An Optimism Worth Considering

 

Will Europe still snub Israel when it has as much oil, gas, and money as an OPEC member in the Persian Gulf?

 

Victor Davis Hanson:

The World Is Changing Minute by Minute

We are witnessing a seismic shift in global affairs. The shake-up is a perfect storm of political, demographic, and technological change that will soon make the world as we have known it for the last 30 years almost unrecognizable....

 

I don't think I've ever been as grateful to (and for) VDH as I am this morning. Read it all.

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

A week or so ago I finished reading Benzion Netanyahu's superb (no exaggeration) history "The Founding Fathers of Zionism" -- and when I read VDH's piece I instantly thought of the five Founders (Pinsker, Nordau, Herzl, Zangwill, Jabotinsky) and how gratified each of them would be to read that wondrous phrase "... a force multiplier of an already dynamic society." As Netanyahu repeatedly points out, the Founders knew that Israel would become a reality only if the Jewish people found the will to make it so. They did -- and today it not only is a reality, it stands poised on the brink of becoming an even more "dynamic sociey." What a tribute to the Founders! What a tribute to all those who summoned the will to make it happen! Todah rabah to VDH for his perspicacity -- and for his insistence on writing the truth.

[Elan]

Mannie -- I agree with you about Benzion's book. It is a sustained argument about Jewish history that is essential reading. It reminds me of a statement by Roger Shattuck: "Given the courage, we live by the moments of interference between moments of past and present ... It is the only meaning of history. We search the past not for another creature but for our own lost self." Benzion's book recaptures what it meant to be a Zionist during one of the darkest times in Jewish history, the sheer intellectual and physical courage requied. The book is about the self we need to re-discover today.

[Mannie Sherberg]

Elan -- extremely well put. One of the tragedies of our own time is that so many Jews have worked so hard to bury their "Jewish self" and have no desire to resuscitate it. I suspect that the Founders would not have been surprised by this development. The process was already well under way in their day.

[Nike Free]

For example, you will find all broken nail shoes are the same weight, rather than the assassin lighter; no low-end shoes like the top FG plus the friction on the upper bar.