Apocalypse Now?

How is it that Israelis, as Ethan Bronner reports, are almost universally in favor of the Gaza operation, including the way it's been prosecuted, while government leaders and educated people around the globe, even those disgusted by Hamas missile attacks, condemn the operation, and especially the way it's been prosecuted?

What's so strange, as veteran Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy rails, is that ordinary Israelis know as well as anybody that hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including perhaps 300 children, have been killed or maimed, and yet this horror has not become a significant part of public debate. For a small minority of peace activists, even a few people in the south, the price in blood has seemed much too high for ending random missile attacks. But most will argue, not entirely convincingly, for humanitarian relief—and then spur on the IDF.

Israelis, I hasten to add, are as sickened and frightened by military violence as the rest of the world is, even by their own. They may feel a superficial pleasure in retaliation for the missiles, or a satisfied relief in seeing the IDF perform in a coordinated, disciplined way, but they are not immune to doubts. There were two blockbuster films over the last couple of years, both anti-war films lamenting actions in Lebanon, "Beaufort" and the throat-clenching "Waltz With Bashir." My Palestinian friends will cringe when I say this, but most Israelis think of Israeli soldiers as children, too.


Edited to 4 paragraphs to conform to DU's fairuse policy for copyrighted material

Lithos
DU Moderator

Please read on...
http://bernardavishai.blogspot.com/2009/01/apocalypse-now.html

all the same, strikes me a lot. Aggression is a sign of insecurity, and the insecurity seems real enough. I could go into various historical comparisons about that, but I expect I would get into long pointless arguments if I did, so I won't.

fundamentally trust the Palestinians.

He is basically saying, no matter what Palestinians say or do, it will never be enough, but Israel knows deep down inside that it is __________________ (you fill it in).

The implications of this are enormous.

Will the US be prepared to give the green light on nonstop war on Palestinian people because of Israel's unresolved national psychological issues?

Are we required to pretend that Israel is a grand democracy instead of a state operating from a paranoid bunker mentality?

Where does the madness end?

Avishai's comments are incredibily profound. The reality is that the vast majority of Palestinians --in cluding many in Hamas -- are ready to FORGIVE the original sin of the nakba. What I'm reading is Avishai saying that Israelis can never really believe that.

You could thank me for the kick.

spoken aloud...

No offense!

And thanks for the kick!

It's true that it does cause cognitive disconnect in certain circles. It seems that you see it or you don't. It seems pretty obvious to me that there is a fundamental conflict of interests, but it conflicts with the "land without a people for a people without a land" stuff, for example, which people will argue with you up and down and all day long about.

"Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."

Makes it harder for the likes of Shira to pooh-pooh, since Avishai is hardly a self-hating Jew.

Neve Gordon for example, Mr van Creveld, their numbers are small, but they are quite loud, and they seem to get away with it. Mr Avnery is not academic AFAIK, but he is ex-military and a committed zionist. I don't mean to dismiss Mr Avishai's comments either, or to say that he's the norm. I'm just saying he is not an isolated incident.

Whether correct of not, perception counts: people act on what they believe to be true.

which really isn't too connected to reality in his analysis.

Did you read the piece?

The problem is to try and find what will bring perceptions more congruent with the actual circumstances. Glorification of 'struggle' simply feeds into, and confirms, the misperception described in the article. Nor is perceiving as true something not congruent with the reality of the situation peculiar to Israelis here. A number of Arab Palestinians, particularly leading militants and their followers, seem to believe both that it is the fixed resolve of Israeli society to destroy them utterly as a people, and that it is a realistic possibility to break the state of Israel and restore its land to Moslem rule. It is possible for people committed to these beliefs to find some support for them in the world around them, just as it is possible for Israelis to find some support for the belief that they are in serious peril. Both parties act from their misconceptions in ways that tend to feed the misconceptions of the other side.

A group of British-based academics have called for Israel to lose the battle with Hamas in Gaza, stating that the "massacres in Gaza the latest phase of a war Israel has waged against the people of Palestine for more than 60 years."

In a letter in Friday's Guardian newspaper, more than 300 academics said they must do all they can to prevent Israel from winning the war. A cease-fire is not enough, they say, adding: "Israel must lose."

"We must do what we can to stop Israel from winning its war," the letter said. "Israel must accept that its security depends on justice and peaceful coexistence with its neighbors, and not upon the criminal use of force."

"It is not enough to call for another cease-fire, or more humanitarian assistance," they wrote. "It is not enough to urge the renewal of dialogue and to acknowledge the concerns and suffering of both sides.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232100170557&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull