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Fear of peace will be the death of Israel
laker1963
Posts: 5,046
By Bradley Burston
Tags: Goldstone, Israel News
[Part One of Two]
____________________
SHEIKH JARRAH, Jerusalem - As the grandson of anarchists, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for fanatics. Expressions of extremism, and passionately reasoned, exquisitely twisted world views make me feel, how shall I put this, at home.
So it was with a certain relish that I approached the cover story of a recent issue of Commentary, "The Deadly Price of Pursuing Peace," written as it was by a talented colleague and friend, Evelyn Gordon.
The thrust of the piece, which Commentary Editor John Podhoretz understandably calls "groundbreaking," is that Israel's international standing has plummeted to an unprecedented low - and the number of Palestinians killed by Israel has concurrently soared - specifically because of Israel's having done much too much for peace.
"The answer is unpleasant to contemplate, but the mounting evidence makes it inescapable," she writes. "It was Israel's very willingness to make concessions for the sake of peace that has produced its current near-pariah status."
The essay has the seamless, compellingly elegant, hyper-lucid, parallel universe logic of a hallucination - or a settlement rooted in the craw of the West Bank. Until I read it, it was difficult for me to comprehend the current runaway-freight recklessness of Israeli authorities and a certain segment of the hard right, bolstered by shady funding from abroad.
It was hard to fathom why Israeli police in this quiet hollow of the Arab half of Jerusalem, would choose to openly flout and violate the rulings of an Israeli court. I was unable to grasp why they would manhandle and arrest non-violent demonstrators - among them the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel - for protesting the official expulsion from their homes of more than two dozen Palestinian families here, driven out and into the street, so that subsidized and sheltered settlers could move in.
It was beyond my understanding why an Israeli government which views the idea of a Palestinian Right of Return as tantamount to annihilation of the Jewish state, would set a legal precedent that paves the way for just such a right.
Just as I was clueless as to why the Knesset was to vote Wednesday on a bill that would make aiding asylum seekers fleeing African genocide, granting them shelter, medical care, food, a crime subject to up to 20 years in prison.
Or why there were vigorous new campaigns to increase gender segregation at the Western Wall and on public buses, and why women have been arrested and interrogated on suspicion of having worn prayer shawls while praying on their side of a barrier raised so that they would no longer be able to watch their sons' bar mitzvah on the mens' side.
Or why a sudden and ferocious campaign against human rights organizations and charity work agencies in Israel is coinciding with new human rights outrages against Palestinians and foreigners, some of them unable to leave, others forced to.
It was not until I saw the title of the Commentary piece that it all made sense.
The right is terrified of peace. And, in the end, the right's fear of peace will be the death of Israel.
They are afraid of peace, in part, because it threatens the core of what has come to replace other values as the goal of Judaism: permanent settlement of the West Bank. But that is only a part of it.
They are afraid of peace because they are afraid of the world. They dismiss fellow Jews who want to see a two-state solution - a majority of Israelis - as unrealistic, as living in a bubble. The name of the bubble these moderates live in, however, is planet Earth.
The right, meanwhile, wants to wall off Israel as the world's last remaining legally mandated Jewish ghetto. A place where all the rules are different, exit and entry, citizenship and human rights, because the residents within are Jews. A place where non-Jews, dehumanized as congenital Jew-haters, are rendered invisible. A place which, if suffocating and insufferable, still seems safer than the scary world outside.
A place which, because of its walls and its politics and its cowardice, is losing its ability to function as a part of the world, reveling in cheap-shot humiliations of key foreign ambassadors, deliriously proud of its sense that of all the world, including most of its Jews and Israelis - only the right sees the real truth.
This braid of thought was venomously endorsed this week both by an uncharacteristically Kahane-sounding Alan Dershowitz, and the obscenely infantile Im Tirtzu movement. According to them, where Cast Lead was concerned, the real war criminals are Richard Goldstone and Naomi Chazan - two people who are open about their love of Israel, and who have worked their whole adult lives for its well-being.
The fears of the right are not mere devices of rhetoric. The risks of making peace are real. Every bit as real as the risks of failing to make peace.
It all comes down to belief. It comes down to the kind of country the believer wants Israel to be. And for that reason, there is a civil war going on for Israel's soul.
It will not be weaponry that decides this war, but courage. People who care about the direction that Israel is moving, and whose watchword is moderation, would do well to choose one facet of the fight, and join. One place to start, is to support the New Israel Fund and the groups it supports.
