Israeli and Indian solidarity

I joined the facebook group in memory of the Mumbai massacre. The message boards are full of messages from all sorts of people, but the one that interested me the most was the one about Israeli and Indian solidarity. This was quite a controversial post because the opponents of this notion contested it due to the disparate histories of the two nations. I have some major issues with the way that Israel was formed. It was stupid. It was a recipe for disaster. If anything, the Jews should have been able to anex a portion of Germany to call their own. That would have made a lot more sense.

But I am baffled by how people insist on looking back. The world is not the same. Alliances have changed. India has emerged as the world's largest democracy and embraced capitalism and Western culture. Israel is the only stable democracy in the Middle East. Modern American values have forged a new international meritocracy for commerce, culture, and science. Even in these nations where the cultural ethos is steeped in religious traditions, religion necessarily becomes irrelevant in normal life. Yet the doctors, bankers, and lawyers who benefit from this egalitarianism still turn to the darker side of history to shape their political views.

They insist on hating Jews because of the UN's decision over 50 years ago. They remain paralyzed in an outdated Eastern block state of mind long after the fall of the USSR. They benefit from the stability and comfort of democracy, but suffer from inexplicable guilt at the thought of openly defending this foundation of their daily lives. Very frustrating.