Israel seems impaled on the horns of an irresolvable dilemma, one aspect of which is that it is trapped trying to serve 2 masters, or follow the morals and dictates of 2 conceptions of the Sacred: on one side is modern liberal democracy, the West's secular religion, which is defined by civil rights and liberties, equality before the law, and obedience to international human rights laws and treaties etc (which is why Israel is judged so much more harshly than any Arab nation, because Arab nations don't even pretend to respect any of these things); the other conception of the Sacred is the traditonal view of the Nation as being by and for a specific people w specific beliefs and rituals (religion) and a specific history, which in the case of Jews is the even-more-intense bond of their covenant w Jehovah and their ancient homeland of Judea. The former option seems to mean their having to choose some form of suicide, however deferred, and the latter option seems to mean perpetual war and perpetual pariah status.
But one thing Israelis know that safe and rich Westerners cannot imagine is that some people don't embrace liberal democracy as the inevitable terminus of History, that not everyone dreams of becoming deracinated consumers worshipping GDP, but that some people want Vengeance above all and dream of a Promised Land where they can at last bathe in the blood of their enemies—this is Israel's grim reality, but at least they're aware of it, and know that whatever Arabs they're going to have as neighbors will need to have the jihad pummeled out of them, no matter how long it takes or how many of their own people it may cost.
I agree, and Israel is impaled firmly on both horns. It was always going to be difficult to balance secular and religious interests with a democratic state that had no ideologically agreed boundaries. It is quite striking in the conception of Israel how delicately the relationship between a Jewish nation-state with Jewish character and preserving democracy has ebbed and flowed, from the socialist principles of the kibbutzim and Labour-dominated early years to Bibi's wild concoction of ultra-nationalists and religious nutcases. And it is that concoction that seems to be tipping the state towards, as you say, perpetual war and perpetual pariah status.
But yes, the sheer naivety in the West for the doctrines of jihad and Islamist fundamentalism never ceases to amaze me. I think it is more a case of deliberately averting the eyes for fear of being branded Islamaphobic, which (was it Hitchens?) has been called a term "invented by idiots to manipulate morons". Within that though, if Israel could eventually coax Jordan and Egypt into peace, and with the Abraham Accords bringing countries like Saudi Arabia a little closer, it is not impossible at all. The issue for any serious Palestinian leadership, however, is that those countries are not really pulling any serious strings...the puppet-master of jihad is Iran, and the nascent Persian Empire-by-Proxy is not going to suddenly have an ideological oil change any time soon.
"But yes, the sheer naivety in the West for the doctrines of jihad and Islamist fundamentalism never ceases to amaze me."
From talking to people it strikes me that at least 9 out of 10 Westerners cannot really comprehend the idea that not everyone wants to live in a liberal democracy and trade their ancient religious rituals for the modern Western rituals of politics and elections—I guess much like how our spiritual ancestors couldn't seem to believe that not everyone on the globe wanted to worship Jesus Christ.
The Palestinians have mostly served the purposes of other people(s)—for the Arab states as a safety valve so various dictators can channel all the rage in their societies toward the Jews and away from them, and for the Western Left and the UN, as a way for the supposed socialists to have a colonial oppressor to manufacture and bash, which tickles all their erogenous zones. Maybe some day the Palestinians will have some sort of leadership class that exists to help its own people (and create institutions to do this), but this is nowhere in sight and the best Israel can hope for is to quarantine them.
Brilliant, Alan, thank you! This series (and I hope everyone has read all parts of it, highly recommend!) really is a masterpiece: It is comprehensive and detailed, balanced, critical, written, as it seems to me, with decent humility - which is, imho, so important here!
Also highly appreciated that you draw parallels to, e.g., the Ireland conflict (one might hope that we would be able to learn anything from history..).
As stated before, Israel's political system (as well as the problem of biases, especially in intelligence work) had been the main focus of my former political studies; but I've still learned so much from this series, even more so, had to question lots of my own beliefs! And for me, this is what makes this series even more valuable and special!
The ongoing protests in Germany against the horrific strengthening of a far-right movement are accompanied by shouts of, "Why haven't you been on the streets when muslims celebrated the slaughter of Israelis on October 7th?" on one side, and, "Why don't you walk the streets against genocide of Palestinians?" on the other; it's a paradox, a "Gordian knot", as your first part of this series stated. And rare reasonable voices like yours are all the more appreciated, thank you!
And yes, unfortunately, "the clock is still stuck at five minutes to midnight"..
Great job!
