I try generally avoid politics at all costs, as these types of discussions don’t really lead anywhere. I am also kind of traitor of my country, I left behind and give nothing to. I do, still keep very close to heart the fact that the only country that gave me citizenship and a right to live there forever, was Israel and I get very saddened by the waves of hatred against my country and people all over the world.
I saw this very good piece that sums very nicely my own point of view, and the point of view of many of my countrymen. http://telem.me/we-believe-that/what-are-we-struggling-against
What Are we Struggling Against?
This is a question we ask a lot – “who are we struggling against?” We asked this question in Moscow and Kiev, Warsaw and Krakow, New-York and Los-Angeles. We are about to ask it in Baku and Berlin, Sidney and London, Dublin and (and this will be amazing) Istanbul. We ask it again and again and we hear a lot of answers – and all of them wrong.
“Palestinians” say some, forgetting the entire saga of Arab-Israeli wars before or after 1967. “Arabs”, say others, forgetting both the big Arab minority living in peace in Israel, the friendship with Jordan going long before the peace agreement of ’94 and the rising tension with the very non-Arab leadership in Iran. “Islam” say some, unaware that this is one of the official religions in Israel, that Israel has worm relations with many Muslim countries and that Judaism allows religious Jews to pray in a mosque.
Many answers, all wrong. Maybe because the question is wrong also. You see, we don’t fight a “who” but a “what”. We fight against an idea, a very simple idea – Israel shouldn’t be. It’s old, older than Israel itself, and during the long years of its existence it wore different clothes. Long ago it was wearing the jacket of the Palestinian nationalism, which was replaced by the Arab nationalism since the 50′s. Then it wore something more religious – like the clothing of the Iranian ayatollahs or the Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Cairo. Recently it wears the jeans and t-shirts of Berkeley and London students. “Israel shouldn’t be” they all said and they all still say.
But we are here. We are here because here is our home. We are here, knowing that we are not aliens, not foreigners, not a new wave of some colonialist crusade – we didn’t come here, we returned. Came back. And this is a major difference.
And so, while players and banners on the other side change during the years, their message remains the same. “Israel shouldn’t be”. But we say something else. We say that we are here to remain, that we will stand firm and hold our ground, that we were exiled once and there will not be another time.
We are home. This is the only thing that is not open to discussion.
And this is what we are struggling against.
Grobetrotter 