreading radioactive clouds throughout the
area, contaminating water and vegetation. Four political visions
world at least since September 11, 2001 – if there ever was such a
thing as total invulnerability in the political realm! It is this
knowledge and this vulnerability that is making Israel act more and
more belligerently towards its neighbors. Even having the nuclear bomb
provides no security for Israel, and not because Iran could acquire it
as well, but because the use of nuclear weapons against targets in
Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza strip, the West Bank and Jordan would make
Israel itself unlivable by spreading radioactive clouds throughout the
area, contaminating water and vegetation. Four political visions
Several political discourses in contemporary Israel try to face this situation without offering a new vision of politics:
1.The prospect of perpetual war.
Although politically indefensible by any self-respecting politician,
this is a psychology taking hold of the souls of many ordinary
Israelis. Many believe that war will be a way of life and that there
will never be peace in Israel-Palestine.
