How Israel marks its 62nd birthday

Ari Shavit writes in Haaretz a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s a fascinating document, fearful, paranoid and alive to Zionism’s likely fate in the 21st century. And where is Diaspora Jewry in all this? Asleep at the wheel, organising regular events to “celebrate” its closeness with Israel:

Mr. Prime Minister, here are the basic facts: The grace period granted the Jewish state by Auschwitz and Treblinka is ending. The generation that knew the Holocaust has left the stage. The generation that remembers the Holocaust is disappearing. What shapes the world’s perception of Israel today is not the crematoria, but the checkpoints. Not the trains, but the settlements. As a result, even when we are right, they do not listen to us. Even when we are persecuted, they pay us no heed. The wind is blowing against us.

The zeitgeist of the 21st century threatens to put an end to Zionism. No one knows better than you that even superpowers cannot resist the spirit of the times. And certainly not small, fragile states like Israel.

In order withstand what is to come, Israel must once again become an inalienable part of the West. And the West is not prepared to accept Israel as an occupying state. Therefore, in order to save our home, is necessary to act at once to end the occupation.

http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/04/21/this-is-how-israel-marks-its-62nd-birthday/