Here are some excerpts from an article in Haaretz; it features Professor Robert (Yisroel) Aumann, the recent Israeli-American Nobel Prize winner for his extensive game theory efforts, explaining why he believes Israel may not make it in the long term:
“Too many Jews don’t understand why they are here… If we don’t understand why we are here, and that we are not America or just a place in which to live, we will not survive… The desire to live like all the nations will sustain us maybe another 50 years, if we are still here.”
Ah yes. We are our own undoing. It doesn’t take a Nobel Prize winner to figure it out, though. Israelis and the Jewish people at large have let themselves be overcome with ignorance and apathy to our land, way of life, and nation as a whole.
Professor Aumann cites the disengagement from Gaza as a “tactical and ethical mistake” that gave the Palestinians the wrong message, and a core sign of our eventual loss:
“Looking at the other side is an important element of game theory… The Arabs’ understanding in the wake of the expulsion was that they had succeeded, and that they have to continue on the same path. The expulsion transmitted the message that we can be moved even from Tel Aviv, and not just from Gush Katif… Last summer we set back peace and understanding with our neighbors… No words will convince them that we intend to stay here forever.”
It is hard to envision this country thriving through another generation or two, and for me, it has less to do with Arab or Persian threats than it does our own brotherly stupidity. The biggest threat to the Jewish people is the Jewish people; always has been, and it continues to loom over us like a cloud of dark smoke rising from the ashes of the Second Temple.
Whadya got: