Clueless in Jerusalem
![]() | By Joe Millis
May 17, 2011 | Share |
Iinteresting article by Peter Beinhart. Israel has betrayed its Zionist founders because Zionism was about us taking our fate into our own hands and becoming subjects in history, rather than objects. But now it seems that the Palestinians are doing that, while the Israeli government -- the most non-Zionist in Israeli history -- is just twiddling its thumbs and deluding itself that it will all be all right on the night.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-16/israels-palest...
The Palestinians are taking control of their destiny because Israel has not. Zionism, which at its best is the purposeful, ethical effort to make Jews safe in the land of Israel, has become—in this government—a mindless land grab, that threatens Jewish safety and Jewish ethics alike. Once upon a time, when the Arabs were hapless and America was omnipotent, Israel could get away with that. Not anymore. If Barack Obama cannot get Benjamin Netanyahu to endorse—and work toward—a Palestinian state near 1967 lines, events will pass them both by. Others will take the initiative; in the Middle East, the U.S. and Israel will increasingly find their destinies in other nation’s hands. For those of us raised to believe that Americanism and Zionism were can-do faiths, it is harder to imagine any crueler irony than that.
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StevenKalka
17 May, 2011 - 15:21
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Peter Beinart is full of empty whining and dreaming. The Obama Administration is more interested in creating a nanny statish US domestic policy than being a leader in world affairs. You can tell that just from his back seat Libyan policy. How do you reign in on Col. Ghaddafy's behaviour without active regime change? How do we know the rebels would create a more just Libya?
Does anyone seriously think the European Union would unite and commit troops if there's any serious military conflict between Isreal and the Palestinians?
Okay, so we don't have the ideal peaceful Middle-East envisioned by Theodore Herzl. Which window should we jump out of?
What political progressives like Peter Beinart fail to recognize is that irreconcileable cultural differences are a fact of life between certain groups. We will never have a state of kumbaya, particularly in the Middle East. You will always have arabs ill disposed towards Israel no matter what Israel does, with or without the civilian settlements.
I'd have more respect for the likes of Peter Beinart if they stopped being so mealy mouthed and called the creation of Israel a mistake.