Israel and Palestine.
Issue:
The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians has festered, since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, as an ongoing tragedy in its cost in human rights, human dignity and human life. The conflict is rooted in the disagreement as to whether Israel has a "right to exist" and if so, in what form.
The Deception:
Israel and its supporters claim the country has an intrinsic (or "God-given") right to exist and that its existence is necessary for the survival of Judaism and the Jewish people. This is deception.
History:
After the horror of the Second World War, much of the world community saw a humanitarian need to accommodate the global Jewish community in their desire to have a "homeland" of their own, due in part to the unimaginable suffering and loss inflicted upon them by Germany and its allies. The debate over how to accomplish this in a world where no free and unclaimed habitable territory existed centered on finding a place where a Jewish community could form a semi-autonomous entity, or "homeland", within an existing country. Many sites were proposed including locations in Australia, Russia, Uganda and the United States. The site long-favored and most-favored by the Jewish community itself was within Palestine due to historical occupation of the area by Jews in varying numbers over the centuries. (At the close of the Second World War Palestine was a former territory of the Ottoman Empire and had been controlled by the British, under a League of Nations mandate, since their conquest of the Ottoman Turks during the First World War.)
In response, the United Nations in 1947 proposed a partition of Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state and an independent City of Jerusalem upon the expiration of the British Mandate the next year. The U.N. did not explicitly authorize creation of a new state (sovereign nation) in its act and included various stipulations as to how a Jewish homeland should be restricted in its treatment of Palestine's majority-Arab population. In the following year of 1948, on the day before Britain's control of Palestine expired, the Jewish representatives of the "homeland" effort unilaterally declared an independent state within the borders of Palestine. It was attacked the following day by neighboring Arab countries who opposed the forced partition of the majority-Arab territory of Palestine into two separate entities, one committed to being an independent, sovereign Jewish state. With the help of western forces the new nation prevailed.
The problem for the Jews, and for those that supported their efforts, was that much of the land was already claimed and occupied by Palestinians. Before a new nation based on Jewish law could be ordained, a solution would need to be found to the ongoing conflicts between the Arab and Jewish populations. The new Jewish state felt threatened by the Arab population and needed land for the increasing numbers of Jewish immigrants who were arriving from around the world. Israeli actions - both official and unofficial - during this period of unrest resulted in the departure of hundreds of thousands of Arabs from the land now known as Israel through force, intimidation and fear.
The problem for the Palestinians was that land, farms and homes were seized and many were killed when they resisted. The irony of this process was not lost on much of the world: a people long-oppressed by discrimination, racism and terror were using the same tactics in an effort to subjugate and reduce a local population through intimidation and even lethal force so that they could have a land of their own. The Arab population that remained within Israel was subjected to martial law measures (restrictions on many rights) for the next twenty years.
Israel's "right to exist" is rooted in this complex and unprecedented action, much of which was conducted unilaterally by its founders.
Reality:
No nation has an implicit right to exist. The nation-state as we know it is a relatively recent development in human history; prior to the invention of the printing press, which codified certain dialects into written languages and allowed for the centralization of knowledge and administration that make the current concept of nation-state plausible, territories were largely governed by fluid arrangements that varied by culture, locale and time. Nations today seem fairly stable by comparison yet all are buffeted by challenging forces both domestic and international: war, economics, politics, religion etc. Some are nations only in name, managed in effect by foreign forces (political, military, economic, corporate) beyond, or in cooperation with, their control. None are immune from extinction.
Israel claims that its "right to exist" is rooted in history, religion and international law. We know that history and religion both influence the formation, conduct and sometimes passing of nations but neither are considered to confer an inalienable "right to exist" on any nation. International law must be given consideration in this matter however, if the world is to continue building a global community that governs all nations, a goal that is not universally supported and has not yet been achieved. In any case, Israel's claim to international validation is tenuous when its history is objectively analyzed. Israel's existence as a nation came about through years of political effort and physical force by the Jewish community aimed at creating a homeland - but the "homeland" turned into a nation-state at considerable expense to the majority population that already occupied the territory. Israel's hold on its claim of a "right to exist" is as tenuous as that of any nation, both as a matter of politics and war, particularly as nationhood was achieved in part by use of force.
For the last sixty-plus years the world has lived with the almost-constant strife that results from this situation because the world community has never reconciled the Palestinian's loss with the Israeli's gain. The nation of Israel depends on the substantial largess of the United States taxpayer and that of other allies to maintain the political and military strength sufficient to fend off the Palestinians and their allies in defense of Israel's claim to the land it occupies, including Palestinian land outside Israel's 1948 borders (West Bank and Gaza Strip). Throughout the history of the state of Israel the tactics of not only politics and diplomacy but those of oppression, terror and war have been used to wage this battle. There is no dispute that both sides have used unconscionable tactics in the struggle but the core reason for the battle is the Jewish community's insistence on carving out a section of Palestine for a Jewish state.
