When it comes to the all-important question of recognition, it's Israel that refuses to recognize Hamas as a legitimate party or the Palestinians' right to be a democratic state and choose their own government. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has been doing exactly what it accuses Hamas of doing -- opening the door to increasingly reactionary, racist, and theocratic laws. "Public opinion polls point to increasing extremism, bordering on racism, in Jews' opinion of Arabs," as Haaretz has noted, so "it's no wonder there is no public pressure on the government to advance the peace process.""Messianic thinking" is the correct term. I don't know what to do about the phenomenon, but let's not pretend that it doesn't exist. Maybe Israel as a whole has come down with a case of Jerusalem syndrome?
Israel is fast coming under the sway of far-right theocrats, and "ever more Israelis are infected by the symptoms of Messianic thinking: ‘We are right, and the whole world is wrong; hence we must no longer listen to anybody,'" as one Israeli Jewish columnist observed.
In the thinking of many Jews, the Holocaust seems to loom larger now than it did in 1947. Finkelstein pinpoints the early 1970s as the time when the Nazi atrocity became not just a tragic event in history but a part of Jewish self-definition. A mental construction seems to have gained a hammerlock on Israeli consciousness: "If we let our hearts soften, if we weaken for even a second, they'll get out the Zyklon B again."
To a great degree, I can understand this fear.
The previous sentence may surprise quite a few of you, since my pro-Palestinian stance is on record. But the Glenn Beck phenomenon has kind of freaked me out, and I'm sure that it must worry many American Jews.
Beck may claim to adore Israel, but he popularizes conspiracy theories originally propounded by Cleon Skousen, an old-school bigot. Beck's whole shtick is to serve up Jew-free versions of classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. He gives you every slice of the sausage except for that really rancid bit at the end. One of these days, he -- or someone else of similar popularity -- may supply that final piece of the sausage. At that moment, the American populace's generally pro-Jewish attitude will make a 180 degree turnaround. Mark my words: It could happen overnight.
If I were Jewish, America's growing fascination with conspiracy theories would have me scared to death, because we all know where that particular bus is headed. We can't blame Jews for wanting a bolt hole -- a place of refuge.
But Israel ain't it. Historically speaking, the oft-invaded "Jewish homeland" is about as safe as the ice floe in The Great Race. I honestly don't know why any Jew would want that ghastly bit of real estate when there are so many areas with more plentiful resources and more easily defended borders. Must religious zealotry always trump practicality?Neither can I understand why the Palestinians, or anyone else, would want to live in that hideous place. It isn't holy; it's accursed. Ever been to northern California -- say, the Shasta-Trinity National Forest? Now that's a holy land. Maybe we could give that lovely property to the Jews, give Israel to the Palestinians, let an international body administer Jerusalem, and then call it a day.
2 comments:
Zionists don't care much about whether real anti-Semitism increases...the attitude is that Jews can go to Israel. Marcus Garvey was never so arrogant. But then, black people were an oppressed group. Jews aren't.
France is an interesting case. Never let it be said that the Zionism organisation doesn't take local specificities into account. Some aspects have come out in relation to Strauss-Kahn. One wonders whether a big exodus might be planned. I recall Ariel Sharon urging this. If memory serves, this was around the time he called for a million more settlers.
Chernus: "When it comes to the all-important question of recognition, it's Israel that refuses to recognize Hamas as a legitimate party or the Palestinians' right to be a democratic state and choose their own government."
Yes, with control over its own borders, and with sufficient military capability to ensure its own security. That would mean that any movement of people or goods over borders with Jordan, Lebanon, or Egypt would not be a matter for the Zionists. (Unless of course there were two-sided 'monitoring' arrangements, so that the Palestinian government could monitor any military hardware going in or out of Israel). It would mean Palestine demilitarising only if Israel does. One only has to mention these obvious things to realise, if the lesson really needed realising (but for some people it does!!), that Zionism has always been expansionist and has never, never, never, wanted peace. The two-state solution has always been an utter joke, a deliberate distraction, something to talk about while Israel continues to expand and attack and establish "facts on the ground".
Anyone who's really against racism shouldn't support the 'existence right' of an ethnic-supremacist regime such as Israel in the first place. The propaganda on this is very clear...right to exist, therefore right to 'defend itself' (in other words, terrorise Arabs). This all goes into the bin if we unambiguously deny the right of Israel (i.e. the Jewish racist State in Palestine) to exist, just as we would the Confederacy, Nazi Germany, etc.
Since God created the world, it being all holy, to what degree of holiness should places be valued?
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