On Sun, 16 Sep 2001, Dan Minette wrote:
>
> Its true that the Jews got land that the British promised the Arabs. They
> also promised the Jews the land too. My scripture professor who has close
> Jewish and Palestinian friends gave a great description of the original
> problem:
>
> "The problem is the Europe paid its debt to the Jews with the Arab's money."
This has generally been my perspective on the West's complicity in the
Israel vs. Palestinian problem.
It occurs to me that in order to generate a bit more sympathy for the
innocents on all sides of this violence, maybe we should emphasize some of
the things for which people cannot be blamed. For instance:
Neither Palestinians nor Arabs in general can be blamed for the Jewish
diaspora or for driving Jews out of Jerusalem in the first place. It's my
impression (and I may be wrong?) that this was achieved chiefly by the
Roman Empire and the Christians that later ruled it. Although Muslims
later took over the Holy Land, for the most part they were not consumed
with hatred of Jews because, after all, they had no particular motivation
to blame them for the death of Christ, and it's my understanding that
compared to Europeans, Muslims have been pretty decent to Jews--the
latter half of the 20th century notwithstanding--and that in general
Islam has taught respect for the first People of the Book.
The Palestinians, and the Arab/Muslim world in general, cannot be blamed
for the imposition of British and French colonial governments and for
disruption of Arab politics and interests which followed therefrom.
Nor can the Muslim world be blamed for the fact that it wasn't fortunate
enough to enjoy an intellectual revolution paralleling the European
enlightenment in sufficient time (for the West's convenience) for concepts
of democracy and and secular rationalism to be come the assumptions of
public consciousness.
Nor can the Palestinians/Muslims be blamed for the Balfour Declaration of
1917, which made resettlement of Jews in Palestine an official policy of
the British government.
Nor can they be blamed for the fact that, once Jews had settled in
sufficient numbers, many of the governments of the West preferred to do
business with these Westerners who understood English and other Western
languages, rather than with the Arabs with their alien cultures and
tongues, thus often cutting Palestinian Arabs out of one of the few
benefits of being part of the British Empire--it became harder even for
Arab leaders to collude with the Imperials and and profit thereby.
Nor can they be blamed for the fact that, when the UN voted to recognize
Israel as a state, there was a snowball's chance in hell of the Arabs'
interests and opinions making a dent in what was essentially a collective
European decision.
Nor can they be blamed for the fact that, once the British Empire moved
out and Americans became major players in the Middle-East, the Americans
were so preoccupied with Cold War issues that they could never really take
Muslim interests very much into account in their own right.
And when Arabs were suddenly told at the end of WW2 that they would have
to choose sides between Western and Eastern blocs, can we really blame
them that many leaders, sick of Western imperialism, might have gravitated
Eastward instead, thus earning the enmity and suspicion of the West, the
folks who happened to win the Cold War?
By the same token...
The Jews cannot be blamed for the fact that a thousand of years of
European anti-Semitism was coming to a massive head in the 19th and 20th
centuries, nor can they be blamed for looking for a way to escape and
ensure their own survival.
Zionist leaders can hardly be blamed for pressuring one of the least
anti-Semitic governments, Britain, to use its colonial power to help send
Jews to Jerusalem, their historical and mythical homeland. They didn't go
there just to spite the Arabs, after all.
After WW2, the Jews of Israel can hardly be blamed for using every means
in their power to gain independence. Nowhere else in the world could
possibly seem safe by then, and no government but a Jewish one worth
trusting.
And after the UN declaration, one can hardly blame Jews for refusing to be
murdered and for refusing to be driven away.
As for America...
America cannot be blamed for the fact that, right after WW2 had been one,
massive new threats to Democracy emerged in the forms of Stalin and Mao.
It seems irrational to blame America, which was attempting to lead and
preserve an already-devestated Western world, for putting its own
interests first when dealing with the ex-colonial territories of the
Middle East. Nor can America be blamed for any deep enmity for the West
aroused by the prior British and French colonial policies, nor for the
patchwork of tribal and religious rivalries unleashed in the vaccum
created by their sudden withdrawal. Also, America with its large Jewish
population, cannot be blamed for finding Israel, with its Western culture
and democratic structure, the most desirable of allies in the region.
...
Anyway, while we're all looking for people to blame, it might be
worthwhile to remember that almost no-one can be held responsible for the
general course of history. Sometimes doing the best you can in bad
circumstances creates enemies you otherwise would have no reason to fear
or to fight.
Marvin Long
Austin, Texas
"If you will not grant me victory, then grant me vengeance!"
Conan the Barbarian
"Blessed are the peacemakers."
Jesus Christ