Another place to start is this one. At the weekend, challenging the threats of rightist thugs and law-scorning police, the weekly demonstration on behalf of the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah doubled in size. The police backed down on their vow to break up the protest, and the Kahanists barely showed.
If non-violent peace activism scares the right to this extent, there must be a great deal of power in it.
After all, most Israelis can sense that if peace is to be the enemy, more dangerous even than the threat of war, this is one doomed ghetto.
Things have reached such a devastating point, that for the first time in recent memory, even Ehud Barak is beginning to get it: "The simple truth is, if there is one state" including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, "it will have to be either binational or undemocratic," Barak told the Herzliya Conference Tuesday.
"If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."
The fear of peace has left Israel as a country which is prepared for nuclear warfare but not for non-violent protest on behalf of Palestinians. The fear of peace, and the blackmail of the right on behalf of settlement, has contorted Israel into a body which, unable to countenance the perils of treating the sickness of occupation, will eventually be killed by it.
Israel's defense minister, for one, is convinced: "The lack of a solution to the problem of border demarcation within the historic Land of Israel - and not an Iranian bomb - is the most serious threat to Israel's future."
Tags: Goldstone, Israel News
[Part One of Two]
____________________
SHEIKH JARRAH, Jerusalem - As the grandson of anarchists, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for fanatics. Expressions of extremism, and passionately reasoned, exquisitely twisted world views make me feel, how shall I put this, at home.
So it was with a certain relish that I approached the cover story of a recent issue of Commentary, "The Deadly Price of Pursuing Peace," written as it was by a talented colleague and friend, Evelyn Gordon.
The thrust of the piece, which Commentary Editor John Podhoretz understandably calls "groundbreaking," is that Israel's international standing has plummeted to an unprecedented low - and the number of Palestinians killed by Israel has concurrently soared - specifically because of Israel's having done much too much for peace.
"The answer is unpleasant to contemplate, but the mounting evidence makes it inescapable," she writes. "It was Israel's very willingness to make concessions for the sake of peace that has produced its current near-pariah status."
The essay has the seamless, compellingly elegant, hyper-lucid, parallel universe logic of a hallucination - or a settlement rooted in the craw of the West Bank. Until I read it, it was difficult for me to comprehend the current runaway-freight recklessness of Israeli authorities and a certain segment of the hard right, bolstered by shady funding from abroad.
It was hard to fathom why Israeli police in this quiet hollow of the Arab half of Jerusalem, would choose to openly flout and violate the rulings of an Israeli court. I was unable to grasp why they would manhandle and arrest non-violent demonstrators - among them the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel - for protesting the official expulsion from their homes of more than two dozen Palestinian families here, driven out and into the street, so that subsidized and sheltered settlers could move in.
It was beyond my understanding why an Israeli government which views the idea of a Palestinian Right of Return as tantamount to annihilation of the Jewish state, would set a legal precedent that paves the way for just such a right.
Just as I was clueless as to why the Knesset was to vote Wednesday on a bill that would make aiding asylum seekers fleeing African genocide, granting them shelter, medical care, food, a crime subject to up to 20 years in prison.
Or why there were vigorous new campaigns to increase gender segregation at the Western Wall and on public buses, and why women have been arrested and interrogated on suspicion of having worn prayer shawls while praying on their side of a barrier raised so that they would no longer be able to watch their sons' bar mitzvah on the mens' side.
Or why a sudden and ferocious campaign against human rights organizations and charity work agencies in Israel is coinciding with new human rights outrages against Palestinians and foreigners, some of them unable to leave, others forced to.
It was not until I saw the title of the Commentary piece that it all made sense.
The right is terrified of peace. And, in the end, the right's fear of peace will be the death of Israel.
They are afraid of peace, in part, because it threatens the core of what has come to replace other values as the goal of Judaism: permanent settlement of the West Bank. But that is only a part of it.
They are afraid of peace because they are afraid of the world. They dismiss fellow Jews who want to see a two-state solution - a majority of Israelis - as unrealistic, as living in a bubble. The name of the bubble these moderates live in, however, is planet Earth.
The right, meanwhile, wants to wall off Israel as the world's last remaining legally mandated Jewish ghetto. A place where all the rules are different, exit and entry, citizenship and human rights, because the residents within are Jews. A place where non-Jews, dehumanized as congenital Jew-haters, are rendered invisible. A place which, if suffocating and insufferable, still seems safer than the scary world outside.
