An interesting piece on the topic in the Gaurdian, always a good source for news and analysis. Just to remind my readers that there is “nothing new under the sun,” compare this post from 6 years ago! The Ha’aretz interview with Professor Bar-Tal, mentioned in an earlier post, is quoted here as well. Gila Svirsky from Women in Black puts it well:
“You can feel it,” says Gila. “The temptation of being sucked into only watching Israeli news. It is really hard to extricate oneself from the dominant discourse. There is a word in Hebrew – miguyas – it means, I suppose, seduced. People don’t want to go there. Don’t want to think bad thoughts [about what is being done in their name].”
An important point to keep in mind: The Israeli “left” is not disappearing since it never really existed. The number of Israelis who oppose militarism and have consistently been committed to a just solution to the conflict has always been quite small. Most Israeli on the so-called left, are ardent militarists and are interested in having the conflict “go away,” rather than it being solved in a fair manner. Keep in mind as well, that during the Lebanon war in 2006, 95% of Israelis supported the war and turned a blind eye to the war crimes. We all know how that worked out.
Tags: Nationalism