The Best Blog I’ve Read on Israel/Palestine

I’m going to quote the pieces that so align with what I have thought for a while…

I would wish that everybody reads the blog from which I am quoting. The writer put into words something that I have tried to explain in the past but have failed to nail it the way this guy did. For a long time now, I have thought that far too many project their personal failures and difficulties onto political issues that are not the reason for their difficulties. So when I read the paragraph below, I knew I was dealing with a good intellect. I guess I was a little extreme in calling it a mental illness. I apologize.

Remember that most of us, just like the vast majority of the ones clamoring for “Intifada” in the streets of our cities, have a very privileged view of what is going on in Israel and Gaza. Igal Ram, a colleague of Einat Wilf, defined that privilege as “a Disneyland of Hate”, because, just as in Disneyland, we can experience hate from the safety of our privilege. There’s no real danger. And to make matters worse, all we do, most times, is to replace the reality of the Israeli Palestinian conflict by our own, attributing the roles of “Israel” and “Palestine” to whatever our social experience is, transposing them onto our own struggles, with invariably nefarious results. Source

When I have pointed out to people that they are being gaslit, that the propagators (Hamas and Jihadi, in general) are playing on the good nature of those whose empathy and compassion lead them, the paragraph below sums it up perfectly.

So Israeli extremists are not genocidal maniacs in the same sense Islamic Jihadists are, there are no both sides here, except in what relates to the one state solution. What Hamas wishes to gain from the exacerbation of these ideals, and Iran is guiding them through it, is the radicalization of Israel, leading to its isolation in the world stage. And that’s a real problem. This is where the Disneyland of Hate comes into play. This is why for Hamas, the more Palestinian babies are killed, the better. The more aid sent that doesn’t reach their people, the better. The more buildings destroyed in Gaza, the better. Hamas does not wish to negotiate, and because they know that their end game is invisible outside Israel, for the common person in the West, it looks like the Israelis are pushing them into a corner, but they’re not. They put themselves there. Source

The piece goes onto explain the different divisions in Israeli society as well as how the current situation arrived. It also explains why people like me — those of us who want for all people to live well — understand why this war is essential, and why there is now no other way. Before I leave your thoughts with this particular blog, (and continue with another aspect), I want to leave you with these words.

They started a war they knew they couldn’t win, not because they are stupid, but because they know most of us are. And in large part, we are. We are expected to save them, again. The only thing is, after 10/7, it became clear to ALL Israelis that Hamas cannot be tolerated any longer. That is clear to me, as well, and a lot of you too. How to achieve it is matter of debate, but it will be violent, and innocents will die. It’s a war. Innocents always die in war. Source

Who is Einat Wilf?

Einet Wolf is a rather remarkable woman. Yes, she is an Israeli, but her degrees include a BA from Harvard, an MBA from Insead in France (probably better than Wharton), and a Ph.D in Political Science from Cambridge. She has held positions as an intelligence officer in the IDF (Israel Defense Force), was an advisor to Yossi Beilin when he was the deputy minister of foreign affairs for Israel, plus she was a member of the Knesset at some point. In addition, she so worked for McKinsey. Included in her curriculum vitae is the fact that she was a visiting professor at Georgetown University of Cambridge, plus she is still a lecturer at Reichman University in Israel.

I would say that she probably knows a thing or two.

What I find fascinating about her is that she also sees the left as out of touch with reality. I know that I have annoyed many lefties over the past eighteen months or so, but I am not attached to a particular side. I am attached to reality. So is she (I think). So I want to share some of what she thinks here.

I would also like to quote two instances that were somewhat informative to me. Her words clarified my own thinking. For instance, for a long time, I have not being able to abide feminism. That’s because I believe that today’s feminists are projecting their own issues onto a movement they use to exonerate their own anger about their personal failures. So I rather like what she said here.

Feminism and Zionism are daughters of the enlightenment. They were born of that intellectual revolution against the inevitability of the human condition as one subject to a hierarchical, divinely ordained order, underpinned by a religious system and elaborate theology. Feminism and Zionism are rebellions against that order. They are both part of the modern overthrowing of a pre-modern order in which each living creature, born into a station and role in the superstructure of society, remains in that role, carries it out dutifully and does not challenge it. Feminism and Zionism are infused with resistance against the pre-Enlightenment idea that how you are born should determine how you die. Source

I also like that she acknowledges that UNRWA started with good intentions to assist refugees of the Israeli/Arab war in 1947. However, it has been wholly owned by Hamas for many decades now, and nothing it says or does can be trusted.

Canada’s temporary suspension of its financing of UNRWA over charges that some of UNRWA’s members participated in the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel should be made permanent. That UNRWA has created the ideal conditions for murderous terrorist groups to emerge, from Black September, which carried out the gruesome slaughter of Israeli Athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics, to Hamas, is not a bug in the operating system, but a feature. Anyone who truly cares about charting a path to true peace in the Middle East should have every interest in ensuring UNRWA is dismantled. Source

So there you have it — an outstanding blog that describes what is happening in Israel now, plus quite an interesting Israeli lady. I’ll leave you to it.

Here’s that blog again.

Am Yisrael Chai.

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