Fraud and Other Self-Entitlements
What a way to celebrate an anniversary of success for a proud country. At the very time that foreign heads of state are arriving to take part in the festivities celebrating Israel's 60th anniversary as a nation, the country absorbs the reek of yet another political scandal. What is it about politicians at the very highest level in Israel, that they find it so very difficult to keep their hands clean?What a predicament, what an embarrassment on the world stage.
The former prime minister accused of sexual harassment, forced to resign. And "harassment" is putting it politely; the man is a vicious sexual predator. A good family man, an honourable politician, a patriot. And while the current president of the country may be far more circumspect in his social behaviour, and well meaning, he stands accused of corrupting his high office by accepting big-time bribes in his past public office.
Doesn't this country have more than enough problems? For heaven's sake, this is the occasion to celebrate her triumphs. Triumphs achieved under the most adverse existential conditions that any people, any nation, could ever be challenged with. This is a country reaching toward social maturity as an embattled nation from within and without. A people who, despite such dread adversity has managed to produce a flourishing economy.
A people whose intelligence has enabled them to excel in science and technology, medicine, arts and culture, agricultural advances. Whose gifts to the world in scientific and medical breakthroughs are numerous. Whose ability to educate their young and to advance the future of the country is unparalleled given the cruel history of their struggle to survive in a hostile world that viewed them as outsiders and much worse.
This is also a nation of stark contrasts, like any other. Even while it is viewed by the international community as unlike any other. Held to a standard of response to ongoing attacks against its people and its sovereignty that no other nation is expected to match. Israel must absorb and restrain itself from fully reciprocating against onslaughts because upon that country is imposed a singular expectation.
Failures of one kind or another exist, from its inability to reconcile its secular history with its religious heritage; from its privileged and growing upper middle class with all their modern amenities and advantages, to its underprivileged and disadvantaged minorities struggling to make a place for themselves.
In a country requiring too much of its national assets and funding to be directed toward defence rather than diverted to social welfare.
That this nation of Jews and its minority populations of Christians, Muslims, Druze and Kurds has struggled against all odds to persevere, to move toward a future rewarding all of its inhabitants is a miracle in and of itself.
That it must, under the most extreme conditions, continue to pursue its interests and secure its geography, while under internal dissent and external threat is beyond belief.
Doesn't such a country deserve praise for its heroic presence, its sterling achievements? Does it not deserve far better than to be represented at the highest levels of political authority by such pitifully failed people?
Labels: Israel, Societal Failures, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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