 |
| This lone windswept island – astride the juncture-point of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans as well as the North American and European tectonic plates – is as far-removed from the Jewish people, the Jewish state and the entire Mideast as can be. |
Another Tack..
24 September '15..
The boycott which the Reykjavik municipal council declared on all Israeli products (and then clumsily backpedalled therefrom, to include only “occupied-territory” goods) was always meaningless in practical terms. But its meaning was mega-distressing on the moral plane.
Iceland is chillingly emblematic of phenomena greater than its own minuscule role in world affairs.
This lone windswept island – astride the juncture-point of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans as well as the North American and European tectonic plates – is as far-removed from the Jewish people, the Jewish state and the entire Mideast as can be.
Our Israeli travails aren’t only history-steeped but are unimaginably complex. Even savvy observers find it difficult not to generalize and oversimplify. It’s more than doubtful that the remote Icelanders have amassed any outstanding expertise in the annals and twists of our struggle for survival. Odds are they know even less about us than the average smug European.
Not only are Icelanders in all certainty clueless about our complex history, but they’re probably abysmally ignorant about our unique geography. It would be surprising if they can spot our tiny country on the map. It would be altogether ultra-astonishing if they knew that at direct proximity to our densest population centers – at the heart of our tortuous and narrow territory – Israel’s waistline is terrifyingly a mere nine-miles-wide.
Add to this the fact that Israel is the world’s most threatened nation – with the entire Arab/Muslim realm around it vowing to annihilate it – such boundaries become an existential peril. By comparison, it’s worth noting that Iceland is over four times Israel’s size and that with a population of 330,000 that could be easily squeezed into a Tel Aviv suburb like Holon.
It’s OK not to know us or not to want to delve into our predicaments. But it’s quite another matter when those who don’t know also presume to judge us and compound their prejudice with punitive measures.
That takes hubris to a singularly sinister level – one that significantly surpasses galling chutzpah. It transforms into an irrational animosity harking back to the sort of barefaced abhorrence with which the Jewish people have had to contend time and again in one land or another.
There is no point accusing Icelanders of Jew-revulsion because anti-Semitism is so politically incorrect in our postmodern reality that any bigot’s kneejerk inclination is to indignantly deny it. Indeed there has been too little Icelandic contact with Jews to breed particular ill-will. But this is where we encounter the illogical.
Most Jew-haters have no cogent reason for their antagonism. It may be an atavistic enmity going back to church-inspired demonization, which has now imperceptibly or otherwise been pinned on the Jewish state. This empowers anyone anywhere to arrogantly censure us without cause.
Icelanders know nothing of our troubles but feel sanctimoniously authorized to impose sanctions against us. Their claim is that we oppress Palestinians but that’s a transparent trumped-up pretext where malevolent slander expunges the truth. Doubtless, few in Reykjavik can even pretend to back their bias with solid facts rather than rank propaganda.
Theirs is a pretentious pose born of ambition to impress themselves and others with their professed righteousness.
Link: http://sarahhonig.com/2015/09/24/chillingly-emblematic-iceland/
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment