JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: A WRITER SPEAKS OF ISRAEL LOSING ITS BEST - EMIGRATION FROM ISRAEL REFLECTS LIMITED POSSIBILITIES OF THE SOCIETY AND THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE OF THOSE LEAVING – THE HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT ISRAEL REPRESENTS – ISRAEL’S EFFECT ON ITS REGION AND ITS DISCOURAGEMENT OF ARAB DEMOCRACY – SOME VALID POINTS OF COMPARISON BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION – THE LEGITIMACY OF CRITICIZING A HEAVILY-ARMED AND OPPRESSIVE STATE

John Chuckman


EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY LAWRENCE DAVIDSON IN CONSORTIUM NEWS


“Israel Loses Its Best

“While economics is certainly playing a role in this emigration, it is not the only factor. There is also a question of conscience”

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/10/israel-loses-its-best/


A first-class piece.

You could call the phenomenon a human-migration version of Gresham's law that says bad money drives out good.

Who would want to raise children in a place so loaded with hatreds and brutality? Certainly not many of humanity's most thoughtful and feeling.

By so many measures, Israel is such a huge disappointment. It is anything but a point of light for humanity.

Apart from so many other considerations, just the fact that it is such a militarized society and packed with security services. It is literally a garrison state.

And of course, armies and security services inherently have values that are different than the values of democracy and human rights. They are authoritarian organizations. The bigger the role they play in a society, the more impoverished ethically and morally that society will be. Just look at the United States, a similar though less intense case.

Israel’s practices and methods and prejudices have played a major role in perpetuating tyrannies in the region too. Israel always likes leaders like President Mubarak or Field Marshal El-Sisi, leaders who suppress their own people’s hopes and dreams. The bloody Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is almost a bosom-buddy with Netanyahu. The democratic Hamas is castigated while a long-unelected and ineffective man is propped up in Fatah.

Absolutely, Israel’s influence has contributed to the lack of democratic development in the Arab world. Why? Because leaders like Netanyahu or Sharon are comfortable with masses of people being suppressed.

I often think of the old USSR when I think of Israel. There are many striking parallels. A national ideology that allows little or no deviance. Military Frankenstein monsters. Highly aggressive towards neighbors. Riddled with suspicions and spy agencies and police of every description. Heavily distorted and unbalanced economies. Powerful limits on human rights. Resentment of criticism from outsiders. Claims to being democratic not supported by actual arrangements.

The entire trail of destruction of the Pentagon’s Neo-con Wars – wars killing several million and creating many millions into desperate refugees – owes a great deal to the drives of Israel and its right-wing supporters in America. Men like Ariel Sharon were intense advocates. As were men like Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz in America.

I also think of the USSR when I hear Israel’s most vicious, unthinking defenders accuse those who criticize a heavily armed state which ignores rule of law of being anti-Semitic. The charge is ridiculous on its face.

It is intended to defend the indefensible. The charge is exactly parallel to having accused those who criticized the USSR of being Russophobes. Nonsense, at least in the overwhelming number of cases.

I disliked and criticized the USSR, yet always was and remain an admirer of the Russian people – their literature, their music, their magnificent churches and historic buildings, the very sound of their language, and their unbelievable bravery and heroism in the face of war and horror.

And just so, the case of Israel and the Jewish people, people who have given so many admirable things to the world.