this time for real
Editorial, The Daily Star, Lebanon: From its inception in the late 19th century, Zionism has been reliant on an international network of Jewish individuals and organizations. These have given generously of their money, time and resources to support various facets of the Zionist project: Lobbying the international community to accept the establishment of a Jewish state, arming the Jewish terrorists who made mandate Palestine ungovernable, developing a potent military machine, funding the colonization of occupied land, and shielding Israel from the diplomatic consequences of its actions...
Now Israel needs help again. It needs reasonable people who share the faith of most of Israel's citizens to rescue them -- and their Arab neighbors -- from a degenerate political class that is leading all of us to disaster... It is moderate Jewish Americans who can be the most helpful by taking back control of the so-called 'Israel lobby' from the zealots who have made it the swamp of militaristic racism that it is...
Israel's blitzkrieg against the Gaza Strip is just the latest evidence for the essential fecklessness that infects the country's political class. A week into a campaign that has killed more than 400 people -- dozens of them children or other innocent civilians, and dozens more just young men who signed up to serve as police officers at a time of widespread unemployment -- Israeli leaders are not talking about a political solution.
Was it really necessary to shed so much blood to learn that just as Israel's 2006 goal of 'eliminating' Hizbullah was futile, the same would be true of Hamas now? Was it really necessary to make orphans, widows and grieving parents of so many people to learn that killing Arabs will not make their grievances go away?...
Israel's recent leaders have failed each and every test put before them. More importantly, they have betrayed both their own people and their co-religionists abroad... If heavy pressure is not at last applied for the current generation to be replaced, the Israeli government will continue to be a menace to its neighbors, to US interests in the Middle East, and to the long-term welfare of the Israeli people.
Alex Sinclair, Jewish World: For the past eight years, we have had an American president who was Israel's 'greatest friend' -- a friend who stood by grinning feebly while we sank deeper and deeper into a mess.
Israel is like an alcoholic, except we are addicted to territories. Just as an alcoholic denies that he has an addiction, we too deny ours by talking about 'painful compromises' without making any, or by waiting until we have already resigned from politics before daring to tell truth, or by moaning about religious extremists while voting for factions which in turn give these fundamentalists our money.
Meanwhile, our supposed best friend has stood by, watching us, supporting us, even taking care of us... while never actually plucking up the courage -- the friendship -- to put a hand on our shoulder and say: 'You need to stop.' ... We need a new type of friend -- a true friend, one that will lead an intervention for us...
We are so addicted to the territories that we will never leave them of our own accord. Our political system can't create the will for us to do that, and centrist Israelis' fear of tearing the social fabric of the country prevents us from forcing the religious right to do what we all know they need to do...
Our friend, President Obama, needs to make the intervention for us, with the support by our family, the American Jewish community... We are increasingly faced with a choice: Escape the addiction or let the addiction kill us.
