No subject
Fri Feb 24 11:55:10 PST 2006
Jewish state has found itself on the vulnerable periphery of someone
else's empire: overconfident in its own righteousness, willfully blind to
the danger that its indulgent excesses might ultimately provoke its
imperial mentor to the point of irritation and beyond, and heedless of its
own failure to make any other friends. To be sure, the modern Israeli
state has big weapons - very big weapons. But can it do with them except
make more enemies? However, modern Israel also has options. Precisely
because the country is an object of such universal mistrust and resentment
- because people expect so little from Israel today - a truly
statesmanlike shift in its policies (dismantling of major settlements,
opening unconditional negotiations with Palestinians, calling Hamas' bluff
by offering the movement's leaders something serious in return for
recognition of Israel and a cease-fire) could have disproportionately
beneficial effects.
But such a radical realignment of Israeli strategy would entail a
difficult reappraisal of every cliche and illusion under which the country
and its political elite have nestled for most of their life. It would
entail acknowledging that Israel no longer has any special claim upon
international sympathy or indulgence; that the United States won't always
be there; that weapons and walls can no more preserve Israel forever than
they preserved the German Democratic Republic or white South Africa; that
colonies are always doomed unless you are willing to expel or exterminate
the indigenous population. Other countries and their leaders have
understood this and managed comparable realignments: Charles De Gaulle
realized that France's settlement in Algeria, which was far older and
better established than Israel's West Bank colonies, was a military and
moral disaster for his country. In an exercise of outstanding political
courage, he acted upon that insight and withdrew. But when De Gaulle came
to that realization he was a mature statesman, nearly 70 years old. Israel
cannot afford to wait that long. At the age of 58 the time has come for it
to grow up.
Tony Judt is a professor and the director of the Remarque Institute at New
York University, and his book "Postwar: The History of Europe Since 1945"
was published in 2005.
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"A war of aggression is the supreme international crime." -- Robert Jackso=
n,
former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor
--Alt-Boundary-12960.25750578
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<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Ha’aretz      2 May 2006</span></fon=
t></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D"4"><span style=3D=
"font-size:14pt"><b>The country that wouldn't grow up</b></span></font></d=
iv>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">By Tony Judt</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">By the age of 58 a country - like a man - should have achieved a c=
ertain</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">maturity. After nearly six decades of existence we know, for good =
and for</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">bad, who we are, what we have done and how we appear to others, wa=
rts and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">all. We acknowledge, however reluctantly and privately, our mistak=
es and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">our shortcomings. And though we still harbor the occasional illusi=
on about</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">ourselves and our prospects, we are wise enough to recognize that =
these</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">are indeed for the most part just that: illusions. In short, we ar=
e</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">adults.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">But the State of Israel remains curiously (and among Western-style=
</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">democracies, uniquely) immature. The social transformations of the=
country</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">- and its many economic achievements - have not brought the politi=
cal</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">wisdom that usually accompanies age. Seen from the outside, Israel=
still</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">comports itself like an adolescent: consumed by a brittle confiden=
ce in</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">its own uniqueness; certain that no one "understands" it=
and everyone is</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">"against" it; full of wounded self-esteem, quick to take=
offense and quick</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">to give it. Like many adolescents Israel is convinced - and makes =
a point</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of aggressively and repeatedly asserting - that it can do as it wi=
shes,</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">that its actions carry no consequences and that it is immortal.</s=
pan></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Appropriately enough, this country that has somehow failed to grow=
up was</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">until very recently still in the hands of a generation of men who =
were</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">prominent in its public affairs 40 years ago: an Israeli Rip Van W=
inkle</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">who fell asleep in, say, 1967 would be surprised indeed to awake i=
n 2006</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">and find Shimon Peres and General Ariel Sharon still hovering over=
the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">affairs of the country - the latter albeit only in spirit.</span><=
/font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">But that, Israeli readers will tell me, is the prejudiced view of =
the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">outsider. What looks from abroad like a self-indulgent, wayward co=
untry -</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">delinquent in its international obligations and resentfully indiff=
erent to</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">world opinion - is simply an independent little state doing what i=
t has</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">always done: looking after its own interests in an inhospitable pa=
rt of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the globe. Why should embattled Israel even acknowledge such forei=
gn</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">criticism, much less act upon it? They - gentiles, Muslims, leftis=
ts -</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">have reasons of their own for disliking Israel. They - Europeans, =
Arabs,</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">fascists - have always singled out Israel for special criticism. T=
heir</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">motives are timeless. They haven't changed. Why should Israel chan=
ge?</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">But they have changed. And it is this change, which has passed lar=
gely</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">unrecognized within Israel , to which I want to draw attention her=
e.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Before 1967 the State of Israel may have been tiny and embattled, =
but it</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">was not typically hated: certainly not in the West. Official Sovie=
t-bloc</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">communism was anti-Zionist of course, but for just that reason Isr=
ael was</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">rather well regarded by everyone else, including the non-communist=
left.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">The romantic image of the kibbutz and the kibbutznik had a broad f=
oreign</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">appeal in the first two decades of Israel's existence. Most admire=
rs of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Israel (Jews and non-Jews) knew little about the Palestinian Nakba=
</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">(catastrophe) of 1948. They preferred to see in the Jewish state t=
he last</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">surviving incarnation of the 19th century idyll of agrarian social=
ism - or</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">else a paragon of modernizing energy "making the desert bloom=
."</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">I remember well, in the spring of 1967, how the balance of student=
opinion</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">at Cambridge University was overwhelmingly pro-Israel in the weeks=
leading</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">up to the Six-Day War - and how little attention anyone paid eithe=
r to the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">condition of the Palestinians or to Israel's earlier collusion wit=
h France</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">and Britain in the disastrous Suez adventure of 1956. In politics =
and in</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">policy-making circles only old-fashioned conservative Arabists exp=
ressed</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">any criticism of the Jewish state; even neo-Fascists rather favore=
d</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Zionism, on traditional anti-Semitic grounds.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">For a while after the 1967 war these sentiments continued unaltere=
d. The</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">pro-Palestinian enthusiasms of post-1960s radical groups and natio=
nalist</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">movements, reflected in joint training camps and shared projects f=
or</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">terrorist attacks, were offset by the growing international acknow=
ledgment</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of the Holocaust in education and the media: What Israel lost by i=
ts</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">continuing occupation of Arab lands it gained through its close</s=
pan></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">identification with the recovered memory of Europe's dead Jews. Ev=
en the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">inauguration of the illegal settlements and the disastrous invasio=
n of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Lebanon, while they strengthened the arguments of Israel's critics=
, did</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">not yet shift the international balance of opinion. As recently as=
the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">early 1990s, most people in the world were only vaguely aware of t=
he "West</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Bank " and what was happening there. Even those who pressed t=
he</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Palestinians' case in international forums conceded that almost no=
one was</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">listening. Israel could still do as it wished.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">The Israeli nakba</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">But today everything is different. We can see, in retrospect, that=
the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">victory of Israel in June 1967 and its continuing occupation of th=
e</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">territories it conquered then have been the Jewish state's very ow=
n nakba:</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">a moral and political catastrophe. Israel's actions in the West Ba=
nk and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Gaza have magnified and publicized the country's shortcomings and<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">displayed them to a watching world. Curfews, checkpoints, bulldoze=
rs,</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">public humiliations, home destructions, land seizures, shootings,<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">"targeted assassinations," the separation fence: All of =
these routines of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">occupation and repression were once familiar only to an informed m=
inority</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of specialists and activists. Today they can be watched, in real t=
ime, by</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">anyone with a computer or a satellite dish - which means that Isra=
el's</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">behavior is under daily scrutiny by hundreds of millions of people=
</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">worldwide. The result has been a complete transformation in the</s=
pan></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">international view of Israel. Until very recently the carefully bu=
rnished</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">image of an ultra-modern society - built by survivors and pioneers=
and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">peopled by peace-loving democrats - still held sway over internati=
onal</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">opinion. But today? What is the universal shorthand symbol for Isr=
ael,</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">reproduced worldwide in thousands of newspaper editorials and poli=
tical</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">cartoons? The Star of David emblazoned upon a tank.</span></font><=
/div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Today only a tiny minority of outsiders see Israelis as victims. T=
