- "It turns out that the 2,000-year struggle for Jewish
survival comes down to a state of settlements, run by an amoral clique
of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their citizens and to their
enemies .."
-
- The Zionist revolution has always rested on two pillars:
a just path and an ethical leadership. Neither of these is operative any
longer. The Israeli nation today rests on a scaffolding of corruption,
and on foundations of oppression and injustice. As such, the end of the
Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep. There is a real chance that
ours will be the last Zionist generation.
-
- There may yet be a Jewish state here, but it will be
a different sort, strange and ugly. There is time to change course, but
not much.... The opposition does not exist, and the coalition, with Arik
Sharon at its head, claims the right to remain silent. In a nation of chatterboxes,
everyone has suddenly fallen dumb, because there's nothing left to say.
We live in a thunderously failed reality. Yes, we have revived the Hebrew
language, created a marvelous theater, and a strong national currency.
Our Jewish minds are as sharp as ever. We are traded on the NASDAQ. But
is this why we created a state? The Jewish people did not survive for two
millennia in order to pioneer new weaponry, computer security programs
or anti-missile missiles. We were supposed to be a light unto the nations.
In this we have failed.
-
- It turns out that the 2,000-year struggle for Jewish
survival comes down to a state of settlements, run by an amoral clique
of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their citizens and to their
enemies. A state lacking justice cannot survive.
-
- The countdown to the end of Israeli society has begun.
Even if the Arabs lower their heads and swallow the shame and anger forever,
it won't work. A structure built on human callousness will inevitably collapse
in on itself.
-
- Note this moment well: Zionism's superstructure is already
collapsing like a cheap Jerusalem wedding hall. Only madmen continue dancing
on the top floor while the pillars below are collapsing. We have grown
accustomed to ignoring the suffering of the women at the roadblocks. No
wonder we don't hear the cries of the abused woman living next door or
the single mother struggling to support her children in dignity. We don't
even bother to count the women murdered by their husbands. We could kill
a thousand ringleaders and engineers a day and nothing will be solved,
because the leaders come up from below from the wells of hatred and anger,
from the "infrastructures" of injustice and moral corruption.
-
- If all this were inevitable, divinely ordained and immutable,
I would be silent. But things could be different, and so crying out is
a moral imperative. Do you want the greater Land of Israel? No problem.
Abandon democracy. Let's institute an efficient system of racial separation
here, with prison camps and detention villages. Qalqilya Ghetto and Gulag
Jenin.
-
- Do you want a Jewish majority? No problem. Either put
the Arabs on railway cars, buses, camels, and donkeys and expel them en
masse or separate ourselves from them absolutely, without tricks and gimmicks.
There is no middle path. We must remove all the settlements all of them
and draw an internationally recognized border between the Jewish national
home and the Palestinian national home.
-
- The Jewish Law of Return will apply only within our national
home, and their right of return will apply only within the borders of the
Palestinian state.
-
- But there is no prime minister in Jerusalem.... Israel's
current prime minister personally embodies both halves of the curse: suspect
personal morals and open disregard for the law combined with the brutality
of occupation and the trampling of any chance for peace.
-
- This is our nation, these are its leaders. The inescapable
conclusion is that the Zionist revolution is dead."
-
- Editorial of the Israeli "The Forward" on August
29, 2003
-
- The author is a Knesset member and former Speaker of
Knesset
|
