Is It Anti-Semitic to think that the Government of Israel is Not Above
Reproach?
There have been 323 UN resolutions since 1948 concerning the Middle East[1], of those about 130 or so of them have condemned the actions of the nation of Israel[2]. Here is just a brief list of some of the issues; illegal occupations, the creation of and refusal to shutdown illegal settlements, desecration of Muslim holy sites, illegally moving their Capital to Jerusalem, mistreatment of civilians, refuges and prisoners including Geneva Convention violations. Unfortunately the list could go on and on. Most of these resolutions have been ignored by Israel, and they have been allowed to get away with these illegal actions because of America’s strong support[3]. Amazingly the list of resolutions does not count the dozens of times the US has vetoed other condemnations of the actions of the state of Israel[4].
Have the countries and people surrounding Israel done bad things too? Of course they have. Both sides are equally guilty of atrocities and of killing innocents. Neither side holds the moral high ground because of their past and ongoing vicious and illegal acts.
Terrorism is defined in the eye of the victim; there is no distinction in the cold dull stare of the dead eyes of an innocent recipient killed by an inbound rocket – it does not matter who launched it, it was still a terrorist act that killed them and they are still just as dead. Both sides are guilty of wrongly killing the innocent. Two weeks into the current conflict between Hizbullah and Israel, the Israeli’s have killed about 10 innocents for every one the Hizbullah have killed. Who is the terrorist in this situation? It all depends on which end of whose rocket you are on.
When we hear the Israeli governmental authorities talk on CNN or Fox about the constant violence that they have helped perpetuate, they take the approach that they are just trying to innocently mind their own business and can not understand why the evil Palestinians or anyone else would want to hurt any Israeli. It would appear that Israelis consider themselves forgiven for their trespasses against all others, while they forgive almost no one.
This is not to say that Israel has not been justified in some of their actions. They must defend themselves against aggression. The point of this paper is to point out that much of that aggression is self perpetuated.
If Israel had treated Palestinians as equals in their own home land they could have avoided much of the generations of inbred hatred today. The Palestinians were thrown out of their ancestral lands against their will by a ‘nation’ that had not existed for 2000 years. Israel pompously acts like they are the only ones who deserve to live in their traditional homeland, and to demonstrate their intolerance they oppressively subjugate the Arab population still inside Israel’s borders. Israel calls itself a democratic nation, but they have instituted measures (including forcefully expelling the resident Arab population) to insure that the indigenous Arab population can never get a majority in their government. They have always treated the Arab’s within their borders as second class citizens, and will yield to no argument from those outside their country calling for fair and respectful treatment of the Palestinians. Israel consistently treats its non-Jewish citizens and their neighbors with contempt. It is no wonder the Arab world would like to see Israel destroyed. Hate begets hate. Of course hate too works both ways
Many UN resolutions (127, 237, 468, 469, 471, 484, 592, 605, 607, 608, 636, 641, 672, 681, 694, 726, 799, 904, and 1073) have been to condemn Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. That long list of UN resolutions is a sad testament to the fact that the Israeli’s have never treated the Palestinians with the respect that is paramount if Peace and not ethnic cleansing is the end goal. Those resolutions and the others vetoed by the US government are the justification for the Palestinian’s anger. In their mind they have had to turn to violence to bring attention to their plight, but their killing is still not justified. Palestinian violence has been rightly condemned by the world as the wrong way to solve this problem; it has certainly prolonged the lack of progress toward a solution. It is clear that both sides have not acted to solve this problem, just to exacerbate it.
Israel has at times called for Peace, yet they insight violence by showing a blatant contempt for legal Palestinian land rights. They continue to condone settlements inside Palestinian borders in violation of UN resolutions (446, 452, 465, and 497). Repeatedly Israel has been told to remove their illegal settlements in Palestinian territory, but in defiance of their own safety they contemptuously continue to expand them. They have pulled out of a few, but there are still dozens of these constant thorns in the sides of the Palestinians that they refuse to evacuate. If Israel really wants Peace they will have to shut down these illegal settlements, this would help them to come into compliance with many UN resolutions (not to mention the dozens starting with 106 in 1955 through today calling for Israel to abandon land they were or are still illegally occupying after various wars).
Israel continues to construct a Berlin like wall around their illegal Capital to control the constant attacks. When the country was formed by the UN it was expressly stated that Tel Aviv would be Israel’s Capital. This was to avoid the certain tension from putting any Capital in Jerusalem because of the international and interfaith significance of the city. The Israeli’s moved their Capital there anyway against numerous UN resolutions (252, 267, 271, 298, 476, 478, and 484) and the better judgment of the world community. In their arrogance, the Israeli’s continue to demand that the Palestinians not make the holy city their Capital. Once again, Israel holds itself above the law but forcefully tells those they are subjugating that they must obey their asymmetrical dictates. If the Israeli Capital was not in Jerusalem this would eliminate a target and obvious provocation, it would also bring Israel closer to being in compliance with at least seven UN resolutions.
Why is Israel above the rule of law? Why do they get to break or ignore 132 UN resolutions without recourse? Why do the Israeli’s get to dictate what the Palestinians do in their own territory? Iran only had 85 resolutions against it before we invaded that country for non-compliance.
Maybe the US should stop sending the 2 to 3 billion dollars a year to Israel in foreign aid to show our displeasure with their non-compliance in regards to the many significant UN resolutions condemning their actions. There is an interesting coincidental relationship between the Israeli military budget and our foreign aid total to them each year, they track very closely.
The best thing to end the violence in the region, and for US relations there, would be for Israel to completely pull back to its 1967 borders, its legal borders, move their Capital back to Tel Aviv, their legal Capital, and for the US to spend those foreign aid billions on rebuilding Lebanon for the next few years. This plan would force Israel to cut back on their military expansionism and would help the US to regain some credibility in the Arab world. Of course for this plan to work the Palestinians will have to give up their claim to Israel’s land within its pre-1967 borders[5].
Those are the fundamental conditions required to end the violence in the Middle East, but until both sides are willing to accept those terms nothing will change. Both sides will still continually call for Peace while insisting on conditions that insure constant war.
Steve McGourty
6 Aug 06
P.S. I do not hate Jews or Israel. They just get a free pass way too often in the American Press and Politics. My intellect allows me to separate a religion from the atrocious actions of a nation’s government. A fair assessment makes it clear that neither side is innocent in this struggle, nor even has a remote claim to being morally superior. It is impossible to support any country blindly when it is so often wrong, undemocratic and to frequently absolutely cruel. Both sides are at fault and both sides need to make major concessions to end the violence. Unfortunately, this is a view that is often attacked by the pro-Israel folks as Anti-Semitic, a gross but predictable over reaction that has contributed to preventing progress toward any solution in the region.
[1] Here is a link to all of the UN’s resolutions for you to see them for yourself: http://www.un.org/documents/scres.htm
[3] Mr. Bush, What about Israel's defiance of UN
Resolutions? http://www.mediamonitors.net/michaelsladah&suleimaniajlouni1.html
[4] U.S. vetoes
of UN Resolutions critical of Israel (1972-2006): http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/usvetoes.html
[5] I can hear you laughing in your thought bubble. Of course this is a major part of the problem; the obvious stuff that must be done is laughable because neither side is willing to do what it takes to end the conditions that have brewed venomous hatred for over 50 years.