Israel and the Palestinians (A Summing Up)

As I come to my final commentary on this subject, I find myself quite sad because for the most part the people who disagreed with me never engaged in a real discussion.

With some notable exceptions all they offered was hate and endless war. Do they really think that this is in the interests of Israel or Jews throughout the world? Thus Frank Friedman of Johannesburg, South Africa, wrote, “Anti-Semitism is here to stay. Jew bashing is a very popular sport. The Arabs only want the country is not negotiable! Their aims are war until they achieve what they want. What ever Israel does is wrong. I personally would send rockets back all day until they are all wetting their pants as the Israelis do!"

That is insulting to the Israeli’s, as brave and courageous a people as live anywhere. Israeli’s are not wetting in their pants.
And the implication that my criticizing Israeli government policies are anti-Semitic is a slander on me, and all those in Israel who agree with me, as shown in the many articles I cited in Haaretz written by Israelis.

I wonder whether Mr. Friedman has even tasted the lash of anti-Semitism as I have. Did he escape from Hitler’s Holocaust? Jew bashing indeed.

But why engage in rational debate which might actually further the possibility for Israel to live in peace and prosperity. Like so many Arabs, the spewing of hate comes easier than actually furthering the interest of Israel or Jewry throughout the world.

Why have my critics totally ignored what Ben Gurion said, “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”

This quote is important because it shows that Ben Gurion recognized that the Arabs had a legitimate grievance, not something that today’s hate mongers will ever concede. But it is important to recognize such factors if they are ever to be dealt with.

But more importantly we have to answer the other question, Ben Gurion raised, “Why would they accept that?” Why indeed? And the answer is reality! Arabs are not good at facing reality, but even they come to grips with it after suffering defeat after defeat.

My critics act like nothing has changed since 1948 or even 1967. So very much has changed, but my critics sit in their bunker mentality and pretend nothing has changed. Today Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East, with the IDF by far the most powerful military, and Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has atomic bombs. Its existence isn’t threatened. Egypt and Jordan have signed peace treaties and have recognized the state of Israel.

The threat to Israel comes from within. It comes from the fanatical settler movement which is determined to drive Arabs from all the lands of Palestine and which is exercising an ever-greater power within Israel where the constant need for coalition government gives an outsize power to minor parties.

We outside Israel, Jews who understand persecution from first hand experience, and the US government need to be a counterweight to these fanatics. Peace is not possible as long as they choose to expropriate more and more Arab lands. As Herb Reiner wrote, “As things are now, life is a nightmare for many Palestinians. Lands not yet confiscated are becoming increasingly inaccessible as they are broken by walled barriers. Palestinians are often required to pass through multiple checkpoints to get from their homes to their jobs or fields. New highways are for the exclusive use of settlers or Israelis."

How does such continuing encroachment aid the peace process, or for that matter Israeli security?

Bill Mainzer of Portola Valley, California asks, "Would you simply sit still and allow your neighbors to shell you?" But he doesn’t ask, "Would you simply sit still and allow your neighbor to blockade you, denying you the basics of life including food and electricity?" Would you simply sit still and allow your neighbor to keep encroaching on your lands, and take your homes to build homes for themselves? I asked, "Are Arabs not allowed to defend themselves?" and the response is a deafening silence.

Bill Mainzer says possibly, when both sides are ready to sit down and negotiate a proper peace settlement this can come to a stop. But before that, both Hamas and their supporters, Iran, will need to accept the right for Israel to exist. Of course, but that comes at the end of negotiations, not as a precondition.

But then in that same message, Bill Mainzer adds, "Maybe another Arab state like Syria could absorb the Palestinian people that they too, do not want!" indicating the very mindset that makes peace all but impossible. Palestinians do not want to live in Syria and Syria doesn’t want to have the Palestinian’s, but what this implies is Bill favors ethnic cleansing, which appears to be gaining ground. It is what the settler movement wants. If that is the objective, or even if the Palestinians think it is, then there can be no peace.

But what I find most disturbing is the mentality that the whole world is arrayed against the Jews. First of all nothing could be further from the truth. Germany and a number of other countries have actually made it a crime to deny the Holocaust, and when the Pope stupidly removed the excommunication of a Holocaust denier, Germany and the world at large were up in arms.
It was the world at large, through the UN that gave sanction to the creation of Israel.

Barry Grant of Millford, NJ writes:

"As for the blockade of Gaza, I am sure you are aware that the Egyptians are also blockading Gaza. There is very little complaint about their actions, but then again the Egyptians are not Jewish. I have great sympathy for the innocent Palestinians who have been killed and injured. Just as I had sympathy for them in 1970 when King Hussein of Jordan (the good Arab) bombed the Palestinian refugee camps on the West Bank killing more than the Israeli's have killed in all these decades. No one mentions this (maybe because King Hussein was not Jewish) I could go on and on mentioning the response of the world and the media to Darfur, Bosnia, Rwanda, etc. Where is the outrage when a thousand times as many innocent persons are killed? I find it appalling"

This is simply not true. The Egyptians are blockading Gaza at the request of Israel. Since Hamas has not responded by attacking Egypt, (probably because they are smuggling their supplies and arms from there) there is little focus there. It has nothing to do with being Jewish. As for Darfur, Bosnia, Rwanda the outrage is resounding. The number of news articles I have read and seen on this subject and the number of appeals for help I have received by e-mail and snail mail is legion.

Even now the World Tennis Federation is ready to apply sanctions to Dubai for barring a Jewish Israeli player.

The mindset, "Woe is me, I am Jewish" is a relic from another time. I am glad to say that Jews all over the world are respected and have enormous influence in the US and throughout the Western world. AIPAC holds sway over American foreign policy to a degree that few foreign lobbyist organizations have. It was the only foreign lobby that I know of, to which Obama felt it necessary to appeal to.

Barry says, "I found your comments unbalanced and one-sided, although not as one sided as W's 8 years of benign neglect of the problems." But that benign neglect was to lend unswerving support to Israeli policies, which it seems to me is exactly what Barry seems to advocate. If Obama is to be successful in furthering the peace process he will have to build some credibility with Arabs, and the first thing he will have to do is convince Israel to stop expanding settlements and lift the blockade.

Finally, many have argued that Israel gave Arafat a great peace offer and Arafat turned it down. How they arrive at that conclusion is puzzling. How much was offered in the way of dismantling settlements, none of us know. I have read with care Dennis Ross’ "The Missing Peace" and I never found any details of what the offer was. To be sure Arafat had a strange way of negotiating, never making counter proposals and just listening and saying, "No" but it is a poor excuse to say well we tried - they turned it down, and so there is no point in trying again.

If we as Jews in the US want to be true friends of Israel we will support the forces of tolerance and peace.

Toward that end I recommend support of J Street, the Jewish lobby that is the true friend of Israel by supporting the peace movement.

I recommend signing up so as to keep apprised of developments. I also recommend listening to the analysis by a leading Israeli journalist of the recent Israeli election and the peace process, available on that site.