Us and Not Us

I would like to commend Prime Minister Netanyahu for taking a strong stand against the discrimination which Ethiopian Jews have experienced in Israel. I can't say I have always been his fan. He certainly can speak like a boor at times. But in this matter he has been right on.
When I was a young man I once asked my mother just out of curiosity, "would you rather I marry a girl who is Black and Jewish or one who is White and Gentile?" Her answer was "Black and Jewish because she would be one of us." It was not just a matter of religion. It was a matter of usness (identity). Although today most Jews live in North America where we are free of the worst excesses of anti-Semitism and in Israel where Jews are the majority, this feeling of Jewish identity was hammered into us by 2 millennia of being an outcast minority of us to a surrounding majority which did not accept us as part of their us.
I am sure that the time will come when all Jews in Israel will assimilate as one Jewish people. It is also important for the security of Israel that the feeling of usness will extend to all the citizens of Israel, Jewish or not.

The Question and the Answer

The results of the recent elections in Israel indicate that the Right knew the question but had the wrong answer while the Center and Left had the right answer but didn't know the question. What I mean is the Right knew that the major issue facing Israel is security. The internal issues pale in comparison. However they offered the wrong answer. Security is not served by alienating the very people you need to bring over to your side. On the other hand, the Center and Left are better prepared to do what needs to be done to make the compromises needed to maximize Israel's allies and therefore its security, but instead they tangled themselves up in a number of less important internal issues.

Netanyahu is the Jewish Arafat

Yasser Arafat screwed up when he was offered an opportunity for an independent Palestine by Ehud Barak, and he rejected it without even negotiating. He did it because he did not have the courage to go against his hardliners. In the last Israeli election, Netanyahu said he would not allow a Palestinian state under his watch and maligned the Israeli Arabs who make up 1/5 of his citizens to appease his hardliners and play on the fears of undecided Israeli Jewish voters. After the election, he said that he just meant that a non-militarized Palestinian state would be OK to appease the international community and sane American Jews who support Israel but not the new fanatics who have a brand of Zionism that differs from the democratic one that Theodore Herzl envisioned. Mr. Netanyahu's cowardice (and the sheep who follow him) put Israel at risk just as Arafat's cowardice destroyed Palestinian independence.
The fact is that the second Netanyahu (the one who allowed for a non-militarized Palestine) put forth an idea that is in sync with that of the USA under President Obama and probably with the international community if they could trust that Bibi is serious and not just blowing gas out of his mouth that should be coming from the other end. Although they would not openly admit it out of their own cowardice, I suspect that many in the Fatah leadership secretly think the same way. Palestine really needs economic development, and militarization would only be an unnecessary expense. But how can you expect courage from the Palestinian leadership when Israel elects leaders who are too chicken to oppose the settlers.

Bibi, Radical Rightists, and other Anti-Obamaists

Bibi Netanyahu and his Republican friends claim that they see the Iranian nuclear threat clearly and President Obama does not. They claim they are saving Israel from catastrophe by urging the US to keep ratcheting up the sanctions without negotiations whether the other major powers go along with it or not. The reality is that the US under Obama has maintained strong sanctions and has led the International Community in doing so. If the US were to go along with Bibi and the Republicans to go it alone, the sanctions would not work because without the  cooperation of the International  Community the sanctions would have gaping holes in it and therefore be not effective. Unfortunately nuclear technology, like all other technologies, has been growing and the danger of it falling into the wrong hands keeps getting greater. Our best hope of containing it is by keeping technologically ahead of the bad guys and uniting the world community against the danger.
As for a 2 state Israel/Palestine solution. Bibi says no Palestine during the election to win over his base and then a demilitarized Palestine after the election for damage control. One does not know which is the real Bibi, but  contrary to what one hears from the Radical Right, the damage control Bibi is not so different than Obama. Neither the real President Obama or the Damage Control Bibi demands an immediate militarized Palestine. Both the real president Obama and the possibly fictional Bibi see a gradual evolution of the status of Palestine. However the real Bibi seems to want no progress at all. The only action of Netanyahu is to authorize settlement expansion which creates facts on the ground which interferes with a solution, makes it difficult for neighboring Arab states who need good relations with Israel to bring those relations out from under the table without fomenting domestic rebellion, and gives cover to Iran to demonize Israel and move toward a nuclear bomb as well as helping anti-semites all over the world.

