On a completely different topic from the funniest Virginia gubernatorial candidate, I had a fairly depressing discussion with an Israeli last night. Obviously, one person can't be taken as representative of an entire nation, but, as far as I could tell, this guy seemed to be squarely in the "mainstream" of where Israelis are right now. So why was the conversation depressing? First, because he didn't see ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman - leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel Our Home") party, which just won enough seats in Israeli elections to become the country's third-largest party (behind Kadima and Likud) - as extreme. To the contrary, he insisted that Lieberman was fairly moderate, even liberal in some ways. True, Yisrael Beiteinu supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is a completely mainstream view. On the other hand, Lieberman has advocated "the execution of any Arab Knesset member who meets with the majority elected Islamist party Hamas," comparing them to collaborators with Nazi leaders who were executed after World War II, and adding, "I hope this will be the fate of the collaborators in [the Knesset]." Yeesh. As if that's not bad enough, Lieberman advocated taking Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners and "drown[ing] [them] in the Dead Sea if possible, since that's the lowest point in the world." If this guy's a "moderate" in Israel nowadays, I'd hate to see the right wingers. [Note: for a perspective on Avigdor Lieberman and what he represents, I recommend the excellent blog post, "A War For The Soul Of Israel".]
Second, the Israeli I spoke with was absolutely convinced that Iran must be stopped, by any means necessary, from acquiring nuclear weapons. (Personally, I see a nuclear Iran as something that needs to be stopped, but I'd focus on ratcheting up economic and political pressure - sticks AND carrots - big time and see how that works out first, before discussing other options). In his view, a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat to Israel, that the statements of President Ahmedinejad about wiping Israel off the map should be taken literally. In addition, this Israeli is 100% confident that his country has the military capability to destroy Iran's nuclear program, and also that all Israelis agree that Israel SHOULD destroy Iran's nuclear program before it produces a bomb. In other words, if you believe this person's analysis, a war between Israel and Iran is inevitable, and probably sooner rather than later. [Note: He brushed aside my points that Israel doesn't actually have sufficient military capability to wipe out Iran's nuclear program, that Israeli planes would probably need to fly across Iraq, that the United States would probably not agree to unilateral Israeli action, etc., etc.]
In the end, what struck me most about this conversation was how far the Israeli political spectrum appears to have moved to the right in recent years (the founding Labor Party has all but collapsed; many Israelis no longer believe - rightly or wrongly - that they have a "partner for peace" in the Palestinians); how fixated Israelis - assuming the Israeli I spoke with was at all representative - are on Iran as a dire threat to the Jewish State; and how the only solution is a unilateral military one. I fail to see how any of this bodes well for Israel itself, let alone the rest of the Middle East. I sincerely hope that this person doesn't actually represent mainstream Israeli opinion, but something tells me he does.
