Saturday, December 27, 2003

Not what it seems
I am currently reading a book published in 1999 by Shaul Mishal, a professor of Political Science in Tel Aviv University, who was a great favorite of mine when I was studying there (this will gain me a few raised eyebrows from other former students of his, because he wasn’t the most exciting of lecturers, to say the least). The book is about the Hamas (The link is to the English version. I am reading it in Hebrew). It’s about as exciting as his lectures used to be, so I doubt I’ll be reading more than a few chapters, but there was a sentence I liked in the first chapter (my translation):

It seems that sometimes contradictory perceptions, opposing preferences, and competing interests, are seen as threatening to the social order and the organizational fabric, mainly in the eyes of foreign observers and not in the eyes of members of the community and partners in the collective.

He’s talking about Palestinian society, but I think this holds true for Israeli society as well.

Pim feels bad about having maybe started a blog war, almost single-handedly. Quite the contrary! You instigated a dialogue - between two opposing points of view, for one thing, and also between Imshin and herself, for another. That can’t be bad. And I’m also pleased that Yishay started blogging again as a result.