On the eve of the 50th birthday of the Jewishstate, Israelis have seldom felt so lonely. No one wants to come tothe party. Vice President Al Gore is one of the few foreigndignitaries who have accepted an invitation to the April 30 fiesta.The rest are either stalling or saying, \”Thanks, but nothanks.\”
Israel signed the Oslo peace agreement with itsold enemy, Yasser Arafat, because by 1993 the alternatives had becomeinsufferable. The Palestinian intifada, a revolt of thestreet, was sapping the morale of the Israeli army, fighting a futilesix-year battle with one hand tied behind its back. Nightlytelevision footage of soldiers in combat fatigues, chasing teenageboys wielding slingshots and petrol bombs, was undermining Israel\’sdeterrent credibility in its confrontation with the Arab states aswell as its international moral case.
The young Lithuanian woman in the prison libraryhas the narrow chest, hunched shoulders and wary eyes of someone whohas known poverty and is not sure where the next blow is coming from.
After 50 years of evasion, soft sell andhalf-truths, Israelis are coming to terms with the darker side oftheir own history.
There\’s nothing more peculiarly, confoundinglyIsraeli than soccer on Shabbat.
After being caught up in a wave of initial panic,the Israeli public seems to be calming down a bit over the possibility of an Iraqi missile attack.
Discussing Israel, Zionism and Peace.\n
I was in the back seat looking in theother direction, so I did not actually see the young Palestinian who,from an elevation at the side of the road, lofted a block of concreteabout 10 inches in diameter in our direction. He made an almostperfect hit, near midpoint on the front windshield. Thunk!
And why, oh why, entreat the Americans, did weever leave a country full of discount stores to move to one withbadly made goods at high prices, a 17 percent sales tax, a separateannual tax on your television, and fees for the \”free\” publiceducation of your children?
The histories of nation-building are never simple.The place of the Indians within the American experience reveals themoral ambiguity of that nation\’s struggle for sovereignty. Facing thereality of the past often means facing the reality of moralcompromise.
