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Perspectives on Israel, Gaza
Per my upbringing, I’m instinctively pro-Israel. I’m also terribly un-educated on the names, faces, arguments, and counter-arguments surrounding the current conflict and the history leading up to it. I thus took a few minutes this morning to read several related items: one from New York, one from London, and one from Jerusalem. If you’re similarly seeking perspective, I hope these links are helpful.
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6 Responses to “Perspectives on Israel, Gaza”
Perhaps someone can please enlighten my more or less black and white perspective on this. I was born in '75, but didn't really start paying attn to the news till Bush took office. My perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian situation is this: Palestinians break every single cease fire with intentional attack against civilians, Israel strikes back and gets yelled at by the world community. Arab nations appear to want Israel destroyed and much of the world thinks that Israel is obligated to just sit there and take it. The rhetoric from Israel's neighbors has never been anything less than genocidal in tone and yet everyone seems to think its all Israel's fault that hostilities can't be worked around.
Slamfu – As a very involved observer of the Israeli scene ( more than 70 vists to Israel since 1956) with just about my entire extented family liviing there let me make a few points.
1 – yes – arab governemts and citizens regularly make anti-semetic and anti Israeli statements
2 – yes – Israeli governments and citizens regularly make hateful and anti-arab statements. Every day of the week you can hear some rabbi or knesset member calling for either the ethnic cleansing or extermination of Palestinians. You will hear such words every time you go to shul in the West Bank.
3 – The Palestinians have been occupied and stateless for 40 years. Israel has never made a reasonable peace deal except at Taba and Barak pulled it off the table. The Camp David offer was an absolute joke, The Palestinians would get a little over 70 % of the West Bank with the “opportunity to earn” another 25% if Israel decided to remove the settlements. Israel would control all water resources in the West Bank and control ALL that comes into or out of Palestine – ie another open air prison like Gaza. Palestinians would not control any part of either Jerusalem or East Jerusalem. By the way, this is in effect the same offer at the end of the Annapolis negotiations, except the Palestinians have the opprotunity to earn up to 91.7% of the West Bank instead of 95%.
4 – Last month while I was in Israel, I heard talks given by Livni and Zeev Boim that in effect stated Israel's position was the Palestinians would NEVER get a real state but only one totally controlled by Israel.
As a Jew that fervently believes in Israel as a Jewish homeland ( my grandfather was Irgun), I honestly believe Israel is on the wrong track. They have unrivaled power now – but no such power lasts forever. They could have had peace with their neighbors many times over the past couple of decades instead they greedily wanted a few more square miles of land in Judea and Samaria every year and they took them. Now they have a situation where they have 500,000 Jews living over the Green line – virtually impossible to move. If they don't figure out how to make a FAIR peace soon, it may be 10 years, 100 years or 1000 years but the Arabs will get their revenge.
Well the Palestinians were stateless for a lot longer than 40 years before 1947. In fact, being stateless was a state of normalcy for them. I would argue that a great deal of their issues were brought down upon themselves by the initial war in that year. I do not know if the original partition of Israel/Palestine at the end of WWII was similarly unfair to the Palestinians, but I do know now the palestinians are NOT going to get what they want by force. Also, sorry, but they target civilians specifically when the whole world is watching them. My gut instinct is to revile those that target innocents, then hide behind more innocents, then cry foul when the inevitable retaliation kills innocents. They have also distilled their brand of Islam into nothing more than a death cult. The consequences of war is war, and that means lots of dead non-soldiers these days.
Also, you may hear talk of ethnic cleansing in Israel in certain quarters, but even though it is well within their power to do so, they haven't. Israel's neighbors on the other hand have a proven track record of walking the walk and not just talking the talk. What do you think would have been the result if Israel's forces had not weathered the storms of 1947, Six Day War, and Yom Kippur? Somehow I doubt it would be as favorable as the relative leniency shown the Palestinians.
Like the author, I realize that I am uneducated on this subject, and I've found it difficult to find objective discussion. The three articles helped a bit, especially the one from London. If Gaza is truly cut off from all outside help and visitors, and if they are totally dependent on aid from Israel, then it seems that this is awfully similar to the situation the Jews faced under the Nazis. I'm sure that the aid is more generous than the Jews in ghettos faced, but ultimately the Palestinians would be dehumanized in the view of Israelis. This would ultimately lead to more and more brutal conditions which would then lead to radicalization of the population. Nobody can build walls around a population, hold them captive, control their political and economic lives, and expect to win anything. As the residents become more and more radicalized, what can the Israelis do? Most Americans are impressed by the idealism that we think Israel represents. Thus, we have supported the country. That will become harder and harder as we are faced with the sight of Israel trampling the Palestinians. Whether or not Israel and its supporters believe this is the only practical option, it won't matter. Support will ultimately be withdrawn, and Israel and the Palestinians will both suffer.
And, if there is a demographic battle being won by the Palestinians, there is no practical way, short of total oppression, that Israelis can maintain their current supremacy. It seems to me that it would make far better sense for them to seek accommodation while it is still possible.
slamfu – A couple of thoughts regarding your last comment. Yes, the Palestinians were semi-stateless before 1947 but they had passport type papers and could travel the world and go to world colleges etc without asking someone's permission. They could start businesses, farm land – none of which is true anymore. Do you understand how Israel came into being? Irgun, Stern Gang and Haganah were all Jewish paramilitary groups roughly equivilent to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah. Under British occupation, these Jews killed British soldiers, kidnapped some in exchange for their own militants, blew up hotels, filled donkey carts with explosives and blew up arab marketplaces. Terrorized some arab families so they would leave their homes and make room for Jews. The Jews were fighting for a homeland and used terror to achieve their goals – the Palestinians are simply doing the same.
Well back then I would have considered the Jews to be unsympathetic and monstrous in conduct. And if back then the British decided to violently crack down on Irgun, Stern Gang and Haganah, I would not have thought it out of line. But we aren't back then, and Israel is not some long arm of a far flung empire exhausted from war like the British were. The same tactics aren't going to work, they are simply violence for the sake of violence and its not going to get anyone anywhere.