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Comment to interviewFriday 30 Aug 2002
author: *
As Chief of Staff for the IDF Mr. Moshe Ya'alon has a role to play. His role is the one of a beurocrat, and his job is to implement the wishes of the government. How he sees the situation with the Palestinians should be completely irrelevant. His view of the situation reflects a view from where he is standing. His arena is the military arena, and as long as he is not elected for a political position, his political views are irrelevant. Beurocrats are (in Webers theory anyways) apolitical, and their actions shall not reflect personal opinions.
The inerview as such did not impress me at all. The interviewer never challanged Mr. Ya'alon on any points, and hence was never actually needed to conduct a interview. A simple statement would have had the same effect.
It amazes me how racist his words were. Again and again he talks of how Arabs think as opposed to Jews. Who is he to say what other people are thinking, and looking at a situation. To say that Arabs think like this is also pretty dehumanizing, considering that no-one think alike, and that Arabs as well as Jew are individuals with their own minds and are able to think for themselves. This in itself is not so important, but when he states that this is the reason why one should not give up the territories at this point of time, it shows a man that is delusional and paranoid. Saying that this is giving into terrorism is at best ridiculous. One can easily make the same case only saying it is giving into justice and basic Human Rights.
I do agree on one point though. The existential threat the situation poses for Israel as a Jewish state. I do strongly believe that the Jewish state will loose its jewishness no matter what happens with the Palestinians anyways. This is not to say that Israel will not exist in the future (I reallt do that hope it will), but the nature of the state will change. It is called evolution and will be a result of globalization. 20% of Israels population are Arabs. People will mingle, the "race" will disintegrate, not by extinction but by a natural development....and this does not anly apply to the Jews, but all other "races" in the world. The focus should not be on Israel as a Jewish state, but rather as a Judaic state which is much better in my opinion. Calling it a Jewish state excludes 20% of its citizents, and many many more of its inhabitants. Not a thing I would call democratic. Democracy is not majority rule, but people rule....all people. The tyranny of majority is one of the democracys biggest threats.
Much much more could be written about this interview, but I will await further responses.