Why some Israeli liberals lose perspective

"One can only express profound regret that the hubristic inclinations of some talented Israelis have encouraged them to employ their gifts to damn their own without regard to the consequences of their actions."


Amos Oz

Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem
16 June '10

(For myself, as a latecomer, I have never shared the appreciation for Amos Oz or David Grossman, that others have. However, there are still any number of points to be drawn from this piece. Y.)

It is surely ironic that simultaneously with the emergence of a broad consensus endorsing a centrist position and the marginalization of extremist left- and right-wing factions, a number of Israeli intellectuals – mainly writers and academics – are intensifying their public condemnation of their country at a global level.

I am not relating to post-Zionists or demented lunatics who hate their country, but to those with a track record of genuine Zionist endeavor, national icons like Amos Oz, one of our most gifted writers, who, one assumes, loves Israel.

There was a time when Oz would resolutely refuse to condemn Israel to the global media or when he was in a foreign country. I recollect while visiting Australia 20 years ago, his response to media questioning his attitude to the Shamir government was “I am a proud Labor Zionist and while in Israel I can passionately criticize my government. But when I travel abroad, I regard myself as an ambassador for my country and leave political differences behind me.”

This contrasts starkly to the approach Oz currently adopts. With the country isolated as never before and the entire world applying double standards and pouring venom upon us, Oz, who shares the frustration of most Israelis with the botched Gaza flotilla imbroglio, contributed an op-ed to the Guardian and The New York Times which extended far beyond the issue of the flotilla. He told Americans and British readers that “power has intoxicated us,” that we are “fixated by the concept of military force” and that we abuse this power not for reasons of self-defense but to “squash ideas and smash the problems” confronting us with brute force.

In a widely circulated US blog, his daughter, Fania Oz-Salzberger, a distinguished professor of political science at the University of Haifa and Australia’s Monash University, conveyed similar sentiments. She said, “Every true Israeli patriot ought… to apologize very humbly to the dead and injured of the ‘Free Gaza Movement’ flotilla, to the Turks, to the international community. And while we are at it, also to the innocent majority of Gazans.” Her message to the international community was “your almost unanimous condemnation is spot on. As a private citizen, I join it. As a habitual Israeli patriot, I am ashamed.”

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.