Why Israel Isn't The Bad Guy
No, Israel isn't always in the right, but the Israelis' basic desire is not to run the Arabs into the sea, a la the famous quote from Nasser, but to have peace. Lorna Fitzsimons writes for the Guardian about why she backs Israel:
Since its birth 58 years ago, Israel has always been prepared to compromise for peace. From Begin's agreement with Sadat in 1979 to the Arafat-Barak talks at Camp David in 2000, Israeli leaders have been prepared to challenge their own people in pursuit of peace. Last summer Israel withdrew from Gaza, angry settlers and all. Yet the terror from the Gaza Strip has continued - more than 1,000 rockets have been fired into southern Israel in the past year. Since 2000, nine fatalities have been caused by Qassam missiles.Some media have reported the panic these missiles have caused but they downplay the impact because of the small scale of fatalities compared with those on the Palestinian side. My husband, a British soldier, is currently serving a tour of duty in Iraq. His unit has come under mortar fire nearly every night for the past six months. Not many service personnel have been killed by these missiles but every soldier fears that the next one might have his or her name on it. Do you think that a child, a parent or a grandmother in one of the towns bordering Gaza thinks there have been "only" nine fatalities? Can you imagine what that does to a civilian population?
We need to think carefully about the consequences of questioning the defensive reactions of a nation-state that is constantly bombarded by an enemy calling for its destruction, especially after it has withdrawn from Lebanon and Gaza. Would we as British citizens accept a single rocket on a British town, let alone hundreds?
The commentators' objection is that the response is "disproportionate". But how does a nation-state defend itself against a terrorist organisation or organisations that are part of, and deliberately hide behind, ordinary citizens? Of course the Israeli military and all military forces must act ethically. But if the number of civilian casualties continues to be the main issue, there is no incentive for the terrorists to stop using the civilian population as a shield.
We live in dangerous times when, in parts of the left especially, you can't be a friend to Islam or to Muslims unless you are anti-Israel. That is exactly what al-Qaida wants us to think. Events in Rochdale at the last election represent a microcosm of what we are sleepwalking into globally. The Islamists and the left argued that, because I supported Israel and its right to exist, all my work for my Muslim constituents was a lie. They suggested I was an opportunistic, neocon Zionist, aiming to dupe them.
Israel's willingness to compromise for peace has never been enough, because Israel alone cannot gain peace. The Palestinians and others in the region also have to want peace. Israel needs a serious interlocutor so that peace can stand a chance. So my question to the left is this: why not concentrate your attention there, rather than on the one player in the region who has always been serious about peace?
P.S. I'm still on the technological equivalent of a hammer and chisel, in the shadow of Mt. Blanc (in Courmayeur, Italy, at the Noir in Festival, where Elmore Leonard got the Raymond Chandler award last night). Will post details and photos in a few days, when I'm back home in my high-tech cave.
Hmm. "Israel isn't always in the right?" What an understatement. Check out this summary from Charley Reese:
"A pop quiz on the Middle East -- answers may surprise you (Published in The Orlando Sentinel, February 8, 1998)
Just so you can keep up with the perpetual crisis in the Middle East, I have a little quiz for you:
Question: Which country in the Middle East has nuclear weapons? Answer: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections? A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions? A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire? A: Israel.
Q: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)? A: Israel.
Q: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed? A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war? A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East created 762,000 refugees and refuses to allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses? A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation to people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated? A: Israel.
Q: In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking United Nations diplomat assassinated? A: Israel.
Q: In what country in the Middle East did the man who ordered the assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become prime minister? A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship in international waters, killing 33 and wounding 177 American sailors (see www.ussliberty.org)? A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan Pollard, to steal classified documents and then gave some of them to the Soviet Union? A: Israel.
Q: What country at first denied any official connection to Pollard, then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the American president grant Pollard a full pardon? A: Israel.
Q: What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby in the United States, according to a recent Fortune magazine survey of Washington insiders? A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council resolutions and has been protected from 29 more by U.S. vetoes? A: Israel.
