Israel is tearing apart the Jewish people
Israel has never had a government that so blatantly violates the core values of liberal democracy, which dismisses identities of 85% of the world's Jewry.
以色列從來沒有一個政府公然違反自由民主的核心價值，駁回85％世界猶太人的身份。
By Carlo Strenger
Published 02:03 24.06.11
Translation by Autumnson Blog
In June last year, Peter Beinart published an article in the New York Review of Books that created quite a storm by pointing out the deep estrangement between the young generation of American Jews and Israel. A year later, it is time to take stock.
去年六月，彼得貝納特在紐約書評發表一篇文章創造出頗一場風暴，指出在美國猶太人和以色列年青一代之間的深層隔閡。一年後，是時候驗倉一下。
Unfortunately, the situation has only grown a lot worse. In my travels to Europe I speak to predominantly Jewish audiences, but also to non-Jews who care deeply about Israel. They voice their pain and anguish openly: They want to understand what has happened to Israel. They desperately want to stand by it, but they are, increasingly, at a loss of knowing how to do so.
不幸的是，情況只变得更差。在我前往歐洲時我對主要是猶太人的觀眾發言，但亦對深切關注以色列的非猶太人。他們公開地說出他們的創傷和痛苦：他們想了解以色列發生什麼事，他們迫切地想待命支持，但他們越來越多地不知道如何做。
2005年撤退定居者
Photo by: Nir Kafri
Their questions are simple. They know that Israel is located in one of the world's most difficult neighborhoods; they have no illusions about the Iranian regime or Hezbollah; and they know the Hamas charter. But they don't understand how any of this is connected with Israel's settlement policies, the dispossession of Palestinian property in Jerusalem, and the utterly racist talk about the 'Judaization' of Jerusalem. They feel that they no longer have arguments, even words, to defend Israel.
他們的問題很簡單，他們知道以色列是位於世界上一個最困難的鄰居；他們沒有對伊朗政權或黎巴嫩真主黨抱任何幻想；和他們知道哈馬斯的約章。但他們不明白這如何與以色列的定居點政策連上關係，剝奪巴勒斯坦人在耶路撒冷的財產，及那完全種族主義的談話有關“猶太化”耶路撒冷。他們覺得他們不再有論點，甚至字眼，去保衛以色列。
Israel has never had a government that so blatantly violates the core values of liberal democracy. Never has a Knesset passed laws that are as manifestly racist as the current one. Israel has had foreign ministers who were unworldly and didn't know English; but it has never had a foreign minister whose only goal is to pander to his right-wing constituency by flaunting his disdain for international law and the idea of human rights with such relish.
以色列從未有過這公然違反自由民主的核心價值的政府，從未有一個以色列議會通過法律，那是明顯地種族主義作尤如當前的。以色列已有脫離世俗和不懂英語的外長，但它從未有過一個外交部長，其唯一目的是盲從右翼團體蔑視國際法和人權思想，以這樣的合義。
Moreover, there has never been a government so totally oblivious of its relation to world Jewry. It passes laws that increase the Orthodox establishment's stranglehold on religious affairs and personal life - completely disregarding that 85 percent of world Jewry are not Orthodox - and simply dismissing their Jewish identities and their institutions. As a result, this majority of world Jewry feels Israel couldn't care less about its values and identity.
此外從未有過這樣的政府，完全無視它對世界猶太人的關係。它通過法律，增加東正教建立在宗教事務和個人生活上的束縛 - 完全無視85％的世界猶太人不是東正教徒 - 及祇簡單地駁回他們的猶太人身份和他們的機構。因此，這世界猶太人的大多數感到以色列不在乎少它的價值和身份。
Israel's Orthodox establishment claims that by monopolizing conversion to Judaism and the laws of marriage, they are preventing a rift in the Jewish people. The exact opposite is true: It is Israel's turn toward racism that extends not only toward its Arab citizens, but toward Ethiopian youth not accepted into schools in Petah Tikva, toward Sephardic girls not allowed to study in Haredi schools in Immanuel, that most Jews in the world cannot stand for. It is the unholy coalition between nationalism and Orthodoxy that is tearing the Jewish people apart.
The overwhelming majority of American and European Jews are deeply committed to Universalist values, and have been so for most of their existence. This commitment is not a fad or an attempt to be fashionable and politically correct. It is the deeply felt conclusion the majority of world Jewry draws from Jewish history: After all that has happened to us, we Jews must never, ever allow violation of universal human rights.
This is why Jews in the U.S. have been central in the Civil Rights movement; this is why Jews in Europe will never forget that only Universalist liberals stood by Alfred Dreyfus in 1890s France. For most Jews of the world, it is simply unfathomable: How can we, who have suffered from racial and religious discrimination, use language and hold views that - as Israel Prize laureate and historian of fascism Zeev Sternhell argued - were last held in the Western world by the Franco regime?
For most of world Jewry, the idea of Yiddishkeit in the second half of the 20th century meant that Jews must never compromise on the equality of human beings before the law and the inviolability of their rights. So how can they stand by a state that continues to pay rabbis who argue that Jewish life has a sanctity that doesn't extend to gentiles, and that it is forbidden to rent property to Arabs?
In moments of despair, I try to remember that Israel's move to the right is driven by fear and confusion, ruthlessly fanned by politicians whose hold on power depends on the panic of Israel's citizens. I feel it can't be true that the country that was supposed not only to be the homeland of the Jews, but a moral beacon, is descending into such darkness. I try to remember that such times of darkness do not reflect on the human quality of a whole nation; that countries like Spain, Greece and Portugal emerged from dark times into the free world; that even though the winds of right-wing nationalism are sweeping over Israel, it is still a democracy.
Sometimes, along with the majority of Jews committed to liberal and Universalist values, I feel as if I were simply in a bad dream; that when I wake up, Herzl's vision of a Jewish state committed to the core values of liberalism will be the reality.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/israel-is-tearing-apart-the-jewish-people-1.369341
耶路撒冷暴亂暴露宗教猶太復國主義者和當局之間的新裂痕
海法的巴哈伊花園 (大同教總部) 與以色列的再亡國預測
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