This one dealt more with Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Those should be a rough n’ read primer.
Well… there is no program of genocide against the Palestinians, but it’s a common enough lie cast at Israel. If Israel wanted to wipe out the Palestinians, they’d be dead already. The situation is complex, no doubt about it, but claims of Israeli attempts at genocide are just a smokescreen.
The point is Jews are people like anybody else. Trying to sum them all up with one description, especially a negative one, is racist.
“Those Blacks are…”
“Those Jews are…”
“Those Norwegians are…”
I suppose that’s the case in a whole lot of the world…
There’s a pair of questions that are very useful for helping to understand the gist of the situation.
What would happen tomorrow if Israel’s enemies laid down their weapons?
What would happen tomorrow if Israel laid down its weapons?
Specifics for that might be:
What happened to Egypt and Jordan when they stopped fighting Israel?
What happened to Israel when it pulled out of Gaza and Lebanon?
Papers can be legitmate and still be chock full of bias. Israel isn’t blameless, by any means. But in a long standing war with its neighbors, initiated by them, reiterated by them, and with them opposing any negotiation of comprosimise (most of the time), it’s very hard for Israel to achieve peace.
Ask yourself, though, why does Israel have stable, peaceful relations with Egypt and Jordan?
Well, Arabs (and non-Orthodox Jews) definitely have problems in Israel because of the Orthodox’ and Ultra-Orthodox’ control of certain aspects of Israeli law, there is no doubt about that. There are also other problems as well, and I’m not going to handwave them away…
But by the same token, the Arab states have pretty much elected to use the Palestinians as their pawns, to keep tensions flaring in that region so their own populace doesn’t focus on corruption on the homefront. The Arab nations have done their best to keep the Palestinians in their camps, fighting tooth and nail in many cases to keep them from even gaining employment.
If Israel and the Arab nations could all work together to solve the problems, there would be peace within our lifetimes. But that requires things like recognizing Israel’s right to exist.
Never said he shouldn’t. Israel, like any other country, isn’t perfect. Things should definitely change. The only problem is, when we’re looking at Israel’s relations with its neighbors, then we need to take other factors into account.
Should the occupied territories be made folded into a Palestinian state? Of course. Should the new Palestinian state have viable agricultural and economic interests? Of course. But by the same token, when Hamas is voted in by a large margin, it’s hard to believe that there is much support among the Palestinians for such peaceful initiatives. Again, just look at Gaza. Israel pulled out, left it to Palestinian control, and it became a terrorist nexus.
Yes, the checkpoints, curfews, etc… are all very harsh. And they should end tomrrow morning. But only if terrorism ends tonight.
Gaarder couldn’t hit the broad side of ‘nuance’ with his bombastic rhetoric in a million years. If he’d criticized the Israeli hawks, or those who strongly support the Settlements, I’d have agreed with him. But he didn’t do that.
But he didn’t do that. He ignored all distinction, nuance, and contradictory facts, made anti-semitic remarks, and said Israel should be destroyed. Hardly an even handed piece.
Why?
If a rhetorical shortcut is false to facts, why not strive for accuracy? And even if he wants to blame Israel for some actions, why include the entire Jewish people in his screed? And if he wants to blame Israel but not the Jewish people for some actions, why not also include the balancing factor of Israel’s attempts to make peace? And if he wants to blame Israel for some actions, while still providing a balanced portrayal of Israel’s attempts at making peace, why not also include the history of Arab aggression and their stated goals of genocide?
That, you see, is partially why the ‘Nazi’ analogy is particularly flawed when it comes to Israel. It’s not just that Israel isn’t attempting a program of genocide, it’s that Israel’s enemies have been, and are.
Again, if Israel’s enemies laid down their arms tomorrow and agreed to negotiation/treaties, would there be peace?
If Israel laid down their arms tomorrow, would there be an Israel for much longer?
But it’s a totally seperate issue, and as tom points out, that wasn’t really criticism, it was a screed, much of it based on naked anti-semitism. One can criticize Israel without once mentioning the Jewish religion (and its many sects). One can also criticize the Jewish religion without once mentioning Israel. Although, of course, talking about how horrible Judaism is but how wonderful Humanistic western Christian countries are will, correctly IMO, tend to smack of anti-semitism.
And, if one resorts to outright lies and distortions to criticize Judaism, then it becomes even more likely to be an anti-semitic rant instead of a balanced criticism. If one, for instance, ignores the concept of tikun olam and instead calls Judaism an ‘archaic war religion’, then obviously they’ve let their ignorance run their mouth for them. If one ignores what “the chosen people” actually means in order to insult the entire Jewish people, then cries of anti-semitism won’t be far behind.
Even those critiques.
There is a difference between having a nuanced and informed theological discussion, and slamming an entire group of people due to a mistaken interpretation of their religion.
It’d be like saying “Those Catholic cannibals, eating the flesh and blood of someone who they call their savior, simply lack the wisdom and sophistication that 5,000 years of contemplation have brought to us Jews. While we have tikun olam, they have pedophile priests and are an archaic death cult pining for the next world. We laugh at their fancies, and weep at their misdeeds. The Vatican should be destroyed.”
Can someone say that? Yeah… they can. But they’d rightly be called a bigot, IMO.
Thanks for the compliment, and naw, my feelings aren’t hurt. I’m just a bit frustrated and frazzled with all the threads recently, and should probably take a break myself for a while.
Yep, no problem.
