Part 2 of article
Photo: Yoni Hamenachem
World isn't against us
Israel should not give up on possibility of being popular again
Part 2 of article
We're a state that is not forgiven for making mistakes, so we have to forgive ourselves; a state that has good and even excellent things I it, but also screws up quite a bit. A state that gained too much weight, that nobody falls in love with while waiting at the light anymore, and that needs to choose whether it's beautiful or right because it can't have it both ways.
We are no longer cool. We used to be, but we're not anymore. We're a state – just another state – stuck on the wrong side of the globe and getting airtime between the riots in Malaysia and the earthquake in Indonesia. A state that sweats too much and isn't too charming, and whose relatives are a little embarrassed of but nonetheless keep loving despite all its weaknesses.
Part 1
Yair Lapid
Sadly, we've been giving Israel-haters plenty of material to work with
So should we give up? Forget about it, realize that nobody will again look at us from the side admiringly and really wish to be like us, or at least be our friend? Certainly not.
Those who used to love us will be happy to again cuddle in our arms. Look at what happened to the United States in the first months of Obama's term in office: Within five minutes it turned from a hated empire to a sexy state everyone wishes to go into bed with. The great advantage of a flexible world is that perception can change in a moment. Even China is suddenly cool.
It can happen to us too, but with all due respect to our Hasbara Ministry (anyone aware that we reestablished it and even have a minister in charge of public relations please raise your hand,) if we wish to be the kind of guy that is invited to all the right parties it has to be for the right reasons.
One cannot constantly speak of the Holocaust if one fails to care for starving Holocaust survivors at home. One cannot be angry over hatred for Jews when one's life is managed by hatred for Arabs. One cannot be expected to be taken seriously when one's life is being run by three 17-year-old lawbreakers at some Samaria mobile home. One cannot constantly seek credit for being "the only democracy in the Middle East" if one's democracy doesn't function.
The time has come to admit that the world is not automatically against us. Even the Swedes – the same Swedes that recently irritated us so much – awarded us Nobel Prizes not too long ago. They even organized, on their own initiative, the most important convention ever held in Europe to commemorate the Holocaust (but nobody remembers the good things around here.)
Many will say that being cool is not worth it. That it's not worth us giving up the territories or limiting the IDF for the sake of it. Perhaps this is true. The State of Israel was not established so that others say the Jews are nice – but rather, so the Jews can tell others to get lost.
But you have to admit that you miss the era where every time we entered a room all the prettiest girls wanted to dance with us.
