The 1973 uber kitsch pop song " Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak tree"by the group Dawn was a major hit and opens with the line, "I'm coming home, I've done my time". It tells the story of a returning convict who has written to his wife asking her to tie a yellow ribbon around a tree, if she wants him back. If he does not see a ribbon, then he will accept that she does not him and not bother her again. So why am I on about 1970s kitsch, you may well ask.
In nineteenth century America it is said that some women would tie a yellow ribbon in their hair as a sign of devotion to their husbands and sweethearts serving in the US Cavalry. Old movie buffs will remember the John Wayne film, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". In the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, when US diplomats were held hostage by Iranian students (if i am not mistaken the current Iranian President was involved in the incident), a yellow Ribbon campaign was set up to show solidarity and support for the hostages. The yellow ribbon has quite a history.
Today I tied a yellow ribbon to my car (like many others in the country and around the world) in support of Gilad Shalit. Four years ago on this day, Gilad was kidnapped during an attack , which lest we forget; killed two Israeli soldiers, Lt. Hanan Barak and Staff Sergeant Pavel Slutzker and wounded four others.
For four years Gilad Shalit has been held hostage by Hamas. And there's the rub. Gilad Shalit is indeed a hostage not a prisoner. He is held by a terrorist organisation which refuses to divulge his whereabouts, his physical condition or allow any visitation by the Red Cross. We have no knowledge of the conditions in which he has been kept for these past four years, save for one video released in September 2009. In contrast, take for instance probably the most high profile prisoner sitting in an Israeli jail, Marwan Barghouti. Serving life imprisonment for murder and terror offences, earlier this year, Barghouti earned his PHD in political science from Cairo University, facilitated by the Israeli prison service. Barghouti is one of thousands of Palestinians who take advantage of the opportunity to study by correspondence in a host of international and Israeli universities.
The contrasts between the Palestinian prisoner and the Israeli hostage are there for all to see. Unfortunately the world chooses not to see or not to care. Now I do not doubt that there are Palestinian prisoners who are held without good reason or who have been ill treated by the Israeli authorities, and such incidents need to be investigated and rectified. However, the bottom line is that we know where the Palestinian prisoners are, we know how they are. They have access to legal council, and to their families.
The thousands of yellow ribbons tied in solidarity with Gilad send a strong message to the Shalit family, that they are not alone, that theirs is a struggle shared by the whole country and all civilised people. They are a message to Hamas and to the wider world that we will not abandon our children, that we will not forget them. Unlike Hamas, we are not prepared to callously sacrifice them or cynically leave them to their fate.
The hero in the song returned to "a hundred yellow ribbons round the old oak tree". If we need to tie a million ribbons, or ten million ribbons, we must keep tying them so as Gilad will come home and so he will get to see them on his return.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
What's in a name?
A thought for the National left...
Some say a people gets the government it deserves. That is a scary thought in today's Israel. Do we really deserve the "Three Stooges" who since cobbling together their coalition, have never missed an opportunity to miss the point, misread the situation and mistakenly decide upon the wrong course of action?
Well perhaps we do. According to a Poll in Haaretz, a majority of Israelis 52%, support the "Bibi and Barak Show" in regard to the flotilla debacle. Apparently this majority approves of the decisions, the actions and the consequent management of the situation and its fallout.
Incredible but true. And herein lies the problem for the National left as it sets about rebuilding the "left wing" camp in the country. Whereas the majority of Israelis may have the potential to identify with the movement and large parts of its agenda, these same people have a serious problem in identifying with the "left".
I still question whether the terms left and right are still relevant today. In Israel these terms tend to be defined more on security issues. In the wider world however, today there is little to separate the policies of the left and the right in so called modern democracies. Perhaps though, this is a debate for another time.
If the National Left is to be more than a talking shop for the converted. If the movement is serious about reaching out to those potential supporters, who may not realise that they have latent "lefty" tendencies, then the movement and its leaders need to address this issue and find a way to widen the appeal of the movement. A way needs to be found to appeal to the majority of Israelis who according to the Haaretz poll, currently see Bibi, Barak and even Lieberman as competent leaders and decision makers. A way needs to be found to cut through the siege mentality which promotes support for the scare mongers who chose to maintain a status quo where the erosion of Israeli society, Israeli security and Israeli values is assured.
When I attended a parlour session in Tel Aviv, I was not surprised to see that my fellow attendees where in the main, well educated Ashkenazi liberals, academics and professionals. Now, I have not attended similar sessions in the periphery, so I may be mistaken, perhaps the makeup of other parlours was more inclusive. However, if the National left is not to repeat the cardinal errors of the labour movement where it alienated its natural constituents, where it is seen as an elitist movement which does not really represent the interests of ordinary people or the country for that matter, then it needs to change. In "marketing speak", it needs to rebrand. It needs to rebrand "The Left". It also needs to rebrand Zionism. In order to succeed, the National Left should look at changing its approach and perhaps at changing its name... yep, its name.
So what's in a name. Well in my opinion, quite a lot actually. I was interested to learn that the decision to name the country Israel was only taken shortly before Ben Gurion's declaration of independence. Apparently, there was a heated debate with names such as Herzlia, Judea and others in the running, but Ben Gurion decided that there was only one possible name for the country and thank God (or providence if you prefer) the state of Israel was declared (as if it could have been anything else).
