I just finished reading a biography of Theodore Hertzl, the founder of zionism. What I got from the book, was that Hertzl envisioned zionism as a liberal philosophy, which would result in the state of Israel being a “light unto the nations”. He also saw Israel as a center of trade with the arabic world, and a force for modernism.
Now, some 100 years later, it looks like the dream is dying…Israel is now an armed camp, forced to maintain a large standing army. It relies on an alliance with the USA for its survival, and it has almost no trade with its arab neighbors. The burden of maintaining its military force is enormous, and there is no end in sight for its ongoing conflict with the palestinians.
My question is-can the deam be salvaged? Suppose Israel were to announce to the world, that henceforth it would:
(1) renounce the use of force against the palestinians
(2) open its borders to its neighbors
(3) end its military spending, and use the resources to rebuilt the local infrastructure
Would this result in final peace? And, could Israel survive and prosper doing this?
It would result with their being driven into the sea, Dude.
I give Israel, as an independant nation, at the very most a month if they ditch their army. Figure the Egyptians and Syrians would be all suspicious and whatnot for a few weeks, then they would push the Israelis into the sea.
Well, in case you haven’t had to turn on the news in the last 50 years, Israels neighbors don’t want them there. Israel doesn’t maintain a big army for the sake of it. They have been attacked in force by their Arab neighbors at least three times that I can think of, not including the constant barrage of suicide bombings from the Palestinians.
Your suggestion is incredibly naive. The problem is simply not going to go away just because the Israelis dismantle their tanks and sing Cumbaya.
Yes, it will result in peace. As in “State of Israel, 1948 - 2002: Rest in Peace.”
And on top of that, it wouldn’t result in a Palestinian state. But there will be the peace of no one caring about them anymore.
And when did Zionism ever say “Roll over, think nice thoughts, take whatever they give you and don’t defend yourself”? That’s an old, failed mentality. For centuries, Jews did that. It didn’t work.
You need to be able to defend yourselves, as individuals and as a people. Zionism isn’t, and never was, about submission, or even about peace. It’s about struggle, and hard work, and sacrifice.
The Zionist dream had two parts:
– A Jewish homeland
– A “nice” country (i.e., following liberal values.)
What has happened for a good many Israelis is a new view that they can’t have both. My Israeli cousin e-mailed me an article (not avavialable by link) which makes this point quite poetically. It was a big deal for her to acknowledge that her values get in the way of defence. When push comes to shove, I’m not sure she would be willing to compromise her values, even in order to save the country.