So, someone sent me a link today to something that has pissed me off so badly I can't sit and do my work, I need to write something about it so badly.
Warning: Unpopular views to follow
Warning: Unpopular views to follow
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be a time of self-reflection for the Jewish people. I myself am not one of them, but being a student of religion and culture in the middle east (it was my focus when I was a history major) I consider myself fairly well versed into a historical account of that area both in ancient times and modern.
Instead of reflecting on their faults, this article reflects on the faults of the Palestinians. Many of their points are quite valid, I'll never be one to say that the Palestinian and Arab leadership, either current or past, is flawless. Far from it. From the first the Palestinians have been sold out by their neighbors and those who owned the very land that the Palestinians lived on. But before I get into that, lets discuss one of the primary points of this article: That there is no such thing as a Palestinian People.
The people of Palestine have a long history of being ruled by others, just as the Jewish people do. Some argue that the Palestinian national identity comes from the late 19th century and the struggles against Ottoman rule in the area. Others claim that it is a response to Zionism, which in no way makes it any less of a legitimate of an identity. Historian James L. Gelvin says "The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some "other." Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose." The easiest way to unite a people is to give them something to struggle against. Think of the way the American people came together after September 11th. Think of how the German people united after a ruinous peace was forced on them by the French after WWI. Better yet, think of how the Jewish people came together during the Holocaust. The Zionist movement up until that point was present but not widespread. A fairly small number of Jewish immigrants were entering the territory known as Palestine. Even with British caps on Jewish immigration the number of Jewish people coming to Palestine caused the Jewish population to triple from 1921 to 1945. The Jewish people describe themselves as the people who suffer and have historically been displaced, so for them to deny it as a basis of identity for another people is hypocrisy. It is also hypocrisy and against international law for them to not allow the Right of Return to those who fled during the war in 1947-1948.
For the Jewish people to call the Palestinian people animals who know nothing but terrorism is for them to conveniently forget their own past. During the British Mandate several Jewish groups executed many terrorist attacks. The largest of these groups were the Haganah, the Irgun, and the Levi. In fact the deadliest terrorist attack on the soil of what is now Israel was performed by Irgun: The bombing of the King David hotel in 1946 killed 91 people, more than have been killed by Palestinian terrorist attacks in any single year from the beginning of the Israeli state in 1948 up until 2001 and the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The second most deadly terrorist attack was much more recent, done in 1993 by Baruch Goldstein. He entered a holy site called the Cave of the Patriarchs which is split into two different sides for Jewish and Islamic worshipers and stood in the only entrance facing the back of a crowd of 800 worshipers and opened fire on them killing 29-39 depending on what report you follow and injuring over 100 more. While his actions were quickly denounced by the government, he was buried in a Jewish Settlement and a statue was erected in his honor there.
Attacks on the leadership of the Palestinian people are well placed. Yasser Arafat was horribly corrupt and a definite proponent of cronyism. However his strength and leadership got his people recognition around the world and did bring about some legitimate gains for the Palestinian people. Some of the recognition was negative, but much of it, even today, is sympathetic. The current rulers are not without fault either. Their people are divided on whether to accept peace which would mean a very high reliance on Israeli charity or to continue the struggle and hope for true autonomy.
Everyone holds up the Oslo Accords as the proof that the Palestinians are not committed to peace. However the self-governance put forward in the Accords would have left Palestine wholly dependent on Israel for basic needs as well as any sort of international travel as all borders would have been under Israeli security control. In return the PLO would attempt to control the various Palestinian organizations which wanted to strike within Israel. Shortly after these Accords were agreed upon the aforementioned Cave of the Patriarchs massacre occurred and no authority could have controlled the backlash that followed. This attack plus the acceleration of the Settlement movement, which increased the pace of new Settlement founding by five times after the Accords went into effect, and the fact that PLO officials were getting rich while most of the Palestinian peoples' situations were worsening forced the Palestinian people into an even more anti-Israeli stance and to turn against their current government, seeing them as having been bought off by the Israeli state. Furthermore the Accords were not wholly well received within Israel either, leading to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a right wing Jewish extremist. The death toll in the years that followed the Accords was nearly double that of the First Intifada : 405 Palestinians vs 256 Israelis.
