Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them?... We come from Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago... There has been anti-Semitism the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations' time, but for the moment there is no chance. So it's simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army.
-David Ben-Gurion (First Israeli Prime Minister)
-David Ben-Gurion (First Israeli Prime Minister)
Many people from Israel council and its group of friends have been quick to assure me that they bear no ill will towards Palestinians, that they would welcome them with open arms if those pesky troublemakers would just put down their guns and accept the peace that Israelis repeatedly propose.
Those same people are quick to justify the crippling total blockade of the Gaza strip, one that has created a horrific humanitarian crisis. At least, they do this to my face. I sometimes wonder how a conversation between them and some of my Palestinian friends would go: Sure, I think of you as an equal, but I must insist that your father and mother and siblings are humiliated and deprived of the ability to lead a decent life.
Out of desperation, the people of Gaza elected Hamas in a set of autonomous elections that the U.S. and Israel were quick to condemn (this is especially amusing considering Israel’s much-lauded exclusive hold to the title of the Middle East’s only democratic state – one has to wonder what is democratic about crushing other democracies).
Of course, this was also Osama bin Laden’s reasoning behind the 9/11 attacks: because the US government was democratically elected, every citizen is equally deserving of harm. This logic has been (legitimately so) torn apart by politicians in the US and Israel. Yet scarcely several years later these same moral leaders instituted a regime of economic and physical brutality that similarly punishes a population for the actions of their government. After all, Hamas was elected on a platform that promised health care and civil rights reforms.
One cannot immediately make sense of why Israel Council would condemn one action and not the other. Then again, the victims of the former are primarily white; the victims of the latter are brown.
Of course, for bringing up this subject I am immediately labeled as an anti-Semite, a biased troublemaker (at this point the poetic irony becomes laughable). And yet I can’t shake the suspicion that none of my critics have stepped foot in the West Bank, despite its convenient location 10 minutes away from central Jerusalem.
I wonder what would happen if they experienced life as Palestinians – indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations and checkpoints that corral human beings like livestock. My limited experiences have shown me the true face of the Israeli military: children beaten up by Israeli soldiers; birthing women denied passage to a hospital; ambulances and fire trucks forbidden to reach those in need; a boy run over by a Jewish settler’s car; a farmer being shot simply for attempting to reach his own land; a girl asphyxiating from tear gas inhalation; a general atmosphere of fear and anger and hopelessness.
The Israeli government has been brought to task for the actions of its military by virtually every country in the world and the UN. If the members of Israel Council choose to close their ears and loudly sing blind praise for Israel, it is their own consciences that will pay the price one day, just like those who opposed civil rights reforms in the US.
I think a very different attitude would prevail on this campus if Israel Council and co. would truly consider both sides of the conflict, as they often urge me to.
Make no mistake – there is no intention of peace: not from the Israeli government nor from its mouthpiece, Israel Council. The only thing that the Israeli government and its military know how to offer is a level of savagery that is simply mind-numbing.
