Bashir's BS

Who holds this opinion?

There is an image of a powerful Zionist Left in Israel. I want to make it clear that within the Israeli society there are few people who believe in peace, inclusivity and justice. Israel is a very divided society and it has its own dynamics but when it comes to the Palestinian cause it orchestrates the same symphony. Israel responds like a tribe. It plays tribal politics and it has no room to accommodate different opinions. I am surprised at the tribalism and pathological narcissism practised in Israel.

I feel seriously disappointed as an academic and scholar that within the Israeli intellectual landscape there are few voices talking of justice. It is often heard that they want to live in peace like normal human beings. Then why deprive the right of others to also live in peace? They say that they want their children to be safe and not terrorised by violence. Then for God's sake, why do they terrorise the children of others? Where are the principles of reciprocity?

If this so-called Zionist Left continues to use the same logic, then I see little progress towards any kind of peace. The Zionist Left favours the two-state solution not in the name of justice but because it wants to get rid of the Palestinian minority still living in Israel. If this is the way
the Zionist Left behaves - and the world looks upon it as lovers of peace -then we are in trouble.

Professor Bashir Bashir, 32, is an alumni of the London School of Economics and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is an Israeli citizen and a research fellow in the Gilo Centre for Citizenship, Democracy and Civic Education at the Hebrew University and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Bashir is co-editor of ‘The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies', (Oxford University Press, 2008).