Zeev Bielski
Burg's disengagement plan
Instead of slamming Israel, we should value past, look forward to future challenges
This weekend's Ha'aretz magazine interview with Avraham Burg caused me great pain - pain over one of the people who at one point was considered a great promise for the State of Israel's future. He was a man who grew up and was educated in this country in a Jewish-Zionist family, he was among the leaders of the younger generation, and held several major posts in both the Jewish world and State of Israel.
Interview
In his new book, ‘Defeating Hitler,’ Former Knesset Speaker, Jewish Agency head claims Israeli society plagued with violence, nationalism because it has lost the ability to trust others
To my regret, this does not appear to be Burg caught in a gloomy mood or a chance remark. After all, Avraham Burg himself says he worked on his book, where these quotes appear, for three whole years.
At a time when the State of Israel is still licking its wounds from the Second Lebanon War, and while Qassam rockets continue to land in Sderot and Gaza-region communities, Avraham Burg chooses to disconnect himself from Israel and Israeliness and to turn his back on them. He chooses to smear the experience of life in Israel as the Jewish people's center and subject of longing from its outset. He chooses to only see what's lacking.
Great challenges still ahead
Our Israel is different. As the national home of the Jewish people, Israel achieved in its 59 years of independence what many nations in the world were unable to achieve. From a Jewish community of 600,000 people on the eve of the War of Independence, Israel has turned into the home of more than half of the Jewish people, including many Holocaust survivors who persevered despite the extermination camps and Nazi horrors.
Indeed, the missions and challenges still facing us are many and great – fulfilling the dream of peace and providing Israeli citizens with a life of tranquility and security, reinforcing the rule of law, boosting the basis of Israeli society as equal, open, and democratic, expanding the common denominator between all sectors of the public including religious and non-religious, veterans and new immigrants, central Israel and the periphery.
We also need to deepen our commitment to Jewish tradition and Zionist values, which are at the basis of our existence here, develop regions of national priority, and provide every youngster in the Galilee and Negev, as well as in all other regions of the country, with the opportunity to maximize their abilities and find their rightful place as the State of Israel's leaders of tomorrow.
All these things are still ahead of us – let's look back and appreciate what we have already achieved. There is certainly room for criticism and repair through a vision of what we already have, and what is still to come, rather than through destroying the present and rejecting it completely, as Avraham Burg chose to do, to my regret.
Beyond the personal life cycle of each one of us, we also have the Jewish and Zionist national and social circle. This is the circle which we, board of trustees members in Israel and abroad, just like Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization employees are committed and dedicated to.
In his well-known book, the Chafetz Haim writes about lashon ha'ra (slander and defamation) and guarding one's tongue. Regrettably, Avraham Burg's words, which will likely be used by Israel's enemies, are incommensurate with the Chafetz Haim's words. We shall continue to work together for the sake of a good Israel with high standards, a better Jewish world, and the maintenance of the connection between us and Diaspora Jewry.
The writer is the chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization and member of the Yesh Tikva (There is Hope) movement