he true</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">victims, it is now widely accepted, are the Palestinians. Indeed,<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Palestinians have now displaced Jews as the emblematic persecuted<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">minority: vulnerable, humiliated and stateless. This unsought dist=
inction</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">does little to advance the Palestinian case any more than it ever =
helped</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Jews, but it has redefined Israel forever. It has become commonpla=
ce to</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">compare Israel at best to an occupying colonizer, at worst to the =
South</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Africa of race laws and Bantustans. In this capacity Israel elicit=
s scant</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">sympathy even when its own citizens suffer: Dead Israelis - like t=
he</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">occasional assassinated white South African in the apartheid era, =
or</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">British colonists hacked to death by native insurgents - are typic=
ally</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">perceived abroad not as the victims of terrorism but as the collat=
eral</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">damage of their own government's mistaken policies.</span></font><=
/div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Such comparisons are lethal to Israel's moral credibility. They st=
rike at</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">what was once its strongest suit: the claim of being a vulnerable =
island</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of democracy and decency in a sea of authoritarianism and cruelty;=
an</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">oasis of rights and freedoms surrounded by a desert of repression.=
But</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">democrats don't fence into Bantustans helpless people whose land t=
hey have</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">conquered, and free men don't ignore international law and steal o=
ther</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">men's homes. The contradictions of Israeli self-presentation - &qu=
ot;we are</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">very strong/we are very vulnerable"; "we are in control =
of our fate/we are</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the victims"; "we are a normal state/we demand special t=
reatment" - are</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">not new: they have been part of the country's peculiar identity al=
most</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">from the outset. And Israel's insistent emphasis upon its isolatio=
n and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">uniqueness, its claim to be both victim and hero, were once part o=
f its</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">David versus Goliath appeal.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Collective cognitive dysfunction</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">But today the country's national narrative of macho victimhood app=
ears to</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the rest of the world as simply bizarre: evidence of a sort of col=
lective</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">cognitive dysfunction that has gripped Israel's political culture.=
And the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">long cultivated persecution mania - "everyone's out to get us=
" - no longer</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">elicits sympathy. Instead it attracts some very unappetizing compa=
risons:</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">At a recent international meeting I heard one speaker, by analogy =
with</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Helmut Schmidt's famous dismissal of the Soviet Union as " Up=
per Volta</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">with Missiles," describe Israel as "Serbia with nukes.&q=
uot;</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Israel has stayed the same, but the world - as I noted above - has=
</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">changed. Whatever purchase Israel's self-description still has upo=
n the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">imagination of Israelis themselves, it no longer operates beyond t=
he</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">country's frontiers. Even the Holocaust can no longer be instrumen=
talized</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">to excuse Israel's behavior. Thanks to the passage of time, most W=
estern</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">European states have now come to terms with their part in the Holo=
caust,</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">something that was not true a quarter century ago. From Israel's p=
oint of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">view, this has had paradoxical consequences: Until the end of the =
Cold War</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Israeli governments could still play upon the guilt of Germans and=
other</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Europeans, exploiting their failure to acknowledge fully what was =
done to</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Jews on their territory. Today, now that the history of World War =
II is</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">retreating from the public square into the classroom and from the<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">classroom into the history books, a growing majority of voters in =
Europe</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">and elsewhere (young voters above all) simply cannot understand ho=
w the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">horrors of the last European war can be invoked to license or cond=
one</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">unacceptable behavior in another time and place. In the eyes of a =
watching</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">world, the fact that the great-grandmother of an Israeli soldier d=
ied in</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Treblinka is no excuse for his own abusive treatment of a Palestin=
ian</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">woman waiting to cross a checkpoint. "Remember Auschwitz"=
; is not an</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">acceptable response.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">In short: Israel, in the world's eyes, is a normal state, but one =
behaving</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">in abnormal ways. It is in control of its fate, but the victims ar=
e</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">someone else. It is strong, very strong, but its behavior is makin=
