The right and left, the right and wrong
Op-ed: Both the left and the right are correct in what they say about each other; but both sides are also mistaken and misleading.
Both sides, the left and the right, are correct in what they say about each other. But both are also mistaken and lost and misleading. People often quote Israel's late President Chaim Herzog, who apparently said once that "the trouble in our country is that the left has no heart and the right has no brains." Is that so? Here's an interim summary.
The lost ones in the right: They are hanging on to something which is out of this world. God. Faith, a promise that has come down from Heaven. We are the chosen people. The Land of Israel was promised to us in the Book of Books and in its statements. How many times does the word "Jerusalem" appear in the Koran? And in the Bible? We wandered in the Diaspora for 2,000 years and we always dreamed and prayed for Zion.
The right also bases its explanations on facts from the ground: The Arabs have at least 22 countries. The Zionist Movement is the physical embodiment of the Return of Zion. As Jews, we have no other land to safely lay our head on to establish Jewish life. There is no room for two people on the same piece of land. It's either us or them. The Arabs have lost the wars and the losing side must pay. All the Arabs want and will always want to destroy us. Arab terror will never stop. They are brutal. They will never forgive us. Arabs cannot be trusted. A good Arab is a dead Arab. The IDF will always win and is the best army in the world. The world never loved Jews. We have always done things our way and the world has come to terms with our moves. The world was anyway always against us. Faith is the most important thing. We are right.
And the left? It's destroying the state. A fifth column. It's willing to give the Arabs everything. The Arabs will never accept peace. Death to the Arabs and, at the same occasion, to the leftists too. And so on and so forth.
The mistaken ones in the left: We won't be able to live on this piece of land without peace. Shall the sword devour forever? There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world who will defeat us by the power of their number alone. The world's countries only have interests, and the Israeli interest is not their main concern. We cannot and are not entitled to control 3.2 million Palestinians who don’t want our rule and are seeking freedom and liberty and the right of self-determination. The occupation is corrupting us. the Arabs want peace. It's a fact that our peace with Egypt has lasted for more than 35 years. Our peace with Jordan is 20 years old. Even if some of the Arabs want to destroy us, the majority of Arabs recognize our military power and are deterred by it. The Arabs dream of peace and fight for peace. Only few engage in Arab terror.
After we return the territories as part of a peace agreement, Arab terror will die out. The Arabs also want to rest and want peace and tranquility for their children. The Israelis stole their lands in the War of Independence and the following years, and built dozens of settlements on lands which belonged to the Arabs. They should be returned. The world's nations does not approve of an Israeli government in the territories. We are losing whatever legitimacy we have left in the world. The world is no longer doing us a favor following the Holocaust, and sees the Palestinians as its subsequent victims.
That's enough. It reminds me of the joke about the husband and his wife who got into a fight and went to see the town's rabbi, who ruled that the husband was right and that the wife was also right. And when the caretaker asked how it was possible that they were both right, the rabbi said: You're also right.
This shabby and worn-out joke would make us laugh if it weren't on us.
