Dear Mr. Ben-Eliezer,
You'll remember that in 1895 Theodor Herzl beheld the mobs in Paris shouting, "Death to the Jews!" and came to the conclusion that if this was happening in France Jews would never be safe as long as they had to live at the mercy of the Gentile nations. Accordingly, the Jews needed their own state answerable to no other nation. I think you'll agree that that's probably the fundamental tenet of Zionism.
You're the Defence Minister. It's not news to you that Israel could never support its present military establishment or carry on its war for the settlements in the West Bank without a huge American subsidy. The price you pay for your colonial war is to be at least as dependent on the United States as the Jews of France were on the French Republic in the 19th century.
They thought until 1895 that such confidence was perfectly justified. The government you serve in and the Israeli people now seem to think that you can rely on the United States just as the Jews of France had relied on the French Republic and the kingdom of Judah had trusted in Egypt. By relying on American power to wage this colonial war, doing everything possible to incite the justified enmity of all your neighbors and thereby forcing yourselves into a still more complete dependence on the Americans, have you not utterly repudiated the cornerstone of Zionist belief?
This leads to a contradiction. If the Zionist premise is that dispensable, then what's the point of having and fighting for a Zionist state? Why not emigrate somewhere else where the living is easy? Do you suppose that might explain why over 10% of the Israeli population has left, and more are doing so, following their exported capital?
In modern Israel's Declaration of Independence, your fathers promised that their state "will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex."
Today the world sees you wantonly robbing Arab land, simply because they are Arabs and not of the Jewish Herrenvolk, and because you covet what they have. As Amos put it, "They pant after the dust on the head of the poor." What has become of the Jewish Law and Prophets honored in your Declaration of Independence, of their words about one law for the native-born and the stranger? What have you done to Moses, by whom God told you, "You shall not steal?" The Law says not to wage war against fruit trees, and you wantonly defile agricultural land with your tanks and bulldozers, flinging olive trees into pits along with the Law of God.
This too leads to a contradiction. If your survival justifies utterly spurning Judaism, indeed being foremost in the world today in treating Judaism with complete contempt, what's the point of having a Jewish state? A Jewish state that spurns and despises Judaism - is that something worth fighting for?
I never understood why the sons of Israel would not eat the sinew of the hip, because their father Jacob had been wounded there by the angel so that he limped. But now I understand that to honor your father and mother is to remember what happened to them and to know that that puts certain things off-limits.
As you grind the faces of a whole population, creating an artificial famine such as Stalin did in the Ukraine in 1932, are you not dishonoring your fathers who were treated thus by Pharaoh? When your men vandalized Ramallah, did this appropriately honor your fathers who suffered the same at Kristallnacht? When you wantonly invade people's houses and drag them away, does this honor your fathers who have suffered thus in the past? When you wall people off into ghettos and starve them, is this how you honor your fathers and mothers who suffered thus in medieval Europe?
If terrorism were your real concern, you could largely end it by compelling the settlers to disgorge the land they've stolen and come home. You could compensate them generously, and it would be far cheaper than what you're spending to keep them secure in their thefts. You could have peace with your neighbors, so that if America fails you, you won't be twisting in the wind. That's Zionism.
Truly, your nation has abandoned before the whole world every thought but personal safety and affluence at the expense of the poor. Even those who find it expedient to give you a pass today cannot fail to despise you for behaving with contempt toward your own fathers and mothers. There was a kind of Jew 60 years ago that for the sake of biological survival and comfort was willing to abandon the most basic precepts of Judaism, for whom menschlikheit was meaningless if it required any sacrifice. There were not many, and other Jews despised them. They were called kapos, and I never thought I would live to see a Jewish kapo state.
Can the pursuit of gain and dependence on violence and terror above all really sustain you over the long term, do you think? What if America, which largely has the same mentality, should find you overly inconvenient some day, or fail you for some other reason?
Perhaps American black people, many of whom are becoming Muslims, will begin to notice how indistinguishable you have become from the South African apartheid regime and therefore come to identify with your own Palestinian kaffirs - as is already happening in South Africa itself. As you prepare further measures against Arab Israeli citizens, including blatant official discrimination in housing, you make that process more likely. If they join with Arab Americans, American black people will quickly make America's present policy unsustainable.
In any case, the prophets warn you to expect the arm of flesh to fail you somehow (Jeremiah 17:5-8), and their warnings held true in the past. Will the rapacity and cruelty exercised in the day of your power prepare you for days of adversity when they come? Are you sure that a statesman should disdain to plan for such possibilities?
Should you wish to respond, I will post your response with this on my
website if you like.
Yours,
Peter Attwood
15047 Coralwood Drive
Chino Hills, CA 91709, USA
website: http://home.earthlink.net