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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (10112)	2/16/2006 6:02:32 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22250

Crimson, a very interesting article and worthy of extensive discussion because it outlines a very important aspect of the existential situation facing Israel today. Another, of course, is the demographics -- the burgeoning Arab population and the dwindling Jewish one. I have to say it's a pity you didn't quote the article from the beginning because the very first line is probably the most important in the whole piece: >>Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni says that today's UN would not pass the November 29, 1947, decision that called for the partition of the Land of Israel and the establishment of the state of Israel.<< And that is the truth. The world has changed -- 19th colonialism is no longer acceptable, especially to the Afro-Asian bloc. By today's standards, Israel would be illegitimate. The comparison with SAn apartheid, shocking as it is, is still merely an argument which can be "technically" refuted by saying that there is no RACIAL separation in Israel, which is true. The separation is, of course, along religious lines. >>In 2006 an ideological alliance has emerged between liberal circles in Europe and the conservative, fire-breathing Iranian president. Both describe Zionism as a European effort to get rid of the hated Jews of the old world at the expense of the Palestinians; both accuse Israel of exploiting the European Holocaust (which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies ever took place) to oppress the Arabs; and both would like to see it eliminated. The only difference is that the Iranian president proposes to the Europeans that they take back the Jews, and the European liberals prefer a Jewish minority in an Arab Palestine (as "a state for all its citizens").<< This, to me, is one of the most interesting and, indeed, serious aspects of the polemic, that Palestinians (in fact, Muslims in general) have had to pay the price for Europe's crimes. It's an aspect that hasn't been raised before and, if it has, it has been quickly silenced. But now that the cat is out of the bag, I wonder where it will jump? > ...there is a growing gap between the Israeli interpretation of reality and the way Israel is perceived in the world. No question about that. > The question is what the foreign minister and her colleagues in the government are doing in the face of the danger. This is the question asked in the first paragraph and to answer it I would say that Israel inveigled the direct support and intervention of the US in its affairs as a means of giving it legitimacy. But what has happened is that the US has become painted with the same brush and has, in fact, also lost its legitimacy, certainly as an "honest broker", a status which it once had. > The time has come to change priorities, and to give some importance to Israel being just. Frankly, I believe it's too late and that they can't turn the clock back. What was possible at the time of Rabin and Sadat is, IMO, no longer achievable. Now Israel has to pay the price, whatever it is, for a series of injudicious policies and strategic blunders. > That doesn't mean getting up and running out of all the territories. Amazing that they still believe time is on their side and that they can do as they please.