3 thoughts on “Seattle Talk: Iran, Nuclear Impasse and Prospect for War – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. I would come if I lived in the area. Good Luck!! I probably do not share many of the opinions the panel will have but I enjoy much more a dialogue with those I don’t agree with than those who are boring and think like me.

  2. RE: “Will Barack Obama’s plan to wind down Middle Eastern wars fall prey to the manipulations of an Israeli leader who needs military conflict against his neighbors to create social cohesion at home? ~ R.S.

    FOR EXAMPLE, SEE: “Israel’s Trauma Psychology and the Attack on Gaza”, By Avigail Abarbanel, Sunday 4th January 2009

    [EXCERPT] . . . Israel has been itching for a ‘good war’ for a while now. The botched attack on Lebanon in 2006 was a psychological disappointment that did not fulfil its purpose, and only led to a deepening chasm between the political and military arms in Israel. An Israeli friend told me in disgust the other day, that there is an atmosphere of ‘national orgasm’ in Israel about the prospect of attacking Iran. While people are being bombed in Gaza, all Israelis can talk about is the coming attack on Iran. But there is a link between the two.
    Israel’s social problems have grown exponentially over the past 15 years. It’s a very different Israel now than the one I grew up in. There is more violent and organised crime than ever before, and more domestic violence and abuse of children than ever. There are more drugs and drug use, and they have drunk-driving, something I have never encountered while I was still living there. This is reflected in official reports as well as in the daily newspapers.
    My brother who lives in Israel described to me how soldiers who spend their military service in the Occupied Palestinian territories implementing Israel’s brutal occupation, come home on weekends only to get involved in drunken armed brawls and murders. This was unheard of in my time.
    Israelis have never been particularly kind to each other. It’s one of the reasons I left actually. In my late twenties I started to grow weary of the unkind, harsh and unforgiving atmosphere around me. It was a tough place to live in not because of our ‘enemies’ but because of how people treated one another. You would believe that we were all enemies rather than people who have some kind of a shared heritage. The only thing that could unite people and temporarily brought out more kindness and a sense of cooperation was a feeling of being under collective threat, and in particular a ‘good wholesome war’ . . .

    SOURCE – http://www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk/gaza-2009-01-04.html
    AVIGAIL ABARBANEL’S SITE – http://www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk/

  3. I understand being critical of Israel on many points but what Avigail Abarbanel describes is so far fetched that it makes no sense. There is no place in the word that is as crazy as she describes.
    Soldiers ” come home on weekends only to get involved in drunken armed brawls and murders.”
    The murder rate in Israel is 2.1 per 100k.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

    That is 159 murders for roughly 7 million people.

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