Beyond

Even Martin Meenagh, far more Zionist than I, now writes:

I used to admire Yitzhak Rabin, really very much. I like people who reach out to beyond what they can be in the service of something great. But, then, Bibi went and created an atmosphere that got Rabin killed. That was before the latest set of allegations about Bibi, businessmen and some penny-ante byzantine tale of graft; after the lawsuit alleging that his wife was some sort of boss from Hell when it came to servants whom she treated as untermenschen. It's not completely fair to blame everything on him--Sara and Bibi have a complex relationship. Maybe there is some collective term for all the Bibi-shite that seems to swarm around the man.

No fan of Benjamin Netanyahu am I. I would refer to him as a sort of 'Jewish Nixon' except, of course (as my one demented reader will know) I have some time for the 37th president. My interest has been piqued, however, by a question which the CEO of a good many congressional donations implicitly raised yesterday, when he said that 'Israel would not return to the indefensible borders of 1967'. Which stunning act of indefensibility, exactly, was illustrated by the performance of the Armies of Eretz Yisrael in that year?

Israel feels itself to be in real trouble right now, as far as I can tell, partly because Bibi was allowed his Ulster Unionist naysaying fifteen years ago. But at its best, Israel has responded to traps by springing them. What mileage is there in the antic delusions of selfish fear?

Was there ever such a disaster for the Jewish state, or anything so predictable once zionism changed and Israel was sucked into the cold war by the likes of Scoop Jackson, as Likud? People lose hope and think situations are dire because no one has the resources or the courage or the social support to imagine anything different, which is admittedly a modern condition outside of Israel too. We've lost the heritage of religion and western humanism that used to make people strong. However, things seem really dire in Israel. So dire that even Rabin's son feels he has to lend some sort of support to Netanyahu. Maybe it has something to do with all those Iranian missiles and Syrian 'insurgents' coming over the borders.

As each day goes on, I feel more and more for the Palestinian Christians. I know a few of them, just as I have known Jewish and Muslim people from those lands. Three peoples, one state was the dream, now effectively poisoned by Hamas and regional powerplays and a whole load of demographic blow-ins. Can we really not do better as a species?