10 thoughts on “A.B. Yehoshua Calls for Removing U.S. Ambassador, Attacks Israel Lobby – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Richard,
    I agree with you that this is an important statement, the more so because it comes from someone whom we might call a “centrist Leftist Zionist”.

    Do you have any thoughts on why he focuses on West Bank illegal settlements, which surely is very important, and doesn’t say anything about the people dying daily in Gaza due to electricity cut-offs, UN supply cut-offs?
    Is not this action even more urgent of being talked about at this very moment when doctors are having to choose between saving babies and saving heart patients?
    Someone with his stature could bring some attention to this, which we ordinary nameless citizens seem to be unable to do. This massive denial of basic life necessities is a barbarity rare in the modern age by a “Westernized” nation-state.

    What are your thoughts on this?

    ellen

  2. I heard Alef Bet Yehoshua interviewed today on Israel’s radio show “Hakol Diburim” about this article. When asked why he feels the need to go to foreign media and demand the US intervene directly to force Israel to carry out policies he wants, he basically indicated that it was despair that the Arabs apparently will not agree to make peace with Israel, so therefore some sort of deus ex machina is needed to resolve things the way he wants. Your friend Bernard Avishai said the same in his last posting about Gidon Levy…that some “foreign force” will come in and straighten everything out. Do you really think Europeans, Americans and other Arab countries will send troops to defend Israel against Palestinian terrorists. What is ironic is that Yehoshua said after Oslo was signed that Israel should bomb the hell out of Gaza if there is trouble from there. When the time came to carry out his policy, he suddenly changed his mind. You are quite right, the “center-left” has been infected with the despair I mentioned above and they are now grasping for some sort , any sort of salvation that doesn’t exist.

  3. “Do you really think Europeans, Americans and other Arab countries will send troops to defend Israel against Palestinian terrorists.”

    very funny. Who is defending the Palestinian people against the Israelis?

  4. The Israelis and Palestinians should both know by now that NO ONE is going to come to their respected defenses. I don’t think any negotiated agreement can be based on the belief that another party will intervene to save the them if necessary. Both groups have learned that this does not map to reality. At least so far.

    That still shouldn’t rule out a 2-state solution. Just make sure to work out contingencies and arrangements to ensure that both parties are protected.

  5. Solution seeker,
    I think you are right.
    But in terms of making a protest, it is hard for me to understand why hundreds of thousands of Muslims took to the streets to protest a cartoon, but Muslim people dying from a blockade does not even merit a little yell.

    ellen

  6. Ellen: Yehoshua’s approach isn’t always to my liking. Like many Israelis he prob. has essentially given up on Hamas as a serious interlocutor & Gaza along with it. I don’t defend this attitude–just describe it. Most Israelis see the West Bank as the key bone of contention & think if the problems there can be worked out then Gaza will somehow fall into place. Again, it’s a strange attitude but there it is…

  7. Ellen said:
    —————————-
    But in terms of making a protest, it is hard for me to understand why hundreds of thousands of Muslims took to the streets to protest a cartoon, but Muslim people dying from a blockade does not even merit a little yell.
    —————————-

    Very interesting point. I always wondered why the ongoing fratricidal slaughter in countries like Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Pakistan and Somalia never mobilized large demonstrations in the Muslim world or in areas in Europe or the US with large Muslim minorities. If they didn’t want to be seen to be supporting the US presence in Iraq, they could have signs and chants that said “Americans out, Terrorists out of Iraq”, but I haven’t seen it. Why the indifference?

  8. In partial answer to my question, and also to bar_kochba132’s:

    I was told that in many Arab countries, eg Jordan, demonstrations against US/Israel are forbidden, but demos against the cartoon were encouraged.

    Also, that there have been demos ag. the Gaza blockade in some Arab countries, seen on Aljazeera TV. I don’t know which countries.

    ellen

  9. I always wondered why the ongoing fratricidal slaughter in countries like Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Pakistan and Somalia never mobilized large demonstrations in the Muslim world

    I’m really touched by how concerned you are at the slaughter of Muslims. It couldn’t be perhaps that you have a hidden agenda which is to focus obsessively on issues like this to point out how murderous Muslims are? Not to mention that violence in countries you mention isn’t only due to religious differences. There are also the kind of political differences that produce violence in many non-Muslim countries as well.

    There are hundreds of millions of Muslims in the world. Contrary to what you might think Muslims in Indonesia do have a lot of other concerns than whether Syrians are murdering Lebanese. Besides I don’t think large demonstrations are the only measure of expressing concern for such violence & many Muslims DO express their concern for their brethren in distress.

    If there were hundreds of millions of Jews living in as many countries as Muslims now live in, & some of those countries had Jewish majorities as Muslims do in many countries, I have no doubt that focus & concern for Jews in trouble around the world would be more diffuse than it is now.

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