Europeanization of Israel

[Yahoshua]

The Europeanization of Israel
Sarah Honig, THE JERUSALEM POST
September 7, 2006

Wherever we tune in these days, we hear somber-voiced pundits expound
on how Israel can't defeat Hizbullah. Some self-professed omniscients
- who keep prattling despite having never missed an opportunity to get
everything thoroughly wrong - go as far as to suggest we now sacrifice
the Golan to appease Hizbullah's Syrian masters and mollify Assad Jr.
a tad, just enough to tamper with his fixation on the bogeys from
Teheran.

Wonders never cease. The wishful-thinkers who brought us Oslo,
followed it up with May 2000's midnight escape from Lebanon and topped
everything off with their disengagement folly apparently will never
say die.

You can count on them to revive the threat to Israel's heartland via
Olmert's only temporarily suspended convergence/realignment that would
turn Judea and Samaria into an Iranian outpost, incomparably deadlier
than southern Lebanon and Gaza. But while they're momentarily stymied
on Israel's central flank, they have discovered a new outlet for their
zeal - the Golan.

They note that everything is so idyllically pastoral there -
demonstrating how flawlessly Syria oversees its territory. Ergo - we
can relocate the border closer to home. The only missing element of
this assertion is the cause for Syrian caution precisely on this front
(not in Lebanon). While Israel controls the Heights and Damascus is at
our mercy, terror sponsor Assad is less likely to provoke us. When
Syria was on top, life in Israel below was hell. How easy and
convenient to forget.

The fact these presumptuous kibitzers omit dwelling upon is that it's
quite possible to combat Hizbullah aggression, and in a manner far
less costly than sending ill-equipped soldiers on ill-considered hikes
through Hizbullah strongholds.

Any normal country - and Israel most categorically isn't normal -
would simply destroy towns and villages that serve as rocket bases
against its civilians. Bint Jbail and Maroun el-Ras shouldn't have
been left standing. That's what America would do, or Russia, Britain
and most undoubtedly duplicitous France. One would shudder to think
how China would react. But Israel is different.
The agent of our malady - that potent pathogen undermining our
continued survival - is our excessive care about the world's opinion
of us, while the world doesn't give a hoot about Israel's fate (and
that's resorting to gross understatement).

It's a chronic Jewish syndrome now turned into a full-blown
existential hazard to the state and its people. Until we recognize,
admit and address what can only be defined as a suicidal aberration,
our self-preservation is most definitely not guaranteed.

WE IMPERATIVELY need to reset our mind-set. It's not irrelevant to
recall (and inculcate in our youth) how displeased the world has
always been with us, long before we impudently dared in 1967 not to be
annihilated, but even to actually defeat genocidal would-be
terminators and retake parts of our homeland which were under their
rule for 19 years. That was the abhorrent "occupation" on which the
world now blames all our tribulations and which earns us unparalleled
global disapproval.

But we know that they disapproved of us lots earlier. We disturbed
their peace already in the dawn of antiquity and our impertinence
persisted through crusades, inquisitions, countless exiles,
expulsions, executions (in the Savior's name or in affirmation of
Allah's glory), nationalistic uprisings (like Chmielnitski's Cossacks)
and all the way to the inevitable culmination in the systematic
Holocaust, which the world did nothing to prevent or later to
mitigate.

Throughout World War II we irritated the Americans, Brits, Russians
and French. We positively infuriated the indignant Ukrainians, Poles,
Latvians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, Croats, Hungarians, Romanians and
other enlightened humanitarians. We of course drove the Germans,
Austrians and their collaborators out of their minds, or they'd have
never sunk so low. Among Nazism's most avid collaborators were the
perpetually aggrieved Arabs, who blueprinted their own gas chambers
near Nablus.

Already preceding the "final solution," having had enough, we decided
to gather in our ancestral homeland - our resurrected old/new
sanctuary. But things there didn't go smoothly. Perfidious Albion
prevented our refugees from reaching safe haven, and Arabs instigated
bloodbaths way before that unspeakable "occupation" of 1967. It's
uncool to recall the massacres of 1920, 1921, 1929, 1936-39 and all
the incidental carnage in between.

