I can pinpoint the moment at which I felt a sense of alarm about what is happening in Israel this year, the point at which I felt that Israelis had gone mad and I wondered about the future of a country I love: when some military reservists stopped showing up for duty.
They said that they were protesting judicial reforms, and trying to defend democracy. I have no doubt that many believe that -- though they are wrong -- and that their misunderstanding of "democracy" is the reason few Israelis have the stomach to see them dismissed.
Still, it was a shock to me that anyone would refuse to serve, when all that was happening was a democratically-elected government was carrying out what the people democratically elected it to do. The arguments by Israelis who support the protests struck me as empty.
To refuse to perform military duty over a matter of policy is a form of undemocratic pressure on the government, akin to a kind of military coup. You are saying that you are willing to give up on defending the country, and put fellow citizens at risk, because of a political view.
To me, this felt like Israelis were giving up on Israel. And it didn't take the Palestinians, or the Iranians, to make it happen. Maybe the peace deals with other Arab states gave Israelis a false sense of security, like they could afford the luxury of this kind of extreme protest.
This remains disturbing to me, and I don't think I can understand it from afar. As I said, the arguments of the anti-government side seem muddled to me. Israelis have a familial, and not ideological, way of expressing political arguments. I need to know more, firsthand.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
