"The day we are no longer judged by the standards of the West is the beginning of Israel’s end, because it means that the West has decided we are no longer part of it, and hence will not be committed to Israel’s existence.". Thus Carlo Strenger, Professor of Psychology at Tel Aviv University, complaining about the "often aggressive" way Israel deals with Palestinians and Lebanese., grabbing land and building settlements.*
The policies of the Israeli government (not supported, one has to say , by a majority of thoughtful Jews inside and outside Israel) is plain un-Epicurean. Period.
*Quoted in Ha’aretz
One of the main teachings of Epicurus was to abandon fear (as much as is humanly possible). If you want to know what I’m going on about, engage with me!
I don’t see how you can say a policy is, or is not, Epicuran. Epicurus taught one should stay out of politics. You have violated a prime directive!
Now, if a policy were based on religious fear, than I suppose one could say that was un-Epicurus like. But this policy is in no way that.
You have a point. Epicurus probably would have ignored these fraught political problems. However, the attitude of Americans is based on fear – fear of being labeled “anti-semitic” for commenting in a balanced way upon the Arab-Israeli situation. It is this fear of the activities of a tiny minority that i am protesting about. I would would be fearful ,too, were I in the public eye. I don’t blame journalists and commentators. But I think it is a shameful thing that this effective ban on reasonable debate happens in the US of all places.