Until I Came to Live in Israel, I Was Sure That Jews Were Smart -
Detaining the Washington Post for ’incitement’: Unable to stem the terror attacks that now number as many as eight per day, the government has clearly decided that incitement, its declared mortal enemy, can now be its best friend.
Bradley Burston Feb 16, 2016
Opinion - Haaretz - Israeli News Source Haaretz.com
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.703808
Until I came to live in Israel, years and years and years ago, I was sure that Jews were smart.
I thought that if Jews ever had a country of their own, these people – with their passion for learning, their tragic heritage of persecution and oppression and exile and mass murder, their openness to new ideas, their appreciation of the values of democratic freedoms and of minority rights, and their demonstrated talents for international relations – would run their country accordingly.
Instead of running it into the ground.
CAVEAT: Over time, I’ve learned that, by and large, the Israeli on the street is a person of considerable acumen, who would support efforts by the government – if those efforts actually existed at all – to honestly pursue peace through diplomacy, reconciliation between Jews and Arabs, widening of rights to minorities, and moderation over extremism.
For proof, you need look no further than the popularity of Israel’s formal head of state Reuven Rivlin, a rightist who champions these values.