A failed Israeli society is collapsing

[whirlygigspin]

by Avraham Burg IHT


"JERUSALEM The Zionist revolution has always rested on two pillars: a just path and an ethical leadership. Neither of these is operative any longer. The Israeli nation today rests on a scaffolding of corruption, and on foundations of oppression and injustice. As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep. There is a real chance that ours will be the last Zionist generation. There may yet be a Jewish state in the Middle East, but it will be a different sort, strange and ugly."



http://www.iht.com/articles/108989.html

[dudeness]

1. I have added this from the article

I hope you don't mind...a very powerful article..sure to draw some attention




The writer was speaker of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, from 1999 to 2003 and is currently a Labor Party member of the Knesset. This comment, which first appeared in English in The Forward (New York), was adapted by the writer from an article that appeared in Yediot Ahronot and was translated by J.J. Goldberg.

[izzie]

2. When you let the most in a society rule and not protect thr rest

The society usually does not work

[FloridaPat]

3. Sounds like the US too. Funny how both Israel & US went

to hell at the same time.

[punpirate]

5. I fear that the influence of the right wing is...

... just as destructive in Israel as it is here, and that people are no different the world `round--constantly fill their heads with fear and danger, and they will respond predictably because they are fearful and feeling threatened.

[punpirate]

4. "A just path and an ethical leadership...."

How many nations in the world, including ours, are crying out for those two qualities? How much misery has been created by their absence?

Very good. Very true.

[xchrom]

6. it's already strange and ugly

the author doesn't have to wait for it's arrival.
zionism has turned israel pathologically narcissistic. it cannot have any feelings for the displaced since 1948 -- which is the only tap root to the trouble there now.
it might have been different if the kibbutznik view had held rather than this inward looking quasi-religous view they have now.

[lindashaw]

7. This is profoundly important. Thank you for posting it.

[lindashaw]

8. And I might add...

Just as I am printing this out, our president is asking for for Patriot Powers, more searches, expanded death penalty. What are we coming to?

[whirlygigspin]

9. it's just sad

I hope they all can find the way to a better life.

[Lexingtonian]

10. How saddening

It really is saddening that Avraham Burg has to resort to the prophetic tradition's voice to say things that are so overtly evident.

I am not sure that Burg is right to predict full destruction. But social transformation of several kinds definitely has to happen during the next decade or two and a certain kind of extremism of the old has to die out (with them, on all sides) before much can really improve. An awful lot has happened in that little piece of the world in mostly the past 55 years, and those least willing to change the rest of the way necessary for a viable society are proving impediments, are now refusing to die and thus everything now revolves around getting them killed.

Well, let us hope the innocents and survivors on all sides build something far better on the social wreckage.

[LeahMira]

11. Sad indeed.

It really is saddening that Avraham Burg has to resort to the prophetic tradition's voice to say things that are so overtly evident.

The Jerusalem Program, which is the foundation of the Zionist Movement, states that Israel will be based on the prophetic vision. The comment isn't inappropriate, since the Israelis need to be reminded, IMO, of what their hopes once were. Sometimes it seems that they have forgotten their way.

those least willing to change the rest of the way necessary for a viable society are proving impediments

Some of the Jewish organizations in this country are at least partially responsible also. Jews in the U.S. are asked to support Israel financially no matter what the politics in operation there. The argument is that we support the people, not necessarily the government. To a point, that works, but when Israel is under attack the donations increase significantly. The lobbying in the halls of Congress intensifies as well.

IMO, those of us in the U.S who oppose the current Israeli administration need to support the "refusenik" soldiers who have refused to serve in the West Bank. We also need to begin our own lobbying so that Congress hears the voices that are for peace in Israel. This blame game has gone on far too long... this thing about if only the Palestinians would stop with the suicide bombings and if only the Israelis would stop with the settlements. Someone has to stop it first. If the Jewish people truly believe that they have been promised the land by the Creator, then perhaps they should stop the blame first, do justly and love mercy, and trust the Creator to do the job in the Creator's own way.

[Porcupine]

12. The Jewish population isn't replacing itself- it cannot survive....

Israels Jewish population only grows because of the continued influx of nominal "Jews" from Russia and Eastern Europe. Israeli Jews born or raised in Israel seem to be unwilling to have children in the numbers they will need to maintain military control.

It's only a matter of time before there will be no Israel or no Jewish state of Israel.

[whirlygigspin]

13. kick