Jeet Heer wrote:
>
> 1. The death of the future.
Not surprising.
> 3. Cultural loniness. Israel is in many ways a European country, and
> therefore Israeli intellectuals are feel stung by what they regard as
> the turn of Euorpe against their country. (They are much less
> concerned with the Arab world, having little hope of acceptance on
> that quarter). Several people said they feel that Israel has no friend
> in the world, except the United States. Israel is in an odd position:
> their Arab neighbours see them as Europeans and the Europeans see them
> as being part of the "Middle East" mess. Their closest economic and
> cultural ties are with Europe but their military and diplomatic ties
> are with the U.S. All this contributes to a sense of being beleagured.
The Zionists wanted a ghetto, they got a ghetto....with all the problems of the ghetto magnified by its aspiration to statehood and its military/nuclear arsenal. They are now, in Israel, in an analogous position (poised between the Arab untermensch and the U.S.) to what they were, say, in Poland. I do feel bad about the Arab Jews though.
>
> Israel runs the risk of becoming provincial and
> culturally stunted.
Gee, I thought that's what they were aiming for.
The next part is silly cant.
> But perhaps the geopolitical insecurity of Israel
> contributes to its cultural lack of confidence. On that happy day when
> Israelis no longer worry about their physical survival, they might then be
> ready to come to terms with the continuing vitality of the Diaspora.
>
Joanna