g</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">everyone else vulnerable. And so, shorn of all other justification=
s for</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">its behavior, Israel and its supporters today fall back with incre=
asing</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">shrillness upon the oldest claim of all: Israel is a Jewish state =
and that</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">is why people criticize it. This - the charge that criticism of Is=
rael is</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">implicitly anti-Semitic - is regarded in Israel and the United Sta=
tes as</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Israel's trump card. If it has been played more insistently and</s=
pan></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">aggressively in recent years, that is because it is now the only c=
ard</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">left.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">The habit of tarring any foreign criticism with the brush of anti-=
Semitism</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">is deeply engrained in Israeli political instincts: Ariel Sharon u=
sed it</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">with characteristic excess but he was only the latest in a long li=
ne of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Israeli leaders to exploit the claim. David Ben-Gurion and Golda M=
eir did</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">no different. But Jews outside of Israel pay a high price for this=
tactic.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Not only does it inhibit their own criticisms of Israel for fear o=
f</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">appearing to associate with bad company, but it encourages others =
to look</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">upon Jews everywhere as de facto collaborators in Israel's misbeha=
vior.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">When Israel breaks international law in the occupied territories, =
when</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Israel publicly humiliates the subject populations whose land it h=
as</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">seized - but then responds to its critics with loud cries of</span=
></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">"anti-Semitism" - it is in effect saying that these acts=
are not Israeli</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">acts, they are Jewish acts: The occupation is not an Israeli occup=
ation,</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">it is a Jewish occupation, and if you don't like these things it i=
s</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">because you don't like Jews.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">In many parts of the world this is in danger of becoming a self-fu=
lfilling</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">assertion: Israel's reckless behavior and insistent identification=
of all</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">criticism with anti-Semitism is now the leading source of anti-Jew=
ish</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">sentiment in Western Europe and much of Asia. But the traditional<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">corollary - if anti-Jewish feeling is linked to dislike of Israel =
then</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">right-thinking people should rush to Israel's defense - no longer =
applies.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Instead, the ironies of the Zionist dream have come full circle: F=
or tens</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of millions of people in the world today, Israel is indeed the sta=
te of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">all the Jews. And thus, reasonably enough, many observers believe =
that one</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">way to take the sting out of rising anti-Semitism in the suburbs o=
f Paris</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">or the streets of Jakarta would be for Israel to give the Palestin=
ians</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">back their land.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Israel's undoing</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">If Israel's leaders have been able to ignore such developments it =
is in</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">large measure because they have hitherto counted upon the unquesti=
oning</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">support of the United States - the one country in the world where =
the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">claim that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism is still echoed not o=
nly in</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the opinions of many Jews but also in the public pronouncements of=
</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">mainstream politicians and the mass media. But this lazy, ingraine=
d</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">confidence in unconditional American approval - and the moral, mil=
itary</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">and financial support that accompanies it - may prove to be Israel=
's</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">undoing.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Something is changing in the United States. To be sure, it was onl=
y a few</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">short years ago that prime minister Sharon's advisers could gleefu=
lly</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">celebrate their success in dictating to U.S. President George W. B=
ush the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">terms of a public statement approving Israel's illegal settlements=
. No</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">U.S. Congressman has yet proposed reducing or rescinding the $3 bi=
llion in</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">aid Israel receives annually - 20 percent of the total U.S. foreig=
n aid</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">budget - which has helped sustain the Israeli defense budget and t=
he cost</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of settlement construction in the West Bank. And Israel and the Un=
ited</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">States appear increasingly bound together in a symbiotic embrace w=
hereby</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the actions of each party exacerbate their common unpopularity abr=
oad -</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">and thus their ever-closer association in the eyes of critics.</sp=
an></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">But whereas Israel has no choice but to look to America - it has n=
o other</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">friends, at best only the conditional affection of the enemies of =
