In Fairness to Israel

Let me say at the outset that I am no fan of either Likud or ultranationalist Israelis who believe that not one inch of territory should given away for peace. For me, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 provided a just framework back in 1948. And those of you who know me well understand my total disdain for neoconservative Jacobins. But with that said, I wish to balance out some of what has been endlessly pronounced on the web site regarding the Palestinian question. In fairness to Israel, I must speak up. And perhaps after I have my say, you will see that the Palestinian side has more than its share of blame for the current situation that now exists in the Holy Land.

I truly feel for the plight of the Palestinian people. But, it is sheer fantasy to contemplate that the Jews of Israel were the entire cause of their misery. Their past and present leadership carry a good deal of that responsibility as well for impeding the current peace process. That is why while I do not agree with Israel’s hard Right, I am not so quick to condemn every Israeli action and reaction. As someone who has grown up with acquaintances, friends and yes, family who are Jewish it is time for Cross Left readers to consider things from an Israeli perspective.

From an objective point of view, both Jews and Palestinians have valid claims to what is now Israel. With that said, the story of the Holy Land is not one as basic as Jews expelling Arabs from their homes—far from it. On this site we have often failed to acknowledge Arab complicity in the Palestinian plight. I have even heard it said that for Palestinians to be told that there is valid Jewish claim to much of the land in question is analogous to telling Native Americans to get used to manifest destiny.

It is the wrong analogy. In fact, it is dead wrong. Such a conclusion ignores more than 2,000 of history.

We must always remember that the Jews did not ask for their homeland to be taken away from them, as it was by the Romans in 70 AD. The Jews living in Judea and Galilee were in justified rebellion trying to expel a brutal Roman occupation, And as every Christian should know by Pilate’s execution of Jesus, Roman “justice� was extremely brutal and unforgiving. The end result was a diaspora. The Jewish people were unilaterally driven out of their homeland. They became a nomadic people and were unjustly despised in most places they resided. Unlike the Palestinians, for nearly two thousand years the Jewish people had virtually no country with a majority sharing their religious faith offering support.

And once they were so ungraciously scattered, they became the endless victims of inquisitions, programs, the Dreyfus affair and ultimately, the Holocaust. They endured persecutions fueled by pernicious tracts such as the blood libel as well as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Incidentally, these lies still have the official endorsement of many Arab and Muslim governmental entities.

One personal experience clearly illustrates the depth of this hatred. A veteran named Bernie was one of my wife’s supervisors when she started her career. One day she noticed that he had tattooed on his arm the numbers of a Concentration Camp prisoner. Bernie noticed her discovery and explained how, as an American citizen, he had gotten it.

In December 1994 while serving in the US Army’s 106th Infantry Division he was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. His Nazi captors separated him from his comrades (who sat out the war in a POW camp) when they learned he was an American Jew. He was then sent with other Americans to the Berga concentration camp. In fact, many gentile Americans of Armenian, Italian, Polish and Hispanic descent were also sent to Berga simply because they looked Jewish or had Jewish-sounding names.

But Bernie was one of the lucky survivors. More relevantly to my point, he had a home to return to in the United States. Most Jewish Holocaust survivors were not as fortunate. They wanted a place where they would not have to be at the mercy of suspicious hosts—even when constantly acting as model citizens. Israel—promised by Great Britain in 1917 as Jewish homeland--was the logical destination.

And before bemoaning the role of “a Christian Britain� in creating an alleged Jewish occupation of the land in quest, perhaps we should be asking, Just how Christian was Britain being to the Jews in 1948?

In its May 8, 1948 edition, the very progressive magazine The Nation published an article entitled, “The British Record on Partition.� Drawn from sources of British Military intelligence sources, it paints a pretty damning portrait of the British government’s behavior on the heels of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 was one of a party biased in favor of Arab oil (181 was accepted by the Jewish Agency and the vast majority of Jews—the only opposition being Menachim Begin’s “Stern Gang.� Conversely, the resolution was universally rejected by the Arab world). In fact, so much so that it apparently quietly schemed to let in Arab fighters who wanted to drive the Jews into the Mediterranean. So, while the Jews then in Israel were, by and large, ready to work out a peaceful settlement by sharing the land, most Arabs were not in such a benevolent mood.

