From the NY Times:

TEL AVIV JOURNAL
Once Taboo, a Gay Israeli Treads the Halls of Power
By JOEL GREENBERG

[T] EL AVIV, Wednesday, Oct. 16 ? Uzi Even seemed a bit apprehensive, even as he received another delivery of flowers from well-wishers.

A 62-year-old chemistry professor and retired army officer, Mr. Even is soon to be sworn in as the first openly gay member of the Israeli Parliament, moving from the quiet confines of his laboratory at Tel Aviv University to the tumult of legislative politics.

Parliament began its winter session on Monday, and Mr. Even plans to take the oath of office on Nov. 4 as a representative of the leftist Meretz Party. He will replace Amnon Rubinstein, a lawmaker who is retiring.

It will certainly be a milestone, Mr. Even said, adding that there is no way to predict the reaction of strictly Orthodox lawmakers, who have criticized his entry to Parliament.

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Could someone please explain to me wny the campus leftists are convinced that the Palestinian Authority are the good guys, not the Israelis? And why there is now a push on some copllege campuses for divestment of all assets in Israel (like South Africa during apartheid)? It looks to me like Israel (not the Arab states) is the open, inclusive society.

CITT -- you're absolutely right ... I posted a link to a recent Tom Friedman column on the campus divestiture movement in the "Thug and Warmonger" posting on the board. His take on inclusive societies:

"How is it that Egypt imprisons the leading democracy advocate in the Arab world, after a phony trial, and not a single student group in America calls for divestiture from Egypt? (I'm not calling for it, but the silence is telling.) How is it that Syria occupies Lebanon for 25 years, chokes the life out of its democracy, and not a single student group calls for divestiture from Syria? How is it that Saudi Arabia denies its women the most basic human rights, and bans any other religion from being practiced publicly on its soil, and not a single student group calls for divestiture from Saudi Arabia?"

I think the answer lies in the very freedoms that Israeli society provides its citizens. In Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, small cadres of wealthy and powerful men control the country. Repression is rampant and everyone enjoys the same level of freedom, i.e. very little. However, in both Israel and Apartheid South Africa, there is not merely a favored class, but a favored race that enjoys all the freedoms and privleges of a modern western society, while the underclass is repressed and ruled without representation.

In other words, we expect more from Israel or South Africa. We see them as democracies in our tradition and are therefore aghast that they would treat any in their soceity poorly. I consider it an extension of the missionary attitude of the late 19th and early 20th century in this country where countries less advanced socially or scientifically were considered savage and "didn't know any better." So to now, countries like Egypt and Syria are given a free pass because they've never had a democracy. Saudia Arabia, of course is a different story that is almost entirely about oil.

I think it is important to state that I am a Jew, a religious Zionist and a staunch supporter of the State of Israel. I am not condoning the attitudes of the far American left toward Israel, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia or Egypt. CITT asked for an explanation, and this one seems plausible. Whether Israel is justified in its disenfranchisement of the Palestinian people is another question entirely. And one that I have discussed extensively taking a variety of positions, depending on the counter arguments.

I think jqueer is right about Israel being held to a higher standard, though I think doing so is unfair. It lies on two premises: first, there is the idea that becuase of the almost indescribable brutality and tragedy of the Holocaust, the Jewish people of Israel must make every effort not to be oppressors themselves. Yet to equate the experience of Jews preceding and during the Holocaust with the experience of Palestinian Arabs is grotesque and beyond offensive. Second, the comparison equalizes the Israelis and the Nazis, which is even more offensive and perverse. However much one may disagree with the tactics of Ariel Sharon or Yitzhak Shamir, neither has set forth a systematic plan to exterminate entire groups of people. The same cannot be said of some of the Islamicist fanatics.

Moreover, the argument about the Jews being held to a higher standard because of its status as the sole functioning democracy in the Middle East is, I think, ahistorical and naive; as I said before on the thread about Israel and the Palestinians, the nation of Israel MUST defend itself. It has been attacked almost CONTINUOUSLY since even before the founding of the state of Israel, which occurred during a war. There are various parties (meaning people, political entities, etc.) among the Palestinians and throughout the Arab world regularly calling for Israel's complete destruction. The heads of Hezbollah and Hamas both have made such statements within the last year, I believe. Although I consider myself a person of the Left, I find the Left's silence about Palestinian and Arab terrorism to be outrageous and unconscionable. I'm not just talking about the suicide bombers of the current "Intifadah," but about the almost continuous, inexaustible attempts to destroy Israel, and the nations that have bankrolled this aim. One former acquaintance refuses to discuss the topic with me because he simply will not address Palestinian and Arab culpability.

Israel should not shoulder the blame for the partitioning of Palestine, and it should not be endlessly denounced for its *original* occupation of the West Bank, which resulted from Israel having defeated--WITHOUT MUCH AMERICAN HELP--the combined forces of a number of Arab nations, led by Egypt and Syria. People who call for a single Palestinian state really are not looking realistically at the history of the region or the world we're living in. What if an Osama bin Laden-type leader got into control of this "single" state? I do think that Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank, with adequate security issues resolved, will go a long way to ensuring peace, but at the same time, the Palestinians must push for a better leadership than what they have, and also demand that their Arab brothers and sisters provide them with the funding for infrastructure and human development (as opposed to weapons and blood money) to ensure that they too will have a functioning state.

One side issue to consider is that Israel is not only a democracy (which allows citizenship not only to Jews, but also to Arabs, Christians, and people of other or no faiths), but also it defines itself as a "Jewish" state. So there is an inherent conflict in Israel's very being; how can it maintain its parliamentary democracy, which has often been fractious, with its status as a home and refuge for Jews from all over the world? That is a tough question, and I think it's one many Israelis wrestle with daily.

[quote]Originally posted by fantomas:
So there is an inherent conflict in Israel's very being; how can it maintain its parliamentary democracy, which has often been fractious, with its status as a home and refuge for Jews from all over the world? That is a tough question, and I think it's one many Israelis wrestle with daily.

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This is a variation of the same question that a number of European countries need to address, and that Pim Fortuyn was killed for asking in the Netherlands: how do you balance the need to continue as an open, inclusive, functioning parliamentary democracy, and still allow the participation of people bent on the destruction of that very democracy (radical Islamicists)? Israel merely has been asking that question for a longer time and with more intellectual honesty than is being permitted in Western Europe.

[ October 17, 2002: Message edited by: Charlie in the Trees ]