America and Israel are powerful allies. Both countries maintain a strong political and moral stance of freedom, tolerance, and power. Israel may best be thought of as the "America of the Middle East." They are the most powerful, most free, and most hated country in that part of the world. In fact, they are fast becoming one of the most hated countries (right behind America) in the entire world. It is now progressively acceptable to hate Jews again--at least, as long as they're from Israel. Why? Because when people scream loud enough and long enough, they can gain false legitimacy. So the nations surrounding Israel publish, uniformly, hateful lies about her, and eventually the rest of the world starts to believe them. So we think, somehow, someway, Israel must be doing something wrong. Else why all the sound and fury?
But America has been different. We've stood by them, rejecting the lies of their barbaric neighbors and helping Israel to protect herself from her enemies. Israel is a nation that is constantly, precariously close to total extinction. Not a few of their neighbors are openly in favor of violently disposing of every Jew in the Middle East. So Israel has had to maintain an incredibly powerful military to strike fear into the hearts of its blood-frenzied enemies. If not for that military force, we would no longer be speaking of Israel in the present tense.
I said America has been different. Unfortunately, the liberal party now runs the show, and they have been chafing under our support of Israel for quite some time. What do we say now?
First of all, Obama has finally gotten around to announcing that we will no longer be selling weapons and military equipment to Israel. How nice of us. Maybe now they'll learn to stop being so...defensive all the time. If there's one thing wrong with Israel it's that it has too many weapons. It makes terrorist organizations like Hezbollah so much less effective at killing Jews. Whatever we can do to change the dynamic a little... I mean, we don't want to be enablers, right? Put down your guns, you stupid Jews--er--Israelites! How is it that they still don't understand: the only reason Iran and Palestine and Egypt and Lebanon and Syria want to kill them is because the silly Jews keep trying to protect themselves from complete annihilation?
But it gets better.
The U.S. State Department demands that Israel limit Jewish growth in these areas of Jerusalem, “whose status remains to be determined” in negotiations.Well. I don't even know where to start. First of all, what does "whose status remains to be determined" mean? Easy. That's softspeak for: "land we want to be able to give to your blood-thirsty neighbors sometime in the future."
Secondly, who is demanding this? I'm sorry, the U.S. State Department? What are we, their parents? Here's where Israel proves it's government is now, officially, much smarter than ours:
Israeli Government Press Director Daniel Seamen reacted to this Obama administration statement by saying: “I have to admire the residents of Iroquois territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem.”This is what is happening. We are playing parent right now. We shouldn't be--we should be playing spouse to Israel, disciplining the manic, violent, unreasonable neighboring governments. But we're playing parent to all of them. Israel is the mature, sober, even-tempered child. Iran (representing all of the other children) is the spoiled, unmannered, sadistic nightmare child who throws tantrums often and quite effectively. Iran will not behave. When we try to settle an argument between Israel and the Arab nations, promises are made and Israel keeps them. Then Hezbollah sends more bombs. Rinse, repeat. What is our reaction? We default on getting Israel to make concessions. We've stopped expecting the other countries to follow through or agree to anything, so we demand that Israel do it all. Whatever the brat wants--give it to 'em. We can't handle this, Israel, just give us more of your land. Reduce your military. Stop breeding. Stop existing, for heaven's sake, can't you see how it angers the other children?
Israel will only stomach so much of this. It's almost certain that they've given up on us as allies. They'll survive by violence or be destroyed--all within the next handful of years--and we've earned a nice fat helping of blame.
I'm a little sick to my stomach right now, if you'll excuse me.
***It's been brought to my attention that I failed to provide sources at first publishing this post. I normally never pull quotes without citing the source (via hotlink), but this time I forgot before I published, and I want to formally apologize. However, I will not be citing the sources of all of my opinions, nor will I typically spend a lot of effort defending the things I believe. If anything in this or any other post on my blog offends you, I make no apology, though you are, of course and as always, free to ignore anything I say.
Good media on the subject: 1) Palestine by Joe Sacco. 2) Promises documentary. Israelis and Palestinians both have good claims to the land in that region.
ReplyDeleteI keep hoping peace can be achieved one day. But it can't help to plea for an end to paternalism of Israel, but the to use paternalistic and generalized language (barbaric, blood-frenzied, nightmare child) towards Arabs in the Middle East.
You point out an important distinction that I failed to make clear. When I use the "paternalistic and generalized language" to which you refer, I am not referring to Arabs generally, but to their corrupt, maniacal governments specifically. Exactly as I hope that those from other countries would not judge me by the stupidity of my own government.
ReplyDeleteNice cousin
ReplyDeleteNice cousin.
ReplyDeleteJordan, being a Jew I somehow got this article forwarded to me at work, by the most unlikely places. I want to applaud you on seeing what is happening. And I would have to add, it's okay to hate American Jews these days as well, at least it is in New Mexico.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Lynn
Jordan,
ReplyDeleteWhile I admire your gusto on this, I am bothered by the fact that that you have not referred to any actions by any Middle Eastern governments regarding peace settlements, nor have you mentioned any acts of Israeli aggression in surrounding sovereign nations. For example, take the US-Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2007. Justifications for the invasion were primarily based around Hamas’ abduction of an Israeli soldier on their border, which occurred on June 25th. However, on June 24th, Israeli forces kidnapped and abducted two Palestinians (a doctor and his brother). After the capture of the Israeli soldier, an upsurge of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the Gaza strip occurred, leading to 36 Palestinian deaths in June and 170 in July. The major difference here is that international law has rules and regulations regarding the capture of enemy soldiers, while it is an international crime to capture civilians, meaning that the there was no justification for the US- Israeli attack on Lebanon. You also have to understand that the 2007 invasion was the fifth invasion of Lebanon, and that Israel has been capturing and killing Lebanese civilians for decades.