The hard reality is that this dynamic cannot last indefinitely. The economic and human costs associated with maintaining Israel as a viable state are enormous and the political rational for its existence was unresolved from the beginning. Jews are welcome and at home in most of the world today; the Jewish population outside Israel exceeds that within Israel; by some estimates there are more Jews in the United States than in Israel. Israel is a symbolic presence in the world community for Jews but an untenably expensive one in terms of economics and human life. Its government is ruled by a Jewish majority due to its self-mandate that the country maintain a majority-Jewish population so as to control its politics and its status as a Jewish state - yet this depends on active efforts to control the Arab population both within its borders and without.
The issue of Israel's legitimacy as a state aside, its continued occupation and control of Palestinian lands - specifically the West Bank and Gaza Strip - and the oppressive tactics used to control their Arab populations are inexcusable in today's world. The construction of a "Berlin Wall" through the West Bank has been readily accepted by a world community that roundly objected to the one in Germany - ignoring that it is every bit as inhumane, primitive and wrong. Israel has physically and diplomatically walled itself off from its neighbors with its only open and uncontested border facing the sparkling blue waters of the vast Mediterranean Sea. It depends upon the United States taxpayer to defend it militarily and it depends upon an unduly patient world community to tolerate its unforgivable oppression of Palestinians on their own land.
The question today is not whether Arabs or Jews have a right to live in the lands of historic Palestine. They both have for centuries. The question is, when will the Arab Palestinians get their own state now that the Jewish community has had its own for over 60 years. It is time the world do for the Palestinian Arabs what they did for the global Jewish community in 1947.
The question for tomorrow is whether the two populations will continue to live separately, at inhumane expense, as distinct and continually combative populations separated by religion, race and ideology or work together to create one multi-culture, multi-ethnic, multi-religion and democratic state. The latter is tenable, the former is not.
Resolution:
The United States should cease its unconditional support of Israel; demand that it vacate the occupied territories and take down the wall; require that it cease its oppression of Palestinian Arabs; sponsor a United Nations Resolution to establish the State of Palestine using the 1948 borders agreed to by Israel; and debate with the world community the possibility that a new nation should encompass all of Palestine, a nation that embraces all of its people as one.
The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians has festered, since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, as an ongoing tragedy in its cost in human rights, human dignity and human life. The conflict is rooted in the disagreement as to whether Israel has a "right to exist" and if so, in what form.
The Deception:
Israel and its supporters claim the country has an intrinsic (or "God-given") right to exist and that its existence is necessary for the survival of Judaism and the Jewish people. This is deception.
History:
After the horror of the Second World War, much of the world community saw a humanitarian need to accommodate the global Jewish community in their desire to have a "homeland" of their own, due in part to the unimaginable suffering and loss inflicted upon them by Germany and its allies. The debate over how to accomplish this in a world where no free and unclaimed habitable territory existed centered on finding a place where a Jewish community could form a semi-autonomous entity, or "homeland", within an existing country. Many sites were proposed including locations in Australia, Russia, Uganda and the United States. The site long-favored and most-favored by the Jewish community itself was within Palestine due to historical occupation of the area by Jews in varying numbers over the centuries. (At the close of the Second World War Palestine was a former territory of the Ottoman Empire and had been controlled by the British, under a League of Nations mandate, since their conquest of the Ottoman Turks during the First World War.)
In response, the United Nations in 1947 proposed a partition of Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state and an independent City of Jerusalem upon the expiration of the British Mandate the next year. The U.N. did not explicitly authorize creation of a new state (sovereign nation) in its act and included various stipulations as to how a Jewish homeland should be restricted in its treatment of Palestine's majority-Arab population. In the following year of 1948, on the day before Britain's control of Palestine expired, the Jewish representatives of the "homeland" effort unilaterally declared an independent state within the borders of Palestine. It was attacked the following day by neighboring Arab countries who opposed the forced partition of the majority-Arab territory of Palestine into two separate entities, one committed to being an independent, sovereign Jewish state. With the help of western forces the new nation prevailed.
The problem for the Jews, and for those that supported their efforts, was that much of the land was already claimed and occupied by Palestinians. Before a new nation based on Jewish law could be ordained, a solution would need to be found to the ongoing conflicts between the Arab and Jewish populations. The new Jewish state felt threatened by the Arab population and needed land for the increasing numbers of Jewish immigrants who were arriving from around the world. Israeli actions - both official and unofficial - during this period of unrest resulted in the departure of hundreds of thousands of Arabs from the land now known as Israel through force, intimidation and fear.
