A Failed Israeli Society Collapses While Its Leaders Remain Silent

[donsu]

http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.08.29/oped3.html

By AVRAHAM BURG

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 here, but it will be a different sort, strange and ugly.

-snip-

The opposition does not exist, and the coalition, with Arik Sharon at its head, claims the right to remain silent. In a nation of chatterboxes, everyone has suddenly fallen dumb, because there's nothing left to say. We live in a thunderously failed reality. Yes, we have revived the Hebrew language, created a marvelous theater and a strong national currency. Our Jewish minds are as sharp as ever. We are traded on the Nasdaq. But is this why we created a state? The Jewish people did not survive for two millennia in order to pioneer new weaponry, computer security programs or anti-missile missiles. We were supposed to be a light unto the nations. In this we have failed.


It turns out that the 2,000-year struggle for Jewish survival comes down to a state of settlements, run by an amoral clique of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their citizens and to their enemies. A state lacking justice cannot survive. More and more Israelis are coming to understand this as they ask their children where they expect to live in 25 years. Children who are honest admit, to their parents' shock, that they do not know. The countdown to the end of Israeli society has begun.

-snip-

Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated.

-snip-

Israel's friends abroad — Jewish and non-Jewish alike, presidents and prime ministers, rabbis and lay people — should choose as well. They must reach out and help Israel to navigate the road map toward our national destiny as a light unto the nations and a society of peace, justice and equality.

Translated by J.J. Goldberg.
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[Flying_Pig]

1. Wherever the right-wing holds sway....

be it here, Israel, or other places, they destroy, not build. They war, not peace. The kill, not embrace. We, like Israel, must remove these corrupt fascists, once and for all. If Israel's people keep on choosing the path of hate, and those who proffer it, then they will also pay a price. Perhaps after the election of a Dem president here, the people of Israel will begin to see the light.... We can hope....

[fla nocount]

2. Tis true. A path without heart will kill

a person, a family, a nation.

[Darranar]

3. This has been already posted...

in I/P.

[Karenina]

4. Well it needs to be posted here

The voices of truth in Israel are overwhelmed out by the cacaphony of corrupt, violent cowards much as they are in the U.S. Family splits? Welcome to the real world.

[BeFree]

5. Kicking

Because everyone oughtta read this. Peace