Thursday, March 13, 2008

Guilty Israelis?

Yossi Klein Halevi argues in the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-halevi2mar02,0,7450703,pri..) that the last few years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict has essentially eliminated the phenomenon of the "guilty Israeli". Real Israeli efforts to see the "other" side of the struggle and the experience of soldiers tasked with enforcing the "occupation" had created a generation of "guilty" Israelis, but these feelings, argues Halevi, have been largely eliminated by the duplicity of Arafat, the indiscriminate violence of the Intifada and the culture of hatred and death cultivated in the West Bank and Gaza. Nevertheless, two other articles contradict, at least in part, the conclusions reached by Halevi. The first is an account of a travelling exhibit, curated by ex-IDF soldiers, entitled "Breaking the Silence" (http://www.thecrimson.com/printerfriendly.aspx?ref=522433) which depicts the alleged brutality and human degradation wrought by Israeli forces in the territories. The other is a vehement attack by Amnon Rubinstein in the Jewish Exponent (http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/15477/) on the aggressively one-sided, anti-Israeli attitudes of the Israeli radical Left. For further comment on the travelling exhibit see also Joel Pollok's blog "Guide to the Perplexed". This subject requires more careful attention but these articles provide an entry into the debate. Feedback from readers would be welcomed.

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