http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-year-of-truth-1.334416
The year of truth
At midnight, when the French champagne is flowing like water, perhaps we
will understand that next year will be the last year we can still save
something, and be grateful the truth came out.
By Gideon Levy
Haaretz Sat, January 01, 2011
This was (also ) a good year - the year of truth. The year that concludes
tonight with a kiss was the year the Israeli masquerade party ended, the
year the costumes were torn off and the truth came out. The true face was
revealed. This was the year we finally came out of the closet - no more
saccharine phrases and hollow talk about justice and equality, no more
flowery and superficial words about peace and two states. This year the
truth was heard in public, echoing loud and clear from one end of the
country to the other, worrisome and depressing.
No one is talking anymore about peace; we even put the "peace process" in
quotes this year, to make fun of it, as it deserves. All that's left of
peace this year is U.S. special envoy George Mitchell. And nothing remains
of the prime minister's two-state vision or the majority in the surveys:
This year the Israeli government said no, even to a temporary freeze on
settlement construction, and the Israelis said nothing.
After this year of truth, no one will be able to claim seriously that Israel
seeks peace with the Palestinians, or with the Syrians, who spoke peace but
were left unanswered. All the excuses have lost their value - Palestinian
terror has halted and there is at least half a partner who is more moderate
than any other. Still, we're sticking to our positions. The truth shouts
out: The Israelis don't really want peace, they prefer real estate.
The inner workings of Israeli society have also been unmasked. The
appearance of a tolerant, democratic and egalitarian society has been
suddenly replaced by an authentic portrait, one that is terrifyingly
nationalist and racist. Rabbis and their wives, mayors and parliamentarians
all sang together in a discordant choir: no to Arabs and no to foreigners.
In the years preceding this year of truth, racists still used to be
excommunicated.
In this year of truth we said unabashedly that Meir Kahane was right. Almost
half of Israelis oppose renting apartments to Arabs; more than half favor an
oath of allegiance to the state; rabbis' wives join their husbands in
calling on the modest daughters of Israel not to go out with Arabs; a
Knesset member says that those who smuggle in "infiltrators," as migrant
workers and war refugees were termed this year, should be shot in the head;
and one of his colleagues blames the Russians for Israelis' drinking habits.
Meanwhile, we proposed a law calling for foreigners who criticize Israel to
be expelled if they visit here, a Jaffa school principal does not allow his
students to speak Arabic, an activist against the occupation was jailed for
taking part in a cycling protest, and a Bedouin-rights activist was jailed
for an even longer period for the offense of having an illegal garage.
This is the plethora of reports about a day in the life of the country in
the latter part of this cursed year. Such reports were thrown in our faces
almost daily. The foreigner is spreading diseases and crime, and the Arab
student wants to disinherit us with the price of a two-room rented
apartment. We also held campaigns of intimidation and sowing fear of the
different and the other that would not have shamed the most dubious regimes
of the past. We had disgraceful demonstrations against refugees and Arabs,
with the encouragement of part of the establishment and silence from the
others, out of which one tune can be heard - a tune of arrogance and
nationalism.
This was also the year of Yisrael Beiteinu's Avigdor Lieberman, no longer a
wolf in sheep's clothing but a neighborhood bully who doesn't care about the
consequences. An attempt to defuse the crisis with Turkey and then, boom! -
a blow to the head. Instead of the never-ending peace speeches by President
Shimon Peres, this year the foreign minister repeatedly slapped the entire
world in the face for us. Not only Kahane was right; Lieberman was too. He
speaks the truth, the truth of Israel.
There is nothing like sunshine for disinfecting, so this was a relatively
good year. Perhaps precisely this flood of dubious nationalist feelings from
the depths of the soul, which had been latent for years, will at long last
stir this slumbering nation to action. Perhaps after this year, the minority
that thinks differently will finally open its eyes. Maybe when the flames
are closing in around us all, we will understand that this is not the
society we want to live in. And maybe the world will understand who is
involved.
Tonight at midnight, when the French champagne is flowing like water and the
French kisses are bestowed on the mouths of our beloveds, perhaps we will
begin to understand that next year will be fateful. It will be the last year
we can still save something. If a miracle occurs and this does indeed
happen, we will be grateful for the year that has passed, the year of truth
for Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment