And my final point, which I'm afraid will not be understood by many. The biggest tragedy of the ME and Israel IMHO, has nothing to do with terrorism's bloody trail in Israel, horrible as it is. It has to do with what is happening with Israel proper. As a result of being in that neighborhood, they've come to resemble it - like an infection, they've absorbed the mentality. The Israel I treasure is the one where I can listen to Beethoven and Bach. Not one where I see screaming settlers baying for blood - change their clothes and they're no different from the Taliban. This is the point of greatest tragedy. The country which we all felt cultural kinship and affinity for, has become just another nasty, devious, vicious, bloodthristy ME regime. Netanyahu and his ilk have accomplished what the terrorists have not - they've transformed the country's soul. You speculated that the reason why young Europeans in Scandinavia turned against Israel is because of anti-Semitism. What a sad statement - it is so easy to say in order to dismiss the seriousness of those who disagree with you. And it missess an alarm bell - you are in deep trouble. For you are talking about countries where the opposite was true - Denmark, which bravely protected Jews with incredible solidarity during WWII, Sweden where people shared their homes with Jewish refugees. No, they are not anti-Semites, and thus labelling them, you miss what they are trying to tell you. You have changed. You have become a vicious occupying regime, losing its humanity, and your connection to our culture - you've become a victimizer, an indefensible evil. This is the final legacy of the poison of occupation and ill-gotten goods. Many Jewish friends here have agreed with me, and some are even beginning to speak out. Many who cannot take this change of culture move out of Israel. Soon, the only voices left, will be the nasty, hoarse screams of regional hatred. Goodbye, Israel - what a tragedy.
I understand you completely.
You've conflated the whacko 10% of Israeli society with the whole.
You've confused the scandanavian anti-semites who are ignorant, reactionary nitwits, who don't understand, and reject, the history and structure of their own society with informed critics of Israel's policies and practices.
Your own antisemitism shows like a night time fire on a hillside:
You have become a vicious occupying regime, losing its humanity, and your connection to our culture - you've become a victimizer, an indefensible evil.
Maybe I do you wrong. Maybe you're just a niceness antisemite: well behaved jews who are cultured and play Bach and Beethoven (who weren't jewish) are ok. I suppose nice kibbitzum singing havanageela are ok , also. Uppity jews, on the other hand, who are just as varied and good and bad as any other people, are not nice.
Israel is not "an indefensible evil," it is a modern democracy which is in a difficult position at the front line of the war between modernity and archaism. This war plays out within every country and Israel is no exception, but unlike its neighbours, the palestinians, and the other countries in the area, modernity dominates in Israel. The palestinians are in a worse position than the Israelis because so many of them are modernist in attitude but totally subject to the archaic rule of Arafat and his patrons. (The real reason the Saudis, Iranians and other islamists despise and fear the palestininans is that, left alone to make accommodation with the Israelis they would become the middle eastern modernist, democratic powerhouse which would profoundly subvert the failed archaic regimes and mullahs. Thus they can't leave the palestinians alone but ship them weapons, mullahs and Hezbollah, an Iranian, not Israeli, creation).
Israel inherited the occupied territory from the last big war it won with its neighbours and made mistakes with it (Nadine can describe these better than me, did you but ask her) and is now living with the mistakes. It is absolutely certain undisciplined members of Israeli security services and IDF, fundamentalist Israelis, and stupid policies have made the situation in the occupied (ex-Jordanian) territories much worse than it might have been. But concluding from this, as you have, that Israel is now the Alpha and Omega of evil, indicates more about you than about Israel.
The most interesting aspect of the new European antisemitism you identify with is that it shows that some young Europeans are again flirting with archaic thought as they did several times in the last century - fascism, naziism, marxism, stalinism - yearning for life according to a nostalgic recipe book and once again denying the challenge and rewards of modernity.
Your take on Serbia is wrong. The west came down on the greater Serbia nonsense because it was a return to archaism right in its own backyard.
You are also wrong about Israel. The west will support it through its very difficult process because it is modern, and as such, is not a tiny country but part of something embodying the lives and dreams of billions of people. None of whom have much sympathy for failed states and tyrants who want to make them all into their vision of out at the arse 8th century peasants. Israel vastly out numbers its neighbours.
Something to think about:
Israel and the palestinians have, in every dimension, far more in common with each other and the modern world, than with any of their neighbours. That is the real threat to every other regime in the middle east.
What gets in the way of their accommodation? The palestinians have Arafat, a ruler they have no way of removing. The israelis don't have a ruler.
Muslim modernists lost their war hundreds of years ago. They've only been able to raise a few skirmishes since. This war between modernists and archaic-ists is for keeps. It is total war at every level. The west went through its last big war between these forces during the last sixty years - it killed at least 100 million.
Time to wake up and smell the coffee, Sir Francis. |
