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LadyEllen -> RE: Israel doesn't believe in terrorism (7/20/2006 5:13:18 AM)
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Hi All
First time I've tried to use these fora, so here goes! Before I start, I would just like to say that I am not an anti-Semite, and though I do own a pair of shiny boots I'm not a nazi either!
The modern state of Israel was founded just after the second world war, through a campaign of terrorist activities. Whether the land of Palestine belonged historically to the Jewish nation, and therefore the establishment of Israel by this means was justified, is something which could be and has been argued. However, by that same reasoning I should be allowed to perform terrorism in northern Germany and Denmark since those lands belong historically to my English nation and I should be allowed to recover them. And whilst I'm at it, I'll have the Russian steppe too since my Indo-European ancestors seemed to have lived there once too!
In short, in my opinion it was a mistake to allow Israel to be established where it is now, regardless of any historical claim, because the problems which have plagued it since were obvious consequences from the start. This was not a fight for freedom against an oppressor even, but conquest and displacement of a population who had lived in those lands since the time of the Roman empire when the Jews were expelled. If I were to conquer Denmark and put all the Danes out of their homes and treat them as sub-humans, then could I not expect their hatred and violence in return? Given what happened to the Jews under the nazi hell, then Israel should have been established not in Palestine, but in some of the lands expropriated from Germany after the war.
However we must deal in the here and now. As could be expected the state of Israel has since its founding suffered a lot of attacks, both open war and terrorism. I cant say that such violence is justified, but it is understandable that those displaced and those who sympathise with them, would take such action. Israel of course strikes back as is equally understandable but unjustifiable. Neither side sees its actions as terrorism, although to outside observers that is what it is.
It is only once we throw into the pot the extraneous and damaging ingedients of religion and culture that the whole recipe becomes what it is. The whole thing is moved from what it actually is, to a "glorious struggle" between whose version of religion and culture is right, when in fact both sides' religion and culture is right for them and the situation is one not of religion and culture but of conquest and occupation and resistance to it. After nearly sixty years of this, surely the time must have come for both to realise the futility of it all and to sit down and sort it out by accomodation? But no, both sides are sufficiently arrogant to believe themselves so superior to the other that this has only recently been done, and I'm sorry to say that since the Israelis hold most of the cards in this game, the responsibility has fallen to them to start with the pull-out from Gaza, but in return, being perceived as weak for doing this, they met with the kidnap of a soldier. For hotheads on both sides it would seem, only the total humiliation and preferably annihalation of the other will do - and the reason for their elevated cerebral temperatures is not the actual situation but their religion and culture.
Meanwhile to us in the west it is all just a mess. We find ourselves backing Israel because its culture is more familiar to us and we identify with them as people like us, (not to mention collective Christian guilt for anti-Semitism down the ages perhaps) - but at the same time we find ourselves sympathising with the Palestinians and their allies because of the hateful way the Israelis treat them.
We need to remove from this mess the whole notion of Judaism vs Islam, Jew vs Arab and the notion of anti-Semitism if we are ever to sort it out. Both peoples and both religions are equally valid, so this distraction is just a sideshow. We need to exclude those who peddle these distractions from the entire scene - on both sides. Religion teaches us to respect others, so how can it be used in this way in any case? But at the same time we must also remove all the injustices perpetrated by the stronger side in this situation - one should not expect peaceful relations with people who are excluded and treated less favourably, as Northern Ireland demonstrated. Remove the injustice and one removes the basis for antagonism from the majority - leaving only the religious hotheads shouting and making them obvious to all, so enabling their removal. Such a methodology takes time to work and will of course be difficult and dangerous, but the status quo is going nowhere and is also dangerous.
My solution? Immediate, full rights Israeli citizenship for all Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza - not many know that many Arabs are already Israeli citizens and there is no trouble from them, which suggests that it is not the existence of Israel which is objected to but exclusion from it which is. Israel should be perceived as a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural state like everywhere else in the western world, rather than as a Jewish bastion against which waves of anti-Semitism from all directions can crash and excite the zealotry of those within.
Now to await the crash of waves against my bastion, though I will try not to get too excited!
E
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