On the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
Submitted to the Fargo High Plains Reader in October, 2024. Hopefully, published in November or in December.
Human Rights Day is December 10th. In December, let us, as human beings, commit ourselves to the
proposition, “From the river to the sea, peace and freedom will set us free.”
My take on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is shaped by the fact that I am a Jewish American who
grew up in Saudi Arabia. I was raised in a diverse and multicultural environment. My worldview is such that I have no stomach for hatred, bigotry, prejudice, or intolerance of any
kind.
Yes, the Israeli government maintains an illegal occupation of Palestinian land. It also discriminates
against Arab-Israeli citizens, even before the Israeli military invasion of Palestine and, more recently, into parts of Lebanon.
When Palestinians do have the vote, they must pick between two corrupt political parties, one of which is
also crazy. The lack of civil and political rights is horrid, but international human rights also talk about the importance of economic and cultural rights. Even before the
recent war, too many Palestinians lived in poverty and despair.
While the crime of “genocide” is notoriously difficult to prove in a court of law, the high number of
Palestinian civilian casualties, not to mention the destruction of civilian infrastructure would almost certainly be a “war crime” or a “crime against humanity”.
Yes, the Palestinian people, and the Arab-Israeli citizens, have many legitimate grievances, but Hamas is
not the solution. Neither is Hezbollah. Neither is the ruling Likud party in Israel. Treating bad actors like good actors does a disservice to the global cause for peace and
universal human rights.
The Israeli people do have many legitimate grievances as well. The State of Israel has a right to
exist and it is surrounded by nations and “bad actors” who want to wipe Israel off the map.
Such people use the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people and the Arab-Israeli people as a
justification for anti-Jewish violence, hatred, hysteria, and intolerance of anything these bad actors decide is, “Zionist”, which typically includes all liberal ideas and
attitudes.
The two-state solution, with a commitment to universal human rights, such as those outlined in the
International Bill of Human Rights, is still the best option for all people concerned, well, except for the “bad actors” like the Israeli Likud, or Hamas and Hezbollah.
Right-wing Governments, political parties, and terrorist groups are terrified of being out of power,
unpopular, and unemployed.
The only way that the far right wins elections in Israel, the only way that dictatorships in the Middle
East hold onto power or groups like Hamas and Hezbollah get treated as folk heroes, is because they had successfully fed their respective populations a platform of hatred, hysteria, and
intolerance. We can, as human beings, do better.
Fargo Forum. October 29th, 2023.
By all means, we should condemn Hamas for their atrocities and seek their destruction as we would the Ku Klux Klan. Yet, the only way to finally end this nightmare of violence, poverty, hatred, and intolerance is to think beyond “Pro-Israeli” or “Pro-Palestinian” bumper sticker slogans and think about how to develop both nations so that all their people live with shared prosperity, strong democratic institutions, and a more tolerant culture.
Most Palestinians and Israelis want entirely legitimate things from their respective governments and, with few exceptions, said governments have failed to deliver.
Hamas cannot deliver the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people because it does not believe in a two-state solution. They do not believe in tolerance or the niceties of liberal democracy. Their end goal is clear; a vast, theocratic, right-wing empire that would offer its people only obedience and death.
The Israeli people are more centrist, even moderately progressive in their politics than the current government, but the voters keep choosing the right-wing governments out of a genuine fear for their security.
Israelis have a right to live peacefully in their own democratic nation, just as do the Palestinian people. The security concern of Israelis is not simply campaign rhetoric from the Israeli right wing. There is a segment of Palestinians and citizens of regional Arab nations that do want to wipe Israel off the map and kill Jewish people as well as anyone that is not a morally upright follower of Orthodox Islam.
Yet, I resist the urge to label myself, “Pro-Israeli” or "Pro-Palestinian" because the conversation that derives from such bumper sticker labels tends to obscure what has to happen in order to respect the human rights of all Israeli and Palestinian people.
My profile picture on social media is the word, “Peace” in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. Yet, I would probably wince at being labeled “Pro-Peace” because as important as the peace process is to end the suffering of the Israelis and the Palestinians, the development challenge goes much deeper than Israel giving up land for peace in order to create an independent Palestinian nation.
Peace requires something more, something that bumper sticker slogans do not capture well. It requires the development of the two nations that are not just independent, and no longer killing each other, but democratic and secure in the broad sense.
Simply put, all Israelis and all Palestinians, no matter their ethnicity, color, creed, party membership, class, disability, sex, or sexual affiliation, are born free and equal. Peace requires not just changes in laws, borders, and social attitudes, but a culture whereby everyone has genuine hope that peace means having a better standard of living for themselves and their children.
FANACTICS HAVE AN EASIER TIME GETTING ON THE FRONT PAGE.
FARGO FORUM. NEWSPAPER. MARCH 8TH, 2019.
I suspect that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was raised with a certain level of anti-Semitism, not unlike many Christians and Jews who have been raised with a certain level of prejudice against Muslims .
I am a white , Jewish American. I grew up in an expatriate community in Saudi Arabia where, from a very early age, I interacted with other people who did not share my race, religion, ethnic or national background. Cultural diversity was the mundane norm.
Long before I learned who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in high school, I took for granted that prejudice directed at fellow Americans or foreigners was not rational. This is not a conventional experience.
Many Americans, Christian and Jewish alike, grow up being taught that most Muslims are barbaric and uncivilized. That progressive voices in the Muslim world do not exist and that Israel should never be held accountable for its treatment of Palestinians. Many Muslims grow up with a similar set of prejudices that are equally untrue.
Many Muslims, of various nations, are taught that Christians are infidels and Jews are evil. That progressive voices in the Christian and Jewish world do not exist and that terrorist acts done in the name of Palestinian Liberation should be supported. This is prejudice divorced from reality.
The reality is that progressive-minded people of all faiths do exist, but fanatics and reactionaries have an easier time making the front page.
The reality is that all human beings can lay claim to the rights described in the International Bill of Human Rights.
The reality is that all governments should be judged on how well they live up to the principles of liberal democracy.