its</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">enemies, such as India - the United States is a great power; and g=
reat</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">powers have interests that sooner or later transcend the local obs=
essions</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of even the closest of their client states and satellites. It seem=
s to me</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of no small significance that the recent essay on "The Israel=
Lobby" by</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt has aroused so much public inter=
est and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">debate. Mearsheimer and Walt are prominent senior academics of imp=
eccable</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">conservative credentials. It is true that - by their own account -=
they</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">could still not have published their damning indictment of the inf=
luence</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy in a major U.S.-based j=
ournal</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">(it appeared in the London Review of Books), but the point is that=
10</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">years ago they would not - and probably could not - have published=
it at</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">all. And while the debate that has ensued may generate more heat t=
han</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">light, it is of great significance: As Dr. Johnson said of female<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">preachers, it is not well done but one is amazed to see it done at=
all.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">The fact is that the disastrous Iraq invasion and its aftermath ar=
e</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">beginning to engineer a sea-change in foreign policy debate here i=
n the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">U.S. It is becoming clear to prominent thinkers across the politic=
al</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">spectrum - from erstwhile neo-conservative interventionists like F=
rancis</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Fukuyama to hard-nosed realists like Mearsheimer - that in recent =
years</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the United States has suffered a catastrophic loss of internationa=
l</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">political influence and an unprecedented degradation of its moral =
image.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">The country's foreign undertakings have been self-defeating and ev=
en</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">irrational. There is going to be a long job of repair ahead, above=
all in</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Washington's dealings with economically and strategically vital</s=
pan></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">communities and regions from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. An=
d this</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">reconstruction of the country's foreign image and influence cannot=
hope to</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">succeed while U.S. foreign policy is tied by an umbilical cord to =
the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">needs and interests (if that is what they are) of one small Middle=
Eastern</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">country of very little relevance to America's long-term concerns -=
a</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">country that is, in the words of the Mearsheimer/Walt essay, a str=
ategic</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">burden: "A liability in the war on terror and the broader eff=
ort to deal</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">with rogue states."</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">That essay is thus a straw in the wind - an indication of the like=
ly</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">direction of future domestic debate here in the U.S. about the cou=
ntry's</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">peculiar ties to Israel. Of course it has been met by a firestorm =
of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">criticism from the usual suspects - and, just as they anticipated,=
the</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">authors have been charged with anti-Semitism (or with advancing th=
e</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">interests of anti-Semitism: "objective anti-Semitism," a=
s it might be).</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">But it is striking to me how few people with whom I have spoken ta=
ke that</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">accusation seriously, so predictable has it become. This is bad fo=
r Jews -</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">since it means that genuine anti-Semitism may also in time cease t=
o be</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">taken seriously, thanks to the Israel lobby's abuse of the term. B=
ut it is</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">worse for Israel.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">This new willingness to take one's distance from Israel is not con=
fined to</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">foreign policy specialists. As a teacher I have also been struck i=
n recent</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">years by a sea-change in the attitude of students. One example amo=
ng many:</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Here at New York University I was teaching this past month a class=
on</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">post-war Europe. I was trying to explain to young Americans the im=
portance</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">of the Spanish Civil War in the political memory of Europeans and =
why</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Franco's Spain has such a special place in our moral imagination: =
as a</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">reminder of lost struggles, a symbol of oppression in an age of li=
beralism</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">and freedom, and a land of shame that people boycotted for its cri=
mes and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">repression. I cannot think, I told the students, of any country th=
at</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">occupies such a pejorative space in democratic public consciousnes=
s today.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">You are wrong, one young woman replied: What about Israel? To my g=
reat</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">surprise most of the class - including many of the sizable Jewish<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">contingent - nodded approval. The times they are indeed a-changing=
