New Yorker editor David Remnick, one of the people who actually tell American Jews what to think, has made several important public pronouncements about the horror of the Israeli occupation lately. “Deeply wrong,” to Fareed Zakaria on TV. And angry condemnation to Yediot: even Remnick, a big Israel supporter, “can’t take it anymore”. I hear that at the 92d Street Y a couple weeks ago, Remnick also made a strong statement against the Occupation in a conversation with Larissa MacFarquhar (I’ve sought a link from 92Y and heard nothing). What’s the difference between the spoken and the written word? Read this limp language from Remnick’s comment on Egypt this week.
The U.S., however, still has enormous influence over the most democratic country in the region. Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands is hardly the only issue of moral, political, and strategic importance in the region—the dispute was barely a slogan on the streets of Tunis or Cairo—but there is no doubt that its swift and fair resolution, after forty-four years, is necessary not only to satisfy the demands of justice but to insure a future for Israel as a democracy. The Netanyahu government’s refusal to come to terms with the Palestinians, and its insistence on settlement building, have steadily undermined both the security and the essence of the state, which was founded as a refuge from dispossession. Israel has grave and legitimate concerns about Hamas and Hezbollah on its borders, to say nothing of the intentions of Tehran, but its prospects will not be enhanced by an adherence to the status quo.
