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CVIII:
Au contraire....its critical that you do, although I suspect none of us really can.
We're slaves of history....the most autocratic of all the influences that make us what we are. In some measure, even though my family has been here since 1878, I'm welded to the Holocaust. Only an accident of birth kept me out of the ovens. So, I'm not an objective observer.
And the Israelis feel this much more proximately than I ever can. Many of them come from societies that at best marginalize them, and at worst expose them to substantial brutality.
No matter how I distrust their political culture, or deride their foreign policy (and I do), in the final analysis, I understand empathetically that they are exposed by simple virtue of being Jews. And I can integrate that into my own environment, because - thanks to the mindlessness of Islamic terror - I have a bulls-eye on my back too, even though I'm a thoroughly deracinated and integrated American. That's not my doing; someone else has attached that target to me. Just listen to some of the garbage spilling outof the Islamic world - blood libels, Mossad dsetroying the WTC....
The Palestinians have a radically different history. They remember the orange groves of Jaffa, an idyllic vision of what life was like before there ever was a Jewish state there. They have their own legitimate beefs. They have been ignored and humiliated, interned and treated as vassals. The Likud policy of inserting settlements of revanchist Israelis into largely Arabic areas has stymied the peace process for over 20 years. So has the Israeli political system: it is based on a parliamentary infrastructure that gives disproportionate voice to splinter parties, destabilizing every government for the last 20-25 years. In its own way, the Israeli political environment is as dangerous and unreliable as any Arab government. The Arabs remember the betrayal (their view) of the Weitzman Declaration from the Brits 'looking with favor towards the establishment of a national homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people'. What about the established population? Remember how the Brits and most of the Western world looked at the indigenous population in 1918 - a bunch of rootlessss tribes wandering around a desert wasteland. So, no attention was paid to their national identity and burgeoning aspirations.
Well, what happened? Vicious ethnic riots against the small Jewish population, in 1929 and again in 1936-1938; the Mufti of Jerusalem supporting Germany and the Axis powers in WWII; the Stern Gang blowing up the King David Hotel in 1947; cycles of violence, each being justified by what preceded it, and that in turn being justified by its own antecedents. And the present Israeli government justifiying the raid on Ramallah because of the terror attacks by the suicide bombers. And the suicide bombers pointing to the checkpoints, and the miserable refugee camps in Gaza, etc.....and each of them nursing their own grievances and history in a way that is mutually-exclusive of the other.
So you ask yourself how can it ever end? These peoples in my view (a disillusioned dove) are incapable of forging a meaningful peace. Not with history poisoning any dialogue. The hatred is now bred in the bone. Should we ignore them? No, and that's not an entirely emotional answer. Remember, Israel possesses nuclear weapons, and the Arab governments maintain only the most shaky hold on their own population. If the US and the EU don't throw a blanket over this situation somehow, there are a number of things that could happen. The principal danger is that the inchoate anger in the Arab/Islamic street can lead to destabilization of the local governments, and ascendancy to power of radical regimes that are heedles of the underlying risks, and will launch direct attacks on Israel at any cost.
What's the risk? Think back to some of Zevele's posts: the notion of revenge, the refusal to 'bend the knee'. I suspect he's not in a fringe group. This looks like the Apocalypse to most Israelis. They've faced it before, and aren't going to go quietly this time. Before they'll permit any frontal attack on their national existence, they'll vaporize Bagdhad or Cairo. Just as jihad in some form is inculcated in Islamic culture, the notion of Masada - an Okinawa-like fortress which sacrificed its occupants to a defense of the state - is now inculcated in Israeli culture. Particularly after the lessons of WWII. Also keep in mind that for better or worse the Islamic world thinks that the US and Israel are joined at the hip, and will attack US interests and citizens quite promiscuously, as they did on 9-11.
So, what do you do? The options range from very bad to horrible. My own opinion is that the US and the EU have to impose a Pax Romana on the warring parties, using a combination of inducements, threats and maybe brute force - some combination of a contiguous Palestinian state with some nominal presence in Jerusalem (disarmed-clearly they can't be trusted with armaments all over the place); an international force to keep them from one another's throats, with a significant US presence (I know, very distasteful but the Israelis have a profound mistrust of the Europeans and with good reason); and emphasis on moving the Middle eastern regimes towards meaningulf reform. Buy some time while you inveigle the combatants to refocus on developing their own internal structures. And forget about the right of return. You're not about to have a welcome to the neighborhood block party for folks who were blowing your kinsmen up a fortnight ago.
This is a Mexican standoff, and one we need to deal with. Nothing else that's important to this administration - the war on terror, resolving the Iraqui situation - can progress until this is defused. Not resolved, because they probably won't be in my lifetime, but simply stabilized. Without stabilization, we can't induce the local regimes to address the conditions that seem to breed these problems. And radical religious fundamentalism will not be defused as a moving force in these societies until there is some life for the mass of the people beyond what little their governments now provide them - and sending their youth off to blow themselves up in the interest of killing others.
Sorry for the length. Your question deserved an answer, no matter how biased the source. Interested in hearing other views.
HTH
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Topic: OFF TOPICS to Charlemagne8 (Read 3229 times)