Another Israel for Kristoff: a New Era of Jewish Ayatollahs…..………
“Israel goes out of its way to display its ugliest side to the world by tearing down Palestinian homes or allowing rapacious settlers to steal Palestinian land…… And, crazily, it’s the place where some of the most courageous and effective voices on behalf of oppressed Palestinians belong to Israeli rabbis — like Arik Ascherman, the executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights……… I watched the ugly side of Israel collide with its more noble version, as Rabbi Ascherman and I visited a rural area in the northern West Bank where Jewish settlers have taken over land that Palestinian farmers say is theirs. “If we try to enter our land, settlers will be waiting, and we will be beaten,” said Muhammad Moqbel, a 71-year-old Palestinian from the village of Qaryout who pointed to fields that he said had been stolen by settlers. Last year, he said, he was hospitalized with a broken rib after settlers attacked while he was picking his own olives. Rabbis for Human Rights has helped Palestinians recover some land through lawsuits in Israeli courts. And Rabbi Ascherman and other Jewish activists escort such farmers to protect them. The settlers still attack, but soldiers are more likely to intervene when it is rabbis being clubbed. As Mr. Moqbel and Rabbi Ascherman were explaining all this to me, a settler vehicle came down to confront us. And then another. The settlers photographed us. We photographed them. I asked them if they would agree to be interviewed. They refused to respond to my questions. “They’re just trying to intimidate us,” Rabbi Ascherman said…….”
I will start by conceding that it is highly unlikely that there can be someone like Rabbi Ascherman on the Arab side of this conflict. The culture just does not allow for introspection and self-judging to this extent.
Having said that, it is clear to me that Kristoff is longing to an earlier Israel, a “liberal” Israel that was besieged by enemies and haunted by fresh memories of the Holocaust. That was an Israel that, right or wrong, inspired many young Americans, and not just Jews. This current Israel is not really what Kristoff and many other Americans of a certain generation grew up with: it is a nearly fundamentalist state of land grabs, ruled by a Middle East and East European (milder) version of the National Party of Apartheid South Africa. It is a nation whose politics are beholden to Jewish Ayatollahs.
Today, planting a tree in Israel does not have the same meaning as it did many years ago: today that tree would most likely be planted on occupied West bank land from which Palestinians were evicted.
Okay, maybe Joe Lieberman will join rabbi Ascherman after he retires from the US Senate. That is, if he does not become a lobbyist for some health insurance companies.
Cheers
mhg
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