Democracy, if not dead is on life-support. The Zionist far right, which used to be considered the marginal untethered extreme of Israeli politics, now runs the asylum. They’re keeping an enemy’s list just like Nixon did, but they have far more power to ruin people’s careers, livelihoods,and lives than Nixon did.
Hanukah in Zionist nationalist terms has always been a militant holiday for which I’ve had little use. I prefer to see it as a traditional winter festival coming in the deepest throes of cold and darkness. It serves to remind us that there is hope and light even then. That spring will return. That the tyrants of cold seasons and societies
will eventually fall. Think Arab Spring, which was preceded by the long winter of Arab dictators.
I’m sorry I can’t offer you as much hope for Israel right now. Though the J14 movement did shower Israel with a sense that social justice still resonated in a nation decimated by corruption, power elites, and cries for blood and war; old habits and loyalties die a long, slow death. Israel’s leaders seem to be willing to walk the plank on behalf of their delusions. Their constituents seem willing to watch as they, and the nation does it with them.
But Jimmy Cliff sang: “The harder they come, the harder they fall.”. The nationalist Israeli far right and their settler power base will eventually fall. It will be a hard fall. One that will be immensely painful for many Israelis. The longer this political mafia stays in power the harder the fall will be.
But I’m a believer in the power and truth of Jewish spiritual values, and they tell me to believe in light amidst darkness. No matter how deep the darkness and how freezing the cold.
On a separate note, fourteen members of the UN Security Council unanimously condemned Israeli obstructionism as the primary obstacle to a viable peace process. They also condemned the U.S. as Israel’s major enabler (though not specifically by name).
This is a new development. I can’t remember a near unanimous Security Council denunciation of a fellow member. It will mean little to Israel. But Obama makes a pretense of sharing liberal values and may be at least moderately embarrassed by this.
My prognosis for the period up until the presidential election is bleak. Obama plans no new initiative nor will he invest any serious energy in the issue. The only thing that may change that either before or after the election is a major disaster like a war, an outcome that is entirely possible. This too was the only way to get Bill Clinton off his duff (cf. Rwanda and Serbia). The difference between the two is that once he was committed, Clinton actually delivered. When Obama commits to something there’s no guarantee he can deliver. But let’s be hopeful, shall we? What is the alternative? If we try to keep his feet to the fire and things get bad enough, he may surprise us.
“… when the Soviet territory was already liberated from the Nazis.”
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Which could not of been accomplished without the aforementioned supplies, einstein. The defense of Kursk (the quintessential example of defense in depth) and the subsequent offensives (the operation against Army Group Centre in 1944, for example) that took place directly afterwards would not have been possible sans effective radio and telephone communications. Re. German air superiority on the eastern front. By 1943 many of Germany’s best pilots (as well as the cream of the flight schools) had been redeployed to defend the reich against Bomber Command and the Eighth Airforce. And while qualitatively speaking, the german pilot was superior to his Red counterpart, his aircraft frequently failed in performance in combat at altitudes of 15,000 feet and under (the “sweet spot” where most air-to-air combat took place on the Eastern Front) Quantitatively, the Luftwaffe weren’t playing in the same ball park with the Red Airforce after 1943. So while achieving a certain tactical superiority, it was a moot point against a reconstituted Red Airforce that numbered almost 50,000 operational aircraft by 1945. Again a state affairs, that simply would not have been possible without massive Allied assisitance in aircraft, aviation fuel, rubber, etc, etc.
Back to the stacks, history buff.
A few facts re. the Eastern Front, if I may. While its true, that the Russian soldier was hardy soul, he needed boots to march in. The leather (and in many cases, the boots themselves) was provided by the United States. While the Red Air Force was able to field some excellent aircraft who’s performance was equal to or surpassing that of the Luftwaffe, this wouldn’t have been the case without the high-octane aviation fuel that the Soviet Union was incapable of producing and was therefore provided by America & Britain in copious amounts. The Red Army in 1941 was notoriously deficient in the area of communications. By 1943 they were already well supplied by the US with millions of miles of insulated-copper telephone wire, field phones, and pack radios. Without SPAM the Russian soldier (not to mention his wife and kids back in Moscow and Leningrad)would’ve starved to death. In short, without The United States and Britain, the U.S.S. R. would’ve been SOL and Hitler would’ve been vactioning in Odessa.
