A friend of Indian extraction writes:
Wow how appalling. The British Raj is comparable to the IDF, according to the Weekly Standard? Then by this definition Israel is imperialist and must leave. Is that what the Weekly Standard wants?
A Gandhi (the Rx of the Weekly Standard piece) requires an interluctor who undertands and responds
favorably to non-violence. The Brits also needed Indian troops to fight
the Nazis and told Indian elites they could expect self determination,
provided they support them. The Israelis do not understand pacifism and have other pathologies in their society, some deeply
rooted: the belief that the world is conspiring against them, the
belief that the Arabs are equivalent to the Nazis, and that they are
not culpable for the pathologies of the Palestinians, even while their
jackboot is on their necks. I await that Weekly Standard piece.
British
elites and Indian (Hindu and Muslim) elites shared common values and
aspirations and were drawn from a common culture- Jinnah for the Muslims and Nehru for the Indians. The British elites, leftist in outlook,
shared two common ideals: an anti-imperialist and anti-fascist stance.
IDF/Israeli elites have nothing in common with the Palestinians. Indeed, the Israeli elites have contempt and loathing for the Palestinians that meets or
exceeds the white apartheid loathing for African blacks and is coupled with a
belief that the Israelis are the victims.
Should we ask the Abba Eban question in reverse: Do the Israelis ever miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity?
