Imshin, the Israeli author of “Not a Fish”, has been in reflective mode on the one-year anniversary of the death of her mother.
My condolences, Imshin. Losing a mother is hard.
But on Wednesday, in that same post, you also wrote more broadly about what you described simply as “The Situation”, in the following terms
- I want it to finish already. I want the Palestinians to have a state, and for them to be able to live in freedom and in affluence; I want the settlements dismantled; I want the Palestinians and all Arabs (and the rest of the world, for that matter) to accept our presence here; I want the terrorists in prison or dead or reformed; I want to know my children and grandchildren have a future; I want to know I will be able to grow old in peace in my home that I love.
I want us all to live happily ever after…
But Imshin, you as an Israeli citizen and voter have a huge amount of power to help make some of these things happen. You can get active in the peace movement, active in the anti-settlements movement. You can reach out a hand of friendship to Palestinians in their time of despair and terrible repression.
Just as we in the US whose government has been running a policy of military aggression, occupation, domination, and control, have to do what we can to change that.
So I’d love to hear about it when you actually do some of these things, Imshin, rather than sitting around saying you’re “tired of thinking about The Situation”…
I got here from Imshin’s (always valuable) page.
You say “So I’d love to hear about it when you actually do some of these things, Imshin, rather than sitting around saying you’re “tired of thinking about The Situation”… “.
How incredibly smug and glib! Imshin responded to your little snipe, but her answer was already clear from the original message that you quoted. Your remark was really a cheap shot.
Looking around at this site it’s clear that Imshin’s observations are a lot more trenchant, nuanced, and sincere than the stuff here. Perhaps by living in a much more dangerous situation, Imshin has an ability to see issues from more than one perspective – an ability that you lack.
Also your site could use a serious factchecker (maybe a college intern or something).
So my suggestion is to back off from Imshin, ponder a bit, and maybe develop a little humility.
Sincerely,
– Ohad
First, hi, Imshin. I’d have left this comment on yr blog if you had comments, but since you don’t I guess I need to do it here.
For others reading this comment, you shd know that Imshin wrote a post today in which she made an impassioned and moving defense of her blogging as itself constituting a valuable form of social activism:
“I know the things I say are nothing special, probably not very different from the thoughts and feelings of many ordinary Israelis. I’m no great scholar, no brilliant columnist. I’m not very right wing, or very left wing, by Israeli standards. I’m somewhere in the middle, a bit mixed up, swayed by emotions. I have no hidden agenda. I just say what enters my mind at a given moment. All I have to offer is my little angle of Israeli life. Could this not be useful for someone who wants to help peace along and needs to really know and understand both sides, and not just what he or she believes is right and just, based on previous life experiences from other parts of the world? Does compromise not take into account the dreams and fears of both sides in a conflict?”
And my answer to all this, Molly Bloom-like, is Yes! Yes! Yes! On all counts.
When I said I wished you would do something, Imshin, I confess I was forgetting the value of the work you do on your blog itself.
And yes, I do try to take into account the feelings, needs, fears, hopes, and experiences of people involved in both sides of your conflict there in Israel/Palestine, just as in all the other conflicts I study and deal with.
I should tell you, too, that I’ve quoted some material from your blog–with full attribution, naturally– in some drafting I was doing for the upcoming report of the International Quaker Working Party on the Israel-Palestine Conflict. So expect to see your name in the book when it comes out in around February.
I hope you’ll find that we used your material there respectfully and in a friendly fashion.
So maybe I should first of all apologize for having totally forgotten when I wrote this post that blogging indeed is a form of social activism, and for not having expressed enough thanks to you for the work and thought you put into yr blog.
Second, I’ll just explain that when I read that original snippet in yr post of November 26, it reminded me strongly of that old line of Tom Lehrer when he’s decrying contemporary (i.e. late ’50s) culture for being full of people who sit around moaning about their inability to communicate… “I mean, if you find you’re unable to communicate, why can’t you just shut up about it!”
I always thought that was a hilarious line. And I realize you were not saying that at all. But still, I guess I’m an activist kind of person by inclination and sometimes don’t have enough patience with people who seem (sometimes quite unnecessarily, imho) to feel trapped in unpleasant situations. I think I wanted to try to jolt you out of that feeling of being trapped: There are things you can do! There are things we can all do to make the world a better and more peaceful place for our kids!
(And a little footnote for Ohad: It would actually be a lot more helpful if you would point to specific facts mentioned in JWN whose truthfulness you challenge, and then we cd get into a decent discussion on sources and evidence. The kind of blanket derogation that you express conveys little except, I suggest, your own emotion?)
Helena,
I’m happy to have this opportunity to ask you this question directly.