We were ultimate underdogs, yet the world's sympathy wasn't showered
upon us. Our War of Independence was ignited by the Arab spurning of
the UN's 1947 Partition Resolution, but did the world care? Well, in a
way. It imposed an arms embargo on frail newborn Israel while its
attackers invaded, screaming "Itbah el-Yahud [slaughter the Jews]."
Immediately post-Holocaust the world still managed to discern
underlying justification for blood-curdling exhortations for our
obliteration.

NOWADAYS IT'S unperturbed by identical exhortations from the
Nasrallah/Ahmadinejad/Assad Axis.

We won't be safe until we realize that rendering ourselves more
vulnerable won't endear us to those whose outrage is remarkably
selective - to those who incredibly remained indifferent prior to,
during and after the Holocaust - those who'll never fail to detect
something distasteful about us, those put off by the fact that Jews
are always associated with "unpleasant episodes," like pogroms.

Before 1967 the collective Jewish misfortune was repressed only by a
minority of Israelis - mostly assorted communists and/or detached
eggheads. Thereafter, their psychosis became the vogue. We hankered
after normalcy. We aspired to live the good life. We yearned to be a
nation among nations. We craved the warmth of acceptance. We strove to
win this acceptance even at the expense our common sense and security.
We espoused what looked like European liberality and post-modernism.

Misguided liberal and post-modernist extremes could well be the
undoing of European civilization, but the Europeanization of Israel is
a far more urgent, clear and present danger.

[The Avon Lady]

Yep.

[Skybird]

I wish you luck and advise to stay away from Europe and it's psychopathological political goals. Sooner or later, Europe probably will turn into an enemy of yours, too. However, the longterm strategical perspective of your nation has been an extremely weak and vulnerable one from the very beginning - maybe there was no other place available, nevertheless: a very bad choice of place. In that environment, the future will hold nothing than war for you. And there has never been a different perspective, since '47. I do not want to switch sides with you. It is like being a match of chess - with a missing Rook or even a queen from the very beginning. Cleverness buys you time, but does not make the match more pleasant an experience. With each pair of figures exchanged, it becomes more difficult for you.

[The Avon Lady]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Sooner or later, Europe probably will turn into an enemy of yours, too.

As far as I'm concerned the EU already is and has been Israel's enemy for quite some time.

However, the longterm strategical perspective of your nation has been an extremely weak and vulnerable one from the very beginning - maybe there was no other place available, nevertheless: a very bad choice of place. In that environment, the future will hold nothing than war for you. And there has never been a different perspective, since '47. I do not want to switch sides with you. It is like being a match of chess - with a missing Rook or even a queen from the very beginning. Cleverness buys you time, but does not make the match more pleasant an experience. With each pair of figures exchanged, it becomes more difficult for you.

Zechariah - Chapter 14

1. Behold! A day of the Lord is coming, and your plunder shall be shared within you.

2. And I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to wage war; and the city shall be captured, and the houses shall be plundered, and the women shall be ravished, and half the city shall go forth into exile-and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

3. And the Lord shall go forth and wage war with those nations, like the day he waged war on the day of the battle.

4. And on that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem from the east. And the Mount of Olives shall split in the midst thereof-toward the east and toward the west-a very great valley. And half the mountain shall move to the north, and half of it to the south.

5. And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach Azal. And you shall flee as you fled because of the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah the King of Judah. And the Lord,my God, shall come; all holy ones with you.

6. And it shall come to pass on that day that there shall be no light, only disappearing light and thick darkness.

7. And it shall be one day that shall be known to the Lord, neither day nor night; and it shall come to pass that at eventide it shall be light.

8. And it shall come to pass on that day that spring water shall come forth from Jerusalem; half of it to the eastern sea, and half of it to the western sea; in summer and in winter it shall be.

9. And the Lord shall become King over all the earth; on that day shall the Lord be one, and His name one.

10. The whole earth shall be changed to be like a plain, from the hill of Rimmon in the south of Jerusalem; but it [Jerusalem] will be elevated high and remain in its old place; from the gate of Benjamin to the place of the first gate, until the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel until the king's wine-cellars.

11. And they shall dwell therein, and there shall be no more destruction; but Jerusalem shall dwell in safety.

12. And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the nations who besieged Jerusalem; his flesh will waste away while he still stands on his feet; his eyes will waste away in their sockets, and his tongue shall waste away in his mouth.