There is no question that the US had contributed in materials, food products and some weaponry to the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. However, this happened after the US “was entered” into the war – after Pearl Harbor and after Germany declared war on America.
By 1943 Soviets repelled Germans under Moscow and defeated them in Stalingrad. The fact that Germans had air superiority for most of the war makes these victories even more important.
We can go back and forth on these issues. The simple truth is that the main Soviet demand for the Allies to open the second front was only satisfied in 1944, when the Soviet territory was already liberated from the Nazis.
Just a few winter thoughts.
I grew up quite a bit north from Israel. Traditionally, some seasons were regarded as more cheerful and some as more dreary. Winter was a cheerful season bracketed by late Fall and early Spring, two dreadful seasons of almost constant drizzling rain. As a child you read about “children are happy, snow is falling from the sky”. Time for sleds, snowmen and snowballs. In historical novels, winter was a time when peasants could get some rest (not that many novels about peasants though), noblemen would ride around, mounted or in sleds, make merry or make war. Winter was the best time for both. During dreadful times roads would be barely passable or worse. Then everybody was busy. But winter was a time when nothing could stop men on good horses and with sleds.
Then there was early Spring again, and some peasants would die of hunger.
“I’d advise anyone who thinks that the Israeli Democracy is dead to come here and see for one’s self whether this is so.”
You mean one can watch Israeli Democracy the way one can watch Lenin in Moscow? After standing in a long line, we can see a perfectly preserved mummy (or is it a wax figure? hard to tell when it is behind glass). Or even better: experience it. For starters, representatives of The People will recognize you as a “radical” and subject to several hours of checks and interrogations. Arrive at the airport 4 hours before the flight and dispense with false modesty. They do not shoot through laptops often, but just in case, leave your better laptop at home.
A tricky part: how to describe the purpose of the visit? A wrong answer can deprive to the chance to “see for one self”. I guess that the answer “to see Israeli democracy in action, if possible, of course” would pick interest and be rewarded with a series of followup questions (to be answered to several agents, consistently if one can). What is my plan more specifically? Blow up Knesset? “I could not tell gun powder from poppy seed strudel!” Visiting representatives of Left Blogistan in Tel-Aviv to see how they exercise their freedom of speech? That may be one sided. Visiting Shalem Institute in Jerusalem? (An appointment may be needed. This is a very high class Hasbarah outfit, but perhaps too sophisticated to be in good graces with the current government.) Visiting cultural institutions of economically underrepresented minorities?
It must be that wonderful, savage sense of Russian irony & sarcasm you have! Bless you for it. This was brilliant.
An interesting detail that is somehow missing from this comment is that no one was ever forced to visit Lenin’s Mausoleum and no one is forced to visit Israel.
Since part of this thread is dedicated to the history of world wars, it is appropriate to mention that it was French who learned that their generals were always preparing for the previous war.
The current “war of ideas” is being fought in people’s minds on web pages like this one. Thus, I am glad that Israelis realize this and that the “representatives of The People” are doing their job.
What an amazing back handed compliment offering further proof that you’re either a paid or volunteer emissary on behalf of the Pro-Israel brigades
I am in an army of one. But I can easily take on a dozen of people like you because I am fighting for truth, and in the end truth always wins.
I must also add, that I have yet to meet a person who is being paid to comment in support of Israel. It is an invention of anti-Israel brigades who cannot stand an honest intellectual debate and have to “moderate” comments from people like me – as you are doing it now.
I don’t like you, your attitude or the fact that you hear what you want to hear & disregard the rest. This isn’t a baseball game, nor a soccer match. I don’t appreciate yr obnoxious attitude. You will be moderated. When yr comments are relevant and substantive they will be published. When you offer lies & historical revisionism as you so often do, they will not.
I did not make any impression of someone being forced to do either. I was just pointing out practical difficulties involving in a visit to Israel to see the democracy in action as advised by “Sane guy”. Israeli security agencies use web prowling to find about activities and views of potentially “radical” visitors and I got some airport experience what happens if you fall into some “suspicious” profile.