Israel seems impaled on the horns of an irresolvable dilemma, one aspect of which is that it is trapped trying to serve 2 masters, or follow the morals and dictates of 2 conceptions of the Sacred: on one side is modern liberal democracy, the West's secular religion, which is defined by civil rights and liberties, equality before the law, and obedience to international human rights laws and treaties etc (which is why Israel is judged so much more harshly than any Arab nation, because Arab nations don't even pretend to respect any of these things); the other conception of the Sacred is the traditonal view of the Nation as being by and for a specific people w specific beliefs and rituals (religion) and a specific history, which in the case of Jews is the even-more-intense bond of their covenant w Jehovah and their ancient homeland of Judea. The former option seems to mean their having to choose some form of suicide, however deferred, and the latter option seems to mean perpetual war and perpetual pariah status.
But one thing Israelis know that safe and rich Westerners cannot imagine is that some people don't embrace liberal democracy as the inevitable terminus of History, that not everyone dreams of becoming deracinated consumers worshipping GDP, but that some people want Vengeance above all and dream of a Promised Land where they can at last bathe in the blood of their enemies—this is Israel's grim reality, but at least they're aware of it, and know that whatever Arabs they're going to have as neighbors will need to have the jihad pummeled out of them, no matter how long it takes or how many of their own people it may cost.
Thanks mate, glad you made it to the end!
I agree, and Israel is impaled firmly on both horns. It was always going to be difficult to balance secular and religious interests with a democratic state that had no ideologically agreed boundaries. It is quite striking in the conception of Israel how delicately the relationship between a Jewish nation-state with Jewish character and preserving democracy has ebbed and flowed, from the socialist principles of the kibbutzim and Labour-dominated early years to Bibi's wild concoction of ultra-nationalists and religious nutcases. And it is that concoction that seems to be tipping the state towards, as you say, perpetual war and perpetual pariah status.
But yes, the sheer naivety in the West for the doctrines of jihad and Islamist fundamentalism never ceases to amaze me. I think it is more a case of deliberately averting the eyes for fear of being branded Islamaphobic, which (was it Hitchens?) has been called a term "invented by idiots to manipulate morons". Within that though, if Israel could eventually coax Jordan and Egypt into peace, and with the Abraham Accords bringing countries like Saudi Arabia a little closer, it is not impossible at all. The issue for any serious Palestinian leadership, however, is that those countries are not really pulling any serious strings...the puppet-master of jihad is Iran, and the nascent Persian Empire-by-Proxy is not going to suddenly have an ideological oil change any time soon.
"But yes, the sheer naivety in the West for the doctrines of jihad and Islamist fundamentalism never ceases to amaze me."
From talking to people it strikes me that at least 9 out of 10 Westerners cannot really comprehend the idea that not everyone wants to live in a liberal democracy and trade their ancient religious rituals for the modern Western rituals of politics and elections—I guess much like how our spiritual ancestors couldn't seem to believe that not everyone on the globe wanted to worship Jesus Christ.
The Palestinians have mostly served the purposes of other people(s)—for the Arab states as a safety valve so various dictators can channel all the rage in their societies toward the Jews and away from them, and for the Western Left and the UN, as a way for the supposed socialists to have a colonial oppressor to manufacture and bash, which tickles all their erogenous zones. Maybe some day the Palestinians will have some sort of leadership class that exists to help its own people (and create institutions to do this), but this is nowhere in sight and the best Israel can hope for is to quarantine them.
Cheers and thanks again for the excellent work.
Brilliant, Alan, thank you! This series (and I hope everyone has read all parts of it, highly recommend!) really is a masterpiece: It is comprehensive and detailed, balanced, critical, written, as it seems to me, with decent humility - which is, imho, so important here!
Also highly appreciated that you draw parallels to, e.g., the Ireland conflict (one might hope that we would be able to learn anything from history..).
As stated before, Israel's political system (as well as the problem of biases, especially in intelligence work) had been the main focus of my former political studies; but I've still learned so much from this series, even more so, had to question lots of my own beliefs! And for me, this is what makes this series even more valuable and special!
The ongoing protests in Germany against the horrific strengthening of a far-right movement are accompanied by shouts of, "Why haven't you been on the streets when muslims celebrated the slaughter of Israelis on October 7th?" on one side, and, "Why don't you walk the streets against genocide of Palestinians?" on the other; it's a paradox, a "Gordian knot", as your first part of this series stated. And rare reasonable voices like yours are all the more appreciated, thank you!
And yes, unfortunately, "the clock is still stuck at five minutes to midnight"..