13. And it will come to pass on that day that there will be great consternation, sent by the Lord upon them; each one shall seize the hand of the other, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of the other.

14. Yea, even Judah will fight against Jerusalem! And the wealth of all the nations round about-gold and silver and apparel-will be gathered in very great abundance.

15. And so will be the plague of the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and all the animals that are in those camps, similar to this plague.

16. And it will come to pass that everyone left of the nations who came up against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to prostrate himself to the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the festival of Tabernacles.

17. And it shall be that whoever of all the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to prostrate himself to the King, the Lord of Hosts-upon them there shall be no rain.

18. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and does not come, it shall not [rain] upon them. The plague [on Egypt] will be [the same as] that with which the Lord will plague the nations who do not go up to celebrate the festival of Tabernacles.

19. Such will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the festival of Tabernacles.

20. On that day there will be upon the bells of the horses, "holy to the Lord"; and the pots in the House of the Lord will be like the sprinkling bowls before the altar.

21. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of Hosts, and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and cook in them; and there will no longer be a Canaanite in the House of the Lord of Hosts on that day.

[Skybird]

We are not yet dropping bombs onto you We just watch others doing it.

I'm the wrong one to adress with that material, AL. I have too Vulcan a temper for that, quaotes like that allow it to spike to temperatures slightly above freezing point. But Iceman will like that kind of input

[The Avon Lady]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I'm the wrong one to adress with that material, AL. I have too Vulcan a temper for that

Long live and prosper!

[Skybird]

Unfortunately I have his temper - but not his intellect

BTW, is it true that this hand greeting is a Jewish priest's greeting indeed? I red something like this, some years ago, but did not know if it was joke or not. The author said it was some kind of blessing.

[The Avon Lady]

Originally Posted by Skybird

BTW, is it true that this hand greeting is a Jewish priest's greeting indeed? I red something like this, some years ago, but did not know if it was joke or not. The author said it was some kind of blessing.

Yes.

[The Avon Lady]

One small step for Eurabia........

[Godalmighty83]

Originally Posted by The Avon Lady

As far as I'm concerned the EU already is and has been Israel's enemy for quite some .

damn, noone told me.

so i guess i should get on with trying to kill you and all that malarky.

[The Avon Lady]

Originally Posted by Godalmighty83

damn, noone told me.

so i guess i should get on with trying to kill you and all that malarky.

As wise King Solomon said: there is nothing new under the sun.

It's a slow method of death, like arsenic or lead poisoning.

[tycho102]

The Europeans are just protecting their socialist economies. They are not prepared to stand against Israel, just like they aren't prepared to stand against anyone else in the world. Europe is a retirement community, much like Florida, and the European ruling class isn't going to jeopardize their economy by actually calling a boycott against Israel, knowing that America will continue to support them. The Europeans aren't prepared to stop you -- it's just that they aren't going to help you. Israel is going to have to do things by itself. In all honesty, considering Europe's present social and economic structure, this ain't a bad thing.

As for current Israeli society, I need only look toward Brooklyn to make any kind of judgement. Christ, Brooklyn has a load of pacifists in there....and they've been breeding for the past 35 years. I imagine that modern-day Israel isn't all that much different from what Brooklyn has become. That is to say, I imagine Israel has a surrender-monkey problem.

We've all got the same problem (Europeanization of America), so if you manage to find a solution (other than "nuking the entire site from orbit"), please let us know.

[Godalmighty83]

actually we have the problem of americanization of britain.

but i suppose britain sits in a real odd middle ground, not truely EU, closer ties to america.

[Yahoshua]

I alwyas perceived it that England was just turning circles with a jammed rudder in the Atlanitc (no real solid direction and none of us know what the hell their politicians are thinking/doing).

[Dan D]

Europeanisation is written with "S" like in "SS", not "Z". Europeani"z"ation is American English. Once the Europeanisation of the "USA" which will be called "EUSA" and that of "Isreal" which will be called "Israel" is completed , you will get used to that.
We will replace Bush with Tony Brown or the Merkel and implement the parliamentary system in USA.
So not much will change, except for the weapon ban. All speed limits on "Autobahns" will be cancelled, That is the good news.