Betraying its beginnings
It breaks my heart to see Israel lose all sense of perspective in responding to the Hezbollah attacks. After centuries of oppression, pogroms, the Holocaust, the Jews got our own country. But it's beginning to look more like an oppressor than the oppressed.
To respond to the capture of two soldiers by bombing civilian areas and airports is simply wrong. It's outrageous. As of July 19th there had been 25 Israeli deaths, about half of them military, and 230 or more deaths in Lebanon. Shouldn't a Jewish country remember that "an eye for an eye" means "don't do more harm than was done to you"?
When Israel was attacked in the 6 day war of 1967, its decisive victory made us so proud. At last, folks said, we're fighting back and defending ourselves. Outnumbered, Israel was David beating Goliath. And if Israel wound up controlling some Arab territory, well, hey, they started it.
But did anyone making decisions think that 39 years later Israel would still be in control of any of that territory, policing a hostile Arab population? With Israel bombing airports, bridges and a Christian neighborhood in Lebanon, Golda Meir must be spinning in her grave. It's a shame. And Israel was not supposed to be like this.
Occupation isn't working (either for Israel or for the United States) because it doesn't work. The people whose home is occupied are naturally going to resist, and the longer the occupation lasts, the more just their cause appears.
The Zionists claimed that we Jews had a right to return to the land we were dispersed from 1900 years ago. If that makes sense, then it also makes sense for the people who were turned out in 1948 to have some rights. The partition was drawn largely according to land ownership. Most of the land allocated to the Jewish homeland had been bought by Jews. Much more land went to Jordan than went to Israel. Both groups have legitimate claims to land.
Many of the Arabs who left Jewish territory in 1947-48 did so with the aim of "driving Israel into the sea" --so I was told in Sunday school. though that account is disputed. Under those circumstances, it's understandable that Israel would refuse to let them return after the war. Those who were displaced should be compensated for lost homes and businesses, as was done, belatedly and inadequately, for Jewish property after World War II.
Over the last 60 years, both sides have committed unnecessary violence. Neither is totally at fault, and neither is an innocent victim. But this mutual destruction has got to stop, just like the nuclear arms race, and slavery, and genocide. It's time for Israel to do justice, to love mercy, care for the stranger, the widow and the orphan, and to remember that we, too, were strangers in the land of Egypt.
To respond to the capture of two soldiers by bombing civilian areas and airports is simply wrong. It's outrageous. As of July 19th there had been 25 Israeli deaths, about half of them military, and 230 or more deaths in Lebanon. Shouldn't a Jewish country remember that "an eye for an eye" means "don't do more harm than was done to you"?
When Israel was attacked in the 6 day war of 1967, its decisive victory made us so proud. At last, folks said, we're fighting back and defending ourselves. Outnumbered, Israel was David beating Goliath. And if Israel wound up controlling some Arab territory, well, hey, they started it.
But did anyone making decisions think that 39 years later Israel would still be in control of any of that territory, policing a hostile Arab population? With Israel bombing airports, bridges and a Christian neighborhood in Lebanon, Golda Meir must be spinning in her grave. It's a shame. And Israel was not supposed to be like this.
Occupation isn't working (either for Israel or for the United States) because it doesn't work. The people whose home is occupied are naturally going to resist, and the longer the occupation lasts, the more just their cause appears.
The Zionists claimed that we Jews had a right to return to the land we were dispersed from 1900 years ago. If that makes sense, then it also makes sense for the people who were turned out in 1948 to have some rights. The partition was drawn largely according to land ownership. Most of the land allocated to the Jewish homeland had been bought by Jews. Much more land went to Jordan than went to Israel. Both groups have legitimate claims to land.
Many of the Arabs who left Jewish territory in 1947-48 did so with the aim of "driving Israel into the sea" --so I was told in Sunday school. though that account is disputed. Under those circumstances, it's understandable that Israel would refuse to let them return after the war. Those who were displaced should be compensated for lost homes and businesses, as was done, belatedly and inadequately, for Jewish property after World War II.
Over the last 60 years, both sides have committed unnecessary violence. Neither is totally at fault, and neither is an innocent victim. But this mutual destruction has got to stop, just like the nuclear arms race, and slavery, and genocide. It's time for Israel to do justice, to love mercy, care for the stranger, the widow and the orphan, and to remember that we, too, were strangers in the land of Egypt.
posted by McMircle at 4:07 AM
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