De International Herald Tribune van vandaag:
'Excerpts from a speech made in Tel Aviv by David Grossman, the Israeli writer, on the 11th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The death of young people is a horrible, outrageous waste. But no less horrible is the feeling that the state of Israel has, for many years now, criminally wasted not only the lives of its sons and daughters, but also the miracle that occurred here - the great and rare opportunity that history granted it, the opportunity to create an enlightened, properly functioning democratic state that would act in accordance with Jewish and universal values.
A country that would be a national home and refuge, but not only a refuge. It would also be a place that gives new meaning to Jewish existence. A country in which an important, essential part of its Jewish identity, of its Jewish ethos, would be full equality and respect for its non-Jewish citizens.
Look what happened. Look what happened to this young, bold country, so full of passion and soul. How Israel aged through infancy, childhood and youth into a permanent state of irritability and weakness and missed opportunities.
How did it happen? When did we lose even the hope that we might some day be able to live different, better lives? More - how is it that we continue to stand aside and watch, mesmerized, as madness and vulgarity, violence and racism take control of our home?
And I ask you, how can it be that a people with our powers of creativity and regeneration, a nation that has known how to pick itself up from the dust time and again, finds itself today - precisely when it has such great military power - in such a feeble, helpless state? A state in which it is again a victim, but now a victim of itself, of its fears and despair, of its own shortsightedness?
One of the harsh things of this last war was the realization that in these times there is no king in Israel. That our leadership is hollow, both our political and military leadership.
Today, Israel's leadership fills the husk of its regime primarily with fear and intimidation, with the charade of power and the wink of the backroom deal, with haggling over all that is dear to us. In this sense, they are not real leaders; certainly not the leaders that a people in such a complicated, disoriented state need.'
Lees verder: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/08/news/edgross.php
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