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I feel the need to clarify my piece printed earlier in the River Reporter. My intention was to apply the logic of the American principles of All People Are Created Equal, Equal Protection Under the …
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I feel the need to clarify my piece printed earlier in the River Reporter. My intention was to apply the logic of the American principles of All People Are Created Equal, Equal Protection Under the Law, and Religious Freedom through the separation of church and state to the conflict in Palestine/Israel in which we have all become complicit.
In this country, these rights allow us to freely vote for our leaders, have redress to impartial courts when we are injured, have freedom of movement within our own country, and have the right to security in our homes and property against violent usurpation.
In the system that Israel has built in relation to the original inhabitants of the land they control, Palestinians enjoy none of these rights. How are we, as Americans, being asked to support such an un-American system? And in propping up this system, we are to understand that this denial of basic rights to one group of people will continue into perpetuity. For one race to be treated like animals for the next hundred or more years is not morally sustainable.
Lest someone claim that Palestinians did this to themselves, consider the historical facts. When the state of Israel was created, over 700,000 Palestinians, amid numerous massacres, were forcibly displaced from their homes and regrouped in refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank and neighboring countries. Since 1967, Gaza and the West Bank have been under brutal military occupation, including the last 17 years of medieval siege where the aspirations of the people of Gaza have been deliberately suppressed.
In every way, the nature of the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians is one of oppressor and oppressed.
I was faulted in my other piece for not mentioning Hamas as the true root of all evil. But in keeping with the paradigm of Equality, I would have to also mention the IDF, which has proven to be a terrorist entity of much greater capacity. I fear people are not grasping the significance of the American creed. We cannot focus exclusively on the injuries suffered by one side. If all lives have equal weight, then the only one we should worry about is the one at risk today, with no other distinction.
There is a point here where we have to ask, which is the greater crime? Terrorism or genocide? Terrorism is deplorable and we seek its end. But throughout history, it is a tactic that has been adopted by groups resisting colonial occupation, from Ireland to Vietnam to the French Resistance in WWII. Israel, by pursuing its current policy of wholesale slaughter of an entire people, is entering the pantheon of history’s great butchers. Such a stigma, created by one group of Jewish people, will put all Jewish people in danger for generations.
Americans, through the monolithic propaganda mechanism of the media, are being led to join the camp of history’s criminals. This will also lead to the end of American influence in world affairs that we have enjoyed since the end of WWII.
There is no easy way out of the trap that Israel and the United States have put themselves in. But if there is hope, it lies in reaffirming and finding practice for the principles of all people being equal, that which we know instinctively in this country as the only thing that works. Something akin to Do Unto Others as You Would Have Others Do Unto You.
Doug Rogers is a musician, composer and carpenter who lives in Long Eddy, NY.
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yogalady41
The first mistake is that you are comparing the Untied States to Israel and its governance. They are completely different countries with different histories. Your description of the history between Israel and Gaza is comparable to the Untied States and the American Indians. That is not what happened in Israel. Wars were fought in Israel between the Palestinians, Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanon and Jordan. Basically all of Israel's neighbors declared war on Israel several times all at once. Much of the land of Israel obtained, although certainly not all of it, was through war where Israel was victorious against all odds. The Golan Heights and Jerusalem to name two were obtained through victories in wars. The Sinai was another big piece of land that was won. When oil was discovered on the land it was on its way to become another big problem. When Israel made peace with Egypt it returned the Sinai to Egypt in exchange for peace. Israel through its history has exchanged land for peace. . Historically there have been offers made to the PLO where they were offered 95% of everything they were asking for and Arafat turned it down. I would never claim that Israel did everything in a wonderful manner but your description of Israel's actions is too black and white. Israel is bad and the Palestinians are good. Nothing is ever that simple. Remember also that the Jewish pioneers of Israel came during and especially after the Holocaust. Their homes were taken from them. They were displaced and 6 million were murdered by their native countries. You can't look at the current situation without understanding why there was a mass migration to Israel. Netanyahu and his right wing government has done disgraceful things but so has Hamas. Both must be condemned. But if Hamas who serves as the governing body of Gaza is still promising the destruction of 7 million Israelis and won't return the hostages, who is Israel to make peace with? Why are you okay with that? If you demand nothing of Hamas you are telling them they did a great thing and should continue their efforts. You are helping them to reach their goals using murder, **** and terrorism as a tool. And by the way, ask the Palestinians who have been victims by the hands of Hamas if Hamas loves the Palestinians and have made them a priority. Hamas spent millions of dollars making tunnels under the homes, hospitals and Mosques of Palestinians. They insured their own safety while sacrificing the lives of the people of Gaza. They have been used as human shields. Where are their bomb shelters and safe rooms? They had to have known that their attacks on Israel would come back on the citizens of Gaza in a big way. What provisions did they make to protect them? There are no simple solutions but blaming Israel and painting them to be monsters is not the way out of this.
Sunday, December 31, 2023 Report this
DKR
I certainly agree that nothing here is black or white and I would welcome a debate that went further into the details. But what I clearly said in my piece is that we are talking about principles. While histories differ, principles do not change from one country to another, they are universal. And while it may not be possible to expect our principles to be applied where we have no direct involvement, in the places where the United States does have direct involvement, where indeed we are the main facilitator of the Israeli state's actions, we should expect and demand that our most basic principles be adhered to.
We also have to reckon with the gap that exists between principles and actions. Even as Thomas Jefferson wrote the words "all men are created equal" we were a country that would hold black people in slavery for another 80 years and keep them oppressed to different degrees right up to this day. But our failure to match our actions to our word does not nullify the principle that has been articulated. It remains a stable measurement of what is not right. We had an apartheid system in this country called Jim Crow that was accepted for decades, but through the struggle to apply principle to our actions it has largely been dismantled. During the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, where we were a prime economic and diplomatic supporter of the white South African government, people demanded that principles of basic human rights had to be applied. When we removed that support through a popular boycott movement, that system was abandoned. (No genocide ensued by the way.)
I think your historical references to the creation of the state of Israel are myths that have been implanted through endless repetition, but are in fact largely false. Zionism was a movement organized in Europe with the specific aim of taking land and driving out the natives by force. To say that Israel legitimately won that territory by conquest is bizarre in modern context. Might makes right, while oft practiced, is not a principle universally esteemed. It means the strong get what they want and the weak suffer, a pretty fair description of what is happening in Palestine right now. Also to say the PLO were offered 95% of what they wanted but turned it down is a terrible misrepresentation of what actually happened. Those offers made to Palestinians were poison pills that would have denied them fundamental rights that they would have had to accept into perpetuity.
If I seem to depict Israelis as bad guys and Palestinians as good guys it is because history is bringing the contradictions inherent in the Zionist project to an explosive culmination. We all should be looking clearly at the horror that is now taking place and working together to find an alternative, more hopeful future. The idea that one can establish a racially and religiously exclusive state on territory occupied by a native population, and to then endeavor to wipe out all resistance from that population, can lead to only one outcome, genocide. As I stated in the my essay, genocide is a crime that far surpasses terrorism in moral significance. So to claim, we are forced to commit genocide in order to stop terrorism, shows a complete corruption of rational discourse. By pursuing this course, it is the Israelis themselves who are putting their future in peril. History shows that occupiers can win the battle militarily while at the same moment destroying themselves politically, which is what is currently taking place. It's only by putting our faith in principles of justice that innocent lives on both sides can be protected going forward.
Saturday, February 10 Report this