(Jerusalem Post) Yossi Klein Halevi - I couldn't make the BBC's panel discussion on the subject "Is Israel Losing Its Soul?" But if I had participated, here's what I would have said: Before dissecting the flawed soul of Israel, I suggest we discuss the collective soul of Palestine and, by extension, of the Arab world. Israel, after all, was ready to become the first country in history to voluntarily withdraw from its historic heartland and share sovereignty over its capital city. By contrast, Palestinian society has become prisoner of a death cult that celebrates mass murderers as religious martyrs and educational role models. And, unlike the Israeli soul, which is torn over the price we must pay for self-preservation, the Palestinian soul shows few signs of remorse for its culture of national suicide. No country's soul has been more severely tested than Israel's. Only Israel has faced terrorism from its creation; only Israel confronts an enemy that considers its existence an offense. The fact that we haven't surrendered to a terrorist assault intended to atomize Israeli society by frightening us away from our public spaces is Israel's gift to a terrorized world.
2004-02-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive