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Dear Rita
author: Ben
It is all well and good to write "'See' that the world is not against you. It is you who refuse to listen and hear the voices of the global community. It is you who refuse to consider other points of view."
I do not believe "the world" is against us, but I don't exactly reject the idea either. How does one explain the UN's 113-4 vote to condemn Israel's threat to "remove" Arafat. Where was the vote to condemn the terrorists who killed dozens of people in the preceding week? Why was there no UN vote against that?
Why, when the violence broke out three years ago, did the world collectively blame and condemn Israel, even though it was Israel who just two months earlier advance the peace process at Camp David and the Palestinians, not the Israelis, closed the door on diplomacy. Many European leaders participated in those negotiations, and those at Taba, and knew Israel was willing to make a deal and the Palestinians weren't. Still, no one offered Israel the benefit of the doubt. As a result, Israel has become highly suspicious of international opinion. In all honesty, can you blame them?
During the build-up to the American attack on Iraq, peace activists repeated again and again that war is the absolutely last option, after all avenues of negotiations have been exhausted. But they refuse to apply this principle to Israel. Israel was still willing to negotiate, but the Palestinians launched a war. Where are the peace activists? They all lined up in solidarity with the Palestinans. What happened to the anti-war rhetoric?
However, issues of anti-Semitism aside, I do agree that it is not our Judaism that is at issue, but the lack of it, as you say.
But please, stay away from the black and white definitions.