.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">That Israel can now stand in comparison with the Spain of General =
Franco</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">in the eyes of young Americans ought to come as a shock and an</sp=
an></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">eleventh-hour wake-up call to Israelis. Nothing lasts forever, and=
it</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">seems likely to me that we shall look back upon the years 1973-200=
3 as an</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">era of tragic illusion for Israel: years that the locust ate, cons=
umed by</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the bizarre notion that, whatever it chose to do or demand, Israel=
could</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">count indefinitely upon the unquestioning support of the United St=
ates and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">would never risk encountering a backlash. This blinkered arrogance=
is</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">tragically summed up in an assertion by Shimon Peres on the very e=
ve of</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the calamitous war that will in retrospect be seen, I believe, to =
have</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">precipitated the onset of America's alienation from its Israeli al=
ly: "The</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">campaign against Saddam Hussein is a must."</span></font></di=
v>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">The future of Israel</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">From one perspective Israel's future is bleak. Not for the first t=
ime, a</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Jewish state has found itself on the vulnerable periphery of someo=
ne</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">else's empire: overconfident in its own righteousness, willfully b=
lind to</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the danger that its indulgent excesses might ultimately provoke it=
s</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">imperial mentor to the point of irritation and beyond, and heedles=
s of its</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">own failure to make any other friends. To be sure, the modern Isra=
eli</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">state has big weapons - very big weapons. But can it do with them =
except</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">make more enemies? However, modern Israel also has options. Precis=
ely</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">because the country is an object of such universal mistrust and re=
sentment</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">- because people expect so little from Israel today - a truly</spa=
n></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">statesmanlike shift in its policies (dismantling of major settleme=
nts,</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">opening unconditional negotiations with Palestinians, calling Hama=
s' bluff</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">by offering the movement's leaders something serious in return for=
</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">recognition of Israel and a cease-fire) could have disproportionat=
ely</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">beneficial effects.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">But such a radical realignment of Israeli strategy would entail a<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">difficult reappraisal of every cliche and illusion under which the=
country</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">and its political elite have nestled for most of their life. It wo=
uld</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">entail acknowledging that Israel no longer has any special claim u=
pon</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">international sympathy or indulgence; that the United States won't=
always</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">be there; that weapons and walls can no more preserve Israel forev=
er than</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">they preserved the German Democratic Republic or white South Afric=
a; that</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">colonies are always doomed unless you are willing to expel or exte=
rminate</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">the indigenous population. Other countries and their leaders have<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">understood this and managed comparable realignments: Charles De Ga=
ulle</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">realized that France's settlement in Algeria, which was far older =
and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">better established than Israel's West Bank colonies, was a militar=
y and</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">moral disaster for his country. In an exercise of outstanding poli=
tical</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">courage, he acted upon that insight and withdrew. But when De Gaul=
le came</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">to that realization he was a mature statesman, nearly 70 years old=
. Israel</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">cannot afford to wait that long. At the age of 58 the time has com=
e for it</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">to grow up.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">Tony Judt is a professor and the director of the Remarque Institut=
e at New</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">York University, and his book "Postwar: The History of Europe=
Since 1945"</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">was published in 2005.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Arial"><span style=3D"font-size:10pt">--=
</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Arial"><span style=3D"font-size:10pt">Yo=
u are currently on Mha Atma's Earth Action Network email list,
option D (up to 3 emails/day).  To be removed, or to switch options
(option A - 1x/week, option B - 3/wk, option C - up to 1x/day, option D -
up to 3x/day) please reply and let us know!  If someone forwarded you=
this email and you want to be on our list, send an email to
ean at sbcglobal.net and tell us which option you'd like.</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/>
</div>
<div align=3D"left"><br/></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt">"A war of aggression is the supreme international crime."=
; -- Robert Jackson,</span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><span style=3D"font-siz=
e:10pt"> former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor<=
/span></font></div>
<div align=3D"left"></div>
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