Name:     Michael L. S.   [E-Mail]
      Location:  Earth
      Website:  Middle East Resource Center

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Lamah son'im otanu - why do they hate us?

That question has been on our minds since pretty much the dawn of the Jewish nation. Fact is that, pretty much wherever we ever went, throughout history, sooner or later the indigenous population would turn on us. In best case scenarios they'd place restrictions on our clothes, movements, ownership rights, etc. At their worst, well, we know.

According to newest reports, the number of recorded anti-Semitic incidents is at the highest since modern records began. Oy vey! Well, the world has always been anti-Semitic and that is not going to change. Even if we collectively walked into the crater of an active volcano never to be seen or heard from again, the goyim would manage to find a fault in us.

Not all of it can be waved away as anti-Semitism, however. Even highly decent, intellectual people are turning against us. Why? I suggest two reasons: Firstly, the image of Anne Frank is fading away and being supplanted by the image of that abhorrent Avigdor Lieberman, which means that we are no longer seen as the underdog but, in all too many cases quite rightly so, as the bully. And not just any old bully but an arrogant, intransigent one.

Secondly, our "hasbara" is useless. When is the last time you heard someone articulate an erudite and comprehensive position of the Israeli side? The media are full of various (pro-)Palestinian "spokesmen" and "eyewitnesses" enumerating our "atrocities"; what alternative point of view do we ever proffer? Just pro forma statements by military media liaison officers, regurgitating the predictable platitudes way past their expiry date and generally replete with insipid drivel no-one takes seriously. Even if we had proper hasbara though, if actions contradict words, it is futile. I fear we may have reached the point at which even the most sensible and logical explanations cannot suffice because we are engaged in acts that are so absurd and unacceptable to any right-thinking person as to be inexplicable. What we are doing in the West Bank has nothing to do with Israel's security, never mind our survival as a people and state, but are detestable acts of a territorial occupier subjugating the other side.

Face it: We have to reach a final settlement with the Palestinians, and fast. Not for the benefit of the world - the world will find something else to hate us for very soon afterward - but for our own sake. Our presence in the sh'ta7im is a cancer that will eventually consume us.

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