By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The pace of events and announcements of intent these days seems to be constantly accelerating, leaving us simple citizens of Israel unable to decide where we stand and whether we’re coming or going.
One thing is clear about U.S. President Trump’s plan for Gaza: the whole world, except for Israel’s government and the U.S. administration, is united in rejecting the idea. Most vociferous in opposing it are the Arab countries, especially those two (Egypt and Jordan) slated to accept the Gazans who agree to leave that benighted piece of real estate. So much for Arab solidarity. Not to mention human compassion in the rest of the world.
It’s somehow reminiscent of the worldwide rejection of the idea of taking in the Jews of Germany in the period prior to the outbreak of WWII. But in contrast to the Gazans, those Jews had not attacked civilians and wreaked havoc on peaceful settlements. At that time there was no Israel to take in the hapless refugees. After the proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948 all the Arab countries in which Jews had lived for hundreds if not thousands of years expelled them and seized their property. Only Israel was prepared to take them in, and by now they are an integral part of society. In contrast to those Arab countries which took in Palestinians, Israel did not insist on the newcomers retaining the label of ‘refugees’ on a permanent basis.
There’s no getting away from the fact that the situation is complicated. President Trump can at a stretch be likened to Alexander the Great, who took a drastic measure to solve the issue of the Gordian knot. Finding a bold and original solution to a problem may have been all well and good in the ancient world, but in this day and age it has the effect of putting many people’s back up. So, if it takes a megalomaniac real-estate developer to come up with a bold and original solution to a problem what right do we have to criticize?
The parallel with Alexander the Great could be taken even further. Alexander was undoubtedly an original thinker, a military and political genius who was venerated and adored by his troops (until they rebelled when he schlepped them to India). But there have been other leaders in more recent history who have aroused widespread devotion, displayed original thinking and rhetorical power but eventually came to a Bad End that cost many millions of lives.
So, all we simple citizens of Israel can do is sit back and watch our leaders cook up ever more fantastical solutions for the problems they have created. Our democratic right to demonstrate, as well as to cast our vote every five years, is still with us, but in the meantime the juggernaut just keeps rolling ahead, crushing everything and everyone in its path.
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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson is an author and freelance writer based in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Zion, Israell.