Because You Never Asked

ISRAELIS and PALESTINIANS 

     On the morning of September 10, 2001, my flight to New York began its descent into LaGuardia Airport. I was looking forward to the next 8 days visiting my family --- my mom, siblings, nephews, in laws, etc., even a new addition who shares a birthday with me who I had not yet seen. As a native New Yorker, I can usually orient myself when seeing the landscape from above. The first landmark I noticed was the old Parachute Jump at Coney Island. I thus knew we were flying north over Brooklyn and up into Queens. Within a few moments, the plane banked in a long arc that eventually leveled off into what must have been its final approach, leaving Manhattan outside my window to the right. Way off in the distance, at the very end of the jagged range of skyscrapers that is the signature of the great metropolis, stood the impressive twin towers of the World Trade Center, still vaguely visible in the dense urban air.

     Who could have imagined that in less than 24 hours they would no longer be there?

     It is now three weeks later. I am still not ready to write about it. There is just so much to digest and process. Somewhere in the future, like a boiling pudding, it will all start to coagulate and form and then I will write. Not yet.

     But the time has come to write about Israelis and Palestinians, which is certainly one of the key catalytic elements leading to the events of September 11^th. It is easy to over value the role of the Palestinian problem in all this, because the tragic misunderstandings between the Moslem and Judeo-Christian worlds are far more complex than just the issues embodied in the fight for the Holy Land. But it would also be ludicrous to not recognize this aspect of the horrifying tragedy.

     The Jewish presence in Palestine goes all the way back to the Old Testament days of Abraham, Moses, and the Judaic Kingdoms of David and Solomon, from whence their claim to the area arises. But if we examine the history of the region since the times of Herod's Roman hegemony and Jesus Christ's non-orgasmic birth, we see the Jews in Palestine reduced to a smattering of people going about their business under the yolk of the more omnipotent rulers that might have solidified their reigns there. 

     The first great trauma of the Jewish people was the dispersion of their culture by the Romans, which eventually led to the "occidentalization" of their identity. From that time on, the most enduring aspects of Jewish culture had their manifestations primarily in Central and Eastern Europe. Corroborating this is the fact that the Crusades of medieval times were a purely Christian-Moslem affair. The Jews, basically gone from the region, were not players in this joust. For the last thousand years or so, Palestine has been overwhelmingly imprinted with the Islamic-Arab culture, notwithstanding the drips and blips of Christians, Jews, Copts, Druids, or whatever other spiritual dementia the human imagination gives forth with. One predicating the creation of a Jewish state in this region on this historic set of circumstances, might, I suppose, also clamor for the return of North America to the Indians. Such historic context has made the Israeli state a small island of western culture in the huge Oriental ocean that surrounds it. In viewing the slightly more than ½ century of time since Israel's creation, and taking into account the hate, violence, and general geo-political turmoil pollinated by all this, one has to wonder if this should have been done to begin with.

     Although the creation of Israel might now be seen as a dubious idea, we must be realistic in trying to resolve the dilemma as it now exists. Certainly, after fifty years of root growing existence, any resolution based upon the dismantlement of the Jewish state could only seem as ludicrous and ill advised as the idea to create it. The second great trauma of the Jewish culture, that being what we now call the "holocaust", left a substantial part of its population exterminated and its survivors dazed, disoriented and border line dysfunctional. Although this disaster cannot be considered unprecedented in the annals of man's capacity for savage behavior, one can hardly imagine any group having gone through a more terrifying upheaval. What had once been a vibrant, numerous European Jewish community, had been pulverized beyond re-edification. What to do?

     At the end of World War II, the Zionist idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine seemed as plausible as it ever would.

      But it is also not fair to say that Israel should exist simply because there is no other choice but to live with it. By now the Israelis have earned their right to exist. They've constructed a dynamic, creative, modern nation-state under the most difficult circumstances and they've defended it with valor and determination. Ironically, if this seemingly hopeless situation could ever be straightened out, this enclave of first world civilization could be a springboard to the whole region's development. Unfortunately, none of that changes the fact that the Israelis have made some political decisions that could be seen as clumsy blunders.

     If there is any mitigation for the erroneous policy decisions made by the Jews, it lies with the unnatural hostility their country has had to live with. Such a constant state of tension is not the most healthy environment for rational decision making and the Israelis have shown the same human frailties anyone else might have under such circumstances. Hate, violence, arrogance, cruelty, conceit, selfishness, paranoia, insensitivity, and other assorted and sundry negative traits of human behavior, find fertile ground in such an environment. But the Israelis are dealing from a position of strength. Whatever solution might or might not lie ahead is primarily in their hands.

     The "original sin" with regard to Israeli policy occurred after their victory in the '67 war, when they militarily occupied the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights. Given the extreme hostility that the fledgling Jewish state had to deal with on a daily basis, along with the series of local wars it had to endure in order to survive, this military occupation can only be seen as a proper course of action. The pacification of these areas had become essential for the survival of the nation.

     As it turned out, this was the critical moment in what has been such a failure for now. Israeli policy should have been withdrawal and the recognition of a Palestinian state, in exchange for an Arab recognition of Israel's right to exist. This policy would have to be accompanied by the realization that this would be a long, drawn out process, indeed, a Herculean journey that had to be embarked upon notwithstanding the blown tires, fierce storms, washed out bridges, overheated engines, or other not foreseeable setbacks that might lie ahead. This basic premise --- recognition in exchange for withdrawal leading to a Palestinian state --- even if it took hundreds of years, had to be the fundamental underpinning of Israeli policy. 

     But the unnatural pressure they were forced to live with began to undermine their composure and they started throwing the ball around. Their military occupation turned into an "annexation". The occupied territories, instead of being a bargaining chip in future negotiations, became the conquered spoils of war. This expansion of the Israeli state gobbled up the only real estate available for a hypothetical Palestinian state. Even as the difficult journey towards some kind of peaceful resolution inched its way forward --- Egypt's recognition of Israel, the Oslo Accords, the Wey River encounters, the beginnings of an Israeli withdrawal and the skeletal frameworks of a Palestinian government --- the Jews insisted on building their settlements on the West Bank, as if none of this were ever to be taken seriously. This incongruent attitude, which can only be seen as an attempt to walk in two directions at the same time, further inflamed an already white hot situation. It could be seen as a classic example of hitting an already down opponent.

     The Jews might counter by saying that warring nations have expanded and contracted since the dawn of time and borders have been obliterated or created as a routine part of human conflict. But the creation of Israel is anomalous in this regard because it was created by third parties. It was somewhat of a gift, along with the military hardware provided to defend the young nation.  A highly developed sensitivity for those displaced by this process should be an integral part of the Jewish attitude.

     Perhaps the Israelis have acted no differently than anyone else might have in this hysterical emotional climate, and all this can simply be chalked up to the lowly state of human evolution. It must be reiterated that the vast bulk of the Israeli population are émigrés from developed countries and they have treated the third world natives of Palestine with the same derision and conceit that all colonial powers have shown all through history. But this does not make such behavior acceptable. Isn't it time we began to learn something from what has now become such routine violence, hate, and suffering? 

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Email: JerryG@postcman.info