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since Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:04:17.
Avrum Burg abandons Zionism, and Hillel Halkin wails
by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)
by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)
From http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.html?id=10926 [Unfortunately, it is not available free online].
Here are the last two paragraphs, p. 59.
Here are the last two paragraphs, p. 59.
This does not mean that most Israeli intellectuals tend to identify with every criticism of Israel encountered abroad. On the contrary: most, even on the Israeli Left, do not, and many on the Israeli Left have argued vociferously back. Yet one of the less commented-on consequences of today's anti-Israel climate is its spillback into Israeli life. There is a process of attrition that, because it is as slow as it is steady, often goes unnoticed. Even the Israeli intellectual most convinced of the fundamental justice of his country's cause is undermined in his convictions upon hearing that cause repeatedly derided outside of Israel. In this respect, the intellectual war over Israel is being fought not just for European and American minds; the minds of Israelis are at stake, too. Defeating Hitler [by Avrum Burg] is one indication of how badly this war has been going.
One of the greatest dangers facing Israel is that, under this kind of unrelenting pressure, its intellectual elite will eventually "crack" in precisely the same way that Avrum Burg has cracked. A country whose best minds no longer believe in it is a country whose ordinary minds will sooner or later follow. The only way to contain apostasy is, as Jews have traditionally done, to place the apostate beyond the pale. Yosef Burg's son should be made to understand that this is where he now is.
The process of attrition described above sounds like a wonderful process that can finally lead to the abolition of the Zionist State of Israel and justice for the dispossessed native Palestinian population.
Why should any decent person be upset with Avrum Burg's "apostasy" to the pre-1940s norm of Judaism?
Halkin wants Jews to shun him for renouncing Zionist fanaticism and racism. The article, which proposes an even more extreme mistreatment than that to which Noah Feldman was subjected (see http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/08/feldman-and-anguish-of-disinherited.html and http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/07/gary-rosenblatt-noah-feldman-american.html), is far more an indictment of Halkin and his friends at Commentary (including the fanatic mass-murder inciter Norman "Bomb Iran" Podhoretz) than it is a legitimate complaint against Burg.
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Why should any decent person be upset with Avrum Burg's "apostasy" to the pre-1940s norm of Judaism?
Halkin wants Jews to shun him for renouncing Zionist fanaticism and racism. The article, which proposes an even more extreme mistreatment than that to which Noah Feldman was subjected (see http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/08/feldman-and-anguish-of-disinherited.html and http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/07/gary-rosenblatt-noah-feldman-american.html), is far more an indictment of Halkin and his friends at Commentary (including the fanatic mass-murder inciter Norman "Bomb Iran" Podhoretz) than it is a legitimate complaint against Burg.
