UNCOVERING ISRAEL
Across from the entrance to the Knesset stands a monumental bronze menorah emblazoned with scenes of the ebbs and flows of the Jewish story. Among the panels are renditions of the leaders who served the Jewish people with vision, with courage, with modesty, and with great compassion – Moses, Yohanan Ben Zakkai, Maimonides, and the pioneers of Israel's pre-state period.
In the shadows cast by the examples set by the inspirational figures decorating the Knesset grounds, there is good reason to be very concerned about Israel's current leadership. However, because this is not a game but our future, it would be a mistake to dismiss this entire sight as a flea circus, and lump all the politicians into one repulsive package.
It's true that they are all motivated by personal passions; and yet with a bit of effort we can still discern quite a number of features that distinguish between two types of politicians: those who are motivated by a desire for private advancement alone, and those who are motivated by a sense of vision and responsibility beyond themselves. In the past this was called "vision," "a path" and a sense of "mission."
Do these things still exist? Can we still quietly send them our best?
Doron Rosenblum, The Vacuum Test. Haaretz, 15/03/2009. 
Did U Know? The modern day Knesset is named after the 'the Great Assembly,' the Jewish House of Elders that served as a kind of people's council with the return of the Jews to Zion from the Babylonian Exile (circa 537 B.C.E.). It too had 120 members. In the classical utopias that were Herzl's guiding light… it is always an ideal society that is depicted, without defects. In "Altneuland," in contrast, Herzl combined an ideal society with political realism. As one who had seen for himself the anti-European, anti-Jewish racism, he imagined that Jews could also be racists and inserted into his utopia the errant and disturbing image of a Jewish racist. But in contrast to Europe, where racism was victorious, in Zion and Jerusalem, it was defeated and the principles of equality and liberalism won. A utopian novel? Contemporary reality? The moral of the story, of course, is crystal clear. It should be remembered that the motto of Altneuland is "If you will it, it is no dream." It is in our hands.
Shlomo Avineri, Herzl's Vision of Racism. Haaretz,09/02/2009
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
בניית אתרים 
עיצוב : ביזנס נט
|