Two stories – this one from the Minneapolis/St Paul City Pages and a piece by Saifedean Ammous, posted in 3 Quarks Daily on October 8, on the third anniversary of the killing of a 13-yr old Palestinian girl, Iman Al-Hams, by Israeli soldiers.
When I was a teenager, a Jewish neighbour turned me on to the novels of Leon Uris, especially Exodus and Mila 18, which made me pro-Israel and pro- the whole concept of Jews returning to their homeland. Although I was an Irish Catholic, I tried to learn Hebrew (failed miserably, of course!) and dreamed about travelling to Israel to join a kibbutz.
I spent a year in Germany, as an Au Pair, during which time the so-called Six Day War, between Israel and its Arab neighbours, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, took place. I had a huge map of the region they fought over on my bedroom wall, with pins marking the Israeli advances, as well as a picture of General Moshe Dayan, cheek by jowl with the poster of Che Guevara. (Who? Me? A loony leftie?)
Colour me pro-Israeli, right? So, it was a huge shock, five or six years later, while I was living in Birmingham, England, to meet a Jewish Israeli dissident, a university lecturer who told me about being thrown in prison, for protesting the treatment of Palestinians, and how he was eventually deported from Israel, although he had been born there. It wasn’t exactly a road to Damascus experience, but it did cause me to read the news from the Middle East more carefully, even though, at the time, Palestinian equated to terrorist in most mainstream media.
Now, several decades later, here in North America, to be critical of Israel is to be accused of being anti-semitic. Meanwhile, in Europe, it seems that disapproval of Israel is morphing into anti-semitism, although that may be a product of the spread of radical Islam across Europe, if some commentators are to be believed. As a recovering member of the loony left, I’m appalled by some of the anti-semitic guff that is coming from European socialists, like the Socialist Workers Party, which seems to have abandoned its traditional two state, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine stance for a radical position advocating the destruction of Israel and foundation of a single Palestinian state.
As for me, I have no idea where right begins and wrong ends. I still support the idea of an Israeli homeland for Jews, and the ideals that informed the early years. But I loath the fact that, since the Six Day War, generations of Palestinian children have grown up in the squalor and poverty of the refugee camps. I believe that the war was started by the Arabs, especially Egypt, despite Israel’s pre-emptive strike at the Egyptian air force, and they had a moral duty to the Palestinians. But the Palestinian situation has suited the Arab states, who have allowed it to fester for decades. By and large, Israel has served as the scapegoat to prevent the radicalism, born in the camps, from turning on them. At the same time, Israel is no angel. Ever since Ariel Sharon turned a blind eye to the brutal massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps at Sabra and Shatilla, Israel has lost the high moral ground. The refusal to grant Arabs living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank the same rights and privileges of citizenship afforded Israelis are a betrayal of the socialist idealism of the early Israeli settlers. The kibbutzes that I longed to see have morphed into settlements defended by radical Jews, who will resort to any thuggery to hold on to the territory they believe is theirs, even assassination.
The rise of radical Islam has changed the whole dynamic of the situation. Somehow, I can’t see peace breaking out in the Middle East, even if Israel withdraws completely from the territories that I so happily pinned on my map all those years ago. Until the Palestinians break the stranglehold of the fundamental Islamists, and turf the current leadership, which is corrupt and venal, out of office, it’s not likely to make much difference in their lives. Which is not to justify Israel’s refusal to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders. I suspect the latest proposal to share Jerusalem will be killed before it gets off the drawing board.
A delight to read an article by my favourite “journalist”…full of your usual wit, erudition, and personal commentry…How many lives have your really lived, Ms. Ryan?