Interestingly, defenders of “Israel as it is” are split into two sets. One claims that democracy is doing just fine. The second claims that who needs democracy? Russia resisted better than France etc. The two claims are not inconsistent: yes, we still have democracy, but we are working to get rid of most impractical aspects like tolerating the seditious speach or NGOs, or annoying members in the Knesset, or Supreme Court that has some highfalutin ideas about universal justice (rather than applying Jewish values and traditions). You will be able to call it Democracy Turbo. Or democrazia alla Putinesca.
About Syria: Syrian issues were debated and appropriate resolutions were voted upon, both in Security Council and Arab League. The claim that UN and other bodies debate Israel and ignore other issue is simply false.
@Elisabeth I should have said, a returning Islamic winter. I don’t put much stock in what religion driven people have to say. Actions speaking louder than words.
I am not sure what you mean with ‘returning’. Your term ‘winter’ clearly referred to a failing of the Arab spring that took place in Egypt and Tunesia. So were they in ‘Islamic winter’ before their revolutions took place?
And do you really make excuses for an authoritarian Israel? (Surely you are not serious.)
What is your point?
By winter I mean the 1000 years Jews lived in poverty, fear and humiliation under Islamic rule.
No excuses. I’ve made the personal observation that authoritarian governments have withstood invasions better than democracies.
Stalin’s Soviets resisted the Nazis whereas France capitulated.
Yr grasp of history is seriously deficient. Jewish life in Arab lands, while not perfect, was far more tranquil & productive than in Christian lands.
Yr generalizations about democracies folding under military threat is similarly defective. Or have you forgotten that two democracies spearheaded allied victories in WWI & WWII: the U.S. & Britain.
“… two democracies spearheaded allied victories …”
Germans had lost 80% of their personnel on the Eastern Front during WWII.
Facts are definetely not your strong side …
Had the U.S. not entered both WWI & WWI Germany likely would’ve won both wars.
Ditto. Much more freedom and prosperity occurred for Jews living under and as participants in the heyday of Islamic Civilizations from Spain to Yemen and on through Syrian and Iran.
“poverty, humiliation and fear”??? When and where was this? I missed that class. Do you mean like Iranian Jews live in fear and humiliation? Is that what you mean? Or do you make it up as you go?
Do Lybian Jews live in fear and humiliation? Do Egyptian Jews live in fear and humiliation? Do Iraqi Jews live in fear and humiliation? Do Saudi Jews live in fear and humiliation? Do Lebanese Jews live in fear and humiliation?
Sounds like you’ve been missing a lot of classes…
There are almost no Jews living in Arab lands so claiming that they live in fear in countries where they either don’t exist or barely exist is a misnomer. The reasons for this condition are complicated and involve a combination of anti-Semitism, Zionist provocation of anti-Semitic hoax attacks, and Aliyah-promotion designed to stampede native Jews to Israel.
You of course focus on the period from around 1920-1970, when many Jews left these places, while I of course spoke of the overall history of Jews in Arab lands which lasted for a millennium or more. And I repeat that Jewish civilization in the Arab world flourished during this period, especially compared to the Crusades, Inquisitions, pogroms, and massive hatred Jews endured in Christian Europe during the same period.
Turkish and Iranian Jews live reasonably well and comfortably in those two countries. While there are drawbacks to being Jewish in these places, conditions are nowhere near as bleak as anti-Muslim hasbarists like you make it out to be.
That was precisely my point. They are all gone because of fear for their lives and daily humiliation.
A lie as I pointed out already. That is only a part of the reason. Keep lying about history in this way and you may lose yr privileges altogether.
There is no question that historically Christians were much less hospitable to Jews than Muslims.
However, it was never easy to be a non-Muslim in a Muslim land. With a name like “Siverstein” you should get a bit of education about Jewish history in Muslim countries.
This video – “Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran, and The Revolt of Islam” – is a good primer. It explains political Islam rather well.
This link talks about how Turks treat their Jews today: link to jewcy.com