A place which, because of its walls and its politics and its cowardice, is losing its ability to function as a part of the world, reveling in cheap-shot humiliations of key foreign ambassadors, deliriously proud of its sense that of all the world, including most of its Jews and Israelis - only the right sees the real truth.
This braid of thought was venomously endorsed this week both by an uncharacteristically Kahane-sounding Alan Dershowitz, and the obscenely infantile Im Tirtzu movement. According to them, where Cast Lead was concerned, the real war criminals are Richard Goldstone and Naomi Chazan - two people who are open about their love of Israel, and who have worked their whole adult lives for its well-being.
The fears of the right are not mere devices of rhetoric. The risks of making peace are real. Every bit as real as the risks of failing to make peace.
It all comes down to belief. It comes down to the kind of country the believer wants Israel to be. And for that reason, there is a civil war going on for Israel's soul.
It will not be weaponry that decides this war, but courage. People who care about the direction that Israel is moving, and whose watchword is moderation, would do well to choose one facet of the fight, and join. One place to start, is to support the New Israel Fund and the groups it supports.
Another place to start is this one. At the weekend, challenging the threats of rightist thugs and law-scorning police, the weekly demonstration on behalf of the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah doubled in size. The police backed down on their vow to break up the protest, and the Kahanists barely showed.
If non-violent peace activism scares the right to this extent, there must be a great deal of power in it.
After all, most Israelis can sense that if peace is to be the enemy, more dangerous even than the threat of war, this is one doomed ghetto.
Things have reached such a devastating point, that for the first time in recent memory, even Ehud Barak is beginning to get it: "The simple truth is, if there is one state" including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, "it will have to be either binational or undemocratic," Barak told the Herzliya Conference Tuesday.
"If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."
The fear of peace has left Israel as a country which is prepared for nuclear warfare but not for non-violent protest on behalf of Palestinians. The fear of peace, and the blackmail of the right on behalf of settlement, has contorted Israel into a body which, unable to countenance the perils of treating the sickness of occupation, will eventually be killed by it.
Israel's defense minister, for one, is convinced: "The lack of a solution to the problem of border demarcation within the historic Land of Israel - and not an Iranian bomb - is the most serious threat to Israel's future."
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Comments
You post an opinion piece that's critical of Israel, but you're conveniently silent when it comes to Hamas' suicide bombers who target not only Israeli military, but civilians - men, women, and children - who are trying to go about their daily lives. Your piece is conveniently silent on the car bombs that used to routinely run into Israeli supermarkets before the wall was put up, killing hundreds of grocery shoppers at a time.
And what of the blockade? Your piece is also conveniently silent on the fact that every one of Palestines neighbors have also blockaded Palenstine - your regurgitated opinion is devoid of any mention that one country's embargo is useless, that multiple countries have come to the same conclusion; instead, you ignorantly lay the entire mess upon a single country. Your piece also conveniently forgets to mention that Hamas was smuggling in guns, rockets, and bombs inside food and medical containers, that they were using the Palestinians' suffering and hunger as an excuse to re-arm themselves and continue conducting their war operations.
But no, none of that is mentioned; it's far easier to demagogue and lambast "the right" as some sort of bogeyman, instead of engaging in a civilized political debate about another country's foreign/domestic policy (which, truth to tell, is about as ignorant as a european commenting on how Obama hasn't spent enough money to pull the US out of this recession). God forbid that the author should have an idea of their own, instead being reduced to posting someone elses opinion as if it were fact, and then hiding behind the eloquence of another mans words.
If I saw some one write the "n" word and then walked about town repeating it, how far do you believe this argument would get me?
I don't know how this article could be construed as being anti Israel, considering it was written by an American Israeli, who writes a blog for an Israeli Newpaper, but you are entitled to your opinion.
You are so far off base with your anti Israeli remark that I won't bother to answer you.
There is a lot of these types of articles appearing in Israeli news and blogs and most of it is coming from within Israel. I think this is a VERY positive evolution in this whole conflict. If this is not something you are in favor of say so and get on with it. Why attack me? Are you trying to shame me into silence or something? How dramatic of you, but I am only interested in furthering the discussion surrounding PEACE in the occupied territories.
You know jack $hit about me, but feel free to expose all you want about my beliefs and motivations.
