American Progressives are obligated to solving the problems and conflicts besetting mankind, with the added mission of solving them in a just and equitable way. The Israel/Palestine conflict, the result of a colonial enterprise that has left the native Palestinians in the lurch, needs to be given a solution that gives both justice and security to Israelis and Palestinians alike. In the interests of being honest and respected brokers in this conflict, we Progressives must be free of the defects that we wish to remedy in the I/P conflict.
Which defects might those be? The truth that the ravages of Zionist colonialism in Palestine must be addressed—including all sore questions, such as the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes—cannot be fairly presented by a great many American Progressives who are themselves beneficiaries of a colonial enterprise little different from Zionism. White American Progressives are settlers on a land that hitherto been exclusively available to the indigenous of North America to enjoy.
Granted, one may point out that, in contrast to the Palestinians (in the West Bank especially), Native Americans enjoy equal rights and are free to move and reside anywhere in the United States of America, and are by no means confined to reservations as of old. However, while true, this does not negate the fact that the white colonial settlement of North America has deprived the Native Americans of land. Land the Native Americans had had access to prior to European colonization is now unavailable to them simply by virtue of being occupied by the colonists. For example, Seminoles wishing to return to former hunting grounds will find that they are now property of white American colonists; they will be required to buy lands that, prior to colonization, had actually been theirs. It is therefore impossible for any white American to plead innocence, to disclaim all guilt just because Native Americans today are technically permitted to reside wherever they wish.
One defense given at this point is of a legalistic type: The defense that European colonization took place before the codification of international law and the treaties forbidding dispossession of another people’s land, whereas Zionist colonization postdates such developments. Once again, the point made is strictly true; however, American Progressives should rise above the temptation of taking refuge from justice by sticking to the letter of the law. Convenience should always be retired in favor of the courage of one’s convictions; “legal,” in the sense that no law existed yet against it, the European colonization of North America may have been, but moral it was not. To cling to legalism would mean we could no longer appeal to justice in addressing the I/P conflict, and we would instead be confined to arguing from international law, something the Israelis are as adept at as us Progressives.
Concordantly, I see three possibilities for white American Progressives—the majority of the Progressive Left—vis-à-vis the questions of integrity, consistency, justice and convenience:
1. White American Progressives could gain the moral authority by leading by example. A sale of their landed property to a relevant Native American family, thus enabling said family to exercise their right of return to former possessions, would be most conducive to acquiring the moral upper hand requisite for addressing the Zionists. Understood, such a move is fraught with difficulties for the individual and his kin, yet being a Progressive has never been a garden of roses, but on the contrary, a course of perpetual hard work to maintain one’s integrity, without which we are no better than the Rethuglican Right.
2. Alternatively, white American Progressives could opt to stay to benefit from the land grab, but as a consequence they would be unable to maintain their integrity when castigating the Zionist version of Manifest Destiny. In the interests of maintaining integrity, they would, alas, be required to keep silence on the entire issue of I/P.
3. The final option is to stay the current course of castigating Zionist colonialism in Palestine while benefiting from European colonialism in North America. Inconsistency of this sort is not a scandal; it is, after all, the bread and butter of politics everywhere, throughout all of history. However, while understandable in a general human context, such a choosing of convenience over justice is at fundamental odds with the transformational mission we as Progressives seek to undertake in the world.
Gandhi said, “You must be the change you want to see.” Healing begins with ourselves. Legalistic defenses and facile comparisons (“Native Americans don’t have it so bad as Palestinians”—shades of Israel’s “Other states are far worse” defense) need to be discarded for the rationalizations of injustice they are; a white American true Progressive begins to redress the injustice of Zionist colonialism by attending to the injustice at his or her vicinity. As Progressives we believe in addressing root causes; let us, then, address the root cause of 1492 before carrying on to later injustices.