114 Years of Zionist Bombast

Israel's the best! Better than all the rest:

From the very first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897...

"Some months have passed since the Zionist Congress, but its echoes are still heard in daily life and in the press... In the press all these meetings, with their addresses, motions and resolutions, appear over and over again in the guise of articles - articles written in a vein of enthusiam and triumph. The meeting was magnificent, every speaker was a Demosthenes, the resolutions were carried by acclamation, all those present were swept off their feet and shouted with one voice: 'We will do and obey!' - in a word, everything was delightful, entrancing, perfect. And the Congress itself still produces a literature of its own. Pamphlets specially devoted to its praises appear in several languages; Jewish and non-Jewish papers still occasionally publish articles and notes about it; and needless to say, the 'Zionist' organ [Die Welt, the German paper founded by Herzl] itself endeavours to maintain the impression which the Congress made, and not allow it to fade too rapidly from the public memory. It searches the press of every nation and every land, and wherever it finds a favourable mention of the Congress, even if in some insignificant journal published in the language of one of the smaller European nationalities, it immediately gives a summary of the article, with much jubilation. Only one small nation's language has thus far not been honoured with such attention, though its journals too have lavished praise on the Congress: I mean Hebrew." (The Jewish State & Jewish Problem, Ahad Ha'am, 1897, jewishvirtuallibrary.org)

... to the 'Tent Revolution' of 2011...

"Property prices have risen about 50% since 2008 as Israel's burgeoning population - more than 7 million people squeezed into a slither [sic] of land about a third the size of Tasmania - vastly outstrips construction. The so-called 'tent revolution' has also morphed into a wider protest about the disintegration of communal solidarity and the welfare state. But this is not Israel's equivalent of the 'Arab Spring'. Rothschild Boulevard - a leafy, European-style inner-city thoroughfare where one young woman put up a tent on July 14 in protest against her exhorbitant rent - is not Tahrir Square. There is no violence, no looting, no thuggery. The protesters are not armed with guns or stones; they bear banners with slogans such as 'the people demand social justice' and 'the people will take back the country'. This has not led to violent clashes with police, let alone government-backed armies mowing down civilians like in Syria, Tunisia or Libya. Nor has it led to urban anarchy, as has happened in Britain. In short, this is the Jewish state's democratic pulse beating as it has since the day it was born. For popular protests are a sine qua non of Israeli society - virtually every week there's a protest from a different sector of society. And the demonstrations are almost always non-violent..." (Tent city is a beacon of social justice & optimism for all Israelis, Robin Margo*, The Age, 18/8/11) [* "Robin Margo, SC, is president of the New Israel Fund's affiliate in Australia and immediate past president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies."]

... and everything in between.