It is objective history that establishes that the first Arab-Israeli conflict was initiated not by the Jews, but by the Arabs—a fact conveniently usually omitted from the endless, one-sided postings of one of this site’s regular bloggers. On the very day after UN resolution 181 was adopted, seven Jews were killed by Arabs: this is widely accepted as the beginning of the conflict. Regardless of the number of UN resolutions Israel has violated, the original violators were the Palestinians and their Arab allies.

In similar postings we are never told about the Palestinians who left their homes not as refugees, but in anticipation of taking over Jewish homes in anticipation of an Arab victory. There is also no mention of the 1929 Hebron Massacre

Also conveniently omitted is the story of Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Palestinian Mufti of Jerusalem. During the Second World War he resided in Berlin, working hand-in-hand with Nazi Germany in its war against Judaism. The Mufti even recruited Muslims for the Waffen SS—the portion of the Nazi war machine that massacred British soldiers retreating to Dunkirk, Canadian soldiers in Normandy, American soldiers at Malmendy and was the spear of the Holocaust.

Historical review also informs us that following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the West Bank territory was not set up as an independent Palestinian state by the Arab forces. Instead, it was immediately occupied by Jordan which then annexed it in 1950 (the annexation was recognized only by Great Britain). Thus, when the Israelis captured the West Bank they expelled a Jordanian, not a Palestinian army.

As for the Golan Heights, it is completely reasonable from an Israeli point of view to be hesitant to give up this land. Prior to 1967 the Syrians used this high ground as a launching site for endless attacks upon Jewish communities. From a purely common sense basis, the Israelis would be insane to give up that position without ironclad guarantees of security. Based upon its withdrawals from Sinai, Israel has demonstrated a willingness to surrender a tangible asset in the form of occupied lands in a good faith exchange for the more abstract concept of security.

But where are the continuous signs of Palestinian good will? Why does the Palestinian National Authority continue to spread long refuted anti-Semitic myths among its own people? And it is not as if these pernicious diatribes began with the 1967 occupation of the territories; they were be spread even before UN Resolution 181. I distinctly recall that Judaism, Christianity and Islam require their adherents not to bear false witness.

Credibility is an earned commodity. By still resorting to such ancient hate-filled lies the Palestinian National Authority cannot yet claim to be an honest broker. Clearly, the Palestinian leadership is not acting in good faith when it still teaches racism.

Pardon me, but can someone identify the member of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas who is advocating Ghandi-like non-violent action as means of social change instead of resorting to human suicide bombs?

Excuse me, but can someone show me anyone significant in Palestinian leadership telling authoritarian Arab regimes to stop using his or her peoples’ plight as a distraction from their oppressive domestic policies?

Forgive the interruption, but can anyone visiting this site point out examples of Palestinian leadership that is speaking out against the lies contained in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion so often used to fan the flames of violence?

Those of you who know me well fully recognize that I do not put this forth out of any misplaced Christian Zionism, but out of a basic sense of fairness. It is correct to criticize Israel when it continues to build settlements in the West Bank or in building a great wall of separation. But it is thoroughly unfair to constantly depict one side as without sin and the other as the sole cause of inequity. There shall never be a true lasting peace if it is built upon both pure emotion and an incomplete consideration of past experiences.

Nations often act out of a sense of history. After 2000 years of persecution and betrayal a bit of Jewish skepticism is quite understandable. In looking at much of the leadership in the Arab world—especially among the Palestinians I see little or no liberal thought, no sense of enlightenment or impartiality. I do see continued propagation of some of the most vile anti-Jewish myths such as the blood-libel, the same lies that helped fuel the Holocaust.

And if the Religious Right's actions are a grave concern to us, then we should be wary of taking extreme positions. If either Cross Left or IPC even gives the impression of hostility to the rights of Israeli Jews, we then risk leaving the whole issue in the domain of Christian zionists, neoconservatives and other nefarious actors. Acknowledging Palestinian grievances should not be taken as a license to deride the Jews of Israel as people having no viable claim to their original homeland. Such a position only isolates us as a movement.

While I hope that this issue will be peacefully settled by both sides, justice requires both a fairer presentation of the facts. That is only what is fair not just for Israel, but for the Palestinians as well.