Additional thoughts on weak policies
Reader comment on item: Israel's Wayward Prime Ministers

Submitted by David Woo (United Kingdom), Jul 9, 2004 at 06:47

Dear Sir,
I agree with the contents of your article entirely. However, I would like to bring to your attention another reason I believe is at the heart of the failure of Israeli prime ministers to abide with their electoral promises. The Zionist movement was a revolutionary movement with the goal of not only establishing a Jewish state, but of bringing about a sea change in the Jewish psyche from that of a persecuted minority seeking to appease the oppressor at almost any cost into a people capable of taking their destiny into their own hands.

This is a revolution which is not yet complete - like all revolutions it has its ups and downs, its successes and failures - and even regressions. The Israeli establishment - contrary to a large part of the Israeli public - is still grappling with the implications, meanings and goals of independence and statehood - not the least, the art of wielding power. Indeed, there are a number of Israeli intellectuals who have claimed that the Independence War of 1948 is not yet over, that the national goals have not yet been defined. This might go far to explain the weakness of various prime ministers - their baffling willingness to succumb to the approval of the "world community", indeed to grovel at the altar of "popular opinion" (Shimon Peres' acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize when peace was still nothing but a pipe - no pun intended! - dream is a case in point) over the heads of their own electorate: more in tune with the approach of leaders of powerless communities of the diaspora than with that of leaders of an independent and democratic nation state.

I would appreciate your comments.

Dr. Woo, economist and global foreign exchange strategist

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Daniel Pipes replies:

This is an interesting analysis, and in line with the thinking of Ruth Wisse (who sees the Oslo process as a reversion to pre-Zionist Hofjude practices).