Come on, join the right side of history

This is something one doesn’t see every day.

The former editor of the Australian Jewish News, Dan Goldberg, writes what Jews should be acknowledging this Passover:

The bitter truth — hard as it may be to write, horrible as it is to admit — is that the occupation has brutalised us, corrupted our children and tarnished our image in the international arena.

The very debate raging in Israel right now about whether the Israel Defence Force is the “most moral army in the world” (as its military brass declares), or whether it was guilty of “war crimes” during its recent offensive in Gaza (as the United Nations will now investigate) is a snapshot of the morass we have been dragged into.

Israel’s miraculous military victory in 1967 saved the Jewish state from oblivion. But the consequences of that victory — the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza — may not save our souls. The quicksand is rising.

The Palestinians, for their part, are far from blameless. What they have done to us is and what we have done to them is, tragically, written in blood. But as the bulk of the world’s Jews sit down to remember our march to liberation thousands of years ago, far too few of us will admit our march of folly today.

When will more Jews see the writing on the wall and start doing something about it?

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

Site by Common