Israel's 10 worst errors of the decade
P. Schmeckelstein
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Last update - 08:17 31/12/2009
Israel's 10 worst errors of the decade
By Bradley Burston (Haaretz)
In the Mideast, dreams can only end badly. Not because messianic messages
are, in and of themselves, bad dreams, but because of the nature of this
place, the history which is as much imagination as it is record, as much
sacred hallucination as it is shared memory. And because the dreamers of
this place fail again and again because they are under the illusion that
they are realists.
The decade just passing is one in which Middle East dreams came to die. It
began, appropriately, with an Israeli leader who saw his place in history as
dependent on imposing a peace plan on the entire Arab world, and a
Palestinian icon who saw his place in history as dependent on saying no.
In no decade of the modern Middle East has the roll of failure been so
democratic. The titans Arafat and Sharon fought their battle to the death,
and both lost. Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, Hassan Nasrallah, Ahmed Yassin,
hilltop youth, Al Aqsa Martyrs, Yossi Beilin, the Yesha Council, even Jimmy
Carter - all dreamed Icarus dreams and realized, only too late, that in the
brilliant sun of the Holy Land, wings of feathers and wax reveal their true
selves, which is to say, nothing more than feathers and wax.
It was a decade framed by a fundamentalist Palestinian belief in salvation
through suicide and a fundamentalist Israeli belief in salvation through
brutality.
The decade ends as it began, clueless, hopeless, exhausted. For having lived
through this, we are, all of us, somehow much more than 10 years older, yet
none the wiser. In fact, what passed for our wisdom had died with our
dreams. Socialist collectivism, rabid Revisionism, Reagan-Thatcher
neo-conservatism, none of them has anything to teach us.
The Palestinians are ideological orphans as well. Ten years ago, they were
promised that the armed struggle would cause the Jewish state to collapse
like a spider's web. Ten years ago, they might have had a state of their
own. Now they can barely breathe.
For both peoples, the lessons of this decade are unbearable. No Greater
Israel, no Peace Now, no Wholly Palestinian Palestine, no Two State
solution. Perhaps this is truly what the messiah has decided to settle for:
a situation in which every single inhabitant of the land is unhappy to the
same extent.
In this regard, there is perhaps no better time than this to review Israel's
10 Worst Mistakes of the Last 10 Years:
1. The Siege of Gaza - The stated goal of the siege was to undermine Hamas
and to goad Gazans into rejecting Hamas rule. The effect of the siege has
been to focus and intensify Palestinian anger against Israel, increase
Gazans' dependency on Hamas social welfare arms, enrich Hamas coffers
through tunnel taxation and foreign donations, and sap Palestinian support
for Fatah, which, through its back-channel encouragement for the siege, is
seen as a betrayer and a boot-licker in the eyes of many Palestinians.
2. The Siege of Gaza - The blockade was ostensibly a means to stem the
influx of weaponry into Gaza. In practice, with shipments the size of
automobiles flowing through the tunnels, the Hamas arsenal has grown ever
more sophisticated, now believed to include Iranian-manufactured rockets
capable of striking Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Airport from the Strip.
3. The Siege of Gaza - In the eyes of the world community, the overwhelming
collective punishment - and the relative silence of Israelis in response -
has gutted Israeli claims to the moral high ground. It has undercut sympathy
for Israelis living within Qassam range. It has kept open the moral wounds
of the Gaza War, cramping rebuilding efforts, enshrining universal
unemployment, and ensuring agonizing homelessness as the coastal winter
gathers full force. Israeli officials have quietly take steps of astounding
insensitivity, arbitrarily barring such goods as school supplies.
4. The Siege of Gaza - The siege has been presented in the past as a means
of pressing Hamas to release Gilad Shalit. Not only does he remain captive,
the terms of a prospective deal appear not to include lifting the siege. The
siege has been presented in the past as a means of pressuring Gazans to end
rocket fire. But rocket fire only increased after the siege was put in
place. Finally, Cast Lead, the Gaza war a year ago, might have been
prevented altogether, had Israel adhered more closely to the
Egyptian-brokered Hamas-Israel truce agreement of June, 2008, and lifted the
siege more completely in response to a drop in rocket fire.
5. The Siege of Gaza - The siege works to the detriment of U.S. support for
Israel. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signaled anger at
Israel over obstacles to humanitarian aid entering the strip. The message
came soon after Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry,
visiting Gaza, learned that Israel had blocked shipments of pasta, ruling it
off the list of permitted humanitarian aid items.
6. The Siege of Gaza - The fact that the siege has failed so completely in
achieving its stated aims, reinforces the impression that its real purpose
is punitive.
7. The Siege of Gaza - The siege places Israeli officials in jeopardy of
being charged with violating the Fourth Geneva Convention and other
international codes, as outlined in detail in the Goldstone Report.
Referring to the siege, paragraph 1335 of the report states that: "From the
facts available to it, the Mission is of the view that some of the actions
of the Government of Israel might justify a competent court finding that
crimes against humanity have been committed."
8. The Siege of Gaza - With the siege under the direct aegis of Defense
Minister Ehud Barak and his deputy, Matan Vilnai, the moral failings of the
siege could prove the coup de grace to an already foundering Labor Party.
9. The Siege of Gaza - The siege threatens to destabilize the rule of Hosni
Mubarak in Egypt, posing a potential threat to Israeli-Egyptian peace and
Israeli security.
10. The Siege of Gaza - The siege corrupts the moral values of all Israelis,
who, whether or not they are aware of what is being done to the people of
Gaza, bear ultimate responsibility for all acts being carried out in their
name.
-Haaretz
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Schmeck...@aol.net
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Rabbi Pinky Schmeckelstein
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Upon receiving Smicha, Rabbi Schmeckelstein taught high school and
rabbinical students the intricacies of Talmudic exegesis, Jewish philosophy,
and family purity. After twenty years, Rabbi Schmeckelstein took a
Sabbatical to "find himself," during which he studied law, Indian
spiritualism, pastry cooking, sports medicine, and metallurgy. He
subsequently established his own rabbinical institute, Yeshivas Chipass
Emmess ("Search for the Truth") with the goal of combining the beauty of
Torah and Jewish culture with the harsh realities of a cynical, cruel world.
Rabbi Schmeckelstein is often happily married and has countless children and
grandchildren. His hobbies include berating his frigid wife, obsessing about
Niddah, bad-mouthing the Triangle K, collecting miniature shtenders, and day
trading.
