Where is the Love?
‘Moroccan parliament moves to outlaw contacts with Israelis.’
‘Israel is the sinister, unclean, rabid dog of the region.’
‘Former Chief Rabbi allegedly offered friend hush money.’
And all this is reportage just from today, Nov 21, 2013, in the Times of Israel. There is a whole catalogue of very much the same stuff stretching back across entire lifetimes.
What with the Palestinian struggle, the BDS campaign, moves to ban the practice of circumcision and so much negative publicity emanating from within Israel itself, it’s a wonder there is anybody left in the world that does not disapprove of the Jewish state’s right to exist at all. Even the US has appeared to cool its ardour of late and that certainly can’t be good news for the Chosen People.
So, where are Israelis going wrong and why are they so hard to love?
Really, it’s not all that surprising. Every nation on earth has some degree of antipathy towards others and, more often than not, this is directed against its immediate neighbours. And vice versa. Israel just happens to have too many of these neighbours, every one of which seem consistently unable to warm to its presence.
Perhaps it might help the situation significantly if Israel and, indeed, Palestine could be permanently established in a manner not so much dependent on conquest, long-term domicile or divine instruction. A new variant for determining such matters might gain better acceptance in a world almost totally resigned to yet further failures in negotiation and in the means of rapid deliverance from so longstanding an impasse.
Sometimes there may be only one way out.
But whether it is taken or not can make all the difference.
Where is the love?