Some more thoughts on Gaza
Posted on | January 2, 2009 |
“Only by ignoring the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict can you justify Israel’s current war on Gaza.”
This is a conversaion from the comments of an earlier post between Josh Bull and I. I think it’s enlightening, and Josh might be adding to this later.
Josh:
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Wasn’t there a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel that was due to run out soon, Hamas unilaterally ended the ceasefire, began launching rocket attacks on Israel, and Israel has responded in the way they always do- with overwhelming force.
Not condoning anything, but if your democratically elected government decides to break a ceasefire with your vastly superior neighbor by launching rocket attacks, do they not deserve any blame for what ensues?
Josh
ps Although they didn’t have a ceasefire between two governments, I imagine it’s a similar situation as when Georgia invaded South Ossetia in the summer. Many people incorrectly put all the blame on Russia for using overwhelming force to stop the incursion (if you respond, respond to Israel’s situation…Russia’s is different because Georgia didn’t attack Russian territory per se). I agree it is a totally unfair fight but if a puny dude lashes out at a huge bully, isn’t that just a stupid thing to do by the puny guy? If the fight cannot be won militarily, doesn’t it make more sense to change the arena of the fight - ie nonviolent resistance, taking the moral high ground and holding it despite years of deprivation etc. (ie Gandhi & Mandela)? There’s no way Israel could win that fight because the Palestinian cause is in the right in the moral sense (but moral ends can be warped and lost by violent means…ie spreading democracy may be good but not if you preemptively invade a country; i think you’d agree with that). By continuing to engage Israel only militarily, it’s no wonder that nothing has changed for the Palestinians (and yes, if you elect as your government a party that is committed to continuing the fight in the military arena rather than the nonviolent or moral arena, you are responsible for their actions…that’s the whole idea of a republic…).
Josh
ps If any emotions get worked up due to this comment, please read http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/dec/28/dave-barrys-year-review/ to calm them again.
Jared:
Josh,
Always making me think. Thanks for the calming link–I had to wait a day before I could respond to this.
I base my arguments not on the morality of weak versus strong, but by who the aggresor is. In this case, the nation who colonizing and ethnically cleansing “its” land.
Only by ignoring the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict can you justify Israel’s actions. Its reasoning for this is Hamas rocket fire. That fact left in a historical vacuum would portend Hamas/Palestine has tanks on Israel’s borders firing indiscriminately at civilians. It would portend Hamas tears apart Israeli families with walls and “security” checkpoints. It assumes Hamas is the aggressor, and Israel is under attack.
Just the opposite is true, my friend. Look at a map of Israel over the last 60 years. Geographers have a peculiar term for this sort of growth–Lebensraum. Its a German word used during the Nazi period that means the natural growth of a nation, reclaiming their “natural land.”
The historical process of Israel’s growth, justified not by a crude Nazi lebensraum, but a only slightly-less-crude religious lebensraum based on a pathetic (literal sense) appeal to past suffering. Remember Palestinians were driven out in the hundreds of thousands in 1948 and have gradually and in spurts of war been enveloped by a hostile, racist militaristic society. Palestinians are not afforded basic civic rights, let alone the resources or structures to survive. (Just as ironic as the Israeli doing unto Palestinians as Nazis did to the Jews, is the odd fact that Israel used Nazi munitions in the 1948 war against the Arabs!)
This is ethnic cleansing by deprivation, starvation, bombing, construction of walls, intermittent war, and an international PUBLIC RELATIONS campaign.
This is not Russia against Georgia. Not even close. This is the United States massacring the Indians. A foreign force (white Pilgrims/US or Israel, in that case justified by the powers that rightfully feel bad for them because of the holocaust) forcefully stealing land and purging the native population. (You can make an argument about Moses and the Canaanites, but you would be wrong to do so. That argument never ends and only works to regress the conversation into a “no, I was here first” religious tussle.)
Would you dare to blame the Indians for lashing out at the “settlers”? No, those settlers were racist colonizers who saw the fertile land of the frontier as theirs. We shouldn’t blame these people who have lived in desperation and in the dark for lashing at out their over-militarized colonizers either.
Now, if I raised your heart rate with that, mull it over and get back to me. Read Robert Fisk in the meantime.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/
See past post also for specific links.
I don’t have a funny link for you, but I do have a movie rec. Check out The Edge of Heaven. Gorgeous film, perfect ptich, perfect continuity with a really nice story line.
un abrazo,
Jared