The Palestinian Question
One of the editors over at The Agonist has done something I have been quite reluctant to do – take on the Palestinian Question. To say some of my closest friends are Jewish is an understatement. Closer to the truth is that virtually all of my close friends are Jews, but they are also American. It has taken me some time to begin to hold the distinction between being Jewish and Israeli.
It is heartbreaking to see what is happening to Israel, as it grapples with the impossible tension of maintaining her core humanistic values while occupying lands and people that wear away at those very values.
Read on for some pointed quotes:
... failure to make peace with Palestinians; greed for more and more of Palestine; the constant underming [sic] of any faction capable of actually delivering a peace (ie. what is happening to Hamas right now); refusal to negotiate until the Palestinians have given up most of the items on the table prior to negotiation - all of these have doomed Israel to turn into South Africa…Oh, none of this is to say that Palestinians bear no blame, let alone all the arab [sic] nations who have chosen to use the Palestinian situation as a political football. There have been despicable acts on both sides. But Israel chose to occupy Palestine - they chose to rule over non-citizens, and to keep them down with a military boot. They are the ones with the most power in the relationship - and in the end it is their dream of a safe Jewish state which is going to be destroyed by their own actions.
And then there is this undeniable reality:
Soon enough, Uncle Sam isn't going to be enough.
Soon enough, Israel is going to find itself all alone, locked in a country with a majority of the population being Palestinian - Palestinians who have every reason to hate their occupiers.
Heartbreaking is the only word that comes to mind. So much suffering on both sides of this question.