A cloud over Jerusalem

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The malaise is reflected in the newspapers virtually every day. There was, for instance, a story at the end of October reporting that olim — Jews from the Diaspora who have chosen to move to and become citizens of Israel — are leaving the country in such numbers that a Knesset committee had met to discuss the growing problem. Another article, in the newspaper Haaretz, reported on a poll in which 80% of Israelis said political corruption prevented them from "taking pride" in their state. And the October findings of a survey conducted by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University showed that only 17% of Israelis believed that there would be peace between Israel and the Arabs in the coming years.

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There are several clear reasons for Israel's current depression. At the top of the list is last summer's war in Lebanon, an ill thoughtout fiasco that not only inflicted terrible damage on southern Lebanon's civilian population but worsened (still further) Israel's global standing and failed to destroy Hezbollah (as promised). Most horrifying to Israelis, the army appears to have sent Israeli soldiers into Lebanon without a clear mission, with insufficient supplies (including food and drinking water) and faulty equipment, a situation that prompted mass demonstrations and threatened to topple the government.

"Israel was shelled by 4,000 rockets and we didn't have a response for it," Oren said. "We started in a position of unprecedented international strength. But we were stunned by the gross incompetence of the decision-making process, the corruption that was revealed, the lack of imagination of the tactics, the fear that the government radiates and the failure to achieve our goals."

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The country continues to lash out at the Palestinians — as in the case of Wednesday's deadly raid that killed 18 people, mostly civilians, in Gaza — but it does so with no apparent plan and with no strategy for building a long-term peace. Most Israelis seem to sincerely believe that a response is necessary to what they see as unprovoked cross-border rocket attacks from Palestinian militants in Gaza, but as Palestinian deaths continue to mount and the rockets continue to fall, they also express a sense of hopelessness about what they're doing.

LA Times

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1. very interesting read.

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2. Worrisome.

I did think it was a good piece.

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3. Tourism Minister: Scandals harm Israel-Diaspora ties

In recent months, the public image of Israeli politicians seems to have sunk to new and unprecedented depths, with investigations against the prime minister and other top government officials, and allegations of sexual harassment on the part of the president, against the backdrop of frequent elections. Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog (Labor) sees a direct link between the bad reputation of Israeli politics and the Diaspora Jewry's weakening solidarity with Israel.

In an interview with Haaretz before leaving for the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities (UJC), which opened in Los Angeles yesterday, Herzog said that Israel "pays a price, especially with the younger generations of Jewish communities around the world, for the ugly phenomena exposed in our public life, for the tarnished image of the state's leadership, for the instability and violence in our midst. We fail to understand that in our irresponsible domestic politics, in the wheeling and dealing, in what we project outwardly, we damage Israel's standing in the Diaspora, and damage the solidarity between the Jews of the Diaspora and Israel."

Herzog, 46, was a partner in one of Israel's largest law firms. He became acquainted with Jewish life in the Diaspora as a boy, when his father, Chaim Herzog, was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. Herzog calls his years at the prestigious Ramaz school "the formative period of my life." He defines himself as a "fifth-generation polemicist and speaker in the Jewish communities" - a definition strongly influenced by his family's past: His father was the sixth president of Israel, and his grandfather, Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog, was the chief rabbi of Ireland and later the first chief rabbi of the State of Israel. If there is such a thing as an Israeli aristocracy, then surely Herzog is an honorary member of it.

A record number of Israeli cabinet ministers and other leading officials will be attending the GA this year. It is no secret that most ministers in general know little about the structure of the Jewish establishment in the United States. Many of them still can't tell the UJA from the UJC, don't really understand what the Jewish federations do, and try to evade questions about pluralism and the attitude toward non-Orthodox Jewish groups.

Haaretz

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4. Historians won't believe it

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It is inconceivable to see a war approaching - and fail to take action. It is inconceivable to understand that the failure of the 2006 war brings the 2007 war closer - and fail to do anything about it. It is inconceivable, simply inconceivable. At the very least, there should be a repeat of what Israel did immediately after the beating it took in the Yom Kippur War: a rebuilding of the army in record time, and the initiation of a political process without delay. At the very least, the Syrians and Palestinians should be brought face-to-face with a terrifying deterrent force, and offered the alternative of a meaningful process of dialogue. At the very least, there should be no provoking or striking out, and the neighbors should be confronted with a big stick and soft words.

Anything less is unacceptable. Anything less is immoral, irresponsible and inconceivable. Inconceivable? In the land of hollow leadership, anything is possible, anything goes.

It is inconceivable to allow the State of Israel to become a state of rot - and to remain silent. It is inconceivable, simply inconceivable. At the very least, a man who is essentially a mega wheeler-dealer should not be allowed to be prime minister. At the very least, there should be public backing for the decent members of the civil service who are trying to stop the mega wheeler-dealer in his tracks. At the very least, the colleagues of the mega wheeler-dealer among the Israeli leadership should refrain from giving him their support and should lower their eyes and keep quiet. At the very least, the Israeli public should bear aloft the handful of decent individuals at the treasury, the State Comptroller's Office, the police, the State Prosecutor's Office and the office of the attorney general, who are now facing the supreme test of the fight against corruption.

Anything less is unacceptable. Anything less is inconceivable. Inconceivable? In the land of hollow elite, anything is possible, anything goes.

Haaretz