From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: israel vs. the world
Date: 6 Jan 93 07:27:39 GMT
Distribution: talk,world
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In article <1993Jan5.1777.22044@channel1>, "wayne mcguire" <wayne.mcguire@channel1.com> writes:
> <knotes>
>
> <o>#clip
> <doctype>book
> <author>Leibowitz, Yeshayahu
> <title>Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State
> <editor>Goldman, Eliezer
> <city>Cambridge, MA
> <publisher>Harvard University Press
> <year>1992
>
> <des>
>
>      Israel, with its expansionist policies, is rapidly
>      alienating the entire world and becoming an embarrassment to
>      the Jewish people. (Leibowitz Judaism, Human Values, and the
>      Jewish State 1992)
>
> <excerpt>
>
>      If the present situation continues (and here the emphasis
>      must be on "if"), the growing savagery of Israeli society
>      will be as inevitable as the severance of the state from the
>      Jews of the world. The policy of a government of Sharon,
>      Raful, and Druckman (or their counterparts), which in such
>      circumstances also seems unavoidable, will begin with
>      suppression of reliable information, elimination of free
>      speech, the setting up of concentration camps for "traitors"
>      (like myself and perhaps like you), and end up in mass
>      expulsion and slaughter of the Arab population. All this will
>      lead to a decisive war between Israel and the Arab world. In
>      that war the sympathy and backing of the entire world will
>      be for the Arabs. Already today, the state of Israel, to
>      which most of the world's nations were once sympathetic, has
>      earned contempt and hatred throughout the world. Its very
>      existence has come to depend on a thin life-line stretching
>      out to it from the White House. Above all, the state, which
>      was to have been the pride and glory of the Jewish people,
>      is rapidly becoming an embarrassment to it.
>
> <excerpt pages>244-245

Wayne,

I *love* how you always manage to pick quotations from the Israeli lunatic
fringe :-)

You mean Yeshayahu "Judeo-Nazi" Leibowitz ? I suppose you aren't aware of the
fact that 90 year old Leibowitz, after having one (two ?) of his children die
prematurely (6 Day War ??) did a dramatic turnaround in 1967 and called *any*
Israeli willing to hold on to the West Bank as a "Judeo-Nazi". He called the
Chief Rabbi Goren (in 1967) a clown ("MOKYON") for going to the Wailing Wall in
Jerusalem. And Wayne, I'm *really* surprised that you neglect to mention that
Leibowitz (whose biography was written up 2 weeks ago in Jerusalem's KOL HA'IR
weekly magazine on the occasion of his 90th birthday) is a religious fanatic
who believes in replacing Israeli secular law with Jewish law (HALACHA). Quite
convenient that you didn't mention this which only goes to show how LITTLE you
really know on the Israeli situation.

I had a nice tete-a-tete (over awful coffee and stale cookies) in September
1980 in Leibowitz's home. He's an interesting speaker (he's a fellow physician)
who also dabbles in philosophy. In the immortal words of a colleague:
"Leibowitz is the best philosopher  among physicians and the best physician
among the philosophers".

Except for Avrum Burg, most of the Israeli  left is not exactly enamored of
Leibowitz especially after his TV appearance last week.

Psychiatry is not my specialty so I can't offer a definitive psychiatric
diagnosis of Leibowitz' condition.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Josh
backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL




>
> </o>
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