The extremists seem to have taken over Israel’s soul.
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Tragic blindness.
Max Blumenthal says about his video:
I hope those who have watched it, especially those predisposed to dismiss it as anti-Israel propaganda or shock video with “no news value,” will at least ask how vitriolic levels of racism are able to flow through the streets of Jerusalem like sewage, why the grandsons of Holocaust survivors feel compelled to offer the Shoah as justification to behave like fascist street thugs, and how the sons and daughters of successful Jewish American families casually merged Zionist cant with crude white supremacism. The willful avoidance of these painful questions by self-proclaimed supporters of Israel is setting the stage for the complete delegitimization of the country they claim to love. As Obama said, “any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it.”
And on top of this we have morons like Rupert Murdoch.
On the other side, we have the moving story of Josh Lipsky and his trip to Buchenwald.
I see how easy it is to use hate to unite people – the Christian fundamentalists, white supremacists, Jewish settlers, Zionists, Hamas, Taliban, Al-Qaeda – flip sides of the currency of terror.
The world is not against you, Israel. You are against you.
Hat-tips to Dera and Steven for sending me these stories.
Christian –
I agree with most of your commentary and sentiments regarding the consequence of extremist views.
I part with you only in the comment:
The world is not against you, Israel. You are against you.
Just because the current Israel leadership in Netanyahu is itself narrow doesn’t excuse those forces in the world who want Israel destroyed. That fact gives extremists on all sides a platform to project their intolerance. Denying the intolerance doesn’t make it go away and vigilance is still required.
Israel aggravates and perpetuates its critics claims by intrusive policies. While the violent attacks from Arab and Muslim extremist give reason to defend against such horrors.
If a neighbor was throwing bombs at my home I would do whatever it took to stop the attacks on my family, wouldn’t you?
If i couldn’t feed my children I would do what it took to get them food, wouldn’t you?
This is the plight of Israelis and Palestinians.
Both situations are intolerable.
It’s a game (a set of patterned behavior) without end, perpetuated by extremists on both sides.
Only transformational leadership will change the destructive game.
I think you are actually suggesting the good people in Israel make the first move to de-escalate the repetitive pattern, a 180 degree transformational approach, which I support.
– Steven F.
You’re right, Steven!
The politics of hate and division are there on both sides.
What I meant to say – and I wasn’t clear enough – is that the internal extremist mindset is possibly Israel’s worst enemy – followed closely by its Arab enemies.
Intolerance on both sides has destroyed all semblance of decency. But if Israel can’t find a way out of this mindset, there will never be peace.
And the violent words against Obama only show how trapped they are in this mindset of hate and destruction. They are blind to reason.