This is a cross-post from Marc’s Words
So it’s not looking so good for Israel right now. Iran is on the verge of gaining nuclear weapons, Hezbollah have Tel Aviv in missile range, Gaza is a powder keg waiting to explode, missiles are raining down on the South from both Gaza and a lawless Sinai Desert which is being brought under control by an Egypt that is safely in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood. The same Egypt where anti-Semitic television shows are the norm and the Camp David Accords that brought peace between our two countries are being rewritten. That’s without going into the civil war currently raging in Syria and all the uncertainty that comes with it.
There is no peace process to speak of with the Palestinians.
As for the West Bank, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Occupied Palestinian Territory:
“The number of settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties and property damage has increased by 32% in 2011 compared to 2010, and by over 144% compared to 2009.”
We are seeing an increase in violence from Jews on Arabs, where once it would have been unthinkable to find settlers storming an IDF base such an incident has already happened. So called Price Tag attacks against people, property and the IDF are increasingly common. Only yesterday a Christian monastery was defaced in Latrun and an Arab was almost lynched in Jerusalem
Away from the Occupied Territories we are at crisis point with the Ultra Orthodox community and have seen a level of behaviour from Beit Shemesh that horrified the country and to top off that crisis the government failed to agree a replacement for the Tal Law which expired on August 1st and the stipulations of the now defunct law are still being followed in the absence of any new legislation.
The Prime Minister and Finance Minister raised taxes just as a wave of self immolations from people driven to suicide by their financial difficulties struck Israel. This came a year after nationwide protests hit the streets to complain about the cost of living. In fact these were the biggest demonstrations the country has ever seen and they went largely ignored. The Prime minister set up a committee to deal with it.
In foreign affairs the strategic relationship with Turkey is no more and our relationship with the United States has reached a low point. The calls for a boycott of Israeli products continue to be echoed around the world. The bizarre attempts by the Israeli chief rabbi to intervene in the German Brit Milah controversy ended in fiasco after the German Jewish community told him he was making the situation worse. Liberman is still at the helm of the Foreign Ministry practising precisely the opposite of diplomacy as he growls abuse at the rest of the world, my favourite growl was Danny Ayalon’s accusation that South Africa is practising apartheid.
I don’t know what will happen in the future but I have the distinct feeling that anything to the Left of the Right hand side is very soft ground indeed. Despite the fact that Kedima is the biggest party in the Knesset 2 leaders have utterly failed to have any influence over the government and Avodah, once the flagship of the Israeli Left is fractured and a shadow of its former self.
Earlier today I found myself arguing on a blog and on Twitter with a woman living in Maale Adomim. Amongst the minutiae of a nonsensical argument I had the distinct impression that I am batting for a losing side, that the only views that hold sway in 2012 are those that are filled with fear and vitriol. At a time when reason, nuance and common sense should be involved in the decision making process I see no evidence that there are any important decisions being made at all. I used to be a centrist and I would like to be one now, but I can’t find any centre ground to stand on, both the Centre and the Left are so small and fragile that they seem to be sharing the same political space while ignoring one another.
The next election can’t come soon enough and yet I worry that the enemies of democracy will only become stronger in its wake.
