I Remember A Time When The UN Settlement Decision Wasn’t The Only News On The Radio

By Arye Golan, Israeli Journalist

There was a time, apparently in the distant past, that not every issue discussed in the Israeli media revolved around the UN Security Council’s decision to declare Israeli activity beyond the Green Line illegal. While most of my colleagues indicate no such awareness, I remember that time. It was simpler, in many ways, and yet more nuanced and complex.

It was a time we could discuss sports, art, music, culture, local politics, and the economy without referring to the tailwind now assumed to be provided to the BDS movement as a result of the resolution, and the projected impact of that tailwind on Israeli sports, art, music, culture, local politics, and economy. Once upon a time, in fact, many, if not all, of those topics could be discussed at length without a single reference to any activity toward a boycott of Israel or Israelis. You may not believe it, but there was such a time.

It may seem to defy credulity – I concede that. Under the circumstances it appears the height of absurdity. But in fact, in my lifetime, we could go days on Kol Israel radio without mentioning the UN even once. In the vast expanses of air time not occupied by the subject, we would explore housing and employment issues in the economic periphery; road safety and infrastructure; domestic violence; corruption in all realms of government; and gender issues, just to name a few – all with nary an invocation of the possible ramifications of Resolution 2334 for the subject at hand. All that is in what feels like some other century, some other era. We may have been there once, but it is not our world.

The post-2334 reality may pose its challenges, but there is a measure of predictability and stability in the monotony. As I approach retirement, I appreciate the more sedate nature of considering only one set of implications for every news story. Younger journalists or media personalities may wish for a more dynamic, comprehensive perspective on current events, but this veteran broadcaster welcomes this development, even if it carries some nostalgia for the heady days of non-Resolution-2334 news and commentary.

It sounds bizarre, I know, that such a time could ever have existed. Few of us now can even conceive of a world not informed by the US’s abstention on that fateful  – we assume – vote. Perhaps one day that situation may obtain once again, but if course it will occur only in the distant future, and only the youngest of my colleagues will likely live to see that transpire.

I also remember a time when the Left in Israel had a chance of forming a government, but that was so long ago it might as well be a delusion.

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