I have talked about Israeli’s sense of victimhood quite often, most recently just a few days ago. Akiva Eldar (one of Ha’aretz great journalist) has a piece on some recent research into precisely this topic: Israeli Jews’ consciousness is characterized by a sense of victimization, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanization of the [...]
An interesting profile of Avrum Burg. “I realized something about myself and Israel that frightened me,” he said recently, looking back over the past few years. “I realized that Israel had become an efficient kingdom with no prophecy. Where was it going? What is a Jewish democratic state? What does it mean that Jews define [...]
Continue reading about An Israeli Challenges His Country’s Identity
The French-German cultural channel Arte, has produced an excellent television series which shows the human side of the conflict. Well worth viewing.
Uri Avnery is always a great inspiration and has appeared many times on this blog. His latest piece is a must read: The words of the new president are ringing in the air: “Our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.” The key words were “humility and [...]
I have covered this topic before, but I never expected to see such a long and detailed investigative report in the Wall Street Journal. Read it and weep. A look at Israel’s decades-long dealings with Palestinian radicals — including some little-known attempts to cooperate with the Islamists — reveals a catalog of unintended and often [...]
Reuters analysis is well worth reading: Despite killing some 1,300 Palestinians and blazing a trail of destruction, Israel failed to achieve the decisive military triumph that its leaders have claimed, said Alastair Crooke, a former European Union negotiator in the Middle East. “It was a war of ghosts,” he said, adding that Hamas had preserved [...]
Not too long ago I was discussing with my daughter in Israel the abysmal choices she faces in the upcoming election there. In the end, she said, it didn’t really matter who won the election. “We’re waiting for Obama.” Exactly.
In my previous post I asked a question: does Hamas’ war crimes justify Israel’s? Apparently the answer is yes, for most Israelis. This article recently appeared in the New York Times. In it you find a remarkable insight into the Israeli mind: The Israeli theory of what it tried to do here is summed up [...]
When I was a high school student, the poem by Robert Southey, After Blenheim, was a standard part of the English curriculum. Now that a cease fire has come into effect in Gaza, little Wilhemene’s comment and little Peterkin’s question seem quite relevant: They say it was a shocking sight After the field was won; For many thousand bodies [...]