Opinion

September 20, 2010

Why Time magazine is wrong

By Marcus Sheff

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The lobby of the Hyatt Hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh was buzzing with dark-suited officials, press and security personnel from the U.S. State Department, Egypt and Israel, mingling with swim-suited tourists from Finland and Abu Dhabi.

So when the reporter from a major Arabic TV Channel, whom I know and respect and who was there for the international peace conference, earnestly asked me whether Israelis really want peace the question seemed as bizarre as the setting.

Of course, it came in the wake of two major U.S. publications descending on Israel to take the pulse of the people and solemnly diagnosing a terminal case of national hedonism.

I could have told the reporter about my good friends Jeffrey and Irit, a successful couple living in one of Israel’s most exclusive neighborhoods who believed passionately in the Oslo peace process of the 1990’s and then watched as Arafat chose terror over agreement.

Jeffrey and I stood together at Kissufim Junction in the Gaza Strip dusk on 15 August 2005 as the barrier between Israel and Gaza came down, symbolizing Israel’s disengagement. In the following days, every Israeli man, woman and child, citizen and soldier withdrew from Gaza, taking with them the bodies exhumed from the Jewish cemeteries for reburial in Israel.

Some three years later, Jeffrey and Irit’s son Michael was sent into Gaza with his paratroop battalion to put an end to the thousands of deadly rocket attacks fired at Israelis by Iran-backed Jihadi terrorists who were more occupied by how many Israelis they could kill than building a civil society.

Michael returned, but not before watching his sergeant die in battle. Their second of three children is now being drafted into the IDF. Jeffrey reflects on his blog about what will induce Hamas to ever accept the right of him and his family to live in peace.

I could tell the reporter of fearing something as banal as visiting the local shopping mall in my home town of Netanya, frequently blown up by terrorists from the West Bank, a nine-mile drive away. Or of comforting a friend who was in Tel Aviv as the Number 5 bus was blown up in front of her on Dizengoff Street. 

All are singular experiences but part of the national psyche: Israelis defending themselves from wars of aggression for the first three decades of the State’s existence. The tension of regular terror outrages that brought unbearable carnage to Israel’s streets and unspeakable pain to so many Israeli families. An unprovoked barrage of Saddam’s scuds, Nasrallah’s katyushas, Haniah’s Kassams and now the threat of Ahmadinedjad’s nuclear warheads barreling their way towards us. 

And yet, for anyone who took the time to check, over the last many years, a majority of Israelis have consistently polled in favor of a two-state solution.

Quite remarkable, really.

The Israel Project has polled in the U.S., Europe, Russia and China and the top concern of respondents, every time, in every group, in every country, is the economy. TIP polled Muslims in Paris who are said to be roiling about the situation of Muslims in the Middle East. Their major concerns were jobs and education - they barely mentioned Palestine. TIP has just polled in Ramallah and unsurprisingly, it was the economy. The major, overriding concern of West Bankers is jobs. 

There is something ugly about insisting that Israelis must behave differently to the rest of humanity.

In delegitimizing Israel, it is Israelis and not just the Israeli government that is under attack. Israelis are branded as unmoved by peace and motivated only by money. Mr. Karel De Gucht is still the European Commissioner for Trade, despite commenting that most Jews believe they are always right and questioning the point of talking to them at all. The head of Amnesty International in Finland believes Israel is a scum state.

Of course, this embarrasses and infuriates the Israeli government but it is Middle Israelis who are on the firing line. And it is easier to boycott Israeli academics, musicians, directors, tennis players, farmers and concert goers if they can be singled out as people uniquely deserving of opprobrium – in fact, a nation of warmongering, selfish Fagins.

So, why do Israelis teach about peace in schools and despite constant setbacks, send government after government to negotiate? Because, as Jeffrey insists, peace is about our existence. Surrounded by enemies, there is no life for us without it and no alternative to achieving it. 