The problem for the Palestinians was that land, farms and homes were seized and many were killed when they resisted. The irony of this process was not lost on much of the world: a people long-oppressed by discrimination, racism and terror were using the same tactics in an effort to subjugate and reduce a local population through intimidation and even lethal force so that they could have a land of their own. The Arab population that remained within Israel was subjected to martial law measures (restrictions on many rights) for the next twenty years.
Israel's "right to exist" is rooted in this complex and unprecedented action, much of which was conducted unilaterally by its founders.
Reality:
No nation has an implicit right to exist. The nation-state as we know it is a relatively recent development in human history; prior to the invention of the printing press, which codified certain dialects into written languages and allowed for the centralization of knowledge and administration that make the current concept of nation-state plausible, territories were largely governed by fluid arrangements that varied by culture, locale and time. Nations today seem fairly stable by comparison yet all are buffeted by challenging forces both domestic and international: war, economics, politics, religion etc. Some are nations only in name, managed in effect by foreign forces (political, military, economic, corporate) beyond, or in cooperation with, their control. None are immune from extinction.
Israel claims that its "right to exist" is rooted in history, religion and international law. We know that history and religion both influence the formation, conduct and sometimes passing of nations but neither are considered to confer an inalienable "right to exist" on any nation. International law must be given consideration in this matter however, if the world is to continue building a global community that governs all nations, a goal that is not universally supported and has not yet been achieved. In any case, Israel's claim to international validation is tenuous when its history is objectively analyzed. Israel's existence as a nation came about through years of political effort and physical force by the Jewish community aimed at creating a homeland - but the "homeland" turned into a nation-state at considerable expense to the majority population that already occupied the territory. Israel's hold on its claim of a "right to exist" is as tenuous as that of any nation, both as a matter of politics and war, particularly as nationhood was achieved in part by use of force.
For the last sixty-plus years the world has lived with the almost-constant strife that results from this situation because the world community has never reconciled the Palestinian's loss with the Israeli's gain. The nation of Israel depends on the substantial largess of the United States taxpayer and that of other allies to maintain the political and military strength sufficient to fend off the Palestinians and their allies in defense of Israel's claim to the land it occupies, including Palestinian land outside Israel's 1948 borders (West Bank and Gaza Strip). Throughout the history of the state of Israel the tactics of not only politics and diplomacy but those of oppression, terror and war have been used to wage this battle. There is no dispute that both sides have used unconscionable tactics in the struggle but the core reason for the battle is the Jewish community's insistence on carving out a section of Palestine for a Jewish state.
The hard reality is that this dynamic cannot last indefinitely. The economic and human costs associated with maintaining Israel as a viable state are enormous and the political rational for its existence was unresolved from the beginning. Jews are welcome and at home in most of the world today; the Jewish population outside Israel exceeds that within Israel; by some estimates there are more Jews in the United States than in Israel. Israel is a symbolic presence in the world community for Jews but an untenably expensive one in terms of economics and human life. Its government is ruled by a Jewish majority due to its self-mandate that the country maintain a majority-Jewish population so as to control its politics and its status as a Jewish state - yet this depends on active efforts to control the Arab population both within its borders and without.
The issue of Israel's legitimacy as a state aside, its continued occupation and control of Palestinian lands - specifically the West Bank and Gaza Strip - and the oppressive tactics used to control their Arab populations are inexcusable in today's world. The construction of a "Berlin Wall" through the West Bank has been readily accepted by a world community that roundly objected to the one in Germany - ignoring that it is every bit as inhumane, primitive and wrong. Israel has physically and diplomatically walled itself off from its neighbors with its only open and uncontested border facing the sparkling blue waters of the vast Mediterranean Sea. It depends upon the United States taxpayer to defend it militarily and it depends upon an unduly patient world community to tolerate its unforgivable oppression of Palestinians on their own land.
The question today is not whether Arabs or Jews have a right to live in the lands of historic Palestine. They both have for centuries. The question is, when will the Arab Palestinians get their own state now that the Jewish community has had its own for over 60 years. It is time the world do for the Palestinian Arabs what they did for the global Jewish community in 1947.
The question for tomorrow is whether the two populations will continue to live separately, at inhumane expense, as distinct and continually combative populations separated by religion, race and ideology or work together to create one multi-culture, multi-ethnic, multi-religion and democratic state. The latter is tenable, the former is not.
Resolution:
The United States should cease its unconditional support of Israel; demand that it vacate the occupied territories and take down the wall; require that it cease its oppression of Palestinian Arabs; sponsor a United Nations Resolution to establish the State of Palestine using the 1948 borders agreed to by Israel; and debate with the world community the possibility that a new nation should encompass all of Palestine, a nation that embraces all of its people as one.