What Is To Be Done

[DemocratSinceBirth]

I have thought about writing this post , got half way through it, then deleted it, only to start again.

Both sides in the Israeli-Arab dispute have their own narratives and minds much greater and more informed then mine have made compelling cases for both sides. A person would be disingenuous to completely accept the Arab or Israeli narrative of how Israel came to be in 1948. "Bastardized" versions of the Arab narrative have the Jews dropping into the land now called Israel some time around 1948 without a hint of historical attachment to the land and "bastardized" versions of the Israeli narrative have a uninterrupted Jewish presence,albeit one that increased and decreased over time , in that land for 3,700 years that was ratified in 1948 by declaring Israel a state. Like in a court case, there's "he said", "she said" and the "truth" and the truth is usually a combination of both sides.

With both sides nursing ancient grievances and having wildly different reasons for how the problem came to be can they ever reach a resolution. I doubt it.

[readmoreoften]

1. Not to mention the exacerbating factors of 20th century history.

Jews essentially "returning" to Israel straight from surviving concentration camps and being pushed out of Europe. There are only a little over 14 million Jews now and 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

But the defensiveness of Israel turned into some kind of bizarre theocratic machismo. And neither side tried to get along from the beginning. Israel could have been more sensitive to the fact that they would be displacing the Palestinian people, and they might've realized that they'd have to learn to get along, and that their "return" after 1000 years, might not go so smoothly. Palestinians could've dropped the "push them into the sea" rhetoric. They could've made room for these displaced people, knowing that they shared an ancestral home. But of course the West fucked things up by complicating the intervention through our (actually, England's) imperialism.

Somehow Israel became a monster. Kind of like the sort of person that goes through a terrible childhood, beaten and horribly abused, and then they grow up to be an cruel jerk. You know why the jerk is a jerk and deep in your heart you understand. But he still really PISSES you off. And then when he hurts other people you stop feeling sorry for him and see him for the monster that he's become. Then people put him down and you can't help but defend him again. That's how I think of Israel. I don't think that the Palestinians are too far off from that description either.

The cycle of ethnic. So what's the diplomatic equivalent of group therapy and heavy meds? Definitely not something that George Bush has up his sleeve.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Maybe The Answer Is

Most Arabs see Israel as a "historical wrong" that needs to be righted and most Jews and Israelis see Israel as the "righting" of an "historical wrong".

If you look at the history of the land it has changed ownership many times and I'm sure that all the temporary owners thought their ownership was legitimate.

[readmoreoften]

3. No I agree.

I think all of their claims to ownership *are* legitimate. I think it's the arrogant attitudes and the claims of having Divine Right that cause all the problems. (And I certainly don't just mean the Jews.) If Native Americans came into my house, shot my child in the head, and told me that I was spiritually inferior, I might hate them. If they came to me and said, "Look my people used to live on this land. We have nowhere to go. Your people took it from us. We need to figure out a way to share. I know this is going to be crushingly difficult for you, but it must be done." I might just learn to lump it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. War a force that gives us Meaning

read the book, will explain what needs to be done... and the first step is to break the cycle, and for that to happen people need to stop enabling BOTH sides... and yes a truth and reconciliation commision involving everybody will be needed... as well as a reconciliation of all the multiple narrratives. You just touched on two of them