Memed by Eitan...
I've been asked by Eitan of Hear O Israel to take part in a little game of Q & A.
Well, I'm not a great fan of the "what's your favourite?"-game, so I'll play a limited version, naming only one (or two) in each category. Here goes.
1. From 1(most) to 5 name the five modern politicians you like most accompanied by a one-sentence explanation.
I think Yitzak Rabin but you might not class him as modern (he's also a bit dead unfortunately). Never in my view was Israel so close to making peace with the Arabs. A missed opportunity but only one out of many...
Up to recently I would, aptly as this man is truly the Raymond Poulidor of Israeli politics, put Shimon Peres in second place, if it wasn't for the fact that Peres seems to have sold out and is what another blogger called, "what's left of the dried up turd of the Israeli Left". I used to admire him a lot and believed he too held the keys to peace. No more so. He did recently made me smile when in a TV documentary he announced quite sheepishly that "you can't become Israeli Prime Minister if you haven't been a General in the IDF". He was later once more proven more or less right, when it turned out Olmert is probably the least popular PM in Israeli history...
2. From 1 to 5 name five modern Israeli politicians you can least stand.
Bibi. Netanyahu, if true to his word, would plunge Israel into multiple wars simultaneously. The man is also a hypocritical, opportunistic flip-flopper and living proof that if you're media-savvy you can get away with murder... (proverbially speaking, at least).
3. From 1 (worst) to 5 name the 5 worst decisions in modern Israeli history.
The colonisation of the West Bank. Post-1967 Israel in the settlement era has made achieving a final settlement very difficult.
The dream of an undivided (i.e. purely Israeli) Jerusalem. For a country that harps on a lot about the history of Jews and Judaism, that is folly. The city has been shared for most of its existence.
4. Name 5 reasons why you would/would not vote for me (or whom you'd vote for and why) in the upcoming elections to the Knesset.
You're an Ultra Nationalist. From such a position, nothing good can come. The only way forward is through compromise. Anyone who is married should know that...
I have already detailed here, why PM Eitan would be an unmitigated disaster for Israel.
5. Name 5 of the top reasons why you would consider making aliya/moving to Israel(If this does not apply, name 5 people you're Meme-ing).
I'm not Jewish, so the question doesn't apply. If I was, I wouldn't consider even making Aliya, unless the final settlement was achieved. Without it I wouldn't consider Israel safe enough for me and my family and in the current political climate I don't feel I could make a meaningful contribution.
Thanks for inviting me...
posted by Gert @ 3:33 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Gert: I enjoyed reading your answers as I said over @ mine. I think you don't really grasp Bibi but as far as I'm concerned(and for completely different reasons) I think he (will) be a complete disaster second time around as P.M.
I liked Rabin but what he did in Oslo was nothing less than betraying his country. He went ahead with Oslo though there was no concensus at home on whether to even as much as hold talks with Arafat. He sold out his people, but his legacy as a great military commander will live on. As for Peres, I believe he was behind the former's murder. If you've read about the coverup you'll probably come to the same conclusion. He's an opportunist(then again, who in politics isn't!?), a man of all talk and no action.
To be sure, Peres has not sold out the left. Like Rabin but to a much greater degree, he's sold out everything Israel stands for.
I'll be tuning in for your take.
Eitan:
"He went ahead with Oslo though there was no concensus at home on whether to even as much as hold talks with Arafat."
In situations like that, waiting for consensus would be like waiting for hell to freeze over. Democracy doe't really work by consensus: broadly speaking, Rabin had a mandate to talk to the PLO, given by the majority of Israelis. The fact that you didn't like it doesn't make it illegitimate.
"He sold out his people, but his legacy as a great military commander will live on."
Did you know that Rabin was involved in removing early illegal settlers from the Occupied Territories? He described it as very frustrating (paraphrasing): "We [the IDF] remove these people, turn our backs, and hops, a fortnight later they're back!" The settler movement shows that the colonization of the West Bank actually happened almost inadvertently, it certainly wasn't immediately government approved. That came later, when it proved very hard to remove these "Chosen People" from land they believe was given to them by YHWH... And now, in my interpretation these poor and deluded people are bargaining chips in the "Peace process"...
"As for Peres, I believe he was behind the former's murder."
I see every country has it bits of conspiracy theory. I'd like some links on that please. Peres had no real motive: they were on the same side, broadly speaking.
Gert: No, Rabin didn't have a mandate to talk to the PLO. In fact in his election campaign he expressedly vouched not to do so. By doing so, he betrayed not only his own constituency but the People of Israel as a whole. Nevertheless, he was one of the greatest military commanders Israel has ever had though he did take part in murdering Etzel Jews in the Atalenta incident in '47.
As far as Peres and the Rabin murder he had every reason in the world to want Rabin dead at that point. As records show, Rabin had already realized Arafat was a lying SOB and was intent on putting a stop to Oslo. This info. was featured in a French magazine(I forget the name) which interviewed Rabin about a month prior to his assassination. Perese wanted to replace Rabin as P.M. and believed he had a better chance winning the elections and then carrying on with Oslo than Rabin. In fact, he almost beat Bibi in the elections which were to follow. Rabin would not have stood a chance. And I don't know of any links. I'm not too good with the net. But I'm sure if you're interested you can find some info. on the assassination and the Shabbak's input.
BTW: Yigal Amir was not the murderer. The only question as far as I'm concerns remains: why is he not telling the truth. I imagine it's because he's leading a very comfortable life in jail and because the Shabbak have threatened to harm his family if he tells the truth about the murder.
Gert, if you lived in a nation where anti-semitism took over and you were Jewish, would you consider moving to Israel as it is today?
Yes, I'd consider it...
Yep, there aren't too many options for us these days when "home" becomes a bastion of hate and ignorance. That's why Israel was created: to be a safe haven for the Jewish people.
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