LETTER: Two Israels at play

Two recent letters published on this page — Terry Crawford-Browne’s “Israel is an apartheid state”, August 1, and Nicholas Woode-Smith’s passionate rebuttal, “Misinformation on Israel”, August 5 — made me wonder at how two perceptive commentators could hold such diametrically opposed views. As a Middle East war is in the offing, discussion of the underlying dynamics is important.

I would argue that both Crawford-Browne and Woode-Smith have a point as there are now, in fact, two Israels at play, obviously not in the physical sense but in cultural outlook. The Old Israel, which I experienced as a kibbutz volunteer in the late 1970s, was one of secular Jewishness, with a democratic ethos that protected the rule of law. At least on the surface.

Having read Leon Uris’ Exodus, sung Hava Nagila and listened to stories about the Entebbe raid, Israeli teenager arrogance, bomb shelters and the pervasive gun culture rather passed over my young head. That’s Woode-Smith’s Israel. While it still exists among the secular population and the higher ranks of the Israeli Defence Forces, the “settler” ethos powered by a messianic Judaism appears to have gained political control.

It is led by Dov Lior, a 90-something rabbi, with more than 100 associate rabbis who argue that killing Palestinian children and civilians or abusing them while in detention is OK. Since even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now sees Lior as a “guide”, we must assume this view has influence. It is also the reason the much-touted two-state solution has no chance of success.

As Lior’s messianic eschatology meshes rather unfortunately with those of rapturist Americans, one begins to see why the Jewish lobby is so powerful in the US and how Netanyahu has manoeuvred a weak president and his administration into writing Israel a blank protection cheque no matter how badly it behaves.

James Cunningham
Camps Bay

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