my latest posting on the Jewish Russian Telegraph on the situation in Israel
Please see my latest posting on the Jewish Russian Telegraph, the Boston-based right-wing Russian Jewish blog. I was responding to about seven postings responding to an earlier posting of my own. Check out the whole interchange at www.jrtelegraph.com
I would like to thank everyone who responded to my last posting on JRT and look forward to continuing discussing these issues, both on JRT and rubyjewsday.com. Again, everyone is welcome to come and post on my blog as well.
Let me respond to a few of the points made by my interlocutors. JRT editor Greg Margolin, who I enjoyed interviewing together with Alex Koifman when I did a story on the controversy between the Boston Jewish establishment and Russian Jewish leaders a couple of years ago, asks why I bring in the concept of silnaya ruka or iron hand, given that he did not mention it in the JRT piece I was critiquing. True, but it seems to me that the whole approach of JRT is silnaya ruka, the premise that Israel can solve all of its problems with the Palestinians, Arabs and whole Muslim world, with brute force and military might. Just hit them hard enough and win more military victories and they will give up and accept permanent Israeli control of the occupied territories and all the settlements Israel wants to build.
The problem is that approach has been tried for 40 years and hasn't worked. That was Arik Sharon's whole approach for decades until he became prime minister and had the ultimate responsibility for Israel's destiny and then got a sudden jolt of cowardice or insanity or whatever Greg wants to call it and became a lefty/softy. Same with Olmert who was also a lifelong Likudnik. Same thing with Bibi when he was actually in power and not on the outside shouting right-wing slogans. And I guarantee that the same thing will happen with Lieberman if he ever comes to power.
So why do you suppose all the heroes of the Israeli right suddenly come down with cowardice or insanity when they reach power? Because they have to deal with the reality that there are less than six million Jews, versus hundreds of millions of Arabs and 1.3 billion Muslims. Because of this reality, plus the fact that the West, including the U.S. will not write off all of its own interests in order to allow Israel to impose its will on the entire Arab-Muslim world, Israel will NEVER be able to follow the JRT approach to the conflict. That was true in 1967 and 1973 and 1982 and 1993 and 2000 and its just as true today.
Sure, Greg, you and I as Diaspora Jews both have a right to criticize Israel's leaders and I've done my share of that too. Nevertheless, as I wrote, its very easy to sit in Boston and suggest smugly that Olmert, like every other Israeli leader who ever existed, must be either a coward or insane because they don't 'get' what is so self-evident to the geniuses of the JRT; that brute force is the answer. But, with due respect, that hardly can be called a serious analysis.
Writing in a simlar vein, Gene calls Olmert and company "criminals", whereas Vladimir from Minneapolis implies that Olmert's approach is "appeasement" and asks me to give one example of a time when appeasement worked. Well, I hardly see Olmert's policies as appeasement; on the contrary, I see him as trying to give the absolute minumum of land for the maximum of peace. I dont think his plan will work, but for the opposite reason you do. I think that ultimately Israel will have to go back very close to the 67 boundaries and share Jerusalem with an independent Palestinian state if it wants to achieve peace.
Vladimir notes mournfully that ultimately all peoples deserve the leaders they elect, even leaders like Olmert and Peretz. That seems to me again a way of saying that he and other JRT participants understand better than Israelis what is good for them. Kol hakavod, Vladimir and Yekhil that you have sons serving in the IDF, but that doesnt make you a better strategist than either of the crazy cowards presently at the top of the Israeli government.
My friend Boris Gorbis again treats us again to his conviction that "the needs, desires and hopes of most of the Jews and Arabs, of Israelis and Palestinians, are not symmetrical. These belong to entirely different planes of reference. Our fundamental moral rights and theirs moral do not intersect." Again, I ask Boris, what makes him such a great chacham, such an authority, on the desires, hopes and morals of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims? I doubt whether Boris has ever seriously dialogued with any of the above. My own sense, based on a considerable amount of interaction with 'the enemy' is that Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians are all human beings and as human beings have many of the same desires and hopes, for peace, security, success and prosperity. But Boris is convinced the other side are another species entirely--a demonic one.
Finally, my friend Alex Koifman, offers me the following advise: "If you want to understand our community - just sit & listen. Like a student in elementary school." Well, Alex, I have sat and listened and I am still listening and learning, buit also respectfully exchanging ideas with members of the Russian Jewish community as well. As I said, I love and respect Russian Jews, and have since I first began interacting with them back in 1980, but I dont think they have a monopoly on all the wisdom in the world. I would suggest that just as both American Jews and sabras have plenty to learn from Russian Jews--and both have often behaved in an unforgivably patronizing, condescending way toward Russian Jews-that Russian Jews also have plenty to learn from American Jews and sabras as well. No side has a monopoly on the truth, but each side has some pieces of it.
Russian Jews have enriched my life in many wonderful ways, and I understand how the historical experience of Russian Jews shaped the sglad, the mindset, many express here on the JRT (I have known Russian Jewish peaceniks as well, but acknowledge there is a pronounced tendency toward hakishness). But it is exactly because I like and respect this community so much that I reach out and say, 'I think that sglad as it relates to Israel and the Palestinians is a dead end that, if followed, will only dig Israelis, including one million Russian Jews in Israel, deeper into endless conflict.
Anyway, thanks for the chance to dialogue with you and and let us pray together for the peace of Jerusalem.
Walter
posted by Walter @ 7:09 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
There is, in fact, a Hegelian synthesis between yours and JRT's positions -- one best voiced by a philosopher named Yoda:
"There is no 'try'! Do, or do not!"
There is, in fact, ample experience with the effectiveness of silnaya ruka -- when not restrained by anything like conscience. Caesar vs the Gauls, Stalin vs Ukrainian and Baltic separatists, VC vs the Vietnamese -- it works. It's not goint to work for Israel because Israelis have consciences. What Israelis also have is brains, and I suggest they start using them.
Dear Walter,
I'm trying to be specific. You lean toward generalities. I will yield to you. Let's deal with generalities first. Russian Jews are toughies. You are right, we often think about the Iron Hand approach, about "silnaya ruka". You would agree that American Jews are softies, their first instinct is to talk it over, to make nice, to please goyim, with a highly pronounced tendency to break into singing of kumbaya. Ok, now we are square here, let's deal with the question -- What to do and not to do, and why the "peace process" is problematic.
I will open with a parable. Let us picture a medical patient who has high blood pressure. Now, this patient was advised by a doctor that the best way to cure himself is to bite off his finger. The patient somewhat reluctantly complied. Blood, pain, the patient is screaming. He has a lot of complaints for his doctor. His doctor's answer is -- one finger is not enough. You have to bite off another one. The patient wants to participate in his own cure. He wants to impress his family and friends with readiness to cooperate with his doctor. The patient is pained, incredible, but nothing to do -- he has to listen to the doctor. He bites two more fingers. It hurts as hell. The blood is gushing. Another doctor comes in and says -- this is insane! Stop biting off your fingers! The first doctor is insulted. His response -- the patient still has high blood pressure. At least I'm trying to do something!
Now, Walter, the left, the peace people, are the first doctor. They brought in Israel Arafat and 50,000 fighters, they gave them weapons. It did not help. They ran from South Lebanon betraying allies and creating a base for Hizballah, they kicked themselves out of Gaza and created Hamasistan, they let the whole country to become an open target to terrorist attacks and missiles. The solution? Give some more. Cutting fingers is inefficient. Let's cut the whole hand!
Walter, the first rule while in a hole, stop digging. My advice to Israel -- stop biting off your fingers.
The question about what to do long-term is a good one and the right has to articulate it, I agree with you on this one.
I will address the mystery of Israeli "right-wingers" turning left, once in power, in a separate post.
Be well,
-- Greg
Let me pick up that gauntlet here, Greg.
Ultimately, radicalism is the battle against your own middle class. This is getting pretty obvious in Iraq, where American casualties are almost an afterthought in the context of mass slaughter of Iraquis, and in Lebanon where Hezbollah with Syranian (Syro-Iranian) backing is attacking the Weimaresque government. Arguably, the only reason they went after Israel was to destabilize Lebanon -- but this is conjecture. Every time Israel acts in ways that seriously hurts the Arab middle class, the radicals throw a party. Why? Because the middle class is the best damper of war and sedition money can buy. They are the guys who understand that falling bombs are bad for business, they are the ones who dream of their sons succeeding in the family trade -- not taking the express flight to Paradise. Yes, ceteris paribus, the Arab middle class would prefer to see Israel go away -- but not if it costs them their business and their family's safety. Take away those, and they have nothing to lose by radicalization. Every Israeli premier so far has seen this, either before or after inauguration.
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