There is a saying mistakenly attributed to Churchill: “If you're not Liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not Conservative when you're 35, you have no brain." Israel's traditional Left – not the Peace Now defeatist bunch, but tough kibbutzniks ready to fight and kill for their country – was never liberal in the current sense of embracing one’s enemies. When the pioneers’ children became academics and started asking themselves the questions beginning "Why not?" – the traditional Left started drifting to defeatism. "Why not live with Arabs in the Jewish state?" "Why not give Egypt Sinai?" "Why not allow a Palestinian state in Judea?" "Why not partition Jerusalem?" There is no answer to these question; they are a matter of axioms. Do parallel lines cross in infinity? Does the Land of Israel belong to the Jews?
Socialists – like the Israeli pioneers – were never pacifist. Socialist regimes proved more militant and murderous than their conservative opponents. The Israeli MAPAI left-wing party drove 600,000 Arabs out of Israel and staunchly refused to let them back in. International friendship is alien to the socialist system of values: the USSR was at odds with every capitalist-leaning country, and Israel’s leftist governments crushed the Palestinians without reservations.
If the Israeli Left is so right, why is it nevertheless left? The defining trait of leftism is rationalism: castles in the air can be designed and therefore can be built. Educated European Jews detested the backward religious crowd. The Left’s attitude wasn’t about religion: still in the early 1980s, there was little traffic on Saturdays and nearly no pork consumption in Israel. A well-known feature of the opening hours of Yom Kippur War was empty streets – the society dominated by the Left still adhered to major Jewish rules. Secular Jews sense the religious’ absence of political goals – from a rejection of Zionism to a lukewarm attitude towards the Third Temple – and plain backwardness. People who insist on dressing in centuries-old fashion and observe myriad superstitious rites are hardly a beacon for the nation. Secular Jews, accordingly, proceeded to design and build an ideal society where wolves lay with sheep and Jews dine with Arabs. One thing more pleasant than peace is designing a peaceful society.
The left Jews are perfectly nationalist. “Our state” is a meaningful concept for them. Their utopian state is Jewish although including pet-like Arabs. Jewish left-wingers give Arabs democratic rights so long as Arabs are too few to influence elections. Here lies the problem. In the mid-1980s, Arabs became sufficiently many to influence Israeli elections. The left-wingers subsequently had three choices: to admit themselves as hypocrites who did not really mean to give Arabs democratic rights in a Jewish state, to counter the increase of Arab population, or to put their principles where their mouth is and accept a democratic rather than a Jewish state. The leftists embraced the last two options. They brought half a million Slavs untainted by Jewish blood and a still larger number of Jews untainted by Zionist idea; that relieved the Arab voting pressure temporarily until Barak won the Labor primaries in 2007 on Arab votes. Many left Jews abandoned the concept of a Jewish state and accepted a Middle Eastern democracy where the Arabs influence politics and legislation.
The shift wasn’t painful. If the Jews have no religious goal of governing the Land of Israel, it makes sense to divide jurisdiction with Arabs. If the Jews evaluate their claim to the Land of Israel skeptically, then the Arab claim to the same territory should be entertained. It is only reasonable to split a thing you don’t want desperately with another contender. If you don’t want it desperately enough to kill the contender…
The leftists evaluate the situation: okay, we would love to have a large Jewish state but the land is already settled. Okay, we would love to live in specifically this land, but the landmarks of the biblical saga are not of paramount importance for us. Okay, we would love to live in a state without Arabs but they are already here. The left Jews draw superficially reasonable conclusions: split the contested land, abandon the hot places of antiquated religious importance, and accept Arabs in Israel. None of that works. Jews accept splitting the land, but many Arabs don’t; they want their Palestinian homeland (or Muslim land) back in its entirety. They will fight Israel no matter the concessions. Whatever concessions Israel offers them won’t be enough; Arabs will reciprocate Israeli forced goodwill with force, not goodwill. The more land Israel gives away, the more she emboldens the Arabs. The smaller is Israel’s land plot, the more effort Arabs will invest in that last push to free their land. The good-willing leftists ignore an odd fact: goodwill doesn’t lead to peace. Ask the suffering Lao people.
Nor could the secular Jews give Arabs all the holy places. After giving the Muslims Hebron and the Temple Mount, Israelis discovered what was clear all along: the list of holy places is flexible. Arabs defend every illegally constructed mosque (hundreds in Israel, including huge ones such as in Lod) similarly to Haram ash-Sharif. Every point of confrontation with Jews, however trivial, turns into a religious dispute. Secular careless Jews give way; principled Arabs don’t.
