What are we thinking?
Hopefully, the Israeli government will start using more of its head and less of its gut.
Haaretz Editorial Tags: Jewish holidays Israel newsIf there is a holiday atmosphere in Israel on the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5770, it stems from habit and tradition, and applies to individuals and families. On the national level, Israel enters the holiday season without many reasons for levity or celebration - hiding its head or angered at the serious charges leveled against it; more isolated than ever on the international scene, on the verge of being treated like a leper; reaping bitter diplomatic and public relations fruit at its every military attempt to resist or to achieve calm; lacking in political amplitude; despairing of a solution to the conflict and of peace.
If on the new year last year there was still some hope for renewal and change, with the casting of the sins of the past - the end to the problematic tenure of prime minister Ehud Olmert and the attempts by Tzipi Livni to set up a new government - then this year, following the establishment of Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the change of power in the White House, it seems Israel has taken giant steps backward, incredibly quickly. Hated, bitter, violent, hamstrung by self-righteousness, wallowing in its sense of victimization - with its sole strange comfort being that none of this is our fault, but actually the result of international anti-Semitism.
In this sense then, the Goldstone Commission report on Operation Cast Lead, which accuses Israel of war crimes and even of "crimes against humanity," has come at the worst possible time. And not only because it is a "bitter" holiday present. Its unprecedented severity gives strong backing not only to the those who are enemies of Israel, but also to the pessimistic, fatalistic attitude that guides the current government in Israel. The same government which is busy gathering evidence of anti-Semitism, and looking for reasons to withdraw into the ghetto of our self-righteousness rather than searching for ways to become a normal nation in an ever-changing region and world. One such way, for example, would be to honestly and courageously investigate our actions, and determine whether "ethics," for us, is not just an empty word.
But even without examining the facts and motives that appear in this difficult report, we can say that the terribly emotional responses it is stirring in Israel - with the support of its leadership and its tabloid media, including the demand that it be rejected entirely - are no more than the other side of the coin of the verbal frenzy and indignation that originally motivated Operation Cast Lead. The operation, whose aggression was known to all as it was taking place, and was even announced to be so, was accompanied here with applause and encouragement. Both cases (responding to the report and responding to the offensive), are a matter of gut reaction, reflexes that are almost predetermined and lacking in thought.
Israel is an emotional, hot-tempered nation, loaded with deep traumas and justified fears. But its leadership is expected to behave rationally, coolly and intelligently when confronted with real crises, not to blatantly encourage fear and bitterness, as Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman tend to do out of a pessimistic and self-fulfilling approach.
Hopefully, the Israeli government will start using more of its head and less of its gut.
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
Stephen, I can understand you get either a yawn or irritated that anti-Semitism exists. And I can understand that you, as a Christian American businessman, think in terms of the 4,400 American soldiers, service men and women killed there, and the billions wasted there. But a Jew like me can't yawn or simple get a five-seconds annoyance about it. It's every day, twenty times in the media, anywhere and everywhere. Try to put yourself in our skin for a moment, as I try to do with you and your ligitimate concerns.
For one year now I have sat in costume in the kill Karoon meetings they have been having in a certain room in Israel. I was a dog collared secretary who popped bubble gum all the time with ponytail ears in my hair and bright lip stick. I sat there putting on live camera feed and audio. I have heard my heros fall in my view I have seen plot after plot, and I have heard money pass under the table. Instead of focusing on what Israel needs as a nation they were more concerned with killing me. It is kind of funny but my concern is we trust these people to make judgements. Three others were in costume as well. So every plan they had we undid. We kept them followed and on camera. I thought no wonder you killed my grandfather Rabin, no wonder you killed Yohannan. I am done. I do know who killed Hitler and I know the story. You are children of mind. The ones I am talking about Livni. Start the end of this . Its a live reality tv show soon to hit Israel. Karoon
Being a 60 y.o. Christian American, I have been sensitized to the Jewish and Israeli prevails. Having worked in international business and the mid-east for decades, I have a close working relationship and understanding with the issues of the last 40 years. Read Responder # 1: anti-semitism types, why waste time thinking about all this. No matter what is said against Israel or the type of thinking of some American Jews--these labels get thrown out, ususally inappropriately. The "Gut Reaction." For myself, I have "burn-out" to hear these response to legitimate questions of the Israeli government. It is also called "over-load." There are important governmental decisions that are needed to be made. Such as Two-State Solution or One-State. Yeah, that's a big one, ugh. Americans are involved and want solutions. It affects US security now, 4,400 dead in Iraq and much $$$ billions. There is a growing ground swell among educated and leading Americans who have had enough.
"Neo" anti-Semitism has different branches of the same poisonous tree. There is the old, European one, whose worst "Der Stürmer" kind of defamations and Holocaust denial is led by Iran and its proxies right next door. Then there is the Arab hatred, which imported and added its own brand of primitivism to Goebbels' and Streicher's. Then there is left-wing "progressist" anti-Semitism, a-la-Chávez, with the whole of the "non-alligned" banana republics behind; then there is the enlightened anti-Semitism of the academia, including parts of the self-hating Israeli one, the classical neo-Nazi, white supremacist one, and finally, the "rainbow", kefiyyah-touting, pro-Palestinian youth all over the place, which hates Israel when the protest is against the IMF in Davos or about whaling in Japan. It is indeed the result of anti-Semitism, not only the incredibly incompetent PR and diplomacy Israel has.