Israel: The Alternative

Excellent essay by Tony Judt...

He reflects my feelings about any modern, secular state claiming identity with one religion...

Controversial, but worth considering...

Argues that Israel must become more "bi-national"...

excerpt:
In the years after World War II, those many millions of Jews who did not live in Israel were often reassured by its very existence—whether they thought of it as an insurance policy against renascent anti-Semitism or simply a reminder to the world that Jews could and would fight back. Before there was a Jewish state, Jewish minorities in Christian societies would peer anxiously over their shoulders and keep a low profile; since 1948, they could walk tall. But in recent years, the situation has tragically reversed.

Today, non-Israeli Jews feel themselves once again exposed to criticism and vulnerable to attack for things they didn't do. But this time it is a Jewish state, not a Christian one, which is holding them hostage for its own actions. Diaspora Jews cannot influence Israeli policies, but they are implicitly identified with them, not least by Israel's own insistent claims upon their allegiance. The behavior of a self-described Jewish state affects the way everyone else looks at Jews. The increased incidence of attacks on Jews in Europe and elsewhere is primarily attributable to misdirected efforts, often by young Muslims, to get back at Israel. The depressing truth is that Israel's current behavior is not just bad for America, though it surely is. It is not even just bad for Israel itself, as many Israelis silently acknowledge. The depressing truth is that Israel today is bad for the Jews.

In a world where nations and peoples increasingly intermingle and intermarry at will; where cultural and national impediments to communication have all but collapsed; where more and more of us have multiple elective identities and would feel falsely constrained if we had to answer to just one of them; in such a world Israel is truly an anachronism. And not just an anachronism but a dysfunctional one. In today's "clash of cultures" between open, pluralist democracies and belligerently intolerant, faith-driven ethno-states, Israel actually risks falling into the wrong camp.

To convert Israel from a Jewish state to a binational one would not be easy, though not quite as impossible as it sounds: the process has already begun de facto. But it would cause far less disruption to most Jews and Arabs than its religious and nationalist foes will claim. In any case, no one I know of has a better idea: anyone who genuinely supposes that the controversial electronic fence now being built will resolve matters has missed the last fifty years of history. The "fence"—actually an armored zone of ditches, fences, sensors, dirt roads (for tracking footprints), and a wall up to twenty-eight feet tall in places—occupies, divides, and steals Arab farmland; it will destroy villages, livelihoods, and whatever remains of Arab-Jewish community. It costs approximately $1 million per mile and will bring nothing but humiliation and discomfort to both sides. Like the Berlin Wall, it confirms the moral and institutional bankruptcy of the regime it is intended to protect.

more...

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16671

Jewish fifth-graders to learn conversational Arabic

By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

A pilot project launched in February in 14 elementary schools in northern Israel is meant to bridge the deep divide between Jews and Arabs.

Over the next two years, hundreds of Jewish fifth-graders will be taught conversational Arabic, and learn about Arab culture and traditions.

The project, financed in part by the Abraham Fund, a U.S.-Israeli non-governmental group, focuses on Jewish children. Hebrew is mandatory in Israeli Arab schools and most Arab youngsters can speak the language to some degree by middle school.

more...

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/543672.html

"Hands behind your head!"
"Lie down!"
"Be quiet!"

:-)

I agree. But someone's got to have the courage to start the journey.
And Israel could be a true beacon if they could push the Far Right into the back seat.

Many secular moderates in Islamic countries would be better served and more outspoken if they didn't have to have their arguments literally blow up in their face. Because you are right. The Islamic world, generally, is less educated, more religiously indoctrinated, more culturally stratified.

Education and economic incentives can speed up their entrance into the modern world far better than molten metal death from the sky.

Hell, I give Ariel Sharon all kinds of credit for facing down death threats and refusing to be intimidated into cancelling his plans for calling for a Gaza withdrawal.

Ultimately, their MUST be co-existence between the two peoples.
The only other solution is an ethnic cleansing. And I can't see the majority of Israelis cottoning to that idea. There is a painful history there. Bad Karma and all that.

So, if we KNOW that, why not take those steps towards bi-nationality now? The apartheid-like conditions that the Palestinians live under now is very comparable to what the indigenous South Africans suffered.

Something's got to give.

Just a comment; won't the removal of Jews from Gaza make apartheid more obvious? If the Arabs take over the land and buildings and hot houses, benefit from the agriculture of the fleeing Jews, is that less apartheid? They want a state of their own. A Palestinian state without Jews. No insult intended, but couldn't they always make their own agriculture profitable?

Pull back now, ease tensions, build trust, approach bi-nationality in an open-handed and co-beneficial way.

Support Abbas and his efforts to de-fang the Militant wings still not in the fold - not by targeted assassinations, but with covert, technological assistance for Abbas to give him an upper hand.

Palestine and Israel are now one and the same. The Arabs can't drive Israel out without destroying themselves, the Israelis can't drive the Arabs out without destroying their traditionally moral high ground...

Two "seperate but equal" states will do nothing but ultimately incrase tensions.

Think of it as a long term evolvement - but with baby steps now - it's possible, I believe.

Ponder the possibilities. If Israelis and Palestinians can find a way like the South Africans did and have a "truth commission" where amnesty is granted for full disclosure of atrocities on both sides, and then decide to embrace the richness of a Democracy that does not exclude either side...

You might say I'm a dreamer...

But I'm not the only one...

Not a recent article or op-ed.



Undergroundrailroad
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