Israel Diaries #3

Readers of Murtadd to Human will recently have come across two long-form articles translated from the Hebrew by Alexandra Troush. Sasha and I have teamed up to bring to our English-speaking readers what we consider salient Israeli perspectives that are only available in Hebrew, pertaining to the threats facing Israel, and by extension, civilisation.

Sasha is a translator from Jerusalem, where she grew up bilingually (Hebrew and Russian). She is fully fluent in English and Czech and is now learning Japanese, while two more languages are lining up for her attention. Sasha is an amazing person to work with, and the perfect partner for this translation project. She says:

Of course, I think this project is very important. I'm really upset with our country not doing better at defending its image worldwide, but I also understand why it doesn't. Ideally, a serious country that's established doesn't owe anything to anybody, not explanations and not facts; it runs its business and doesn't care for public opinions that don't really matter. At the end of the day, I also think that no matter what our country does or says, we will still always be blamed for everything. Not just for whatever's happening with the Palestinians, but for the most random nonsense. I've already read that this whole COVID situation was "set up by the Zionists" to dilute the worldwide population and gain more power.

To begin with, we are concentrating on the crucial work of Lt. Col. (res.) Dr Mordechai Kedar, principally his contributions to Alex Tseitlin’s YouTube channel Coming to Professors. Dr Kedar writes in English on the BESA website and lectures in Arabic. We intend to translate and publish the online Hebrew work of many Israeli thinkers, and leave our readers to their own assessments and opinions of our little project.

I love Dr. Kedar's lectures, and I'm amazed at his knowledge and the capacity of his memory. I truly believe that if people like him went into politics, our country would be in a much better state. We need leaders who are sober to the reality of things, who are educated, who truly understand what's cooking under the surface. Instead, our politicians make grave mistakes that they don't understand the consequences of.

As for Sasha’s politics, she brings no baggage:

Politically, I wouldn't consider myself Right or Left. In Israel there's this tendency to divide people into the most radical ends of our political spectrum, but I really don't belong in either of those. I don't think that "all Arabs should die," as many radical right Israelis say, but I also don't think we have to put down our weapons and "do anything" (like give away Jerusalem) for peace, like many radical leftists do. I think it's a very difficult situation and I have zero solutions, but I definitely have opinions on what should NOT be done (which is usually that which both ends suggest).

I would even go further into claiming that life in Israel is only possible for those who consider themselves just one thing exclusively. For example entirely Left, entirely Right, entirely Jewish, entirely Muslim, entirely Christian and so on. I'm not even entirely Jewish because I'm "Jewish on the wrong side" [on her father’s side; the designation “Jewish” is inherited from the mother, AP], but at the same time, my family was prosecuted in the USSR for not being "good, committed Communists," because those around them saw them as Jews. I'm really only fully Israeli: by citizenship, by language, by customs, by culture, by national history, but that's not enough to feel at home in Israel, if you are not “fully Jewish.” Only abroad have I felt the freedom of not belonging anywhere. It is much easier to just be a bird and fly away, and to not be held down by categorisations that I don't necessarily fully agree with.

It is a rare privilege to be working with Sasha, not only because she is Israeli, but because of the richness and depth of her experience and perspective. I hope that you will enjoy her work as much as I do.

To date we have translated and published:

Coming up next…

The Reasons for Violence in the Arab Sector

Everything you need to know about Mansour Abbas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Southern Islamic Movement

The final word goes to Alexandra Troush:

Many people lose all common sense and logic when it comes to blaming the Jews. When travelling was still possible and I travelled through Europe, I never told anyone I'm Israeli. It doesn't even matter that I'm not "fully Jewish," and that I don't support my government, and that I don't think that our country's perfect. As long as I'm an Israeli, I have some Zionist heritage, and I therefore deserve to be hated and judged for whatever crimes they automatically assume I've committed.

Israel-haters blame everything on Israelis, while at the same time having zero solutions—well, at least not doable ones. This one fellow student once told me, "If you just disassemble your army you'll have peace! The Palestinians will not attack a defenceless country! No one will! No one is that cruel!" Tell that to Hitler who broke the contract with the Soviet Union as soon as that country turned its back. People who haven't witnessed war in their lives are too naive when it comes to our situation.