Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Nobody knows what to do
The Arab world understands that the United States (government & people) really are pro-Israel; it isn't just that we're spun in that direction by a pro-Israel press & lobby. Still, it's difficult to get one's mind around a military tactic of killing 500 Palestinians for every 5 Israelis killed by Hamas rockets. The charge of Hamas hiding rocket launchers in civilian areas is no doubt true. But the U.S. has many military bases - perhaps most of them - larger than Gaza, without 4000 people per sq mile on them. We think Jersey is crowded at about 1000 per sq mile.
Imagine a section of the Jersey shore from Highlands to Point Pleasant, six miles wide, arid, sealed off from the rest of Jersey, with 1.5 million people in it, 1 million of them undocumented by any census. It has a de facto government of thuggish, bitter end radicals, such law as there is enforced at gunpoint. All Jersey demands is that these people stay sealed up AND not be pissed off about it. But we don't recognize their government, no one really speaks for them. & then this government's ragged armed forces (financed & supplied from outside) lobs missiles into the Jersey suburbs, not caring where they land. They do this because it's what they do. So, with our overwhelming military resources (mostly financed & supplied from outside Jersey), we fire artillery & missiles back at military targets, except the place is so damned small that it's difficult to hit a military target without "collateral damage." In fact, there are few strictly military targets, they have rocket launchers in backyards, & they keep moving them around, because it'd be militarily stupid to put then out in the open where we could destroy them all in a few minutes. So the difference in casualties is about 100 of them to 1 of us.
If they stop firing missiles, we'll stop shooting back. Nothing else will change. Their predicament will remain. If they all join together & shout, "We lovc you New Jersey, & we want to give you a big collective hug," we'll think about selling them food & other necessities, & maybe letting some of them out to do menial jobs for us. We still won't like or trust them because we know they hate us, it's just the way it is.
Ignorant comparison. But we lose a sense of proportionality with Gaza, that so small a place is one of the most intractable obstacles to peace in the Middle East, & creates tsunamis of violence that radiate throughout the world. Nobody knows what to do about Gaza. Nobody knows what to do about Palestinians & Israelis.
Imagine a section of the Jersey shore from Highlands to Point Pleasant, six miles wide, arid, sealed off from the rest of Jersey, with 1.5 million people in it, 1 million of them undocumented by any census. It has a de facto government of thuggish, bitter end radicals, such law as there is enforced at gunpoint. All Jersey demands is that these people stay sealed up AND not be pissed off about it. But we don't recognize their government, no one really speaks for them. & then this government's ragged armed forces (financed & supplied from outside) lobs missiles into the Jersey suburbs, not caring where they land. They do this because it's what they do. So, with our overwhelming military resources (mostly financed & supplied from outside Jersey), we fire artillery & missiles back at military targets, except the place is so damned small that it's difficult to hit a military target without "collateral damage." In fact, there are few strictly military targets, they have rocket launchers in backyards, & they keep moving them around, because it'd be militarily stupid to put then out in the open where we could destroy them all in a few minutes. So the difference in casualties is about 100 of them to 1 of us.
If they stop firing missiles, we'll stop shooting back. Nothing else will change. Their predicament will remain. If they all join together & shout, "We lovc you New Jersey, & we want to give you a big collective hug," we'll think about selling them food & other necessities, & maybe letting some of them out to do menial jobs for us. We still won't like or trust them because we know they hate us, it's just the way it is.
Ignorant comparison. But we lose a sense of proportionality with Gaza, that so small a place is one of the most intractable obstacles to peace in the Middle East, & creates tsunamis of violence that radiate throughout the world. Nobody knows what to do about Gaza. Nobody knows what to do about Palestinians & Israelis.
Labels: in the news, religion
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I'm not pro Israel, and never have been, ever since I watched Vanessa Redgrave give her famous Palestinians speech at the Oscars.
What we have to respect is the fact that Israel was a Palestinian nation long before the agreement after WWII to create the "state" of Israel where Arabs already had been residing. Something akin to the British and others that came to this great country and took over Indian land. Note to Israel: The US at least eventually allowed the Indians to have autonomy within their borders -- you would be well benefited if you were to do the same.
What we have to respect is the fact that Israel was a Palestinian nation long before the agreement after WWII to create the "state" of Israel where Arabs already had been residing. Something akin to the British and others that came to this great country and took over Indian land. Note to Israel: The US at least eventually allowed the Indians to have autonomy within their borders -- you would be well benefited if you were to do the same.
My own view - & I'm hardly a zionist - is that there is no more a Palestinian nation in the recent historical sense - the past 1500 years at least - than a Jewish nation, there's little historical rationale for what we now know as Israelis & Palestinians. There's only an loosely defined area called Palestine under continuous occupation by foreign powers for several thousand years - & the various peoples both settled & tribal who resided there - many of them quite flexibly. Practically the entire Middle East today is an invention of colonialism, including Jordan, Iraq, Syria, & a Saudi ruled Arabia. I think the Palestinians should long ago have conceded the existence of Israel, declared themselves a nation, planted a flag on whatever land they had, named Jerusalem as the capital no matter what Israel said, sought international recognition (they would have had 2/3rds of the world's nations), & squeezed the Jews for billions in aid. The Palestinians are a displaced people, but they provide almost continuous evidence that they are not a "nation," & until fairly recently didn't even think of themselves as one. For that, they need to start thinking like Jews, & I wish they would.
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