Why the war keeps me in Israel

When I first  came to Israel, I would preach that war is not the answer and economical growth was the only means to push Palestine into its much needed evolution to what we refer to as civilized society.

My final work on intercultural negotiations  was based on a strong belief that building schools and financing the progress of thought and culture would solve the never ending war. That the issue was having an evolved society, Israel bordered with a neighbor still standing on the verge of what we know as the French revolution and renaissance.

And then I made the Aliya.

Much like red riding hood, I felt I was lost in a dark wood of wild animals, far from home and with no “grandma house” in sight.
A society I could not understand, a storm of extrovert people, rushing and running in a noisy agitation. A familiar economical struggle for “tzedek hevrati” rising on the streets. I did not find what I was imagining to be a melting pot of European values all melted into a superior bettered society, but rather the “salad bowl” of “Ashkenazis” and “Mizrahis” divided by preconceptions and labeling.

“Nothing new” I thought, the same MTV and McDonalds society I knew with louder speakers and higher demands of quality of life. I understood a simple fact: there is no perfect society because humans are imperfect. (Krishnamurti said it best).

And then my first siren came along. I had, like every “ole hadash”, to learn how to cope with an abnormal reality which has become the norm.

Coming from a family of journalists and teachers, the freedom of press- fourth power in a democracy was a given. Until I opened the CNN channel and saw their report. The intelligent person does not get emotional when faced with a moral dilemma or facts. An intellectual can weight information and speak with eloquence and logic. I turned off CNN and switched to BBC. I did this exercise with several news networks or providers, France 24, Reuters, AFP.

I stopped there and wondered who is financing these “free” news providers. I started to read.

And I understood another simple fact- there is no free press and the nr.1 rule in journalism- check your sources- has been forgotten.

I turned to social media and the “power of the people” only to witness an even stronger brainwash. “Brave New World” and “1984” flashed through my mind. Double standards and hypocrisy spread in the world organizations who have lost their purpose of unity and solidarity.

Yes, you can say most Israelis are rude, noisy or politicians. Values are not what they used to be. But something differentiates Israelis from any other society, be it European, American or Asian, with a higher OECD ranking or lower. They fight a war no one has the courage to. A psychological war of “restraint” when rockets fly in. Standing against genocide and terrorism, while a misled and uninformed world is judging.

And while the same world is busy debating and leading polemic discussions of illusory solutions, Israel is taking action.

Wells will rejoice to know that we have already built the time machine and every flight to South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran Iraq or any of these countries- is exactly that- a trip to the 18^th century.

So how can we expect to lead a debate with 2 unleveled societies? How can a dialogue happen when the parties speak different languages and there is no translator possible? Everyone is claiming to support the people that they are not even listening to, and proof is overwhelming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOJKkLlih94

http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/this-film-exposes-the-war-the-media-is-not-telling-you-about-today

No, the solution is not easy and while we want so badly for underdeveloped countries to develop- money will never be the answer. The French went on the streets to fight with bricks because their stomachs led them.

As long as Europe will so “help” Palestine and for that matter any other country led by tyrants, there will be no evolution. It will be form without content, mobile phones without ever seeing landlines, internet knowledge without knowing how to read.

So then my choice is made simple: I rather stay in a country where people fight for a true cause, than continue living the “brave new world” in a lie.