Comments on: Government laughs in the face of economic desperation http://972mag.com/government-laughs-in-the-face-of-economic-desperation/52378/ Independent commentary and news from Israel & Palestine Tue, 21 May 2013 09:16:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Jan http://972mag.com/government-laughs-in-the-face-of-economic-desperation/52378/comment-page-1/#comment-71298 Jan Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:12:02 +0000 http://972mag.com/?p=52378#comment-71298 @Jehudah - don't you ever give up? Zion, as you call it, was not the capital city of the Jews for close to 2000 years. Just because Jews "yearned" for Zion, a city that was not theirs for many generations, does not make it theirs. On the other hand there are millions of Palesinians (yes, they are Palestinians) born on the land that the Jews claim exclusively for themselves who yearn to return to the land of their birth. Yet they are barred from returning in spite of UN Res. 194 which demands their return. I warrant that neither you nor the vast number of Jewish Israelis have any personal history in Palestine prior to the start of the Zionist project in the late 1800s but yet you and I and any Jew in the world can "return" to a land where they have no personal history. Jehudah I would be very surprised if you had been born in Israel.....more likely in the US. BTW, if "Zion" was, as you wrote, the capital city of the Jews why did not more Jews emigrate to "Zion" over the centuries. Why did Jews like my great grandparents come to the US and not to "Zion." If there are so many Jews around the world "yearning" for Zion why are they not flocking to Israel? That is because what you write is a crock. @Jehudah – don’t you ever give up? Zion, as you call it, was not the capital city of the Jews for close to 2000 years. Just because Jews “yearned” for Zion, a city that was not theirs for many generations, does not make it theirs.

On the other hand there are millions of Palesinians (yes, they are Palestinians) born on the land that the Jews claim exclusively for themselves who yearn to return to the land of their birth. Yet they are barred from returning in spite of UN Res. 194 which demands their return.

I warrant that neither you nor the vast number of Jewish Israelis have any personal history in Palestine prior to the start of the Zionist project in the late 1800s but yet you and I and any Jew in the world can “return” to a land where they have no personal history. Jehudah I would be very surprised if you had been born in Israel…..more likely in the US.

BTW, if “Zion” was, as you wrote, the capital city of the Jews why did not more Jews emigrate to “Zion” over the centuries. Why did Jews like my great grandparents come to the US and not to “Zion.” If there are so many Jews around the world “yearning” for Zion why are they not flocking to Israel? That is because what you write is a crock.

]]> By: Greg Pollock http://972mag.com/government-laughs-in-the-face-of-economic-desperation/52378/comment-page-1/#comment-71030 Greg Pollock Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:08:28 +0000 http://972mag.com/?p=52378#comment-71030 Last year at this time you had a massive proclamation of distress. From what you say herein, circumstances are getting worse; in particular, those hoping for upward mobility (unlike many others who have given up on such a dream) are beginning to see decline and consumer stagnation instead. It is too early to know if your parliamentary system can respond. One might expect that, as the stagnation/decline continue, the allocation arguments you make will gain traction. But I do not see how a multi-party parliamentary system (unlike, say, the UK with two major, one minor player) as Israel can easily accomodate the floating distress. Do people vote for a party or against other parties? I know it is a mix, especially with the embedded religious parties which insure government handouts. But I do not understand the support base of Likud, Labor, Kadima. Nor do I see a way alternative thought can enter the major parties from the bottom up (as in the Tea Party which has indeed assumed much ideological control over the Republican Party at the House and Senate levels). I have a sense, unfounded, that the Israeli political system, post national unity governments, somehow actively discourages organizational challenges. National Unity, post suicide bombing war of 2000-4, seems to have disabled bottom up group formation, if it was ever there. . The settler movement is a dynamo, directing money and thought in a clear direction. What alternatives exist, or can exist? Last year at this time you had a massive proclamation of distress. From what you say herein, circumstances are getting worse; in particular, those hoping for upward mobility (unlike many others who have given up on such a dream) are beginning to see decline and consumer stagnation instead. It is too early to know if your parliamentary system can respond. One might expect that, as the stagnation/decline continue, the allocation arguments you make will gain traction. But I do not see how a multi-party parliamentary system (unlike, say, the UK with two major, one minor player) as Israel can easily accomodate the floating distress. Do people vote for a party or against other parties? I know it is a mix, especially with the embedded religious parties which insure government handouts. But I do not understand the support base of Likud, Labor, Kadima. Nor do I see a way alternative thought can enter the major parties from the bottom up (as in the Tea Party which has indeed assumed much ideological control over the Republican Party at the House and Senate levels). I have a sense, unfounded, that the Israeli political system, post national unity governments, somehow actively discourages organizational challenges. National Unity, post suicide bombing war of 2000-4, seems to have disabled bottom up group formation, if it was ever there.
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The settler movement is a dynamo, directing money and thought in a clear direction. What alternatives exist, or can exist?

