The narrative of an Israeli public who genuinely believed in the promise of the Oslo years, only to see it thrown back in their faces with the outbreak of the Second Intifada

Sorry for coming late to this party Alex, but – WTF??

It doesn’t matter how long anyone has lived in Israel, they surely know that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict didn’t spring fully formed out of Arik Sharon’s forehaead the day he took it into his head to visit Har HaBait.

If we’re talking narratives, then what about the narrative of the Israeli public who genuinely believed in the promise of the Oslo years, only to have some crackpot rightwing nutter, wait, what was it, oh yeah, kill the fucking prime minister?

It’s easy to blame the Palestinians for everything all the time, and to be “understanding” of others who do so. Especially when the alternative to conforming is people flinging accusations of not being a “real” Israeli in your face, when they are eager to exclude you from their notional “Am” because you’re not sufficiently “with” the Golan, or Gush Katiff, or what-fucking-ever. Denial of identity is a powerful threat.

But the real reality, the reality in which logical things actually make sense, like for example expecting people who declare themselves to be my enemies to not like me very much and vice versa, is that my “narrative” ended on Kikar Rabin and is buried there. Before asking for restitution from the foreign terrorists ransacking my country, I demand amends be made by the domestic terrorists who poison it from within.

All I see though is the right wallow in self pity for reaping the rewards of its own ideology, and the left pander to their illusions of victimhood.

quite fucking right

Here’s a little spoof on the worldview of IN, Petra, Fabian, ‘Me’, Uppty, Vildechaye et al:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

One Day not long ago the Good Lord poofed Israel v 2.0 into existence, this time replete with pret-a-porter Zionist settlements in Gaza and WB (and very few in Sinai), a good chunk of Egypt, a small slice of Syria and the South of Lebanon. Due to a Clerical Error Upstairs, the New Land of Israel, to which the Good Zionists of Brooklyn and environs flocked, contained also some 20 % ‘non-indigenous’ people, people without a language or religion of their own, so Not Real People, referred to as Philistines, Fakestinians, Pseudostinians or simply ‘The Teggogists’.

Only a few Holy Days later and generic A-rabs (from ‘Arabia’) got it into their heads to try and steal Israel and drive the Good Brooklyners into the Sea. Good Israel resisted like David fought Goliath and said A-rabs have been languishing in so-called ‘refugee camps’ [sic] ever since, desperately trying to make missiles out of mud and dreaming night and day of nothing but killing the Good Zionists.

For no good reason at all and out of the Goodness of their hearts, the Biblical People decided to give the Sinai to the People of Egypt (considering what the Pharao had previously done to the Good Israelites – ancestors of the Good Zionists, that was quite a concession!)

But when they tried the same largesse with the People of Lebanon, things went wrong and more generic A-rabs of S. Lebanon, mysteriously sympathetic to the Fakestinians, decided to fire missiles into the Holy Land.

In an even stranger twist, the then Dear Leader of the Good Israel decided foolishly and unilaterally to withdraw (well, disengage!) about 10,000 of the Good Zionists from Gaza, only to find the Fakestinians decided to follow the example of the A-rabs of S. Lebanon (almost a People but not Judeo-Christian) and fire missiles into the Holy Land!

Thus the Good Zionists had learned a lesson: never to concede any of the Good Land of Israel II.

Amen.

Minor point, this sentence doesn’t roll:

“Both IsraeliNurse’s and PetraMB’s knowledge of Palestinians But seems to have been drawn largely from the op-ed columns of the Jerusalem Post, [...]“

“Gert and the other anti-Zionist vultures”

Anti-Zionist vultures, eh? I like it, I like it a lot! But with your preemptions you’re not putting much meat on the table for us…

On the racism allegation, I much prefer the argument of racism towards the refugees (RoR for Jews only, in essence) than that of ‘internal racism’. So I’ll clip my wings for now and wait for a better opportunity to nosedive to my prey…

“Perhaps in twenty years I will think differently. Given the current reality, though, I am not so convinced that it will be in the direction they foresee.”

The way Israel is going, bar a massive swing back of the pendulum, I can only see you go from Londini to Londener. I honestly cannot see you last in Israel if Israel’s lurch towards the religio-Far Right continues. But who knows? Maybe anti-Zionism (in its many forms and with its many deficiencies, of course: is Obama anti-Zionist? Clearly not but your more radical brethren clearly think so…) will save Israel from itself? In which case you may have to invite me to the Vineyard for a glass of Zionist white plonk. Mine’s a Chardonnay…

I’m most curious what IN and Petra will have to say for themselves… Comments so far (at Potters Hill) have been quite restrained. Much of the opposition you face there boils down to the fact you’re simply more progressive than Fabian, IN or Petra: conservatives always value security too high, IMHO.