Look beyond golden beaches, designer shirts and Tel Aviv apartment prices made famous by magazine copy. There are millions of Israelis who have not given up.

Marcus Sheff is the Executive Director of The Israel Project’s Israel Office.

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this is all very interesting but has nothing to do with the article (forget the cover) it described perfectly the israel i experienced during my 2 months there this summer: prosperous, secure safe with people not fearful of going to outdoor concerts with 1000s of attentdees not obsessed with the ups and downs of negotiations and quite cynical as to the prospects for success…and yes in a bubble with regards to what is going on in the territories. Yediot Acharanot in its new year’s article said time’s description of the mood in israel was quie correct

Comment by lalarryw on 9/20/10 at 4:41 pm

My major concern is that the Isrealis will want peace too badly and end up with conditions that are not sustainable, i.e., without adequate provisions for security.  I have grandchildren living in Israel and I want them protected.  It is really very simple.

Comment by Aharon Phillips on 9/20/10 at 4:44 pm

I dropped my subscription to Time magazine.  I thought they were above this kind of smug anti Jewish reporting.

Comment by J Beezy on 9/20/10 at 5:41 pm

i’m trying to understand the point of this article. The time writer tells of what he finds in the israel of summer 2010 a prosperous israel where people dont live in fear of going to the mall or taking the bus and have the time to enjoy the pleasures of daily life. A safe and prosperous israel where people isnt that what we all hope and pray for. Yet when the magazine writes about this it is delegitimizing israel because it doesnt dwell on past history.

Comment by lalarryw on 9/20/10 at 6:23 pm

‘m not sure i get your point:
If the article had written that the economy is depressed and people are afraid to take buses or go to shopping malls would that have been a better description of israel in the summer of 2010.

Nowhere in the article did the author begrudge israelis their material pleasures nor did it find their pessimism towards the negotiations unfounded.

but i guess people predisposed to see the sky falling everywhere see what they want to see

Comment by jodie davis on 9/20/10 at 6:32 pm

A valiant, but I fear, wasted effort. Believing in peace is not the same as believing in “the peace process” The first is a heartfelt desire; the second, based on the current players, is like believing in the tooth fairy. Jews on the far left lack the intellectual courage to face the facts. It is the same mind set that allows these same people the gall to anoint themselves “progressives.”

Comment by Rafael Guber on 9/20/10 at 6:43 pm

Too many words, not enough structure.  No take-away from this column.  Waste of ink, despite his sentiments, which move me.  But the time has come for intelligent action, not a war of words or pity.

Comment by Jim Ruxin on 9/20/10 at 10:54 pm

peace comes from within

one only has too look in the mirror

and think with his or her heart .

Comment by morris williams on 9/21/10 at 8:44 am

It’s time for Jews in America to understand the support of the Democratic party and media in general for Israel will begin to fall by the wayside as the Jewish vote becomes less and less important.

I’m surprised at the number of Jews who continue to blindly support our President…..without fully understanding why. If there ever is going to be a pull back of support for Israel, it will be during the Obama Presidency.

David

Comment by David Foser on 9/21/10 at 12:30 pm

The two-state solution has merit, and really, Isrealis and Palestinians want the same thing: to return to the place they consider home.  I don’t care if one person calls it Zionism and another Right To Return; the desire is the same, just intended for a different people is all.  However, there are some hiccups in the two-state solution, but I think one of them can be resolved by making Jerusalem an autonomous international city belonging to the people of the Earth since it predates both cultures.

Comment by Stephen L. Rush on 9/21/10 at 12:53 pm

The cover of Time Magazine was destructive.  Just one glance at that cover from any person that was not informed correctly about Israel’s struggle for survival, would instantaneously distort the truth once again.  Just a glance at the cover re-enforces the Arab propaganda, and the viewer does not have to read one word of the article.  It’s psychological and it’s subliminal and it NOT TRUE.  Shame on Time Magazine.

Comment by Joyce on 9/26/10 at 7:04 am

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