The
trouble with Israel is that it's a democracy.
That's
a little flat-footed and limiting. In fact there are a lot of
troubles with Israel (though not as many as with its neighbors),
rather than just one, but I'll emphasize democracy both because it's
a problem itself, and because it causes other problems. (I'll add
some other ideas in a few months.)
Israel
has gotten a lot of admiration and support, especially in the United
States, from the fact that it is an island of democracy in a sea of
monarchies, tyrannies, and theocracies. At least until recently it
has. Under the current administration – one that views dialogue
with our enemies and distancing ourselves from our friends as the
best foreign policy – some of our identification with it is gone,
but that does not change Israel's political structure. Like the
United States it is an imperfect democracy, but because of the path
we have taken we now find it advantageous to emphasize Israel's
faults, real and imagined, while ignoring our own, and to trumpet
them to whoever will listen.
And
Israel's enemies do likewise. Those in the United Nations have
institutionalized the condemnation of Israel. The starting point
among the nations are the surrounding countries, which call for an
end of Israel's “oppressive” policies. Nations that kill their
own citizens, promote terrorist organizations, and make war on their
neighbors, call for the destruction of the democracy on which they
blame their own problems, and whose elimination they claim would
solve the region's difficulties. That is the only message they
permit to emanate from their borders. Reporters who state otherwise
are subject to penalties, and journalists from outside those
countries are openly discouraged. Consequently the only negative
stories that originate there are those that cannot be suppressed.
And, lacking on-site coverage, little negative information is
provided the rest of the world. So the world hears little about
honor killings, female genital mutilation, internecine violence, and
the oppression of women and members of the LGBT community, among
other horrors.
But
Israel is a democracy. Freedom of the press is one of its hallmarks.
And life there is much more salutary than in the adjacent countries.
So members of the press, including those barred from Islamic
nations, congregate there, with more reporters than in most of the
rest of the world. There is a competition for headlines, and what is
negative sells best. Thus, from the comfort of their hotels, foreign
correspondents compete to tell the world how bad things are in
Israel. It's a story that the world – even the democracies –
wants to hear. With little information from other Middle-Eastern
nations it is easy to construct the evil straw man that the world
seeks. If Israel weren't a democracy – if it didn't allow the
transmission of negative information – there would be far less for
the world to discuss, although they would probably denounce the
country for some press limitations, even if they don't follow that
policy for those countries that practice censorship now. (But Israel
should act like its neighbors. It should be undemocratic. Tyranny.
No LGBT tolerance. It should exclude or limit journalists. It
should lower the world's expectations. Were Israel a closed society
like its neighbors, with no press freedom, it would be of far less
interest to some of those who now fault it.)
The
press also ignore anything positive that happens in Israeli society –
at least anything that reflects favorably on Jews. But they are
quick to focus on the negative. There are no beheadings in Israel,
so while playing down violence against Jews, reporters emphasize
occasional acts against Muslims. They ignore, however, the
condemnation of such acts by the government and people of Israel.
Not only is that not done in the surrounding countries, but the
killing of Israelis is cause for celebration, and the killers are
praised as heroes for whom streets are to be named and rewards given.
Were that to happen in Israel it would be justifiably condemned, yet
it is considered understandable and praiseworthy among Muslims.
There
is a double standard. Israel is held to a higher standard than any
other nation. Even the United States seeks unilateral concessions
from Israel, ones it would never accept for itself in similar
circumstances. And countries that would never “turn the other
cheek” if attacked demand that those who consider themselves the
chosen people do so, even though that is not a Jewish teaching and it
is certainly not their approach. If Israel were just another tyranny
like its neighbors and forbade democratic institutions, less would be
expected.
No.
That is giving too much credit to haters of Western institutions.
The claim that the cause of all the problems in the Middle East is
Israel – that Zionism is racism – results from the long-standing
hatred of Jews by others. And Zionism is a code word for Jews. In
1929 – long before there was an Israel – Arabs slaughtered large
numbers of Jews in Palestine. Between sixty-five and seventy Jews
were murdered in Hebron, most of them students and their teachers,
with scores of others injured or maimed. The response of British
authorities, who controlled the area at the time, was to remove the
Jews, ostensibly for their own safety. Jewish victims were exiled
from their homes. More recently the world has demanded that the Jews
be removed from their homes – and this happened in Sinai and Gaza –
for the benefit of the Arabs. There is always a reason to punish
Jews.
Antisemitism.
The world denies it and accuses the Jew of crying antisemitism
whenever Israel or Jews are attacked or criticized. But seeing
antisemitism in such criticisms is usually justified. It has
flourished through the ages. In the past the accusations were of
various types, including the spreading of disease, deicide, and the
murder of Gentile children for their blood. In
2001, Daniel Bernard, as French Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was
quoted as saying: "All the current troubles in the world are
because of that shitty little country Israel." He added, "Why
should the world be in danger of World War III because of those
people?" The French Foreign Ministry defended Bernard and
dismissed the charges of antisemitism.
And
in 2015, a few days after others attacked the French newspaper
Charlie
Hebdo,
a Muslim terrorist fired on and killed shoppers in a kosher
delicatessen. President Obama attacked the [Muslim, though he didn't
say so] assassins at the newspaper and the one in the delicatessen as
“vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of
folks in a deli in Paris.” The killing of Jews by a Muslim was a
random act. They shouldn't have patronized a kosher delicatessen.
Jews are belittled, and Islamophobia is to be condemned.
The
trouble with Israel is that it is a Jewish state. And the world does
not like Jews.
Next
episode: “Insanity” – Maybe not.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I know you agree, but you can leave comments anyway.