The current Intifada was not brought about as a reaction to the Accords, it was triggered by the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple mount. Perhaps if it had been some other Israeli politician solely asserting the right of Israeli's to visit holy sites shared by both religions, it would have had the stated effect of quieting the religious far right of Israel. However, it was Ariel Sharon who was found to bear the responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1983 by the Kahan commission in Israel. Regardless of the stated intent, a political figure who has been responsible for massacring Palestinians should have known that his presence would have caused riots and many have speculated that this was the true intention behind the visit. He was elected Prime Minister a few months later. He is not the only Prime Minister of Israel to have a bloody past. Menachim Begin was the leader of the Irgun and ordered the bombing of the King David hotel and was elected from the Likud party, which was also Ariel Sharon's party until late in his career when he formed a center-left party.
The death tolls in Israeli conflicts over the past twenty-five years have been horribly one sided. Backed by American technology and armed with a seeming lack of respect for civilian life most conflicts have resulted in high death tolls among their enemies. In the current Intifada it is estimated that roughly 1000 Israelis have died, while over 4000 Palestinians have been killed. In one extreme incident an American protester was crushed by an Israeli Bulldozer. It is truly horrific to know how many activists and journalists have been killed and how silent our media has been about it. Add this to the recent war with Lebanon and the high body count (the link is slightly off, but gives a good visual demonstration. However it is understating the Lebonese death toll and overstating Israel's according to Reuters.), insanely high property damage, and lingering danger over unexploded munitions which are generally frowned upon in use upon urban areas. The international community did not back Israel's response and many organizations claimed Israel was committing War Crimes. All in all it was a totally disproportional response to a kidnapping and call for a prisoner swap.
So perhaps instead of taking heart in the short comings of their enemies, the Jewish people should take this day to perhaps look into themselves and the actions of their own nation and determine what course they want to set for the future.
Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be a time of self-reflection for the Jewish people. I myself am not one of them, but being a student of religion and culture in the middle east (it was my focus when I was a history major) I consider myself fairly well versed into a historical account of that area both in ancient times and modern.
Instead of reflecting on their faults, this article reflects on the faults of the Palestinians. Many of their points are quite valid, I'll never be one to say that the Palestinian and Arab leadership, either current or past, is flawless. Far from it. From the first the Palestinians have been sold out by their neighbors and those who owned the very land that the Palestinians lived on. But before I get into that, lets discuss one of the primary points of this article: That there is no such thing as a Palestinian People.
The people of Palestine have a long history of being ruled by others, just as the Jewish people do. Some argue that the Palestinian national identity comes from the late 19th century and the struggles against Ottoman rule in the area. Others claim that it is a response to Zionism, which in no way makes it any less of a legitimate of an identity. Historian James L. Gelvin says "The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some "other." Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose." The easiest way to unite a people is to give them something to struggle against. Think of the way the American people came together after September 11th. Think of how the German people united after a ruinous peace was forced on them by the French after WWI. Better yet, think of how the Jewish people came together during the Holocaust. The Zionist movement up until that point was present but not widespread. A fairly small number of Jewish immigrants were entering the territory known as Palestine. Even with British caps on Jewish immigration the number of Jewish people coming to Palestine caused the Jewish population to triple from 1921 to 1945. The Jewish people describe themselves as the people who suffer and have historically been displaced, so for them to deny it as a basis of identity for another people is hypocrisy. It is also hypocrisy and against international law for them to not allow the Right of Return to those who fled during the war in 1947-1948.
For the Jewish people to call the Palestinian people animals who know nothing but terrorism is for them to conveniently forget their own past. During the British Mandate several Jewish groups executed many terrorist attacks. The largest of these groups were the Haganah, the Irgun, and the Levi. In fact the deadliest terrorist attack on the soil of what is now Israel was performed by Irgun: The bombing of the King David hotel in 1946 killed 91 people, more than have been killed by Palestinian terrorist attacks in any single year from the beginning of the Israeli state in 1948 up until 2001 and the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The second most deadly terrorist attack was much more recent, done in 1993 by Baruch Goldstein. He entered a holy site called the Cave of the Patriarchs which is split into two different sides for Jewish and Islamic worshipers and stood in the only entrance facing the back of a crowd of 800 worshipers and opened fire on them killing 29-39 depending on what report you follow and injuring over 100 more. While his actions were quickly denounced by the government, he was buried in a Jewish Settlement and a statue was erected in his honor there.
Attacks on the leadership of the Palestinian people are well placed. Yasser Arafat was horribly corrupt and a definite proponent of cronyism. However his strength and leadership got his people recognition around the world and did bring about some legitimate gains for the Palestinian people. Some of the recognition was negative, but much of it, even today, is sympathetic. The current rulers are not without fault either. Their people are divided on whether to accept peace which would mean a very high reliance on Israeli charity or to continue the struggle and hope for true autonomy.
Everyone holds up the Oslo Accords as the proof that the Palestinians are not committed to peace. However the self-governance put forward in the Accords would have left Palestine wholly dependent on Israel for basic needs as well as any sort of international travel as all borders would have been under Israeli security control. In return the PLO would attempt to control the various Palestinian organizations which wanted to strike within Israel. Shortly after these Accords were agreed upon the aforementioned Cave of the Patriarchs massacre occurred and no authority could have controlled the backlash that followed. This attack plus the acceleration of the Settlement movement, which increased the pace of new Settlement founding by five times after the Accords went into effect, and the fact that PLO officials were getting rich while most of the Palestinian peoples' situations were worsening forced the Palestinian people into an even more anti-Israeli stance and to turn against their current government, seeing them as having been bought off by the Israeli state. Furthermore the Accords were not wholly well received within Israel either, leading to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a right wing Jewish extremist. The death toll in the years that followed the Accords was nearly double that of the First Intifada : 405 Palestinians vs 256 Israelis.
The current Intifada was not brought about as a reaction to the Accords, it was triggered by the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple mount. Perhaps if it had been some other Israeli politician solely asserting the right of Israeli's to visit holy sites shared by both religions, it would have had the stated effect of quieting the religious far right of Israel. However, it was Ariel Sharon who was found to bear the responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1983 by the Kahan commission in Israel. Regardless of the stated intent, a political figure who has been responsible for massacring Palestinians should have known that his presence would have caused riots and many have speculated that this was the true intention behind the visit. He was elected Prime Minister a few months later. He is not the only Prime Minister of Israel to have a bloody past. Menachim Begin was the leader of the Irgun and ordered the bombing of the King David hotel and was elected from the Likud party, which was also Ariel Sharon's party until late in his career when he formed a center-left party.
The death tolls in Israeli conflicts over the past twenty-five years have been horribly one sided. Backed by American technology and armed with a seeming lack of respect for civilian life most conflicts have resulted in high death tolls among their enemies. In the current Intifada it is estimated that roughly 1000 Israelis have died, while over 4000 Palestinians have been killed. In one extreme incident an American protester was crushed by an Israeli Bulldozer. It is truly horrific to know how many activists and journalists have been killed and how silent our media has been about it. Add this to the recent war with Lebanon and the high body count (the link is slightly off, but gives a good visual demonstration. However it is understating the Lebonese death toll and overstating Israel's according to Reuters.), insanely high property damage, and lingering danger over unexploded munitions which are generally frowned upon in use upon urban areas. The international community did not back Israel's response and many organizations claimed Israel was committing War Crimes. All in all it was a totally disproportional response to a kidnapping and call for a prisoner swap.
So perhaps instead of taking heart in the short comings of their enemies, the Jewish people should take this day to perhaps look into themselves and the actions of their own nation and determine what course they want to set for the future.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
ah-ha! i managed to get my bills all in order!! woot.
i've been contemplating picking up on "Batman Beyond" again, too...i do recall liking it.
yeah, the youngster is the bf of me other roommate, who is also one of me bestest friends,....probably one of the kewlest people i've ever lived with. i'd never want to begrudge him happiness...however, i don't really want to live with his fledgling relationship. *shrugs* hopefully, in the next 6 mths or so, i'll actually be living in a place with my lover, full time, instead of us splitting our time btn. both places. ahh well. such is life. how are things for you guys right now?
cheers!
Jomei