Israel's Jewish Identity:The State We're In

The Economist

Israel's Jewish identity

The state we're in

Mar 17th 2011, 9:07 by D.L. | JERUSALEM

PERHAPS because herring was a respected staple in the Eastern European Jewish shtetl, there is no literal translation in Yiddish of the English phrase, "red herring". Instead, Yiddish-speaking Jews use the expression "climbing up the smooth walls" to accuse someone of coming up with superfluous and irrelevant arguments in order to cloud the issue.

That expression, which has made its way into Hebrew, comes to mind whenever you hear—as you frequently do—Binyamin Netanyahu demanding that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a "Jewish state". Israel was defined by the United Nations at its inception as the Jewish state. Its declaration of independence promised its non-Jewish citizens equal rights. For the world at large, "Israel" and "the Jewish state" have always been synonymous.

What, then, lies behind Mr Netanyahu's insistent request? The Palestinians suspect that in demanding recognition, Mr Netanyahu is seeking an advantage in the still-to-be-settled question of Palestinian refugees and their "right of return". Others, including many Israelis, suspect that he is trying to obfuscate his reluctance to lead Israel out of the occupied Palestinian territories.

One of Israel’s brightest diplomats-cum-academics has produced a paper that attempts, with dogged casuistry, to obfuscate the obfuscation. Tal Becker, who served as a close aide and peace negotiator under Tzipi Livni when she was foreign minister between 2005 and 2009, argues that the Israeli demand is justified, or at least understandable, but so are the Palestinian objections to it. He suggests ideas—mainly linguistic—for reconciling this conceptual confrontation. His deft course through the legal and political minefield suggests that Mr Becker's diplomatic unguents are far from exhausted.

Mr Becker wrote his paper as a fellow of the Washington Institute for Near-Eastern Policy, a think-tank with close ties to Israel. In it, he lays out the two sides of the argument starkly. continue reading here >>>

DECONSTRUCTION:
Sometimes within the sphere political debate, the topic is not the actual political position itself but a critique on the position, itself a deconstruction, much like what JNI does in its deconstruction. In the economist piece, “Israel’s Jewish Identity: The State we’re in” we are given a peak into the subtle art of deconstruction from a Palestinian sympathizer's vantage point, where we will deconstruct a fellow deconstructor.

The opinion is subtle in that the author makes no actual broad opinion on the conflict, nor having to provide the colored terminology that invariably comes out when arguing a side in the Palestinian conflict. Instead this op-ed is addressing the conflict by critiquing another’s position on the conflict. So while the author may seem sympathetic to Mr. Becker’s lucid argument for Jewish recognition, he is able to make gross assertions on the motivations and truthiness of Israel’s elected Prime Minister, in his words “Netanyahu’s spurious and demagogic tactic” of demanding Palestinian recognition of Israel’s Jewish character. Of course, he will not mention of the belligerent Palestinian leadership that has not made one gesture toward to a negotiated settlement.

Never mind the verifiable narrative that has Netanyahu suspending Jewish building in Judea and Shomron, his Bar Ilan speech, and his limiting building in Jerusalem. We do not hear of the PM’s continuous call to renewed negotiation, instead we are suspended in mid-air, told that Netanayahu is a fraud and this “Jewishness” requirement is only a fig leaf. Despite the simplicity of this request, which is refused by the Palestinians, and given Israel’s legitimate demand as a sovereign nation founded on Zionist ideal’s, this demand is axiomatic to any sort of political negotiation instead we are to believe that Netanyahu's demand is artificially creating obstacles to peace. We do not hear the editorials covering Palestinian implacability, rather the Economist provides its audience dubious assertions of Netanyahu’s “real agenda” written in erudite syntax all in order to conjure up some the Palestinians myth that they are actually interested in peace when everything points to an opposite opinion.

The verifiable truth is that Netanyahu and his government has made great efforts toward negotiated settlement and the Palestinian side has done everything to force a settlement on its own terms. Terms which amounts to Zionism (Jewish sovereignty) being erased from the world map. Whether the Economist agrees with Mr. Becker but distrusts Netanyahu is not really important, merely obfuscation from the main issue at hand; that Abbas and his cohorts refuse to negotiate in good faith. This glaring inability to recognize, in full disclosure, the Jewish character of Israel, is yet further evidence of the Palestinian hateful implacability that perpetuates this conflict.

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