So, it's still high holidays season here in Israel.
Luckily, I've been keeping myself busy somehow.
Today is Simhat Torah, and it will be the last random weekday that the buses don't run and stores are closed until I'm guessing Chanukah. And apparently, Chanukah isn't a big deal in Israel relative to Chanukah celebrations in the states.
Yesterday night, to celebrate Shemini Atzeret, which is usually celebrated by a big family dinner (or as my non-religious Israeli Jewish friend likes to describe it: "same shit, different day"), my friends cooked a nice dinner and we topped it off with wine and a long argument about Israeli politics.
I got a nice long history lesson of Israel including all the wars from an Israeli friend, and although I argued that history is always written/re-written by the victors, he insisted that this history was pure fact.
We argued about Israeli independence, al-Nakba, education systems, check-points, etc. It was a good argument, and it's for moments like those that I wanted to come to Israel.
A really good point one of my friends made was that all the security measures and checkpoints are necessary because if they didn't exist, people could not live for fear of bombs every day. I guess that's the idea. Biseder.
But when I told her that walking through checkpoints as a non-Jew or a non-Israeli and being stopped randomly on the street to prove your identity (and your right to freedom to walk around where you please) is humiliating and done in ways that are most often very disrespectful, she agreed.
And she put it this way: The security measures including all the checkpoints, random stops, rude questions, disrespectful treatment is rational though it may be immoral. It's understandable if not justifiable.
Does the Israeli government have the responsibility to be rational or moral? Shouldn't it be both? But can any government be both especially in such conflicts? And even when they're not in conflict, all countries try to promote their own self-interest, and usually rationality wins over morality.
Maybe rationality and morality aren't mutually exclusive. One can make a rational decision that is also moral. Or one can make a rational decision that will ultimately benefit the common good even if at the individual level, the intention was selfish.
I'm sorry if this post confuses you. I'm a little lost myself.
1 comment:
I really like this post. Sounds like you had an interesting conversation about Israeli politics over dinner.
Rationality and morality -- I have NEVER imagined that these two things could be in conflict/associated with one another. But now that I really think about it, both are so related to one another but also seem (again) so dependent on who is deciding on what is "rational" or "moral".
It's the same discussion as with culture; what some may believe is moral, others may believe is immoral. I'm not sure I agree with one of C.S. Lewis' arguements that there is a general morality among all human beings. Morality is a part of culture, which is something we've already agreed to be ever-changing from person to person. On the same note, I feel like rationality is a necessary part of morality. You need to be a rational thinker if you're going to have any moral opinions. You do moral things because they are 'right', because they subconsciously 'make sense', because it just feels 'like it SHOULD be done this way'. Doesn't this resonate a little like rationality?
I dont know. I feel like morality is a big word to use in this context. Is it really immoral to treat citizens this way? Is it really immoral to be rude and degrading, given the context? I dont know ... Maybe in certain points of view, it's not. Maybe in other points of view, the checkpoints are irrational. I dont know ...
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