Good headline, huh? And I believe it. Give me a minute, I'll start up about the Israel lobby too! But let's be clear, this link, to Alex Stein, who I believe is a Zionist who emigrated to Israel from England, supports these large themes in a limited, but eloquent, manner:
I hear there’s a lot being written about this outside the land, but I
thought I’d chip in nonetheless. I caught up with an old friend the
other day, now a lawyer in London,
and he told me a bit about how things were in London, particularly with
the recession etc. Plenty of his friends were being laid off; others
were finding it harder to find work. If there was a positive to all
this, though, it was the end to the sense of entitlement
that’s characterised my generation of North-West London Jews. We
were too young to remember the hardships of the 1980s, and then we
entered our best years during the boom of the 1990s. At university, we
assumed we’d walk into whatever it is we wanted to do straight away,
and then take the world by storm accordingly. I have to admit that I
even felt this when coming to Israel,
that my meagre qualifications in the UK meant I should be running the
country by the time I’m 30. Now this sense of entitlement is gone. This
is liberating. Thank God I have a job and thank God I can pay the bills
and live reasonably comfortably. There’s something more humbling about
taking each day as it comes, without the overbearing pressure of
massive expectations, each step forward felt like another hurdle
climbed. I suppose it’s back to basics, and I hope others are able to
feel the way I do.
thought I’d chip in nonetheless. I caught up with an old friend the
other day, now a lawyer in London,
and he told me a bit about how things were in London, particularly with
the recession etc. Plenty of his friends were being laid off; others
were finding it harder to find work. If there was a positive to all
this, though, it was the end to the sense of entitlement
that’s characterised my generation of North-West London Jews. We
were too young to remember the hardships of the 1980s, and then we
entered our best years during the boom of the 1990s. At university, we
assumed we’d walk into whatever it is we wanted to do straight away,
and then take the world by storm accordingly. I have to admit that I
even felt this when coming to Israel,
that my meagre qualifications in the UK meant I should be running the
country by the time I’m 30. Now this sense of entitlement is gone. This
is liberating. Thank God I have a job and thank God I can pay the bills
and live reasonably comfortably. There’s something more humbling about
taking each day as it comes, without the overbearing pressure of
massive expectations, each step forward felt like another hurdle
climbed. I suppose it’s back to basics, and I hope others are able to
feel the way I do.
Thanks to Drubetskoy for the spot.
