harm here is harm there
In the spring of 2006 Mr. Egg and I flew from South Africa to Israel. We were hassled and questioned like terrorists and had our luggage searched and nearly missed our flight. Why? Who knows. Maybe because Mr. Egg could pass for an Arab. Maybe because we looked like dirty hippies. Maybe because I blinked my eyes one too many times. I had heard that El Al's security was tighter than any other airline in the world but didn't quite get it until I experienced it firsthand. It was a rather hostile introduction to our arrival in Israel.
We spent a week in Tel Aviv with my former roommate from NYC, Liba. When we packed up and left our apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side Mr. Egg and I took off for Hong Kong and Liba left for Israel. She had spent a year there after high school and always longed to return. The plan was for her to get there, find a job, make some contacts and then return to the US and then make aliyah. As it turns out she never officially made the move, she's still there working in a bar and making her art and going back and forth between Tel Aviv and NYC in order to keep her status there legal.
Although I was excited to be in Israel, a land I had always wanted to see, I couldn't help but feel out of place given my views concerning the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. I tried to keep my thoughts to myself, not wanting to offend anyone. And, given my personality and passion about things I believe strongly in, it was only a matter of time until I could hold it in no longer.
One day when Liba and I were having dinner at this trendy little sandwich shop on Lilenblaum St. I could no longer keep silent about it. She made some offensive comment about Palestinians which broke the dam and it all came flooding out. I tried every reason I knew to be logical to show her why Israel was in the wrong;
The HUGE fact that Israel is illegally occupying Palestine and has been since 1967. Maybe that has something to do with why so many Palestinians consistently turn to violence. They feel it is their only option to fight the oppression.
How would you react if your home was demolished right before your eyes? and you were starving because funds have been stopped to your people because you voted in a way the Israelis did not agree with? and you held your child in your arms who was bleeding to death from getting caught in the crossfire and the ambulance that was trying to reach you to save his or her life was fired at and blocked from reaching you?
The Palestinians have been made second-class citizens in their own land and are living under oppression daily.
Israelis have annexed their land, built illegal settlements, build Israeli-only roads between the settlements and even are given priority to the natural resources in the areas, i.e.: water.
I asked Liba how she would feel if she was faced with that. She claimed she was, every day, simply by being Jewish. She knew oppression, her people had been oppressed since the beginning and they persevered. And now you think it's your turn to be the oppressors?, I countered.
I seem to have these same conversations over and over with the majority of my Jewish friends. Even those who aren't religious seem to have this intense support of Israel, no matter what the state's crimes are. I cannot wrap my head around the idea that it's a good idea for the US to provide aid to a nation that is in violation of the UN's Resolution 242 but also that the we are in violation of our own laws: The US Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) and the US Arms Export Control Act (AECA) strictly forbid the government from giving military assistance to any country that violates internationally recognized human rights. Or that by giving money and arms to Israel, who then turns around and sells billions of dollars worth of arms to India to fight Pakistan, the US is essentially funding two nations on the brink (or over the edge as the case may be in Israel and Palestine) of war.
What is the answer? I'm not sure what the answer is. A second state? Quite possibly. And it's also possible that there is nothing to be done and the violence will continue to escalate until there is a complete genocide on either side. But until Israel makes that first step of discontinuing their illegal occupation nothing else matters.
Until the Palestinians have their land and their rights back they will fight to the death for it. I would like to think everything could be achieved peacefully but to be honest, I'm not a pacifist and although I think peaceful means should be tried first if they don't work I understand the desire to grab a weapon and fight for what it yours. For your basic human rights. I realize it just perpetuates the cycle but what are you other options when you have tried everything?
December 30, 2008 1:50 PM
I'll throw in with you on this one completely ... I think Israel has behaved abominably when it comes to the Palestinians, especially this past week. And the only way they're going to change their behavior, sadly, is if the US and the UK stop blindly supporting their 'cause'. I truly hope our president-elect takes a different position re Israel than past administrations. top
December 30, 2008 8:41 PM
When I saw your Facebook update this week, I suspected there was a post coming.
I wish I could agree with you. I wish I could DISagree with you, too.
But, on this matter, I am constantly wavering. Every argument I hear makes sense to me. EVERY one. And I can never make a convincing argument of my own on it.
I have been thinking about a post about my agnosticism on this issue, but I am just not up to it right now.
So, it means nothing for me to say your argument makes sense to me. Because everyone's does.
I wish we could all go back to arguing about things I know what I think on. You know times are bad when I'm wishing for the old days when we all argued about abortion. top
December 31, 2008 3:50 PM
I disagree.
And I am not going to argue about it, I have read your opinion, I have lived in Israel.
and i disagree.
