Latest Blog Post About Israel

[Nivsch]

I appreciate the valid points raised in the post about our government's propaganda strategies, historical problems surrounding the country establishment, the urgent need to halt settlements expansion and the fact Jews aren't inherently special.

However I strongly disagree with characterizing, even if implicitly and subconsciously only, the mentality of Ethnic Cleansing as were the core or the most foundational aspect of Israeli collective mentality. I will explain my perspective from my 37 years of experience here.

I want it to be high quality and to bring an added value, so I will tell about myself and my close circles mainly to share my first hand direct experience.

When I was 4  year old I reside in Reut, a town in central Israel established for career soldiers, primarily from the Air Force. My father is a retired non-combatant officer from the Air Force.

In my circle of my family, friends and school for 12 years of official education, the conversations though obviously were 95% on personal issues, but when came to politics, they were mainly about the need to co-exist and the tough situation of us Israelis in a reality of regular terror attacks.

My school education focused on several key themes:

1. The establishments of Israel and its wars.

2. Peace efforts with Syria and Lebanon post-Egypt and Jordan agreements.

3. The reality of terror attacks when we really talked in a sadly manner in the class after each one.

4. The assassination of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin and his commitment to peace.

5. Experiences during the Second Intifada and our resilience in the face of terror.

6. Co-exiatance with Arabs citizens and other minorities.

7. Mutual respect to all individuals regardless of differences.

The desire to take more land at the expense of the Palestinians was never mentioned in any of my circles and surroundings during all of my childhood, adolescent and even not in my military education, courses, and service in my base, be surprised.

Worth mentioning again, my town wasn't a "hippy" one at all, but an Air Force project with IDF career soldiers all over the town.

This kind of desire was a thing I have heard only firstly on TV when a religious right winger person brought on air. Even the mainstream channels and even today after Oct7th rarely express this desire, and talk almost only about the hostages, the war, the distrust on Netanyahu, the need for reasonable strategic to long term solutions to the 'day after' the war.

There is only one channel, out of four, that is 'devoted' to Right wing ideas which is realtively new and I am less familiar with.

Even through the last decade when I participate in discussions of the centrist Lapid's political party activists "There Is A Future" (Yesh Atid in Hebrew) the desire to take Palestinians land wasn't mentioned there at all.

To be honest, although my education system was defined as the public and official one, I can't know what exactly kids in Jerusalem or Be'er Sheva have learned and if the nuances were different or not.

And yes, in bigger groups online conversations with Right wingers as well, the vibe from them is often different than what I used to.

What I want to emphasize though, is that my experience has taught me that there is no singular line of thinking, such as ethnic cleansing, that dominates Israeli mentality. Rather, it depends on which sector holds which position, and those sectors are always in conflict and often contradict each other.

Edited November 2 by Nivsch

[Anton Rogachevski]

Same as Niv, I'd heard no ideology or politics neither in school nor the army. (I was trained as an armoured forces soldier)

There is an amazing and peaceful coexistence where I live in what you call "the west bank" there are Israeli and Palestinian villages across the road from each other, and no conflict. (At least not in my area. I'm aware there are hot spots where settlers do some troubles and it really does suck, and i strongly condemn it)

Dear Leo, you're view is highly skewed against Israel and I'm not surprised. What are your thoughts about Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, The Houthis, and Shia Islam in general? Are they the great and good heroes that save the world from israel and the evil west? Your blog post had conveniently ignored all the threats Israel faces and has faced from the beginning. Don't you think the Jewish people deserve a place to call home and to be safe and free? We did all we can to be fair to the native population, but they just won't play ball mostly and it is very sad that it turned out this way.

Of course in an ideal world there wouldn't be nationalities and countries or borders(Just like Lennon had envisioned), but we are not there yet unfortunately. 

Edited November 1 by Anton Rogachevski

[thedoorsareopen]

Hope I'm not barging in, but as a counterpoint, I wanted to input my experience at a Saudi-funded elementary school in southern California, that I attended from preschool to 6th grade. At this school I was taught American mandated history, alongside a highly political ideology that was taught as spirituality and religion. Wahaabiist Islam. I was taught that my faith in God equaled waging holy jihad against the American government. I was taught explicitly that the most noble goal I could have in life was to study hard and ascend as high as I could into American government at the state or federal level and help subvert American democracy. I was taught explicitly to work to turn the American government into a Muslim institution.

This is the difference between these two sides. The main component of Islam, salat, is performed five times a day, and as a method of prayer, essentially amounts to a method of self-hypnosis that if I'd gone through with it, would have driven this political ideology into the deepest part of my mind and soul. As it stood, it was the work of decades for me to deprogram and decondition my mind from this ideology masquerading as a spiritual discipline. Even though I never consciously agreed to it, I found it incredibly difficult to shake and feel as though my mind was colonized by this ideology. The only reason I didn't get completely mind controlled by it was because I have American family and as corny as it sounds, it was literally the power of love that held me apart from this ideology. 

I support the cause of Israel, and I support Israel becoming a more democratic, more equitable nation. I hope this war ends as soon as possible, and Israelis can manage to hold Netanyahu accountable for the crimes he was under investigation for before the war started. Whenever I see people resort to both-sides-ism on the Israel Palestine conflict, it rings so hollow to me. There would be peace if the Palestinians had agreed to the negotiated terms decades ago. And who has always been the broker for peace between these two? The supposedly warmongering US.

I know for a fact that Joe Biden spent more days and hours stressing over the plight of the Palestinians in the past year than the billionaire leaders of Hamas.

[Anton Rogachevski]

@thedoorsareopen <3 From Israel. Thank you for sharing!

[Bobby_2021]

4 hours ago, Nivsch said:

Worth mentioning again, my town wasn't a "hippy" one at all, but an Air Force project with IDF career soldiers all over the town

Is Israel actually hippy or is it a media creation to make it look hippy?

4 hours ago, Nivsch said:

The reality of terror attacks when we really talked in a sadly manner in the class after each one.

I do realize the terror problem is a real threat. The only lasting solution is if the neighbouring arab states are willing to take in Palestinians in return for some favour from US/Israel. 

Not for this to be a precedent, but as an exception. 

The corrupt and backward nature of the Islamic world clashing with imperialist colonialist forces are not something anyone wish to see. It's impossible for either of these two groups to think sanely or organize a sane form of government.