One of the things I enjoy about blogs is how they make me think. Not all blogs and not even all blog posts, but often enough, I read something on a blog and go ‘ahhhhh’ and must pause to digest what I have just read. Rarely does a newspaper article give me that same pause, and often, opinion pieces either reinforce a negative or positive viewpoint but I can’t really say it gives me the same pause moment I have gotten from reading bloggers.
Joe Settler is one of those blogs that often gives me the pause moment. I don’t always agree with Joe -well maybe I do - as I cannot remember off the top of my head when I have actually disagreed with one of his opinions but he often writes something which gives me one of those pause moments. I once ended up in a rhetorical argument wherein I was defending Joe’s honour on another Canadian blog – as if Joe needed me to defend his honour. He seems quite adapt on his own but the odds of him showing up were practically nil nor does Joe strike me as the kind of guy who really cares what a couple of bloggers in Canada write or think of him but I didn’t want what was read about him to go on unchallenged.
Today, Joe gave me quite the pause moment with a post on Israeli Prime Minister’s Ehud Olmert. I just took it as a given that Ehud Olmert was a stupid man given his record as Prime Minister and the numerous stupid decisions he has made as leader. I gave Olmert credit for cageyness but really never thought of him more than the lackey on the coattails of others more intelligent and astute than him. Joe rightly points out he isn’t a stupid man and what did he feel at Annapolis? Read Joe’s post here and then come back.
A few months ago Olmert was asked if he thought of himself as an Israeli or a Jew. Olmert answered when he was younger he would have answered Israeli but now he thinks of himself more as a Jew which gave me a good laugh. I was wrong to laugh. He might not be a religious Jew but he is a Jew. Joe asks, what did he think and feel at Annapolis when he had to actually watch the font of hatred surrounding him? I think he felt fear. I think he has been feeling fear all along.
As prime minister of Israel he would have a view of the world that few of us actually experience in full measure. I suspect the full depth and breadth of what he has seen has terrified and scared him so deeply that he cannot do other than what he has done because his fear is ruling him. That all consuming fear is why he keeps making the terrible decisions he has and why it is so much easier for him to confront and fight Jews rather than confront and strike back against his real enemies.
Most of us, when confronted with that fear instinctively want to hunker down and hide rather than stand out and risk being a target. Olmert is a Jew but not a religious one which means he not only lacks faith but true emuna. He fears he cannot call out to G-d because he does not know how nor does he believe he will be answered if he tries. So instead, he hunkers down in his spidey hole. Every so often he lifts his head and throws out a few tidbits to the crocs in the hopes that they don’t come looking or gunning for him and his people.
Joe asks if Olmert felt like a Galus Jew? I’d answer - pretty much.
2 comments:
Where's Canada?
I just can’t believe that anyone can be so apathetic and coldly calculating about maintaining power that they are completely blind to what went on.
It may not affect his decisions, but I hope he feels something.
You find Canada but stepping into the Galut and then proceed by going in a north leftward direction.
I don't see how it couldn't affect Olmert. I felt the chill just reading your post and imaging standing in the room in his place.
Of course, I am much more of a contentious person, so if I had been Olmert, I would have worn my "Six days, Bitch" t-shirt at Annapolis.
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