You say that we citizens of democracies have the power of the vote. Yes, of course: but how much real power does that confer on an individual?
We vote for candidates, and then when they are elected, what happens? It turns out that they are beholden not to the electorate, but to greater powers-that-be. In the case of Israel, and of the US, special interests wield disproportionate power. (I suspect it is the same in Japan and France and Britain, but I don’t know enough about those countries to comment.)
The extremists on both sides wield disproportionate power, and they have the ability to whipsaw the moderates. The only way to cut this Gordian knot is for the US to step up to the plate and force a settlement on both sides, but that’s not going to happen before the 2004 election. (If ever.)
My two cents.
Helena,
I intended to write a lot about your nauseatingly smug and sanctimonous tone, but I deleted it halfway. I doubt it would be of any use. Nevertheless, did it ever occur to you that the so-called peace movements have never come up with anything even remotely resembling a workable solution?
Hi, Diana– Nice to have you visit! You say: “in the case of Israel, and of the US, special interests wield disproportionate power. (I suspect it is the same in Japan and France and Britain, but I don’t know enough about those countries to comment.)”… To which I say, yes, you’re quite right, there are lots of forces distorting the kind of pure, “each person counts for one and none for more than one”, Benthamite democracy we’d all (I hope) like to see. I suppose we could call any such forces– money in politics, or whatever– “special interests”. But at the end of the days, even those kinds of decisions (“Do we buy off this politician or that one? What’s the best way to do it?”) are still made by real-life men and women. Which can be both infuriating– “I mean, don’t they see how gross and abusive their actions are?”– and also, imho, a source of hope.
I mean, if Nelson Mandela was able to peacefully persuade De Klerk and the other leaders of the National Party to give up their strangle-hold on power– yes, I know that persuasion was backed up by huge mass actions inside and outside South Africa; but it still relied on persuasion at the “cutting edge”, if you like– Well, if Madiba and the rest of the ANC leaders could achive that, then I think we can achieve decent humane outcomes through organizing and persuasion in our situations here and in Israel/Palestine…
You say, “The extremists on both sides [in I/P, I’m assuming] wield disproportionate power, and they have the ability to whipsaw the moderates. The only way to cut this Gordian knot is for the US to step up to the plate and force a settlement on both sides, but that’s not going to happen before the 2004 election. (If ever.)”
I agree with you that the US stepping in and “forcing” a settlement ain’t gonna happen, probably ever. But changing the hearts and minds of all concerned is still a live–if long-term–possibility. (See above.)
I mean, time was when whitefolks here in US of A saw NOTHING WRONG at all in the institutions of slavery… Indeed, many thought they were “helping” the benighted blackfolks escape from “barbarism” in Africa… That included, btw, members of all segments of the whitefolks communities here, including my own community, the Quakers.
But campaigns of persuasion to the contrary view of enslavement were launched, and over time views changed. Thank G-d! So in Palestine and Israel, views can change. I think the essential change that needs to happen on both sides there (as with the whitefolks in the USA in the 19th century) is to see members of the “other” community as fully and equally human, seized by the same desires, needs, wants, and fears, etc etc. (Gee, I’m starting to sound like Imshin here.)
Oh, it sounds so easy. But it isn’t. Takes time. Requires, in many cases, self-redefinition… But it can happen.
That’s my two cents. Thanks so much for sharing yours!
Helena, thank you for your thoughtful reaction to what I wrote.
Diana, I fully agree with what you said about extremists wielding disproportionate power, at least in Israel (on the Palestinian side I fear it is the extremists who are actually in full control, and I
As a matter of interest Helena, what exactly do you do to help ‘the Situation’ or promote world peace apart from writing columns and this blog, and quoting Imshin in your books while confessing at the same time to forgetting the value of Imshin’s blogging?
Also, wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for you to post your apology to Imshin as un update to your original post or perhaps as a separate post rather than hiding it in the comments? Just as a matter of courtesy. Might do your credibility some good as well.
I’m just a dumb ignorant Aussie, who believes in a fair go. Help me out here and help me believe that people on your side of the globe believe in a fair go as well.
Oh, out of curiosity:
Did you ask permission to quote Imshin in your book? No? Just hoping you used her material in a ‘friendly fashion’? Is that standard practice in your profession?
Also, what claims do you have to Imshin’s blog or to anyone else’s for that matter to say it should be a form of social activism or that it is a form of social activism? So what if Imshin doesn’t want to save the world or simply expresses her feelings about ‘the Situation’. Don’t Quakers read the Psalms much less the rest of the Bible too?
I mean, should I put a disclaimer on my blog just in case *you* visit?
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