Fiction and Reality

In the Land of Israel/Palestine (the land situated between Egypt and Jordan), fiction seems to trump reality on all sides. The fiction of Hamas is that they can defeat Israel militarily. The fiction of Abbas and the leadership of the West Bank (at least publicly although I don't know what they think privately) is that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are one country called Palestine, and that Palestine can become one state if the UN wills it. The fiction of the Radical Right in Israel is that the Arabs don't exist. Netanyahu promotes that fiction when he expands settlements in the West Bank. And of course there are many Arabs who think that the Jews don't exist. There are anti-semites in the world who also hold a similar idea, that Jews should not exist in Israel or anywhere. The reality is that Israel exists and is inhabited by the Israeli people who consist of 75% Jews, 20% Arabs, and 5% others. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are inhabited by mostly Arabs but also pockets of settlement Jews. East Jerusalem has Jewish neighborhoods which exist on land which Israel acquired after 1967. The Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem exists and the inhabitants have not been made into Israeli citizens and therefore are Palestinians.
So the reality is that both Jews and Arabs inhabit the land of Israel/Palestine, and neither are leaving because neither has anywhere else to go. They can kick the can down the road, but the present situation can not last forever. The resolution can not occur immediately, but it has to start somewhere. Palestine might never be one country or maybe it will some day. Maybe the ultimate solution will be 2 or more completely separate states, or maybe one bi-national state, or maybe some kind of confederation. But there has to be some movement to show that there is hope. Expansion of settlements is contrary to the interests of everyone, least of all Israel. Realism is a necessity.

J Street, I Can't Follow You

After Netanyahu opened his big mouth to speak to his base in the recent Israeli elections, I was ready to switch some of my contributions this year to J Street. Then I read in the Forward that J Street is now moving to the left of where I stand and going to the UN to force Israel to change. There is enough anti-Semitism in the UN already, they don't need me to help them..

Palestinian State or No Palestinian State?

Bibi,
So during the election you told your base among the Settlers and Radical Right that you won't see a Palestinian state on your watch with no qualifications. Now when you speak to us in the World, you say that's not what you meant, a Palestinian state is OK, but a demilitarized one. Now, I agree with you on that, for now. It's true that a completely militarized Palestine so close to Israel is not acceptable today given what's going on surrounding you in the Arab world. But what are your thoughts about the future? It's true that the Palestinians have made impossible demands on Israel to kill any agreement, like demanding the return of descendants of Palestinian Arab refugees to Israel proper. Also they haven't gotten their act together to make peace. And its true, there are 2 Palestine's on the West Bank and Gaza, and Abbas can't speak for Gaza when he can't control Hamas. It's also true that compared to the neighborhood there is a de facto relative peace in Israel and in the West Bank and maybe for the moment even in  Gaza. But this kind of peace is temporary. Perhaps Abbas and the Palestinian leaders are not so anxious to move forward toward statehood themselves and prefer playing the role of victim. But why must you throw the ball back into Israel's court, making the Palestinians look like the good guy victims they want to be, justifying the mullahs in Iran who pretend to be the defenders of the Palestinians, helping them to justify their nuclear ambitions, and putting Israel in greater danger. Also, Bibi, you even alienated your own Arab Israeli citizens, questioning their right to vote, dividing Israel and weakening it. 
The future Palestinian state can not happen overnight and must start demilitarized. But when you expand settlements, you are saying the occupation will never end. Israel needs creativity in dealing with it's existential problem. I think creativity is a quality that you, Bibi, lack.