Arabs make good co-workers and mostly decent employees. The Jewish state offered them income opportunities that Arafat threatened to destroy. But what happens when Arab armies push into Israel and the income waves farewell? The Arabs don’t love the Jews, possess no loyalty to a Jewish state, and once the incentives for loyalty are gone, they will stub the Jews. To live with a people having such attitudes is uncomfortable, but left-wingers comfort themselves with the opinion that Arabs are loyal to a strong Israel. Forget for a moment that scores of Israeli Arabs abet Palestinian terrorists and the crowds in the Arab villages in Galilee cheered Hezbollah’s rockets flying at Haifa. Arabs understand the Jews want their loyalty and are ready to pay for it. Arabs keep raising the price tag for their loyalty. They demand the Jews turn a blind eye to illegal construction, criminal syndicates, non-payment for water and electricity, and a black market economy. Through affirmative action, especially in the courts, Israeli Arabs evolved from pets into the masters of Jews.
The leftist Jews want a state without Arabs, but - lacking religious justification or strong nationalism - resent making the Arabs suffer. The leftists hope that Arabs will somehow leave Israel voluntarily. Leftists, however, shied away from Rehavam Ze’evi, who argued for the most voluntary transfer: paying the Arabs to leave. The Left would love the Arabs to leave, but talking about the transfer is racist, right-wing, indecent. The Jews became blind, ethnic-blind. In their enlightened fantasies, leftist Jews imagine a state formed without violence done to the aborigines, a Jewish state which doesn’t displace the Arabs, a state where indigenous Arabs accept Jewish refugees as the dominant group.
Arabs constitute 34% of the Israeli population in the youngest age group. Israeli advocates ingeniously explain how a democratic ethnic-blind state can call itself Jewish, but Arabs don’t buy such explanations. They demand abrogation of formal attributes of inequality: Jewish state, “Jewish soul” in the national anthem, and Jewish star on the national flag. They demand ministerial portfolios including, eventually, a place in the security cabinet which discusses fighting their Arab brethren.
Lincoln remarked, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Smart leftist Jews cannot fool all the Arabs all the time. The Jewish state is not ethnic-blind. The Jew-only General Staff is not the product of a democracy. A fairy tale of a Jewish state with herds of happy and submissive Arabs won’t work out. Meanwhile, the Jews believed their own lies about happy co-existence in a bi-national state, and tolerate the Arabs.
The Arabs loved Greek culture and knew about democracy. When, however, they wanted a Muslim state, they made Jews dhimmi rather than democratic partners. Rambam noted that what is triune cannot be one; when Jews are distinct and Arabs are distinct, there is no Israeli nation.
A Jewish state cannot afford Arab residents.
In fact That all Jews want a Jews state, that mean no one can live in that state unless if he was Jew. This is what i call "Racial Discrimination".
"Does the Land of Israel belong to Jews?"
Does land belong to anyone or is it/was it, in the first instance, just taken/settled upon/stolen from nobody because In the Beginning there was land and it belonged to everybody and anybody and no one but then man saw his greed and took it a pays a price in his blood for his greed and fall from grace.
Yeah, that sounds about right….. with everyone paying the price for the fall of man from grace, with those at war with their own greed paying the highest price.
…pets always eventually dominate man…(as time is relative to perspective)…pets gain control in a New York minute…
…land divides itself and man has no lasting grasp on materials
…sufferage is brought to bear
"Israeli MAPAI left drove 600,000 of Arabs out of Israel and staunchly refused to let them back in."
This is revisionist history. The arab states told them to leave in order not to get slaughtered and the Israelis then didn't let some of these enemy peoples back in.
"Israel’s leftist governments crushed Palestinians without reservations. "
There were no such things as Palestinians in the modern sense. There were just some Arabs living in Israel.
"The defining trait of leftism is rationalism:"
This is total baloney. The Leftists passionately believe their contrived garbage with fundamentalist fervor and with no backing in logic.
"Secular Jews sense the religious’ absence of political goals – from rejection of Zionism to lukewarm attitude to the Third Temple – and plain backwardness."
This is just pure anti Religious bias without any rational basis. The Left by far has no monopoly on reason. The Orthodox are much more logical.
" People who insist on dressing in centuries-old fashion and observe myriad superstitious rites are hardly the beacon for the nation."
Straight from the Protocols. Pure unfounded rot.
" Secular Jews, accordingly, proceeded to design and build an ideal society where wolves lay with sheep and Jews dine with Arabs."
Lies and distortions. The Orthodox played a major role in developing the land.
"The shift wasn’t painful. If Jews have no religious goal of governing the Land of Israel, it makes sense to divide jurisdiction with Arabs."
This is the pathway to oblivion and an indication of the blindness of the Left.
" If Jews evaluate their claim to the Land of Israel skeptically, then the Arab claim to the same territory should be entertained. It is only reasonable to split a thing you don’t want desperately with another contender. If you don’t want it desperately enough to kill the contender…"
Why is the Arab's rapacious grab of the land any more justified than the Israeli taking of the Land offered to them by the international community? (This is if you ignore the Jewish right to the land by biblical and historical mandates.)
