June 30, 2010
Israel's Stalemate
On a balmy and humid Saturday night, June 5th, we left our apartment on Kikar Masarik Square in Tel-Aviv and walked down to Yitzhak Rabin Square, only 5 minutes away. Recalling our youthful days at similar anti-war and peace marches, we eyed the crowd anxiously. We soon realized that we were joining the crowd, whose size would eventually grow to 6,000 and sponsored by the Israeli Peace Movement (Shalom Ahshav), at the gathering spot of the Israeli Communist Party (Hadash): I noticed many young Arabs carrying the hammer and sickle, along with girls, Israeli or Palestinian, with their khaffiyas, chanting in Hebrew and Arabic as a distinguished looking elderly Arab gentleman addressed that part of the crowd. As the sea of red flags surges around us, I suppressed a tear: Such a sight is hardly visible in any European capital. I recalled all those Jewish communist militants of Europe who gave their lives for an ideal that was hollowed out by history. “Wie eine Trane im Ozean,” I mused --like a tear in the Ocean-- recalling that beautiful novel of Mannes Sperber, documenting the decimation of a generation of militants by Stalin and party purges even before the gas chambers reached them. But here now before me were their children and grandchildren, not in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest and Moscow, but in Tel-Aviv.more from Seyla Benhabib at Reset here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 06:34 AM | Permalink
Comments
Yet another Jewish writer lamenting (from Yale after a visit) the state of Israel...seeing its bad behavior.
Challenge: next time you go to post a Jewish writer badmouthing Israel, instead get a Muslim Arab writer badmouthing his country's dealings with Israel.
Posted by: fred lapides | Jun 30, 2010 5:32:06 PM
It should be "wie eine Träne im Ozean" or Traene. Trana doesn't mean anything in German, as far as I can tell. Also, it is Manès Sperber. I'm starting to be skeptical that she actually read the book. Also, "El Pueblo unido, no maz sera venciro" isn't Hebrew.
There aren't 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The numbers are disputed, but the best numbers are 1.5-2.3 million.
The Law of Return has always been about having one Jewish grandparent and has not been changed just for the Russian immigrants. The fact that some Russians who don't have even that are being naturalized rests on the idea of family reunion.
The article has a lot of errors of fact. I wish someone had fact-checked this article before it was released, especially because it would be more convincing if these errors of fact weren't left out.
I'm also a little distressed by the open nostalgia for Communism. This plays into the same false choice of the 20th century. That one had to choose between communism and fascism. The whole point of the later article is that one can choose liberal democracy and human rights.
It's also a little funny to hear such posturing from Turkey, who has no compunction about killing its own citizens, destroying their villages, and forcing them into internal or external exile if they happen to be Kurds. It would be nice for a Turkish writer exercised at human rights violations against Turkish citizens recognized that its own government has a fairly bleak record as well.
I think the go to person on this issue is Bernard Avishai and "The Hebrew Republic". I'd encourage people interested in liberal democracy and human rights to read his blog and the book.
Posted by: Hektor Bim | Jun 30, 2010 7:37:14 PM
Post a comment