This is a topic that some find interesting as some of the other posts have been read and responded to in quite high numbers, but you never mentioned those. If you don't find this topic personally interesting or it is objectionable to you then don't read my post' or feel free to respond as you have this one. Only I would hope you could add something more constructive then school yard taunting. Once again I state for those who choose to belive otherwise... I am NOT anti Israeli, I am NOT pro Palestinian. I am disgusted in the treatment of innocent people in the occupied territories, and if you can defend what is going on there while people who know (Israeli's) are rising up and trying to put an end to it, then I can only assume that you have not looked into the situation and are reacting to my comments on an emotional level because in your heart you feel you know what is right and that good People (Israeli's) could never treat any other people in such an unacceptable way.
Please read as many sources of information as you can. Do not just rely on your usual evening news to tell you all about what is going on in the world. There is so much information out there, have some courage and dig deeper, if it is of any interest to you. If not, then why break my balls about it?
Bah, I take back the apology; from your stance it's obvious that you only see one side of the conflict; you want peace at any price, and for that you're willing to condemn a free State and post BS articles like this that give a total pass to the atrocities of Hamas, and the Palestinian Gov't, while only blaming the entire affair on Israel, who's only part in starting this war was to simply exist. By referring to the region as "the occupied territories", it's obvious that you've shut your eyes to the atrocities, the murders, the kidnappings, and the rapes that Hamas as perpetrated against Israel, as well as its own citizens. It's obvious that you view the entire affair as one-sided and completely Israel's fault - the only people who refer to that part of the world as "the occupied territories" is the far Left who believe that Israel is guilty of war crimes, who think that Palestine is innocent or bears less blame than Israel, who think Hamas is a freedom-fighting organization, and who believe that peace can be accomplished if you just lay down your arms when you see a suicide bomber running at you. You're not furthering the discussion one iota when garbage like this is posted that only blames Israel; it's obvious that Israel doesn't have clean hands, but then again, Hamas is the one calling for their destruction, and who sends in suicide bombers to cafe's, knowing that civilian casualities make the evening news more than military casualties. I'd recommend going to read more, but I know you won't take that advice; your opinion is set, and the simple fact that you posted the ravings of an anti-semite and accepted it as gospel is evidence enough of your leanings on this matter.
The rantings of an Israeli anti-semite don't count for much, just as the ravings of an American imam calling for America's destruction don't count for much. Israeli's hold elections to decide what course their country goes on; do you really think they'd continue electing leaders who believe in resisting Hamas' attempts to kill them if they didn't want it? Saying that Israeli's are "rising up" is as asinine as saying the KKK is rising up. Get real. Damn, I didn't know this fool had posted this crap before; I won't be replying again. You can't fix stupid
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=55&x_article=171
I think we can all agree we're "anti-atrocity." But if you're only posting articles that cast a negative light on Israel, I think a reasonable argument can be made that we know how you feel on the issue...at least own it.
I have had several conversations with Kuzi regarding these matters. He is of the Jewish religion, and while we do not agree on a lot of things regarding the occupied territories, I can say that he has never slipped so low as to call me names or label me as anti semetic. Being referred to as a fool by someone like yourself is like a badge of honor. Careful there son... your intelligence is showing
I have stated too many times now that I am NOT on a "side" but with your closing comments you again try to align me with one side or the other. All I can continue to say is YOU ARE WRONG. Also I have written post (this most recent one actually) which I thought were of a pro Israeli stance. I thought (and still do) that the article was a positive step towards Israeli's self examination, which is a process which will have to be done if peace is to ever take hold in the Middle East. The guy's on here who read it with a predetermined notion that I am an Israeli hater, automatically pick up on MY critisizm of Israel and the Jewish faith. Then I become anti semetic in the eyes of people who obviously did not even understand my intentions when I posted the article, let alone read the whole post or earlier posts where I continually declare my status as a non Jewish person hater.
If all you want to do is write some snappy shot at me personally and call me anti semetic,... fill your boots boy's. You say more about yourself then you do me.
As for your comments regarding small minded Americans? What "guy's" are you grouping me in with now?
Now you make my arguements for me and then argue against them? LMAO You're funny.
I guess I should have prefaced it with my opinion that I was thinking this was a positive thing, and not meant as an attack against Israel.
I was almost immediately attacked for copying this opinion.
I was trying to point out that even in Israel people are getting tired of the status quo, and are looking to a real and lasting solution, and that pointing out the failures of past methods is in fact an attempt to find new, more productive ways of dealing with the situation.
With thier fractured political system, and so many special interest political parties, it is going to be VERY difficult to come to some sort of arrangement with the Palestinians, while also keeping the folks within Israel proper happy as well. However this is the only thing which will lead to a more normal life for the Palestinians as well as Israeli's.