One of the major stated goals of the National left is to take back Zionism from the "right", (personally I prefer the term"extremists") who have perverted Zionism for their own political aims; and return the ideology to its rightful home. Quite right too, however for me this is about more than taking Zionism back. It also needs to be about redefining Zionism in the eyes of its detractors, both at home and abroad. At home those who view the left as a naive group of cappuccino drinking Askenazi elite, need to see the National Left as the true Zionists, patriots who have the best interests, the vital interests of the country and "all its people "at heart. Abroad, people need to see that the belief in the upholding of the State of Israel as the national homeland for the Jews, is wholly consistent with liberal democratic values and practices.
So, if the National Left wants to truly recapture the mantle of Zionism, it should do so properly. Rename the National Left as the Zionist Movement and if a political party is to emerge from the movement call it The Zionist Party. A name is only as good as the values and actions which stand behind it. The perception of Zionism today is flawed. The values wrongly perceived to stand behind Zionism today are extremely negative. These perceptions must be altered, they must be rectified.
When the values and behaviour promoted by the National Left in its manifesto are labelled as Zionism, when the two are synonymous, then we pull the rug out from under and the national flag from the hands of the extremists, we negate the need for left and right, we dispose of the negative connotations both at home and abroad. Once the term National Left is replaced with the term, Zionist, Zionism will have been truly returned to its rightful home. Under the brand of Zionism this ideology and approach to the future of Israel will go a long way to repairing the damaged image of Zionism in the outside world. More importantly it can then appeal to and be adopted by a much wider audience at home.
Perhaps then the people of Israel can deserve the kind of government it might just get.
Some say a people gets the government it deserves. That is a scary thought in today's Israel. Do we really deserve the "Three Stooges" who since cobbling together their coalition, have never missed an opportunity to miss the point, misread the situation and mistakenly decide upon the wrong course of action?
Well perhaps we do. According to a Poll in Haaretz, a majority of Israelis 52%, support the "Bibi and Barak Show" in regard to the flotilla debacle. Apparently this majority approves of the decisions, the actions and the consequent management of the situation and its fallout.
Incredible but true. And herein lies the problem for the National left as it sets about rebuilding the "left wing" camp in the country. Whereas the majority of Israelis may have the potential to identify with the movement and large parts of its agenda, these same people have a serious problem in identifying with the "left".
I still question whether the terms left and right are still relevant today. In Israel these terms tend to be defined more on security issues. In the wider world however, today there is little to separate the policies of the left and the right in so called modern democracies. Perhaps though, this is a debate for another time.
If the National Left is to be more than a talking shop for the converted. If the movement is serious about reaching out to those potential supporters, who may not realise that they have latent "lefty" tendencies, then the movement and its leaders need to address this issue and find a way to widen the appeal of the movement. A way needs to be found to appeal to the majority of Israelis who according to the Haaretz poll, currently see Bibi, Barak and even Lieberman as competent leaders and decision makers. A way needs to be found to cut through the siege mentality which promotes support for the scare mongers who chose to maintain a status quo where the erosion of Israeli society, Israeli security and Israeli values is assured.
When I attended a parlour session in Tel Aviv, I was not surprised to see that my fellow attendees where in the main, well educated Ashkenazi liberals, academics and professionals. Now, I have not attended similar sessions in the periphery, so I may be mistaken, perhaps the makeup of other parlours was more inclusive. However, if the National left is not to repeat the cardinal errors of the labour movement where it alienated its natural constituents, where it is seen as an elitist movement which does not really represent the interests of ordinary people or the country for that matter, then it needs to change. In "marketing speak", it needs to rebrand. It needs to rebrand "The Left". It also needs to rebrand Zionism. In order to succeed, the National Left should look at changing its approach and perhaps at changing its name... yep, its name.
So what's in a name. Well in my opinion, quite a lot actually. I was interested to learn that the decision to name the country Israel was only taken shortly before Ben Gurion's declaration of independence. Apparently, there was a heated debate with names such as Herzlia, Judea and others in the running, but Ben Gurion decided that there was only one possible name for the country and thank God (or providence if you prefer) the state of Israel was declared (as if it could have been anything else).
One of the major stated goals of the National left is to take back Zionism from the "right", (personally I prefer the term"extremists") who have perverted Zionism for their own political aims; and return the ideology to its rightful home. Quite right too, however for me this is about more than taking Zionism back. It also needs to be about redefining Zionism in the eyes of its detractors, both at home and abroad. At home those who view the left as a naive group of cappuccino drinking Askenazi elite, need to see the National Left as the true Zionists, patriots who have the best interests, the vital interests of the country and "all its people "at heart. Abroad, people need to see that the belief in the upholding of the State of Israel as the national homeland for the Jews, is wholly consistent with liberal democratic values and practices.
So, if the National Left wants to truly recapture the mantle of Zionism, it should do so properly. Rename the National Left as the Zionist Movement and if a political party is to emerge from the movement call it The Zionist Party. A name is only as good as the values and actions which stand behind it. The perception of Zionism today is flawed. The values wrongly perceived to stand behind Zionism today are extremely negative. These perceptions must be altered, they must be rectified.
When the values and behaviour promoted by the National Left in its manifesto are labelled as Zionism, when the two are synonymous, then we pull the rug out from under and the national flag from the hands of the extremists, we negate the need for left and right, we dispose of the negative connotations both at home and abroad. Once the term National Left is replaced with the term, Zionist, Zionism will have been truly returned to its rightful home. Under the brand of Zionism this ideology and approach to the future of Israel will go a long way to repairing the damaged image of Zionism in the outside world. More importantly it can then appeal to and be adopted by a much wider audience at home.
Perhaps then the people of Israel can deserve the kind of government it might just get.
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