Sunday, August 13, 2006

Post Mortem

Allison Kaplan Sommer has an oped by Ari Shavit that has been going around Israel the last few days. Excerpt:

At the same time, political correctness assumed that Israeli strength is a given. That Israel is insanely strong. Therefore, political correctness disdained any attempt to build and maintain Israeli strength. The defense budget was cut, the values of volunteerism were mocked, the concepts of heroism and fortitude became despicable. Since the Israel Defense Forces was identified as an army of occupation - rather than as an army defending feminists and homo-lesbians from the fanaticism of the Middle East - they had reservations about it, they shook it off and became alienated from it. After all, in the spiritual world of political correctness, power and army have become dirty words.

Any national idea was rejected because of the sanctity of the private sphere. Every cooperative ethos was dismantled in favor of the individual. Power was identified with fascism. Masculinity was publicly condemned. The pursuit of absolute justice was mixed with the pursuit of absolute pleasure and turned the reigning discourse from a discourse of commitment and enlistment to one of protest and pampering.
There is way more and definitely worth a read. BTW the author is an Israeli leftist. The left in Israel is waking up. We should be so lucky in America.

I think he is wrong about the private sphere. See: Socialism Kills.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's amusing to watch what happens when a narcissistic leftist discovers reality. Naturally, it becomes all about him and others like him!

In truth, and tragically, this is all happening to an Israel that was far more clued into the reality of the situation than Ari was and still couldn't get it right.

But one comment does strike me. Israel has lost her Paracles. Those remaining in Jerusalem are going to have to start showing extraordinary wisdom.