The Seattle Times commemorated Kristallnacht this year by printing a bizarre screed by Avraham Burg, a leader of Israel's opposition Labor Party.
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.Why the Times chose to print Burg's three-month old essay on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, of all days, is beyond me.
Burg's polemic, which, among other things apologizes for suicide bombing as a natural response to poverty will undoubtedly reinforce the worldview of those who, for various reasons, can't stand the thought of a Jewish nation defending itself.
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.The Times could at the very least have put Burg's op-ed in context by reminding its readers that Avraham Burg failed in his quest to lead his party, which in turn failed in its quest to lead the nation. Burg claims that
The opposition does not existBut of course the opposition does exist, and Burg is part of it. The real problem is that the solutions offered by Burg and his opposition colleagues have little public support. Having failed to persuade the voters of Israel, Burg takes his message around the world looking for anybody who will listen:
What is needed is a new vision of a just society and the political will to implement it. Nor is this merely an internal Israeli affair. Diaspora Jews, for whom Israel is a central pillar of their identity, must pay heed and speak out.To give an American analogy, Avraham Burg complaining in American newspapers about the winner of last year's Israeli election would be like Jeanette Rankin tirading in the overseas press in 1943 against Roosevelt and American involvement in World War II.
Based on the response in the Times Letters to the Editor pages (here and here). Burg's message resonates with two groups of people: Palestinians who want Israel to disappear, and self-absorbed American Jews for whom Israel is a form of moral recreation and who presume to know more about how to deal with the threats facing Israel than do the people who actually live and vote in Israel.
To the Times' credit, they also published Chaya Siegelbaum's well-written response to Burg, which concludes:
May next year's Kristallnacht be recognized with more-balanced coverage.Indeed. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 12, 2003 09:58 AM
I suppose to mention that they spill quite a lot of blood other than "their own" would somewhat weaken his case... As if the Paleos are the first people to ever have humiliated or humgry parents at home, or that their suffering is more profound than in any other place in the world. And I don't think their purpose is to merely ruin appetites.
The day this "essay" (really, string of baseless assertions) ran, 60 Minutes had a report on Arafat's billions. They showed his wife in Paris living on a meager $100,000 a month. Money that was given for the benefit of the Palestinians.
But Burg never once mentions Islamic radicalism, Arafat's corruption or substantiates the accusation of Sharon's corruption.
The Seattle Times must like the parallel: the same splenetic vitriol from a left-wing Israeli that we see in the radical left here in the States.
I can see why his party is out of power.
Regarding those people who actually live and vote in Israel, cnn.com quotes a poll saying that Sharon's approval rating is down to 42%. Yes, I know this includes a lot of Bibi fans.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/03/01/sharon.poll/
Posted by: Markus Rose on November 12, 2003 12:05 PM
Good call, "Markus Rose". The poll you cite is dated March 1, 2002. Sharon was since reelected with a decisive margin. I don't know what a more recent poll might show, but in a parliamentary democracy with a coalition majority it's not all that hard to oust an unpopular government when there is a viable alternative
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on November 12, 2003 12:09 PMI'm a little amused that Burg write that Israel was founded "on foundations of oppression and injustice," in light of the fact (if memory serves) that the Labor Party was the majority party from Israel's independence through a majority of the Arab-Israeli wars.
Then again, I'm cynical.
Posted by: Tony on November 12, 2003 02:45 PMThe self-destruction of the Israeli left perfectly mirrors that of the American left. Indeed, they are reinforcing each other in their march over the cliff, as the election results have repeatedly shown and will continue to show in the coming years.
Burg's greatest frustration is that the Israeli Jews who came from the Soviet Union see right through him; he knows he will never convert them to socialists because they know what that's all about already. Recognizing that the political future belongs to Likud, he's defecating all over himself, his history, his friends, colleagues, family, and country.
He and his party, like his colleagues on the American left, are nihilists, and nothing more. To the extent that the "mainstream" press is galloping after them, well, good riddance mainstream press.
Posted by: Sergio on November 12, 2003 04:52 PMHere's the money quote which I have said many times myself and I find incredible -
and self-absorbed American Jews for whom Israel is a form of moral recreation and who presume to know more about how to deal with the threats facing Israel than do the people who actually live and vote in Israel.
Geraldo, Martyn Indyk, Thomas Friedman........ oh one could go on.
The tide is really turning and Israel is going to be in trouble soon in my opinion. Sharon had better get that fence built soon, and hope that Bush wins re-election in my opinion.
A few names stand out on that link of the "jews who know better" etc.... speakers at a conference on Nov 2nd -
Congressman Barney Frank, Sumaya Farhat-Naser, James Zogby, Stephen P. Cohen, Ian Lustick.
I've watched a videotape of Lustick formerly and briefly in the State Department from 77-79. And James Zogby spoke there, lol! a true friend of Israel. I don't know who Stephen Cohen is.
"The self-destruction of the Israeli left perfectly mirrors that of the American left"
let me ad the Australian left to that list
Posted by: Dead ED on November 13, 2003 10:30 AMThe self-hating Jew and the self-hating American find common cause with the self-destroying Left both here and in Israel. The reason that the electorate in both countries are skewing right is more due to the incoherence of the left wing's ideas than any congruence on opinion on the right, a movement that needs a big tent to support its popularity. But as long as the Left supports either explicit or implicit surrender, the voters whose brains are still plugged in have no choice but to oppose them. The Right has become the philosophy of survival
Posted by: Michael Gersh on November 14, 2003 08:04 PMShark - My vote for the best thing you ever wrote, and the truest phrase written on the subject, ever:
Burg's message resonates with two groups of people: Palestinians who want Israel to disappear, and self-absorbed American Jews for whom Israel is a form of moral recreation and who presume to know more about how to deal with the threats facing Israel than do the people who actually live and vote in Israel.Such clarity. If only the left used its collective mind with anything like the power with which they surrender to their emotions. Posted by: Michael Gersh on November 14, 2003 08:11 PM