Crosspost and repost
Okay, not really a cross post. I wrote my weeklyish post at Jewish Fringe, giving my round-up of sites that help me understand the current war in Israel.
I'm also going to repost Adam's comment up here. Adam is starting an online mag for the modern Zionist called Bnai Say.
You are correct that there is no one, singular, monolithic Zionist point of view (just as there is no one, singular p.o.v. on any issue). However, there is the general consensus amongst Jews (not all mind you, but certainly most) that the Jewish people like all people in the world deserve to have their legitimate national interests protected.
Further, you say you are not an Israel "fan" yet you also seem to be decrying right wing political ideologies (good for you!). Do you know that Israel has guaranteed political and religious rights for all people? That it is the only state in the Middle East where a Muslim of all stripes (Sunni, Shia, Sufi, etc...) can practice without fear of repression? Where Arabs are members of the Knesset (the parliament) and the Supreme Court? Where gays and lesbians are granted civil rights and protection under the law? Where women are guaranteed equal rights and equal protection under the law? Where Arabs have the highest rates of literacy and standard of living throughout the Middle East?
No, of course not. Because the news never highlights any of this. Certianly Israel has its problems, it is no perfect utopia (such locales certainly never exist in reality). However, it is a bastion of human rights and freedom that also happens to be located in a pit of oppression, surrounded on all its borders by states and peoples who want to DESTROY Israel. Do Israelis and Jews of all stripes (did you know that half of Israel are Jews of Arab/African desent?) weep at the death of innocents in warfare? Of course? In fact, we even weep for the death of our aggressive enemies. Even more, we weep that the Middle East is brain washed into thinking Jews are "apes and pigs" (check out
http://www.memri.org) who are the source of Muslim oppression, and that the peoples of Islamic countries are controlled by wealthy, fascists who blame Israel for everything in order to deflect attention and remain in power. And mostly we weep that little has changed in the world, that it is ok for a Jew to be killed and that we are condemned for protecting ourselves. The world likes us to be victims; it does not like it when we fight back.
Israelis across the board believe that there should be a Palestinian state, a huge shift in perspective from, say, the 1970s. But they also are not going to support their own death sentence (remember, Hamas, the Palestinian elected government--as well as Hezbollah who they are fighting now--explicitly call for driving all the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea). Fundamentally it comes back to a famous statement by Golda Meir, who once proclaimed that peace will never come until the Palestinians “love their children more than they hate Israel.”
I will only take issue with one statement--it was (to my knowledge) actually Anwar Sadat who said "I finally decided to love my children, more than I hate your children." I can't find the real quote and maybe nobody said it, but it is what each person must do. We must each love our own children more than we hate the children of others. We must want our children to live, more than we want other's children to die.
What a thought-provoking response to my comment. Even though you answered
your OWN QUESTION, I will tell you that yes, I knew all those things are
deemed to be true.
Ah, the joys of staying anonymous. Lucky you, Missy, lucky anonymous you.
I don't believe I am exactly anonymous to you, am I? You have my
permission to tell Adam who I am and how he can find me via email.
Missy,
There are great amounts of care and empathy for Palestinians, Lebanese,
etc...amongst both Israelis and American Jews. The problem is that their
elected leaders (in the case of the Palestinians, Iranians, Syrians) seek
to destroy us. And there is absolulte responsibility to a population for
its leaders, especially when elected. This isn't a simple disagreement
about borders or national interests. It is just another cog in what has
been a more than 50 year attempt to make the Middle East Judenreim (free of
Jews, to steal the Nazis' terminology). Arab states were effectively
successful in doing so (outside of tiny pockets) in Iraq, Iran, Yemen,
Libya, Syria, etc...all places that had vibrant, thriving Jewish
communities for millenia. The Arab states, most of whom are today run by
the same political parties/families/tribes today as were in the 1940s,
alligned themselves with Nazi Germany. Read up a little about the Grand
Mufti of Jerusalem, the Sunni Muslim leader of Palestine under British
rule. Here's a descrpition of Haj Amin el Husseini (the Husseinis are one
of the two most powerful Gaza tribes):
Oh, and one more thing...no, it was not the Israelis who caused the
Palestinian refugee problem (nor have they kept it within a cycle of
victimhood). The vast majority (certainly there were some Arabs physically
forced from their homes) willingly left AT the coaxing of the Mufti, who
promised the liberation of the lands by the combined Arab armies.
Well I think you for the discussion. Like I said previously, I believe we
will just have to agree to disagree and love each other in spite of our
difference and in honor of our commonalities.. as children of God.
