Where Did ‘We’ Go?

[iandhr]

Source: NY TIMES

I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing.

I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995. We had a beer in his office. He needed one. I remember the ugly mood in Israel then — a mood in which extreme right-wing settlers and politicians were doing all they could to delegitimize Rabin, who was committed to trading land for peace as part of the Oslo accords. They questioned his authority. They accused him of treason. They created pictures depicting him as a Nazi SS officer, and they shouted death threats at rallies. His political opponents winked at it all.

And in so doing they created a poisonous political environment that was interpreted by one right-wing Jewish nationalist as a license to kill Rabin — he must have heard, “God will be on your side” — and so he did.

Others have already remarked on this analogy, but I want to add my voice because the parallels to Israel then and America today turn my stomach: I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30friedman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

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I was close to tears reading this. I was 8 when Rabin was assassinated so I do not really remember. But Friedman is right what is going on right now is scary.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Note that Whitewater was pretty much created by the NYT, but yah.

[iandhr]

2. we should

pray to who ever we pray to that this does not happen here.

[Betty Karlson]

3. Remembering Rabin being murdered.

My aunt and me were watching the Euro-Vision Song Festival. I was twelve at the time. It was horrible. The sudden news flash, the fear for the future of the Middle-East, watching the despair of supporters of a legitimate government. The snippet of news, that the bullet that pierced Rabin's heart had also pierced the paper with the text of the peace song sung that evening.

We wish certain Americans would distinguish between character assassination and actual assassination.

[bemildred]

4. We have killed quite a few of our Presidents.

Violence is an American as Mom and Apple Pie, and what is going on now has happened several times before. Tom ought to read more US history, but not the stuff they feed you in High School.

[iandhr]

5. He is saying

That the climate in Israel in 1995 before Rabin died is similar to whats going on now with Obama. But your right. Sometimes are great men get killed and be to not appreciate them until after there deaths. Lincoln not to mention John, Martin and Bobby.

[bemildred]

6. I know what he is saying.

I'm saying he is ignorant of US history if he thinks Israel in the 1990s is an informative comparison.

[iandhr]

7. I disagree with you

This is what was going on in Israel" They created pictures depicting him as a Nazi SS officer, and they shouted death threats at rallies. His political opponents winked at it all."

Thats going on in America today

[bemildred]

8. I'm not saying there is no comparison, I'm saying it's not really informative.

This stuff goes right back the the beginnings of the American state, we fought a Civil War over it 150 years ago, and the social, political, and cultural dynamics of Israel and the USA are quite different. The fact that violent ideologues have characteristics in common anywhere you go, or that violations of Godwin's law are a common cliche, doesn't really tell you much about US politics, or Israeli politics either.

[question everything]

9. How accurate, scary and frightening

Even if some may consider this a bit of exaggeration, it is important to warn. There are too many hot headed people going around with their fingers on their triggers - that they carry around.