How the zealots are killing a dream

[CHIMO]

It seems a long time ago now, but there was a time when Israel was not only the Middle East's only democracy but a source of liberal inspiration. The kibbutz movement was a living example of how to build a new society based on genuine equality of opportunity and mutuality of respect in collective democratic communes that actually worked. I remember friends who had spent their gap year working on them eulogising about the experience.
That was then.Today, Israel's kibbutz movement is in crisis as a succession of right-wing governments has redirected subsidies to support settling the West Bank, where settler numbers are now double those working on kibbutzim.

The movement is paying the price for clinging to outdated nostrums, like belief in caring, equality and collective action, building Israel within its pre-1967 borders while recognising a Palestinian state and valuing the endless possibility of human development.

Like the rest of what constituted the once noble Israeli Labour movement, it has been shattered by the cruel marriage of religious and free-market fundamentalism. There is no more room for visionary ideas about building an Israel that will be a beacon for humanity whatever their faith. Israel is engaged in a fight to the death.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1268803,00.html

[liberalhistorian]

1. Yes, it is incredibly discouraging and depressing

to see that happen, Israel was fulfilling so much of its potential. But the Israeli people are mostly at fault for electing the nutball reich wing governments who've destroyed the country in the first place. I think they're realizing that now, but it's way too late, unfortunately.

[mike_c]

2. I was inspired by Israel too, but in truth, as I've learned more...

...I've realized that the seeds for the current Israeli apartheid state were sown from the very beginning in the late '40's. Somehow that part-- the massacres, the land seizures, disenfranchised Palestinian villages, the racial oppression-- didn't make it into the history books I read.

[starroute]

3. Things didn't just go wrong in Israel from the start

Yes, its origins were compromised by the violent expulsion of the Palestinians, but through the 50's and into the 60's, much of the original idealism was still present. Two things have happened since to destroy it.

One was the 6-day War which left Israel as an occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza. That has been an enormously corrosive and demoralizing factor.

The other is the flood of immigrants from places with no democratic traditions -- primarily elsewhere in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that all Jewish immigrants immediately become Israeli citizens. There's no requirement for them to absorb the local culture and language or to swear to uphold the principles on which Israel was founded. My understanding is that those immigrants form the backbone of Likud, while Labor still draws on the earlier generation of arrivals and their offspring.

People here still think of Israel as a Western nation, but it has actually become less and less Western with the passage of time.

[CaTeacher]

4. That is a very astute observation.

It is also my observation that they are very far from a "western style democracy" which is often claimed.

[Darranar]

5. Looking at the Western record of tyranny, imperialism, and slaughter...

I'd have to disagree.