1. BobW said:

A Yiddish-flavored Oberammergau Passion Play ?

A good article to introduce a topic in international relations; the nation-state... The supporting material, however, cannot withstand scruitiny.

A nation-state is an entity with a deliniated territory and population under the control of a government that also participates in international relations.

I like this article by David Meir-Levi because it supports my position there is no such thing as "international law".

To say that Arafat agreed to recognize Israel implies Arafat represented an independent body politic. He did not. He was a proxy of Egypt where half the Arab population lives. Cairo does not want an economic competitor in the region.This is an absolute Egyptian position even if most in Israel converted to Islam.

Mohathir Mohammed is an eloquent public speaker. He deals in hyperbole. One third of Malaysia is populated by the overseas Chinese. His proclaimed warfare would trigger spillovers internal to Malaysia. The Borneo section would be lost even before the flareups and political riots destroy peninsular Malaysia. The billion plus Muslims are mostly resident in Indonesia and India. They have physical restrictions against activating threats against Israel. Plus, the Arab rulers of Muslim populations realize threats against them come from other Arabs and not Israel. Don't forget Mohathir Mohammed also slandered Christianity and the West with his "the so-called Crusaders".

It's a standard infection within pro-Israel writers to use examples defeating their efforts. David Meir-Levi uses Tibet. Prior to the Handover, many pro-Israel writers called Hong Kong "lost" notwithstanding repercussions re Jerusalem's status.

Tibet is cataloged differently than Bhutan and Sikkim by Meir-Levi. Nepal has no real independent future. Tibet's Delai Lama and his monks were running a caste system that made New Delhi blush. The lowest caste was slaves. Guess who became regional commissars in Tibet, PRC. PRC got their buffer state and pro-Israel writers got identified with anti-egalitaranism. Guess who won and who lost this part of the war of ideas.

Israel's birth was different than Singapore's ?

I do not believe David Meir-Levi can support pre-state Israel having a "viable well-governed cohesive society...". Much was surpressed and only now are we addressing this.

I'm not against pro-Israel writers but does it help to write "In sharp contradistinction to the manner in which all other nations have been created, Israel came into existence by legal, peaceful, constructive processes." ? Did Abba Eban ghost write David's article? Canada became a sovereign nation circa 1946, after WWII when the Statute of Westminster took effect. Can't Canada qualify with a legal, peaceful, constructive birth ?

Israel has been losing the public relations war because of no internal unity and an overall lack of national resolve to retaliate. Israel has been losing the economic war because GOI supports the oil industry.(Note that the land of Michel Rocard [Israel is an "historic mistake"] obtains 80% of its electricity from nuclear power and not petrol.)

Israel's right to exist and the Arab rejection of Israel is consistently portrayed as an Oberammergau passion play flavored with Yiddish and some Hebrew. Problems are external to Jews is the perpetual theme.

It's time to look at the internal dynamics.

Can we not relate Israel's disestablishment-unless saved by the Texas bus ride in 4 days from now - to Saul Bellow's comments on Chicago's Jews?

"They were all commonplace persons. I would never have let them think so, but it's time to admit that I looked down on them. They were lacking in higher motives. They were run of the mill products of our mass democracy, with no distinctive contributions to make to the history of the species, satisfied to pile up money or seduce women, to copulate, thrive in the sack as the degenerate children of Eros, male but not manly, and living, the men and women alike, on threadbare ideas, without beauty, without virtue, without the slightest independence of spirit - ...".

If some of Israel's Jews are "parasites" and "pariahs", can we ask David Meir-Levi to modify "viable well-governed cohesive society." ?

Kol tuv,
BobW

2. BobW said:

I just heard on shortwave radio the loss of Saul Bellow (Z"L). He died on Tuesday, 5 Apr 05. We lost more than just a producer of literature.

Saul Bellow, of blessed memory, was 89.

Kol tuv,
BobW