Peace in Palestine is impossible. Both the Palestinians and the Israelis have compelling moral, historical and legal claims to the same land. Neither is yielding its position. Neither has any reason to yield its position.
Pick a time in the past and select a country or region. The Jews seem always to have been shunned, beaten, harassed, oppressed, dispossessed, ostracized, stigmatized, denigrated, disregarded and treated unkindly. Those experiences shape one’s world view.
The government-sponsored, institutional, corporate, mechanized, franchised torturing and killing machine in business in Germany and other occupied countries between the middle 1930s and 1945 was unprecedented in its scope, duration and depravity. Those experiences dominate one’s world view. (Those horrors are being and will be replicated on this planet).
The logic of existence in the Middle East today is so desperately human. The Palestinians proclaim: “I kill, therefore I am.” The Israelis proclaim: “I kill, therefore I am.” No one in the Middle East does more than kill and subsist. Everyone is spiritually dead. If they looked in a mirror, they would not see a reflection.
The Palestinians are engaging in techniques and tactics first pioneered by the American colonists in their battles against the British. If the United States provided them F-22s, they would be able to fight on a level playing field.
The Wall is a monument to failure, a bill board advertising hopelessness.
The Jewish Lobby in America (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, et al.) is powerful and is equaled only by the influence of AARP (American Association for Retired People) and the NRA (National Rifle Association).
The single greatest source of resentment in America that often leads to a distrust of Semitism is the widely understood perception that no on can criticize the Jewish Lobby publicly without being pilloried and crucified.
Jimmy Carter committed the Sin of Truth. He discusses the Apartheid in Palestine and is condemned and excoriated. Few have the courage to support him.
Note the religions of the members of the foreign policy elite. There are not enough Unitarians, Buddhists, Quakers and Shakers among the movers and shakers. (Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon was born a Quaker and followed some of its precepts at times in his life. The most prominent example is admittedly not very convincing.) Pacifists are activists in their communities, but they are not heard nationally.
The money that Americans have been borrowing from the Chinese and others and transferring to unfriendly regimes to acquire oil will be used to acquire media outlets in America in the future. A foreign government, a “Sovereign Wealth Fund,” will offer real money for a publication such as the Wall Street Journal. The next Rupert Murdoch with 5 billion in his pocket will sit across the table from someone who can bid 10, 15, 20 billion, whatever it takes. When media control changes, perceptions in America will change. Not necessarily for the better. An imbalance of information and influence in the other direction is dangerous. Equipoise is not likely.
Life is often portrayed as a battle between David and Goliath. Life is usually a battle between David and David, one underdog battling another underdog. Two underdogs are at war in the Middle East.
The current most powerful nation, the Goliath, is a super power slipping into second world status (measured by: infant mortality rates; percentage of the population in prison; percentage of the population which is not counted as unemployed because they are not even looking for work; spiritual and economic deficits, etc.) With the rise of Asia and other Middle East nations, the United States may not be in a position to protect Israel in the intermediate run.
The killing will go on until the inevitable tectonic shifts of power in this century play out with uncertain consequences.
Bumper sticker of the week:
There are no unwounded civilians
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