Restoring Israel to the status of a reformed state requires a radical change
24.5.2005
By: Nimrod Aloni
Girls provide sex services to buy new jeans or bring income to their mother; Soldiers puncture solar boilers to alleviate the routine of the occupation, and on weekends, in the entertainment clubs, shoot dead security guards who refuse; In the streets of the city - foreign workers are hunted, and in dark alleys foreign women are sold as sex slaves; Students beat their teachers or stab their friends and at night celebrate by destroying the public gardens; On prime-time television, ambitious girls are presented as butchers of models; And in the darkness after the "models", gangs of thieves are cutting down eucalyptus trees, uprooting citrus groves, lifting sewer covers, sawing road signs and electricity poles - loading, cutting or melting and selling at a high price.
These images are not taken from a religious apocalypse or the words of a moral intellectual on the end of civilization, not from the "planet of the drowning" (in Adi Ofir's terms) in countries hit by natural disasters, economic exploitation and political oppression, nor from Hollywood productions of the end of the world in the style of "Max the Warrior on the Road" ” and “the world of water”. This is a domestic reality 2005 - a weekly collection of news from the press and television, a reality that every Israeli already knows, but for the most part would rather get used to it than be ashamed of it and work to change it. In its 57th year, our dear country celebrated its first independence day in the third world.
It is no accident that I refrained from bringing evidence from the political field: much has been written about Israel's type in the table of political corruption, the public witnesses the frequent visits of politicians to police investigations, and the legal commentator Moshe Negbi has already dedicated his book "As Sodom We Were: On the Slope from a State of Law to a Banana Republic" to this. Another prominent area is embodied in the folly and injustice that underpinned the settlement enterprise: neither logic nor fairness, neither peace nor security, were the considerations at the base of the hopeless and unscrupulous policy of settling tens of thousands of Jews among three million Palestinians who lack human and civil rights. It is depraved power and blind messianism that have conquered us. And now everything blows up in the face: the lie to others, the self-deception and the futility; Now, when it becomes clear the size of the sacrifice in human life and the economy's pledge; Now, when the earth is shaking and the anxiety of civil war is panicking.
There is too little space to address all the other evidence of our retreat into the bosom of the third world: the violence and greed of the government (such as the sudden confiscation of the property of the Arabs of Jerusalem), the disregard for good education and higher education (continuing damage to education, science and universities, and at the same time the rising power of empty libertarians), to the automatic worship of the people army and economic achievers (who are parachuted into the leadership of civil society in politics, education and industry), to a deterioration from a mentality of culture to a mentality of survival (in the uninhibited dedication to economic competition and the cult of survival in "reality TV"), to indifference towards human misery and social injustice (reconciliation with a class society in which The top decile is growing, the other nine are falling, and at the bottom of society is a deprived periphery, oppressed minorities and foreign servants), and of course also to the debauchery of high culture (the triumph of ratings, cuts in culture and art and the neglect of public television and radio).
Since Israel's corruption is expressed in the whole philosophy of life and our order of value priorities - in a retreat to a third world mentality that despises the norms of logic and decency - restoring Israel to the status of a reformed state requires a radical change.
There are no shortage of examples to follow: one can start with a heritage from home, and instead of falsely boasting about Israel's heritage, simply lead one's life according to "truth, justice and peace", according to "what is hateful to you, do not do to your friend", according to "good there is good oil", According to "Thou shalt not take a bribe, and thou shalt not oppress," according to concern for the equality and well-being of weak populations, according to "Rishit Hochuma buy wisdom" and according to "Hate evil, love good, and place at the gate of justice." It is possible to continue following the examples of reason, morality and creativity of the Western and Eastern cultural heritage, and it is essential to learn from prosperous and fair countries of our time about the winning formula of cultivating higher education, democratic culture and social justice. The most important of all is the restoration of trust and commitment towards education, education and culture: not as systems for economic advancement or self-entertainment but first and foremost as challenging systems for a full and worthy human life of personality development, social decency and cultural quality.
Dr. Aloni is the head of the "Institute for Educational Thought" at the Kibbutzim Seminary College and academic chairman of the Hama network for state-humanistic education.
