The review covers much interesting, valid and informative territory, collapsing into the reviewer’s personal prejudices only towards the end: “Yet to witness what is done in Gaza in the name of security is to doubt the morality of such a stance.” Is not the author aware that Israel unilaterally removed itself at great emotional cost, political pain and security risk from 100% of Gaza?
To further compare a targeted killing of terrorists in the processes of planning or executing a rocket attack to a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, as though these were moral equivalents, is an absurd expression of moral relativism and confusion. The reviewer implies Jews cannot exercise political power morally: I suppose the 250 million Arabs in the area have an impeccable record Israel should alternatively follow. Holding Israel to a far higher standard than the rest of the world is both a tired and somewhat racist habit in which both many Jews and non-Jews seem to revel.
Ms. Ellenson states that the book makes no claim on objectivity as she implies thereby that its claim on truth is spurious - quite the opposite, in fact. Ms. Wisse’s exposure of this age old Jewish quandary is long overdue. Only by refraining from being apologists for their continuing survival and existence, only by pride in and support for a valid, rational and reasonable expression of power and security, can Jews worldwide and their symbiotic partner in Israel attain normalcy, safety and a fair claim on their future without being an unwitting catalyst in the scapegoating and genocidal tendencies of most of their neighbors and those supporting the hoped for dissolution or annihilation of the only real free democracy in the Middle East.
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/books/la-bk-ellenson26aug26,1,6820720.story
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment