Times of Israel: Who will we be when we rise from the ashes?

[LiberalArkie]

JTA — Some 1,000 civilians killed, more than 3,000 people injured, 200 people taken hostage. Every survivor is a miraculous story of resourcefulness and bravery. Countless miracles, countless acts of heroism and sacrifice by soldiers and civilians.

I look at people’s faces and see shock. Numbness. Our hearts are weighed down by constant burden. Over and over again we say to each other: it’s a nightmare. A nightmare beyond comparison. No words to describe it. No words to contain it.

I also see a deep sense of betrayal. The betrayal of citizens by their government — by the prime minister and his destructive coalition. A betrayal of all we hold precious as citizens, and in particular as citizens of this state. A betrayal of its formative, and binding, idea. Of the most precious deposit of all — the Jewish people’s national home — which has been handed to its leaders to safeguard, and which they should have treated with reverence. But instead, what have we seen? What have we grown accustomed to seeing, as though it were inevitable? What we’ve seen is the utter abandonment of the state in favor of petty, greedy agendas and cynical, narrow-minded, delirious politics.

What is happening now is the concrete price Israel is paying for having been seduced for years by a corrupt leadership that drove it downhill from bad to worse; which eroded its institutions of law and justice, its military, its education system; which was willing to place it in existential danger in order to keep its prime minister out of prison.

Snip

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/who-will-we-be-when-we-rise-from-the-ashes/

[BeyondGeography]

1. K&R

This is extremely well written. And there are plenty of lessons to be learned by us about what happens to a country when it throws in with a criminal right-wing tyrant like Netanyahu.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

Just think now of what we collaborated with for years. Think of all the energy, thought and money we wasted on watching Netanyahu and his family play out their Ceaușescu-style dramas. Think of the grotesque illusions they produced for our disbelieving eyes.

In the past nine months, millions of Israelis took to the streets every week to protest against the government and the man at its head. It was a movement of huge significance, an attempt to get Israel back on course, back to the lofty notion at the roots of its existence: creating a home for the Jewish people. And not just any home. Millions of Israelis wanted to build a liberal, democratic, peace-loving state that respects the faith of all people. But instead of listening to what the protest movement had to offer, Netanyahu chose to discredit it, to depict it as traitorous, to incite against it, to deepen the hatred among its factors. Yet he took every opportunity to declare how powerful Israel was, how determined, and above all — how well-prepared it was to face any threat.

Tell that to the parents driven mad with grief, to the baby thrown on the side of the road. Tell that to the hostages. Tell that to the people who voted for you. Tell it to the 80 breaches in the most advanced border fence in the world.

[Arthur_Frain]

5. Swap out the word "American" for Israeli and "trump" for netanyahu

and the story doesn’t lose any of its accuracy or relevance.

[hlthe2b]

3. I find it fascinating that reporters/pundits can discuss this in detail--even compare to other

authoritarians and/or theocratic/autocratic movements, including Orban, Erdogan, Putin, and Duterte--among others, and not see the obvious parallels with Trump. Yet, they seem so cowed that only Anne Applebaum manages to draw the comparisons when the competent government gives way to authoritarian hand-picked sycophants, narcissism takes precedence, vengeance and staying beyond justice the motivation, and democracy becomes a much-mocked concept. And, as with Israel, US national security may be the biggest loser.

[Warpy]

4. Who, indeed?

Once they manage to boot Netanyahu, they're going to have a lot of hard work to do if they want to get back to their original promise of a democratic society making the desert bloom.

What they can't do is wall their neighbors up and think that will make them somehow more secure. If this war has shown them anything, it's that walls don't work.

[LiberalArkie]

6. As weird as it is to say, they need to stop their racism or antisemitism or maybe elitism. It is one or the other.

The "we conquered you and took your land, why won't you just roll over and die" attitude. These days I think that some of them are looking for beachfront condos on the Med.


I guess I developed the same attitude that a Jewish employer of mine had. Even back in the 70's he loved Israel but hated the Israel government. I think he told me he used to play with the Palestinian neighbors as a kid until his family packed up and moved to New Jersey.

Ne used to go back every year as an adult, but stopped when the hatred got so bad.

[Warpy]

7. I feel about the same as your employer.

The paranoia that allowed Netanyahu in and kept him there has done a lot of damage.