Israel: the fiddler fiddles while the roof burns

David Seaton's News Links

Samson pulls down the temple (in Gaza, no less)

Henry Kissinger famously wished that the Bible had been written in Uganda...

Israel has never been richer, safer, more culturally productive or more dynamic. Terrorism is on the wane. Yet the occupation grinds on next door with little attention to its consequences. Moreover, as the power balance has shifted from the European elite, Israel has never felt more Middle Eastern in its popular culture, music and public displays of religion. Yet it is increasingly cut off from its region, which despises it perhaps more than ever.(...) Some have likened Israel to the deck of the Titanic. That may not be right, but you can’t help wondering about that next iceberg. EthanBronner - New York Times

In this post I simply want to note my sense of foreboding, which this snippet from the New York Times encapsulates.

Readers of my blog will remember that I spent a very formative year of my youth working, living and loving in Israel... Henry Kissinger's wish that Israel had been established anywhere but the Middle East fits my sentiments exactly. What a wonderful country it could have been if it had truly been "a land without people, for a people without land" instead of the result of an ethnic cleansing and ongoing repression and humiliation whose ensuing rage has awakened the world of Islam from its slumbers and united millions of disparate peoples in their thirst for revenge.

The energy, the vivaciousness, the creativity of a people central to the narrative of civilization, are day by day creating a massive tragedy for themselves and the rest of humanity.

Here is how the American Heritage Dictionary defines "tragedy"

A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

The NYT article gives a perfect description of the curious, Club Med world of its own, where the Israelis contemplate their navels in the shadows of a sun kissed "Götterdämmerung", a word which Merriam Webster defines as:

A collapse (as of a society or regime) marked by catastrophic violence and disorder

I believe that it will be impossible for the world to assimilate or process what is about to unfold. It is difficult for me to express the heaviness of my heart. DS