Ashamed to be an Israeli

Amnon Danker, former editor of Israel’s popular Hebrew newspaper, Maariv, writes:

… I have felt lately that it has become shameful to be an Israeli, and a decent person must feel this shame and blush deeply and clear his throat and whisper to himself the question, what should we do, what should we do, for heaven’s sake, and perhaps even reach far-reaching conclusions.

Because it is fairly clear already that if our life here continues as it has been developing, then decent, moderate, balanced and humane people will not be able to live here. Before our eyes, with growing speed, Israeli society is changing, the political culture is changing, balances are disrupted and checks are tossed to the blazes, in the terrible wind that is blowing in our lives and quickly colouring them in darkening shades of black.

It seems that things that were bottled up in the Israeli soul, well hidden due to the shame, are suddenly erupting with a sense of release and capering in a disgraceful manner in full view. It is now permissible to be a racist, and permissible to take pride in it, and it is permissible to kick democracy and take pride in that, and it is permissible to cause injustice and exploitation and trample people’s rights, if the people in question are Arabs, and it is permissible to take pride in this too. There are MKs [members of Israel’s parliament] that engage in all this with great skill, and with smiles that cannot fail to send a shiver down one’s back. There are entire parties whose colour and music arouse shocking and horrific memories.

Sometimes I try to do the following exercise: To think that I went to sleep sometime in the 1980s or 1990s, and what I have been experiencing here recently is no more than a nightmare. After all, this cannot be. Not here. Not among Jews. And yet—it is happening.

When people comment on this venomously around the world, we object almost instinctively and say, no, that is too much already. It is only anti-Semitic hate propaganda. But with a hand on the heart — are we not becoming, from year to year, more and more like our monstrous caricature, which is drawn by our worst enemies? For really, where are we going? Think for yourselves, as unpleasant as this may be: Are we becoming more or less racist? More or less democratic? More or less decent? And alas, in our decline to brutality, within this terrible deterioration, if only we could at least take comfort in the fact that we were perhaps becoming worse and more contemptible, but also safer and better protected. But once again, with a hand on the heart: Is this true, or is it exactly the opposite?

For it is not only a disgrace to be an Israeli today, it is also deathly frightening. [Continue reading…]

[H/t Ann El Khoury.]

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6 thoughts on “Ashamed to be an Israeli

  1. Renfro

    “After all, this cannot be. Not here. Not among Jews. ”

    There it is, their fatal flaw…..’not among Jews”.
    The delusion of superior and mythical morality that justifies…until it can’t any longer.

  2. Vince J.

    This is from PressTV

    “Afghan girl raped, killed by US troops”

    “The daughter of an Afghan politician has reportedly died of her injuries after being raped by American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan’s southwestern province of Farah.

    US forces aboard five Toyota Hiace vans transferred the teenage girl along with several other Afghan women and girls to a military base in the province. They then sexually assaulted them, Afghan sources, who requested anonymity, told Iran Newspaper on Network on Wednesday.

    Medical reports indicate that a young girl died as a result of severe bleeding that was caused by tears in her genitals from violent sexual penetration.

    Two other victims were admitted to a nearby hospital and are currently receiving treatment for serious injuries they suffered following multiple rapes.

    The incident comes as violence in Afghanistan has spiked to record highs since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

    Statistics about civilian death tolls in Afghanistan are not available. However, it is estimated that between 14,000 and 34,000 Afghan civilians have lost their lives since the US-led war.

    Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians have reportedly lost their lives as a consequence of displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, crime and lawlessness resulting from the war.

    Afghan Interior Minister Zemarai Bashary said in a recent report that 2010 was the deadliest year for the civilians in the war-torn country since 2001.

    Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians have lost their lives in US-led airstrikes and ground operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few months, with Afghans becoming more and more outraged over the seemingly endless number of deadly assaults.

    This situation is adding fuel to the fire of anti-US sentiment in Afghanistan and the rest of the Islamic world.

    Western public opinion is growing increasingly tired of the war. Deaths of civilians in NATO and US attacks have also fueled tensions between President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies.

    The American army has lost 1,455 soldiers in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war.

    RZS/HRF/MP/AKM ”

    F…CK THE USA!

  3. Stuart Tootell

    There is no shame in being Israeli (I am a Gentile) the shame should is being Zionist.

    These creatures are are no different from the extreme right wing in America and in the past Germany.

    If the people of Israel remove the Zionist movement from government indeed there will be a vast improvement in the region.

    The catalyst that could be responsible and if not now but later intime for igniting the region in a bloody war would have been neutralised with the removal of the Zionist movement.

  4. Norman

    Why are the comments of Vince J. included here?

    To S.T. Perhaps your comment bears reality, but do you also include the Israeli youth in your last statement? That’s a pretty tall assumption, if I may say so.

  5. Observer

    As Renfro spotted — “After all, this cannot be. Not here. Not among Jews. ”

    Exactly — there it is , again, an inherent suggestion of Jewish ‘specialness’ , difference, higher morality and values from the goyim. Can’t Jews see that in the end, those kinds of assmptions will cause anti Semitism?

    Often from these kinds of ‘Jewish moralists’ we hear about how Israel’s current behaviour goes against ‘Jewish values’ — but what are ‘Jewish values?’ They never explain. Also, we often hear from these moral spokesmen, about the ‘humanistic values of Judaism’ — but what are these humanistic values, and where can we find out about them? Which texts ? I don’t even know what Rabbis actually believe, and what do they think about gentiles? I have no idea — do you?

    I have a fair to good idea about what these humanistic values are in Buddhism, Jainism, Sihkism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Zoroastiranism etc — but I have no idea what they are in Judaism, and why can’t other Jews tell us what they are?

    I have a very strong feeling that ‘Jewish values’ of peace and brotherhood and morality and love and fairness — actually only refer to how Jews should behave to other Jews. I think Goyim are excluded from any such notions of Jewish humanism, justice and spirituality.

    I think Judaism is a closed club — Jews are welcome, but no body else.

    If I am wrong, please, can other boarders show me where/how I have misunderstood Judaism? I’d like to know, because I actually want to have a good opinion of the religion, as I would any other religion. But, it is becoming increasingly difficult I must say. I am increasingly sure that ‘Jewish peace’ only means peace to other Jews, and to hell with everone else.

    People often chastise Gilad Atzmon as a ‘self hating’ Jew, but I think he is valuable because he gives the goyim a look into the supremacist exclusive world of Jews and we can learn what they seem to think about non Jews.

  6. Observer

    Are these ‘Jewish values’ or Rabinical ‘values?’ Here’s yet another racist Rabbi in the Israeli press : He’s as bad as Rabbi Ovadiah and his views on goyim being there to ‘serve the Jews.’ And they are surprised that ‘anti Semitism’ is spreading….but maybe that is what they want.

    “According to ( Rabbi ) Lior, a baby born through….. insemination ( with a non Jew ) will have the “negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews.”

    (Rabbi ) Lior addressed the issue during a women’s health conference…..”Sefer HaChinuch (a book of Jewish law) states that the character traits of the father pass on to the son,” he said in the lecture. “If the father in not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism! These are not traits that characterize the people of Israel ”

    Lior added identified Jews as merciful, shy and charitable – qualities that he claimed could be inherited. “A person born to Jewish parents, even if they weren’t raised on the Torah – there are things that are passed on (to him) in the blood, it’s genetic,” he explained. “If the father is a gentile, then the child is deprived of these things.

    “I even read in books that sometimes the crime, the difficult traits, the bitterness – a child that comes from these traits, it’s no surprise that he won’t have the qualities that characterize the people of Israel,” he added.

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4006385,00.html

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