Eric Lee

[The following was submitted as a letter to the Guardian in response to this article.]
The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, writing in the Guardian today (“We must stop arming Israel”), tosses a sop to Israel with the following sentences:
“Of course, Israel has every right to defend itself. It is difficult to imagine what it must be like to live with the constant threat of rocket attacks from a movement which espouses terrorist violence …”
He then goes on to call for Britain and the rest of the EU to crack down hard on Israel, to cut off arms supplies and much more. But as I re-read the lines above, I couldn’t help but think of the historical amnesia Clegg and those like him are suffering from.
He is in effect saying that we in Britain cannot understand what Israelis are feeling. Never having been under rocket attack ourselves as a nation.
Aren’t we forgetting something here, Mr. Clegg? It was called the Second World War. You might wish to ask some older people about it.

(more…)

Rabbi Michael Lerner has written a response to my Open Letter. I publish it without comment, below, except that I wish to correct one misunderstanding. Lerner writes: “I know it is hard for people in Israel … given the inadequate information you have available (when war starts in Israel, your news is censored, and Israel refuses to allow journalists to go to Gaza to report, so your information is deeply limited).”
Actually, I live in London, and have access to the same information that Rabbi Lerner has.
Furthermore, in asserting that Israelis are somehow less well-informed about the war than he is, Lerner does little to contradict my statement that he is both arrogant and ignorant.

(more…)

[This article also appears on Harry's Place.]
Dear Michael,
I’ve just finished reading your article “It breaks my heart to see Israel’s stupidity” and felt I had to reply.
I don’t think we’ve ever talked, but I remember well your appearance some years ago before the central committee of the United Workers Party (Mapam) in Israel. You were asked to say a few words, and, to be honest, your Hebrew just wasn’t up to it, and the audience quickly lost interest. As an American immigrant to Israel, I felt empathy for you. You were clearly a fish out of water. To that audience, you were not a guru whose every word was full of meaning. You were just one more tourist, stumbling into a situation you didn’t seem to understand.
I felt the same thing today reading your article.

(more…)

[This article originally appeared on Engage.]
The worst thing about Jonathan Freedland’s article is not the lyrics but the melody.
The article is song-like in its constant repetition of a refrain of “Palestinians say this” followed by “Israelis says that”, paragraph after paragraph, an unending rhythm, beautiful in its simplicity.
But Freedland describes symmetry where there is no symmetry. He equates that which cannot be equated.
Writing from the safety of chilly England, Freedland looks down upon the hot-tempered fools in the Middle East who can’t see things as clearly as he does. He can’t understand why the residents of Ashkelon, Beersheba and Sderot – and today, all Israelis – are cheering on the IDF. They must all be mad.

(more…)

[This article also appears on Harry's Place.]
The battle for Gaza did not begin yesterday. It is one in a long series of battles that stretches back for decades. On this point, both Israelis and Palestinians agree – even if the mass media tends to have a much shorter memory.
This battle is the latest stage of a war that is entirely about whether a Jewish state will be allowed to exist in the land of Israel. On this point, both Hamas leaders and the Israelis are in agreement.
A strong case can be made that this battle is part of the endgame in that war. The decades-long conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors is slowly coming to an end. And Israel has won.

(more…)