But hey
thanks for sharing your thoughts. top
December 31, 2008 4:33 PM
I think I am with Emily on this one, it is such a horrid situation top
January 1, 2009 10:28 AM
word up Defiant Mom! (sorry 4 spell & gram)
well, you very clearly lay out the contradictions of emotion- along w/ the notion that morality all too often sides with the victor, the biggest gun, the country with the biggest friends w/ the biggest guns.
in responses to your post there is a very polite, but also very ignorant response from "Sorrow". Sorrow's response is typical of the problem; that is too many people who share an ideology, feel ordained by god, and therefore, just like jacob, joshua, or any other biblically genocidal maniac, feel empowered to commit the worst attrocities humans can commit. well Sorrow, to simply say "I lived in Israel" and "i'm not going to argue about it" and "I disagree" only shows that you do believe your justifications are below reason yet, above debate. this is the same as saying 'i am gods chosen one and while i am being polite, i am above you and if need be i can kill you & your children'. its funny how polite folks can be when there winning. whats the score? 380 - 4? has it changed? well, thats a pretty big lead.
the Palestinians are seen as terrorists. the Israeli's are treated as an army. strange how we make these distinctions huh? well the commonality shared between terrorism & the nation's where terrorists arise is occupation. if you occuppy a nation you farm terrorists. i too feel that if you deny people water, they will turn to violence in response to being denied an essential resource.
i'm an American. i'm gonna drink Coca Cola, watch porn & feel good when i drive fast for no particular reason. i'm gonna go to the gym to try and counteract the fat i gained from having too much shit withn arms reach that i can force in my mouth. i'm going to always put the American standard of living on a pedastool & ignore the class warfare taking place in my own nation while i pontificate upon the conditions of others. i'm gonna let myself believe that New Orleans isn't 'fixed' becase its filled w/ too many lazy black folks gettin' in the way of well meaning white 'developers' and that private corporations aren't poisoning me, my friends and all of our children. shit! i'm gonna watch a playoff game!...
'cause i watched a five year old boy & a seven year old girl in a refugee camp outside Sudan getting crushed to death (until the reporter stopped reporting & pulled the kid out of the pile of humanity) over flat stale bicuits about the size of a silver dollar pancake we Americans may leave sitting on our plate as we walk contentedly out of an IHOP, because I see those kids as my kids, no better or worse, or more deserving of their terrible life conditions than my kids are dserving of the Halloween candy we went out & gathered the very next night. when i see that 5yr old boy & that 7 yr old girl I see my 3 yr old & my 5 yr old. i see my wife being crushed to death along side a military truck unloading unedible food while my kids lives grow increasingly desperate, as they move closer to death. i saw the same thing as i watched mothers dragging there kids through the filthy waters of the New Orleans Katrina 'media event'. and where am i? where are the men? the fathers? we're dead because another more powerful nation decided it was in their best interest to see us dead, to support the side which, isn't the most moral or best represents a people's democratic wish, but best meets this powerfull nations agenda needs. the thinking behind our governments domestic behavior is not mch different than the thinking behind its foreign policy. the difference s the severity of violence that it can get away with. and yes, they can get away with more here at home than they could seven years ago.
but why do i bring this up? because the condition here in America surrounding Katrina/New Orleans is simmilar to the Isreali/Palestinian conflict in one regard: divisions of people were created along racial lines & the people on the otherside did not see the humanity of the "other". i know we all gave some money & plenty of people helped. but not enough has/had been done & we did nothing to change our government. we let the ones who screwed up dcide what changes should be made). and i bring up Sudan because again, there you have a major economic & military power funding a genocide (and largely our wars in Iraq & Afg) and allowing people to be murdered & displaced from their land. i wonder Sorrow, do you approve of the attrocities in Sudan? or American actions in Iraq & afghanistan? have you lived in these places too? or do you for some reason (which you are clearly too elevated to feel obliged to explain)"disagree"?
these things are all related. whether we choose to see it & recognize it or not is another question. but if we continue to allow the American government to arm Israel & destoy Palestinians because they can, because the Palestinians are weak & vaulnerable, then you better watch your ass if you are a member of the wrong plitical party at the wrong time. or, the wrong religion at the wrong time. or, the wrong natinality at the wrong time. or race. or queer. or poor. or left handed. or your birthday is on the wrong day of the month, because those arguments all allow as much justification through reason and respect to human life as what is happening right now in Palestine.
ta ta for now- poetryplacemaybe top
January 1, 2009 8:36 PM
Well, Poetryplacemaybe is the first person to make an argument on this that does not make any sense to me at all...
Have you seen the most recent Economist? (Slowly making my way through it in the bathroom.) Does a great job talking about the fact that there are many right ways to look at this, but then dispassionately making an argument. top
January 2, 2009 9:27 AM
hey Wheelsonthebus, i have not seen the economist article, but i will look for it. keep in mind though, that the Economist is not exactly a source w/out an agenda on this issue.
what doesn't make sense to you, if i may ask? i'm making the argument that these forces that be are interlinked & humanity does not recognize national boundaries. i am suggesting that fence sitters are just apathetic people who realize that in order to affect change we may just have to sacrifice something beyond the dollars we send to the Red Cross.
you find this topic all that different from abortion? really? Palestinians are being aborted at a pretty good rate as far as i can see.
i know my thinking stretches issues,argues that there is connective tissues where others disagree, and is a bit esoteric at times. but to not see connections at all, you gotta be trying to ignore the facts, ignore the motives & dismiss the outcomes. what i mean is, "they" want us to see the issues as separate. if we connect things it leads to citizen outrage. we can't ave that now can we Wheelsonthebus? top