Q: What country is the United States threatening to bomb because 'U.N.Security Council resolutions must be obeyed?'
A: Iraq."
Many people question our presence in Iraq, and with good reason. They ask also how many American lives Iraq's welfare should cost. I sure wish they'd ask this about Israel. Defend their "self-defense" measures and you justify our own.
Radwaste at December 8, 2006 6:28 AM
Radwaste Sure you don't mean Iran isn't being threatened with the bomb?
The German press reported numerous mis-quotes - or absolute fabrications - of Iran's president's comments in the past. I thought his letter to the American people from the U N was an interesting ploy to get past distortions in the script.
Isn't it an interesting U.S. position to tolerate Iran's neighbours having nuclear technology but object to their using enrichment to more efficiently use a reactor they obtained in compliance with a nuclear non-proliferation treaty which the U.S. is not currenly honouring.
I have known only one Palestinian, a lady who was driven to seek vengeance for being robbed of her inherited property in Israel. She would ask excellent question about concepts of justice for which I had no answers at the time : nor have I found any since.
I have even seen a report of Israeli soldiers setting up stations at which to entice Palestinian youth to come into the open near the border so they could snipe at them the way kids shoot gophers - with pictures !
Israel often seems the answer to a question nobody asked. It's there now, though.
opit at December 8, 2006 7:35 AM
The entire region has been one huge PITA. I think Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, has it right: the sun has driven them insane. Now they kill each other over which one worships "the right way".
Radwaste at December 8, 2006 1:34 PM
> Which country in the Middle
> East has nuclear weapons?
> Answer: Israel.
If other nations of the region had their economic, educational, and social shit together enough to generate nukes as readily as Israel did, it wouldn't be such a tense region, now would it?
> Which country in the Middle East
> refuses to sign the nuclear non-
> proliferation treaty and bars
> international inspections?
Most of them, and inspections are worthless anyway. Remember, Hans Blix told us everything was going fine in North Korea, nothing to worry about.
> in defiance of United Nations
> Security Council resolutions?
*F* the Security Council. F them with a stick. Freaking *Syria* was on the SC as the invasion started... What possible role could they play in defending global security? It would be like putting Ken Lay in charge of the Treasury.
Besides, something like 40% of SC resolutions condemn Israel.
> violates the international
> borders of another sovereign
> state with warplanes and artillery
> and naval gunfire?
... And has violence brought within their own borders from native and immigrant monsters.
> sent assassins into other countries
> to kill its political enemies
> (a practice sometimes called
> exporting terrorism)?
Confused thinking. Assassins target their victims. They want to kill specific guys, not create general fear. Besides, I've always admire the clarity of their response to the Munich 'games.'
> have high-ranking military
> officers admitted publicly
> that unarmed prisoners of
> war were executed?
Do you think this doesn't happen with their neighbors, or is it just the Israelis who have the courage and clarity to admit it?
at
> refuses to prosecute its soldiers
> who have acknowledged executing
> prisoners of war?
If memory serves, we here in the States have had some problems in that regard along the way.
> created 762,000 refugees...
> refuses to pay compensation
How many North American natives have not been compensated?
> United Nations diplomat
> assassinated?
United Nations rank is now measure of virtue.
> assassination of a high-ranking
> U.N. diplomat become prime
> minister?
Bush the elder killed guys. Kennedy might have too. Eisenhower killed thousands, depending on how you count.
And on and on.
I have serious problems with Israel... They're certainly part of the problem. But smug contrarianism is a tactic, not a principle.
Crid at December 8, 2006 4:59 PM
Two wrongs don't make a right. You know better. Now... if The USA doesn't get any value from the FBI and CIA and it is immoral or something to even have such agencies because they keep secrets...
...then Israel has no need of the Mossad. They can just play nice over there. Problem solved!
Radwaste at December 9, 2006 6:54 AM
I think it would be better if Israel could go about it's business without secret police, censorship, and routinely breaking the arms of 12-year-old boys who throw rocks. Don't you agree?
Crid at December 9, 2006 7:53 AM
Leave a comment