A Different Drummer

I found two great Israel related articles via Eric Alterman's "Altercation", one of my favourite political blogs of the moment.

First, at the yearly rally to commemorate the assasination of Yitzhak Rabin, the famous Israeli author David Grossman (whose son was killed in the recent Lebanon war) said some stunningly relevant words:

"The crisis Israel is facing is much deeper than we feared, in almost every respect."

"The deaths of young people are a terrible, screaming waste, but no less terrible is the feeling that, for many years, the State of Israel is wasting not only the lives of her sons, but also the miracle [of the creation of the state], the opportunity to create an enlightened and democratic nation here."

Grossman called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to talk to the Palestinians about "their deep wounds and their grief." He encouraged Olmert to "understand their ongoing suffering. Doing so will in no way diminish your or Israel's status in future negotiations."

And the Economist reviews a new book by an Israeli historian who is calling for the country to acknowledge its "1948 problem" - that the state of Israel expelled over 800,000 Palestinian Arabs in the lead up to, and during, the 1948 war, in a co-ordinated plan to "cleanse" the area of an Arab majority.

Both articles are worth a read - and both make you wonder whether realism and historical responsibility are slowly dawning on Israelis as the only way to create peace at home.