My? Israel
As some of you know my wife and I have been seriously considering aliyah. We spent several weeks in November in Israel exploring some of the details involved in such a move. We were somewhat optimistic at that point and on January 22 we made an official
Aliyah visit. Landing at Ben Gurion we were quickly moved to an interrogation room.
Two gentlemen (I assume they were Shin Bet but they never said) questioned us for 90 minutes about my blog postings on Israel, some of which I recognized from TPM. They had a significant volume of printouts and asked detailed questions about my criticisms of Israel.. Finally in exasperation I told them - "For G-d's sake, I am no Norm Finkelstein". Bad move - they immediately started questioning me on my relationship with Finkelstein and seemed unmoved by my denials of ever meeting the man. Finally, they said we could enter Israel but we "better watch our step". I was not terribly bothered by the interrogation but my wife was extremely upset by it.
Meanwhile our Aliyah hosts were kept waiting and worried. When we explained our interrogation delay I could see the wariness in their eyes "who are these people". Nonetheless, they patiently explained all the details of such a move including language training for my wife who speaks very little Hebrew. Details on government grants available, housing allowances etc were laid out. It seems like a very well organized process. They understood where all my relatives lived and pushed for me to move to one of their settlements. When I explained we wanted to start our Israel life in Haifa, where my beloved sister started her Israel journey, they looked at us as if we had six heads.
For the next 10 days we spent all of our time talking with native Israelis. We obviously know the land very well from our previous 70 visits but this time I wanted to better gauge the people and social/political environment. Since we are retired and financially secure the economy was of less interest to us. What we found was tremendous interest in the upcoming elections. Since we were potential aliyah candidates people were very open with us about their views. From the bars and restaurants of Tel Aviv to remote West Bank settlements we found something like 90% of the people believe the peace process is dead. This may be a temporary reaction to the Gaza campaign but it seems more firmly established than I have seen in the last 40 years.
There seems to be great excitement that the "Arab problem" is about to be solved by the election of Likud with the cooperation of Yisrael Beiteinu. A majority of the people we talked with felt that the new government would formally establish the Palestinian "reservations (economic zones)" leaving Israel to expand into the gaps. Indeed, we went to some campaign events where maps were put up on the wall showing 7 distinct Palestinian zones each completely surrounded by Israeli territory. The entire Jordan Valley would be Israeli.
Whether or not a new Israeli government would implement these kind of draconian measures is problematic. In fact, it may be primarily campaign hyperbole. However, one thing is not hyperbole and that is a dramatic increase in public hatred of Arabs. It used to be Jews were seemingly embarrassed to vocalize such sentiments and would usually do so only after 6 or 8 glasses of wine. Now at campaign rallies, at shul and just about everywhere you hear cries of death to the Arabs, move'em out etc. It's frankly very ugly. We spent one evening with the Israeli Arab family in Haifa who used to work for my sister's family as housekeeper/nanny and handyman husband. They gathered their extended family of sons, daughters, in-laws, children etc. About 50 people were crammed into their small home and it was interesting dialogue. From Arabic, translated to Hebrew, which I translated into English for my wife and then reversed the process. What leaped out was the easy comingling days between Arabs and Jews is completely gone. There is tremendous fear of Lieberman and his loyalty oath. My Arab friends argue who is this recent arrival from Russia to tell us to bow down before Jews or leave the place where their family can trace back several hundred years.
More than in decades past, the Israel I recently visited is a mixture of despair and arrogance. There is a great deal of pride over the Gaza campaign. When I pointed out that was nothing to be proud of since it was like the Pittsburg Steelers playing against a High School team. Most Israelis felt that while true, "those people" deserved it. The despair comes from a terrible realization that there is no real "just" solution to this conflict. It's a zero sum problem, us or them, and there is a groundswell of support for a "move'em on out" permanent solution for the Palestinians. With respect to Gaza the solution I heard most frequently was to lock the gates and let them wither away from starvation or bust the gates at Rafah and move to Egypt if they want to eat.
Meanwhile settlement activity continues to grow. The construction in the E-1 corridor is amazing and soon Ma'ale Adumim will extend all the way to Jerusalem cutting off most Palestinian access. Just look at the new settlement of Adam East where Migon settlers will go and the proposed 1400 houses for this new settlement. The construction is going on everywhere. It is getting ridiculous to even contemplate closing some settlements in return for a peace agreement. We went to campaign events for all the major parties and Likud flatly stated no Palestinian state and no closing of ANY settlements. Labor assured people that they would not abandon any settlements and even Kadima was quite circumspect on the subject.
I will be the first to admit that this analysis is anecdotal and limited. But it does reinforce my primal fear that Israel is losing its soul. There is an indifference to death that is not only chilling but an anathema to the faith I learned as a child. My grandfather was Irgun and he became emotionally torn apart from the death of British soldiers and innocents that he was responsible for. He was so conflicted by his activities that he could not live in an Israel born of the death of innocents. As a result he moved to America several months before Independence. I no longer see that kind of concern by a significant portion of Israelis'.
Like my grandfather I dream of a Jewish homeland. But year by year I see that dream slipping away. Our own decision on Aliyah will be made after the election results but frankly the current Israel is one I hardly recognize and am not sure I want to be a part of. This morning my heart is still yearning but my sadness cannot be masked.
