Living in Israel is pleasant. The weather and public services are decent. The data on life expectancy indicate that it is safer than the United States and much of Western Europe http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004393.html.
The problem is reading about Israel, especially what comes from commentators who have not learned the value of moderation.
Disturbance comes from the right and the left. Two of my least favorites are Caroline Glick, who writes for the Jerusalem Post and Gideon Levy, of Ha'aretz. I do not read either on a regular or even occasional basis, but I know they are somewhere out there. I find them quoted by friends or sent as something that I must read and pass on. I never pass on and usually do not read, except when I ponder Jewish extremism.
Glick and Levy are not the only writers who torment us with their descriptions of Israeli imperfections. They are similar to others on their ends of the spectrum, predictable in what they write, and useful as examples of what not to read.
I have not done a study of either, other than looking at enough to know that I do not want more. Perhaps I am unfair and miss some nuances. I will consider any comments about shortcomings in my summaries.
A recent example of Glick is http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=43960
The sky is about to fall. The world is against Israel. Even allies are evil. Obama is threatening, and will pounce harder. The center and left of Israeli politics are hopelessly naive. They are serving our enemies by efforts to find accommodation with Arabs, Europeans, and Americans who will not be accommodated. Even the right of center is not reliable. Netanyahu's heart may be in the right place, and he is trying to evade the snares of international forces who pretend to be friends but really are enemies. Even he is trapped in the culture of politics where he must go along to get along. The only correct way is to be strong and uncompromising. There is no appropriate response to threat other than declaring the correctness of our path against local and international naysayers, and embarking on a forceful defense of what we know is true.
While Glick sees Israel as too passive in a hostile world (except for foolish politicians who do the work of enemies while thinking otherwise), Levy (e.g., http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057670.html) sees Israel as actively creating problems for itself. It is aggressively foolish and self destructive. It does too much and can do nothing right. What others consider to be victory is catastrophe, or a step toward it. There is no better example than the recent Gaza war, which he describes with certainty as an utter defeat, a moral disaster, and bound to produce more problems. Once the trumpeting of success has quieted, all will see the failure of the goals declared for the onslaught. Israelis are blind to their faults and their failings, but the world is not. Continuing in the current direction, which has been going on for ever, assures the increasing enmity of civilized people, the bankruptcy of our moral potential, and the country's doom.
Rather than surrender my license as an optimist, I will insist on the good in the misery of these extremists. Their existence illustrates our tolerance for dispute. They also recall the madness of the biblical prophets. They claimed to hear the words of the Almighty, insisted that no one else was behaving correctly, and perceived apocalypse in the near future. Yet what they wrote was included in sacred text, and has been honored until now. That is more than will happen to anything I have written.
Extremism is part of Jewish culture, even though it may cause discomfort. Perfection now. Damn those who do not agree.
The strength of Israel's democracy is apparent in the tolerance of views that differ so greatly, published in prominent journals, without censorship or retribution.
What saves the us from madness is the obvious success of Israel, and the balance in its institutions. The sky is not falling. Israel has not only survived but prospered. Its enemies are miserable. The military has succeeded in protecting the country, screening out or controlling the occasional problems among its recruits, and avoided excesses like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Abu Grieb or Guantanamo.
Israel's officials include some who fail tests of moral rectitude, but most are sane and know how to get along with world powers. What they have done recently with respect to the peace process, as well as in Lebanon 2006 and Gaza 2009 is less than heroic, and also less than apocalyptic. They have absorbed criticism from the Israeli center for doing too much or not enough. They are even further from the demands of commentators like Glick and Levy, and that is their wisdom.
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
email: msira@mscc.huji.ac.il