Israel Palestine. Again

There is absolutely nothing I can say about the Arab-Israeli conflict that hasn’t been said before. If debate could have solved this problem it would have, long ago, because it is arguably the most argued dispute in the history of the world. The problem is insoluble, but not inexplicable. Strip away the layers of propaganda, opinion, posturing and hypocrisy and it’s pretty simple. Simple and tragic.

There will never be peace in the Middle East, because Israel exists. Much of the world and all of the Muslim world, if you round it off, want Israel gone.

Israel, however, wishes to live. They are not unmoved by the arguments accusing them of aggression, colonialism, of being interlopers in their ancient homeland. Entire parties and peace movements in Israel share those attitudes and vote and protest accordingly. But if the Jewish state—and the Jewish race—want to survive, they have no choice. Israel must continue to exist.

There are very few Jews in the world, and through assimilation, intermarriage, emigration, ethnic cleansing (there used to be about 900,000 in Iraq, for instance) they are slowly disappearing everyplace on earth, save one: Israel.

Israel goes, the Jews go. It’s as simple as that.

It is that light that one must see the various arguments made against the Jewish state, and understand its responses to them.

Argument (made on this very site): It isn’t fair to balance the sins of Europe against the Jews on the backs of the Arabs. Let’s put aside the fact that the American who made that argument probably built his Jacuzzi on sacred Cherokee burial ground. Let’s stipulate the premise is true and that we agree. Then what? Do six million Israeli Jews move back to Germany or would it be cleaner if they just committed suicide?

Argument: Israel should just withdraw from, well, wherever Israel is supposed to withdraw from. Sounds good. Let’s try it. Withdraw from southern Lebanon. Rockets. Withdraw from Gaza. Rockets. I think we’ll try something else, say the Israelis.

Argument: Hamas is the duly elected government of Gaza and Israel has no right to interfere. That makes perfect sense. The Palestinians have the right to choose their own leaders. Of course, when the people of Gaza voted Hamas in, they didn’t figure on the military coup that kicked the Palestinian Authority—and every other political party—out, but that’s a mere detail. The central point is this: Nobody gets to vote Israel out of existence. Not the Palestinians, not the Europeans, not the Americans.

The United Nations can vote 191 to 1 to abolish Israel and may do so, one fine day. Israel’s answer will be “We feel your pain. But Israel is the only home we’ve got. We aren’t going anywhere.”

Argument: Israel uses disproportionate force against its enemies. Israel sees the light and agrees to change. The Israeli government puts out this statement: “Once we withdraw from Gaza, and we will, shortly, we shall enact a new policy of complete proportionality. For every rocket Hamas launches towards Israel, we will launch one towards Gaza. No more, no less. And if our aim is better? Well, that can’t be helped.”

Argument: Israel is uniquely the worst blight on mankind in existence today. It is the most racist state in the world. It is murderous, ruthless, worse than Sudan, worse than Zimbabwe, worse than Burma, worse than anyplace. And we have the UN resolutions to prove it.

I simply ask you this: Can you imagine what Gaza would look like if that were true? If the Israelis actually were the fascist, baby-killing, civilian-slaughtering, innocent-murdering thugs they are made out to be? If the Israeli Army was as brutal and ruthless as say, the Russians in Chechnya or the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Janjaweed in Darfur, or the Serbs in Kosovo? Or Japan, Germany, the USA, Great Britain, China and the USSR in WWII?

There are 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza. Israel could kill them all. They won’t. There are six million Jews in Israel. Hamas would kill them all. They can’t. Yet.

You can debate the history from now to Ramadan and you’ll never find The Answer. It all comes down to this. As long as enough people in the Muslim world want Israel dead and gone, and as long as enough Jews in Israel want to survive and stay, there will be conflict, terror and war.

I’ll leave it to you to decide which attitude has the better chance of changing.

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