Around the same time, Israel was beginning to implement of plan referred to as Convergence (with US help, of course), that involved the annexation of West Bank territories and resources, with the end goal of breaking up the already shrinking the Palestinian territories. The 2007 attack of Hamas on Israel came at the end of a year and a half truce that was broken first by Israel in the West Bank (through this plan).
You also mention Iran as if it is always some sort of rapid dog. However, Iranian officials announced that the would accept the Arab League position on Israel, which was the normalization of all Arab-Israeli relations and a two-state settlement. The only two major countries that did not accept this position were Israel and Palestine.
When you talk about Iran “not behaving”, consider their 2003 proposition for negotiations, which included all outstanding issues with the US government. This also incorporated the nuclear issue and the two-state settlement in Israel-Palestine. The Bush administration did not reject this proposition; they did not even reply to it. In fact, the US censured the Swiss diplomat who brought the offer. Instead, the US position was that they were only willing to negotiate if Iran conceded the results of the negotiation prior to the actual meeting.
I do not condone any murder or hate for any particular group, but it seems to me that you are mixing two issues that should probably remain seperate in your discussion. Yes, the Israeli Jews do not deserve to be hated or treated in any way negatively simply because they are Jews. But any rudimentary understanding of democratic theory, foreign policy, and international affairs suggest that the Israeli government acts in ways that interfere with legimtiate democracy and nation-state self-determination, not to mention the sheer magnitude of suffering brought to innocent civilians through Israeli policies and aggression. Nor is Iran anything short of monstrous in most of what they do. But when it comes to peace in the Arab-Israeli world, in many ways it is the US and Israel that stand in the way of progress.
Anyway, sorry for the quick rant, and sorry it is so grammatically poor. It is difficult to write while doing other research. You can fact check anything I said though, I am pretty sure it is accurate, although I don't always remember my numbers correctly. When are you going to be in MD next? I would be willing to make a trip down there if I knew my favorite Jordan was going to be there.
*The only two major countries that did not accept this (The Arab League) position were Israel and the US (not Palestine).
ReplyDeleteSorry, I just went back and read what I wrote.
Jon,
ReplyDeleteSeriously, it's been a long time. I miss you tons, buddy.
Clearly, you are better informed about this subject than I am. I've got a long way to go before I can flatly contradict a lot of what you're saying.
However, I'm uncomfortable with the blurred lines between Israel's imperfect actions and, for instance, Iran's open hostility and support of terrorism. To say the situation is complex is an understatement. But to say that Israel and its hostile neighbors are morally equivalent is the very mantra that continues to get my blood boiling. It is certain that Israel has done stupid, unforgivable things--just as I'm freely willing to admit my own government has done. But the mistakes that Israel has made, whether in misguided principles of defense or open aggression, pale in comparison to the actual atrocities committed by countries like Iran as a matter of policy.
Again, I stress my ignorance of many details. I can perhaps be characterized as one of those who knows just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be helpful. Either way, this remains an intensely important issue, so never apologize for your "ranting." I'd welcome it any time.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that it was Hezbollah and not Hamas, and it was 2006 and not 2007. I should have done some quick checks before posting, but I was otherwise occupied. Regardless, the point remains that the conflict which arose from the capture of Israeli soldiers was based around a much longer historical precendent of Israeli kidnappings. There was, in fact, explicit military plans in Lebanon for the capture (not kidnapping) of Israeli soldiers so they could be traded for kidnapped Palestian and Lebanese civilians. The simple fact is that the global community is supposed to overlook the kidnapping and killing of civilians, but not the capture of soldiers. There was not any outcry from Western powers to bomb Israel for its kidnappings.
I am not suggesting, however, that many of the governments associated with this conflict are anything but monstrous. Only that people tend to suffer certain forms of historical amnesia when it comes to understanding these problems.
Jordan,
Again, I know your heart is in the right place, and that you are appalled by many of the human rights violations occuring in the Middle East, as elsewhere. But many of these atrocities occuring "as a matter of policy" are indeed a matter of policy in Israel. Their efforts to cantonize the West Bank by isolating Palestian settlements include killing hundreds of unarmed civilians. Then there was the occupation of the Golan Heights in 1967, displacing thousands of Syrian peoples. Despite condemnation of the international community, and a UN resolution calling for a return of all territories captured in the Six Day War from the UN General Assembly in 2006, Israel has not relented. Granted, the region has become relatively peaceful, but Israel was still interfering with the self determination of the Druze, who refused to relinquish their Syrian citizenship.
If you want to talk about Iran, it is important to understand how contemporary Iran came to be, with most of its recent history involving the establishment of a puppet government by Western forces, and then the destruction of and mass genocide (genocide is the proper word to use to describe Saddam Hussein's US funded program for biological weapons used to kill thousands of Iranian civilians) of the Iran-Iraq war, which was funded and orchestrated by the US.
Suffice it to say, I understand you animosity, but I don't understand the way in which you direct it only towards countries that have been the target of US propaganda for decades. Of course some of these governments have committed atrocities, but the Israeli government is just as complicit.
And I miss you too. I will have to find some way to either get you out the the east coast or get myself out west.
-Jon