Israel’s Unique Obligation to Vulnerability
I say this as a Jew and as a Zionist who believes Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing government has long outlived its usefulness to Israel, to the world. I address here those urging that Israel ditch what they view as as intransigence prior to the region’s accepting Israel’s legitimacy. It’s stunning that otherwise bright people want to make of Israelis a unique exception to the historic truth that when national populations feel increased physical safety, they tend to vote and otherwise act with less fear, more tolerance for risk, that when a people senses life’s routinely dicey they’re far less likely to experiment. That these people do consistently demand that Israel be our sole, one-off exception to an undeviating rule of history, should tell rational people that those folks, at bottom, think that Israelis, (and Jews) haven’t a call on national security as all other national populations have had and strive for now. Apparently Israelis alone have a prior obligation to make themselves continually vulnerable. Bigotry makes otherwise intelligent people flat-out foolish.
07/08/2019 @ 3:24 pm
I don’t think it’s foolish. I think it is simple bigotry. We Jews don’t have the same right of self defense that every other people have….which is why I carry a firearm even though I never expect to use it.
07/08/2019 @ 3:33 pm
As to firearms, my son’s a championship marksman; we are fairly well protected.
07/08/2019 @ 6:39 pm
It’s foolish when they don’t realize they’re doing it, though a lot of bigotry is unconscious.
This issue is really simple: If we aren’t seeing a double standard, we aren’t seeing bigotry. However, we usually are seeing one.
07/08/2019 @ 8:31 pm
Is it the “bigotry” of others when things like this are said?
“I am concerned about the riots of Ethiopian Negroes in Israel, we are God’s chosen people and they are nothing but slaves brought to serve us. If the stray dogs do not stop barking, we should deport them to their country of origin in order to preserve the security of Israel”.
~ Eddie Cohen, adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office
“I myself slaughtered (5) of the Arabs – (Palestinians). God cursed dog Arabs who are dirty rats.” ~ rabbi Eliezer Berland
“Palestinians are beasts, they are not human.”
~ Eli Dahan, Israel Deputy Defense Minister
Just because neighboring countries don’t make a show of their bigotry, does that mean that Israel should get a pass???
Seems to me that it is foolish to ignore clear incitement and then cry we’re “vulnerable”.
07/09/2019 @ 12:26 am
I could site equivalent attitudes from officials in a lot of countries. The question is what policy is, and it doesn’t add up to the sum of those assessments. But before we get there, let’s get one thing straight:
No one is suggesting giving Israel a pass. I don’t think any of us has ever suggested giving Israel a pass. I don’t think you’d find any support for Netanyahu’s government on this website.
How would you know if neighboring countries make a show of their bigotry? Israel is crawling with international reporters, their neighbors are not. That’s one of the risks of having a free press. We’ve been hearing equivalent things about Jews from Middle Eastern Muslim clerics for years, when they get translated, which they usually don’t. In Israel it’s either translated or said in English in the first place. As Thomas Friedman has pointed out – not only has he lived in both Israel and Lebanon, but he’s fluent in Arabic – listen to what they say to each other in Arabic, not what they say to us in English. I wish what these scum in Israel are saying was unusual in the region, but it isn’t remotely. At this point, it isn’t even unusual in Europe.
Of course Israel has bigots. “Strays brought to serve us” is awful, but it isn’t policy.