Seichel?
After telling us that he is reading Daniel Gordis' book (which I recently finished also), Jeffrey Goldberg decries what he deems an apparent lack of seichel in Monday morning's attack on the Gaza flotilla of fools (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). I don't know yet exactly what happened at sea when a group of Israeli commandos boarded a ship packed with not-exactly-Gandhi-like anti-Israel protesters. I learned from the Second Intifada (specifically, the story of the non-massacre at Jenin) not to rush to judgment without a full set of facts (yes, I know what you are thinking: So why have a blog?). I'm trying to figure out this story for myself. But I will say this: What I know already makes me worried for the future of Israel, a worry I feel in a deeper way than I think I have ever felt before. The Jewish people have survived this long in part because of the vision of their leaders, men and women who were able to intuit what was possible and what was impossible. Where is this vision today? Israel may face, in the coming year, a threat to its existence the likes of which it has not experienced before: A theologically-motivated regional superpower with a nuclear arsenal. It faces another existential threat as well, from forces arguing that Israel's morally disastrous settlement policy fatally undermines the very idea of a Jewish state. Is Israel ready to deploy seichel in these battles, rather than mere force?Sometimes, seichel requires using force. It happened in 1967, in 1973 (when we didn't exercise seichel and waited to be attacked, in 2002 in response to suicide bombings and many other times during the course of the State of Israel's existence.
Acting with seichel - contrary to the impression that Goldberg gives - does not necessarily mean eschewing the use of force. Most likely, it means using force effectively.
Was force used effectively on Monday morning? We'll have to wait for all of the facts to come out to be sure. I wouldn't rush to say that force was not used effectively. But if this story is accurate, I have my doubts.
By the way, I can't wait to hear Jeffrey's reaction to the part of Gordis' book where he says that we have to be open to the possibility of transferring Arabs out of the country.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:05 AM
2 Comments:
Daniel Greenfield AKA Sultan Knish has written a rather long post about how Hamas is the lineal descendant of Adolf Hitler's genocidal dream to annihilate all the Jews from the face of the earth. Hamas and its backers have this same evil aim. Knish says in response that Jews are not going to lie down and be passively murdered again. His conclusion I think captures the mood in Israel well:
There is no such thing as the non-violent murder of Jews. Supporting the murder of Jews is not a "humanitarian mission", unless your ideas of humanitarian mission match those of Hitler, Hassan al Banna and Hamas. This is indeed about our freedom and genocide. Our right to be free of those who carry out their fanatical dreams of mass murder, whether they happen to be Austrian painters, Hamas politicians or Irish Nobel Prize winners. The State of Israel will not serve the same purpose that Jews have always served for 2000 years, to be the whipping boy of hypocritical moralists. Nor will we apologize for refusing to be murdered. And if you want to kill us, expect us to fight back. Fight us with words, and we will fight back with words. Fight us with knives and guns, and we will do the same. We will not be murdered. We will not be driven into the sea. We will not die. Get used to it.
Amen! More here:
Read it all
Carl, I apologize, and would understand if you decline to pass its moderation, but I just got a (hopefully) final version of the Neozionist Manifesto, with fixes of (again, hopefully) all the minor errors that missed my first proofreading runs. I post it not for recognition (I'm posting anonymously, after all), but because of the thought that the manifesto brings into clear form what probably a lot of us think. And I hope you agree.
A Neozionist Manifesto (Hebrew top two posts, English translation below them)
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