Uri Avnery writes:
I am fed up with all this nonsense about recognizing Israel as the “Jewish state.”
It is based on a collection of hollow phrases and vague definitions, devoid of any real content. It serves many different purposes, almost all of them malign.
Benjamin Netanyahu uses it as a trick to obstruct the establishment of the Palestinian state. This week he declared that the conflict just has no solution. Why? Because the Palestinians do not agree to recognize, etc., etc.
Four rightist members of the Knesset have just submitted a bill empowering the government to refuse to register new NGOs and to dissolve existing ones if they “deny the Jewish character of the state.”
This new bill is only one of a series designed to curtail the civil rights of Arab citizens, as well as those of leftists.
So, does this mean that even the average Israeli is getting fed up with the B.S. the hardliners are engaged in? The inevitable outcome isn’t going to be the hardliners favor, even if for the moment they possess the upper hand. They have been drinking their own kool aid for so long, they actually believe that they are the – choose on- the super race, the chosen ones, the master race, etc. History is littered with the bones of those who also believed that they were the ones. The past war in Lebanon & Gaza, showed that the mighty Israeli force was anything but. They managed to destroy the infrastructure using air power, but couldn’t win on the ground using regular troops. It showed the World their weaknesses, they are good at killing the weak, but lose the ability when they come up against a strong foe.
Couldn’t have put it better myself!
How can any one, who claims to have a clue or two, insist that ‘recognising that Israel is a Jewish state’ has anything to do with the Palestinians (or any body else for that matter).
After reading Uri’s article it is now further beyond my comprehension!
I rarely respond to these things online, mostly because I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that people generally are well-convinced of the justness of their cause and cannot be easily swayed. I just want to point out a different approach here.
Thomas Friedman, back in 2006, said that it doesn’t matter what people in the Middle East say. What matters is what they say in private, in their own language.
Yes, Israel is far from perfect. But one of (admittedly many) reasons this is so evident is because so unlike its neighbors, it is a democracy. It has a thriving media which operates free of bars, able to openly critique the government, move about freely and report about anything it deems fit, after throwing in an occasional “according to the foreign press”.
It seems a bit out of line to base so much on Mr. Netanyahu’s statement while so easily dismissing statements made by Arab leaders in the region. I won’t churn through the run-of-the-mill quotes because every leader says stupid things and these can be easily taken out of context.
What I will say is that I don’t believe that the Jewish nature of Israel needs to be defined. What I do think is that Israel deserves to get way, way more credit than it does for its conduct. Israel is a land in perpetual conflict and no matter how you twist and pull it, this is not only, or even mostly, Israel’s fault. The wars came before Israeli territorial victories in ’67, and whether those should be given back or not, they will continue. Israel did try to give back land – Sinai in ’78, Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2006. Let’s just say that the experience has not be an encouraging one. In a region with so much instability, perched on the brink of am uncharted free-fall , every leader must think, double think and then think again what the best course is. And unlike mere political decisions, security decisions could have a very real impact on the future survival of Israel.