I've been thinking about the comment Chomsky made to Doug a while back concerning politics in Israeli society. I'm sure that Chomsky knew what he was talking about when he made the statement, but from everything I've heard, things have changed a lot.
A colleague of mine who studies right wing religious groups in the country noted that most of the secular young people were looking for any way to get out of the country, because of its economic, political, and social situation. Additionally, the racism has become much more extreme in the past decade or so. I've heard this from a number of sources, and sadly this applies to a lot of what might be called the 'Israeli Left.' I also remember an incident when Israeli anti-occupation activist Matan Cohen was here. A student argued that things were getting better. Cohen just laughed.
Additionally, we're seeing settler violence escalate, moving against the Israeli left as well as against Palestinians. Israeli may have had a thriving and vibrant political community at one point, but that space is drastically shrinking as the contradictions around the occupation are made more apparent.
One last note, I think the debate over tactics is really a generational one, between two generations of anti-occupation activists. This isn't just occurring in the US. It's also occurring in the occupied territories as well. I think because of my age, I'm not on any particular side of the debate and see some weaknesses to some of the new approach, particularly the way that analogies to the South Africa situation are being applied a little two mechanically. I think that I'll leave things there.
robert wood