Ehud Olmert on Sheldon Adelson

Ehud Olmert was the last prime minister of Israel before Benjamin Netanyahu, in office 2006-09. He had previously held various cabinet ministries, and served two terms as mayor of Jerusalem, all as a member of Likud. In 2006, however, he left Likud and formed the centrist Kadima (Forward) Party, under which he held the prime ministership. He did not run for reelection in 2009, have been displaced in Kadima by Tzipi Livni, who then lost to Netanyahu, who has held the office ever since. Olmert moved steadily leftward in Israeli politics, following the lead of his mentor Ariel Sharon, whom he succeeded as prime minister, supporting peace agreements with the Palestinians and withdrawal from occupied territory. He also served a prison term in 2015, following convictions for accepting bribes as mayor of Jerusalem and during his Knesset service.

Olmert's observation on the passing of Sheldon Adelson, published in the Jerusalem Post, is worth reading. The headline is "I hate everything Sheldon Adelson loved about Israel." Here is the gist:

Adelson loved Israel and contributed much to a variety of Israeli organizations. And yet, which Israel did he love? Adelson loved an Israel that expels Palestinians from areas under our control. He stated this explicitly on a number of occasions.

Adelson loved an Israel that ignores its Arab citizens and refuses to recognize their equal rights. Adelson believed in a right-wing, nationalistic and fundamentalist Israel, though he himself was not a religious person. He also thought that if Israel had nuclear capability, it should use this power against Iran.

Sheldon loved an Israel that most of the residents living here don’t even want. He preached a racism that is inimical to us. He supported discrimination against Arabs, which we are definitely not prepared to go along with. He hated leftists, and did his utmost to make Israeli society fractious. He encouraged internal disputes and rivalries among ourselves, even though he himself didn’t live here.

 

Everything he loved, I hate.

 

Everything I love about Israel has nothing to do with Adelson.

 

May he rest in peace. 

 

You can read the entire article here.

 

Comments

[A non]

Exactly right.

Which is why, as that country's secular culture continues to evolve along Olmert's lines, and becomes completely unrecognizable, let alone likeable, to the rest of world Jewry - save for obnoxious, hypocritical Baby Boomer American Jews (but NOT their progeny, who will increasing dislike or be hostile to that middle eastern state) - Israel will become increasingly isolated and alienated. Indeed, as the ideals of multiculturalism and of post-ethnic, post-nation-state societies predominate throughout the West - but not in the countries that actually meet replacement rate - Israel will face cultural, and then state, collapse for being a redundant society.

Olmert's dream for Israel is a post-Jewish one. It has no future.
Adeleson's dream of Israel faces a future where American Jews have helped to make it paraiah state #1 in the world.

Why, then, don't/CANNOT American Jews like Lubet look at themselves in the mirror and ask the following: why are your normative aspirations for America not the same as for Israel? Why do you demand an ethno-state in the middle east, but a post-national state in America? Why are you, alone, unable to see your hypocrisy? Why are you alone incapable of seeing the dispositive role YOU have played in undermining Israel's very viability as a going concern?

[anon]

A non

I don't follow your point here, but I'm sure that's my fault. In any event, are you saying that Lubet favors an "ethno state" in Israel?

I don't think that's correct. I think like most of the US left, Lubet would favor an Israel that is not right-wing, nationalistic and fundamentalist, and one that would grant Arab citizens equal rights.

There is, of course, sound judgment in advocating not engaging in unequal treatment based on ethnicity.

Israel, if not "nationalistic" would simply cease to exist: its very existence is challenged by a sea of enemies that surround it, outnumber it, seek to destroy it from within and are committed to its destruction and the wiping out of the Jews who live there. Only an partisan extremist would deny Israel any right to believe in and defend its national identity.

As to "fundamentalism" how dare anyone challenge the religious beliefs of others? This harkens back to the "they cling to their bibles" comment that marked the speaker as an elitist religious bigot. There is NOTHING wrong with believing in a religious creed, so long as that creed doesn't demand the death or harm to or the conversion or destruction of others.

For some reason, the left is perfectly comfortable condemning Jews, but not Arabs, on these grounds. One group expressly advocates pain to all non believers, one doesn't. The left condemns the latter and protects and defends the former.

This, again, is by itself enough proof of a sort of weird "post truth and common sense" mentality, based on Jew hate and venal political affiliations and the naked desire to overcome every societal convention that stands in the way of total socialist control of every thought and action. Look at history: socialists don't much like religion, for obvious reasons.

(In service of a better world, of course.)

Lastly, isn't it ironic that the evil Orange Monster (who will live on, day after miserable day, in the psyches of the left) was actually getting some of the Arab states to recognize the right of Israel to exist. Did he pay them for this recognition? Probably? So did Carter and Clinton. But, to hear an Arab potentate recognize the right of Jews to live in and have a country in Israel is perhaps a goal upon which money was well spent.

Wouldn't it be something if we had fair and objective viewpoints in this country, instead of one sided partisan screeds posing as educated opinions?

[A non]

We'll just have to agree to disagree. I stand by my view that what most of the US (and Western) Left, and what most American Jewish Democrats who are Zionists, want for Israel, are not the same thing.

Your "partisan extremist" is becoming the new normal for the same reason. Note that I do not claim that that's a good thing.

[anon]

A non

With this statement: " what most of the US (and Western) Left, and what most American Jewish Democrats who are Zionists, want for Israel, are not the same thing."

This statement is quite clearly true.