"Arabs defend every illegally constructed mosque (hundreds in Israel, including huge ones such as in Lod) similarly to Haram ash-Sharif."
Apparently the Arabs entertain no artificial delusions about the Jews rights - justified or not. The Left gives land validly owned away for paltry reasons.
"The leftist Jews want a state without Arabs, but - lacking religious justification or strong nationalism - resent making the Arabs suffer. The leftists hope that Arabs will somehow leave Israel voluntarily. Leftists, however, shied Rehavam Ze’evi who argued for the most voluntary transfer: paying the Arabs to leave. The Left would love the Arabs to leave, but talking about the transfer is racist, right-wing, indecent. The Jews became blind, ethnic-blind. In their enlightened fantasies, leftist Jews imagine a state formed without violence done to the aborigines, a Jewish state which doesn’t displace the Arabs, a state where indigenous Arabs accept Jewish refugees as the dominant group."
This is all true. This is the "rationalism" of the Left?
"Arabs loved Greek culture and knew about democracy. When, however, they wanted a Muslim state, they made Jews dhimmi rather than democratic partners. Rambam noted that what is triune cannot be one; when Jews are distinct and Arabs are distinct, there is no Israeli nation.
A Jewish state cannot afford Arab residents."
It can affor them but not in a multi culti context that lets them become dominant. The USA is facing the same self destructive so called Democratic movement to destroy itself.
Ezekiel 36:24 God gave you the land as you came out of all nations. Its not yours to give to the Palestinians whom by DNA are actually Egyptians and Jordanians. Arafat was born an Egyptian from Cairo,Egypt. He invented the Palestinian tribe and history. The media is too dumb and anti-Semitic to tell the world the truth. God will curse all nations including the USA whom wish to disect Israel and give it to the terrorists. Genesis 12:3 still effective. God's curses also start in Revelation chapter 6 onward. Israel is Jewish land even more evident Zechariah 14:9-10 when the Lord claims Jerusalem as his city and reigns over the entire world.
I have read about 5 of Obadiah Shoher's commentaries tonight and have to say I agree with 150% of every sentence, letter and paragraph. I'm glad to know that I wasn't the only one thinking the same way. By the way i'm a first generation mexican-american, conservative christian. I will gladly tell as many people as I can about your blog(s)…
I'll be back to read more…
Lets admit that except for the most blatant examples of revisionist history mosy of the 450000 Plais who fled were running from a war Zone confident that they would soon be able to return and collect additional Jewish Booty after the Jews were slaughterd by The Arab hordes then invading or about to invade Tiny Israel. I would concede that in some instances they were helped to leave and for most of the Jews but certainly not all were not unhappy that they left.
I do agree with most of what you have to say after this correction especially your last SENTENCE! We cant have any Arabs here in our state!
Disgustin you are guided by antisemitic hate. There was the Kingdom of Israel that belonged to the Jewish nation until the Roman ocupation and expulsion of the rightfull owners of the land; The Israelites not the Arabs. The Arabs lived south in Arabia. Israel belongs to the Jews by right and you have to be a racist fanatical ignorant antisemitic pig to denied this. So Go to hell you and your page of antisemitic lies. Pig!
Why are you counting things that happened a mellenia ago and contrast it to things that have been taken in a span of no less than a century? Before the creation of Israel the land there was called Palestine even Jews at the WW2 period refer to that strip of land as Palestine. . .Well if we look at it in an abstract way, well you see the Jews went everywhere from Eastern Europe to Southern Europe and to The New World.Think about it, if the Holocaut never occurred and no pity for the horrifying genocide of the Jews planned by Hitler,do you think that the Jews would be granted Israel by the British Balfour declaration and the Skykes-Picot agreement? Why should the Palestinians give up their land to the Jews for what Hitler had committed? Why not let Germany hold the Jews there?
Mona: Balfour Declaration was issued thirty years before Holocaust. And someone way higher than Britain granted Jews this land.
On the secular plane, Palestinians never settled this land. There were scattered villages on the hills, but the plain - modern Israel - was all desert and marshes. Arab notables squatted small parcels of arable land in late nineteenth century for orange groves, but common Arabs never settled them. No one displaced those Palestinians before they attacked Israel in 1947.
Yes they did after the diaspora, the Jews were a mixed race. They belonged the country that they settled in since the diaspora. Makes no sense to return to Palestine and claim it as their homeland. They normally identify themselves as the citizen of the country they settled in after the diaspora. Then they arrived in Palestine and snatched it from the Palestinians who were living there. It still means ivading though.
Oh, Mona, go tell that to Americans - nasty European settlers who snatched the land from poor Red Indians. Or to Saudis who occupied their current land. Or to the Palestinians, who are a mixed crowd coming from Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, and elsewhere. In fact, Mona, what are you doing in Thailand? Aren't you snatching a piece of land from the locals?
We do believe the Land of Israel was given to the People of Israel. Not by the UN.