]]> By: AngelaJerusalem http://972mag.com/government-laughs-in-the-face-of-economic-desperation/52378/comment-page-1/#comment-71017 AngelaJerusalem Sun, 05 Aug 2012 19:58:41 +0000 http://972mag.com/?p=52378#comment-71017 "Did the Prime Minister really have to announce the package the day before the weekend of Tisha b’Av, holiday of mourning?" Dahlia, don't you think perhaps it was a sign of his and others' cynicism? I can almost hear Bibi's mirthless laugh in my ear as he decided to launch the cuts the day before Tisha b'Av, with that self-serving sneer of a smirk on his face. Or have I been watching too much Eretz Nehederet? “Did the Prime Minister really have to announce the package the day before the weekend of Tisha b’Av, holiday of mourning?”

Dahlia, don’t you think perhaps it was a sign of his and others’ cynicism? I can almost hear Bibi’s mirthless laugh in my ear as he decided to launch the cuts the day before Tisha b’Av, with that self-serving sneer of a smirk on his face. Or have I been watching too much Eretz Nehederet?

]]> By: Jehudah http://972mag.com/government-laughs-in-the-face-of-economic-desperation/52378/comment-page-1/#comment-70978 Jehudah Sun, 05 Aug 2012 12:28:03 +0000 http://972mag.com/?p=52378#comment-70978 "Social Darwinism was a major component of Zionist ideology right from the start". The start was more than 3,000 years ago, when Zion, also known as Jerusalem, was set up by the Jewish king, King David, as the spiritual and administrative center of the kingdom and its people. Ever since, Zion and the country in the midst of which it is located, became the focal point of Jewish affinity to and yearning for. No wonder that Zion has been the capital city of the Jewish people and its sovereign political entities both in ancient and in modern time, and Zionism, first and foremost, has been that sense of affinity to Zion. How is this sense related to "social Darwinism" is not entirely clear to this poster. “Social Darwinism was a major component of Zionist ideology right from the start”.
The start was more than 3,000 years ago, when Zion, also known as Jerusalem, was set up by the Jewish king, King David, as the spiritual and administrative center of the kingdom and its people. Ever since, Zion and the country in the midst of which it is located, became the focal point of Jewish affinity to and yearning for. No wonder that Zion has been the capital city of the Jewish people and its sovereign political entities both in ancient and in modern time, and Zionism, first and foremost, has been that sense of affinity to Zion. How is this sense related to “social Darwinism” is not entirely clear to this poster.

]]> By: JCSM http://972mag.com/government-laughs-in-the-face-of-economic-desperation/52378/comment-page-1/#comment-70953 JCSM Sat, 04 Aug 2012 18:55:51 +0000 http://972mag.com/?p=52378#comment-70953 Social Darwinism was a major component of Zionist ideology right from the start. Social Darwinism was a major component of Zionist ideology right from the start.

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