You Spin Me Right Round

But not like a record, baby.

It’s no surprise that for the last two days, the Jewish world has been rocked by the latest news coming out of the EU.  The so-called Earthquake Directive is the latest in anti-Israel policies aimed at punishing Israel for the situation with the Palestinians.

I have no doubt my fellow bloggers will do a bang up job talking about the devastation of this rule, about how it again demonstrates that not only is European antisemitism not gone, but it is enjoying a resurgence.  I am sure others will adeptly talk about how the directive is not as bad as we think it is, let’s face it, if anyone can find a way around policy, it’s Israelis.

I want to talk about something else.  I want to talk about how this directive breeds right wingers out of every Jew or at least every Zionist.

OK, maybe not every one, but at the very least, this one.

I am proudly a left wing Zionist.  I believe in the two state solution.  I believe that despite the fact that the Arab world didn’t give the Palestinians an independent state when the West Bank was under their rule, the Palestinians still deserve to have their state. I believe that the only real way to win is to give them their state, let them be the masters of their own fate.   As much as it pains me to give back even one inch of the land of Israel, we as Israelis and Jews have an obligation to bring the situation to a resolution.  We as Jews, expelled out of the land of Israel, expelled from Spain, persecuted for centuries in Europe and finally gassed and annihilated because we had no country to call our own.  I believe that we have to think about more than just ourselves, I believe we have to take risks for peace.

Left winged enough for you?

Well, when the EU pulls something like they did this week or when the UN allows a totally meaningless vote to take place, it makes me angry.  It makes me angry that I stand up for the two state solution.  It makes me angry that I believe we cannot turn our backs on the rest of the world, we must co-exist with it, even with those who may not like us, even with those who may wish us dead.

It makes me want to just give up and say f*ck it, why should I care about what’s the morally right and just solution?  Why should I give a crap about co-existence and diplomacy?  Why should I not just throw my conscience under the bus look out for my own and screw everyone else?

Because this is what rulings like this do, they push us a little farther to the right.

I don’t think I’ll be looking for an apartment in the Gush soon or anything but if the EU keeps pulling this crap, you never know.