At a recent public meeting in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar- the head of Hamas, and ever the sweet talker- proclaimed,
Over is the time Hamas spent discussing recognizing Israel. Now Hamas will discuss when we will wipe out Israel.
I think this strikes right at the very heart of the problem... First though- what exactly is the main problem? I feel that stargaze summed it up well, in this comment:
The territories have been occupied for 50 years (or occupied then under siege and controlled, Gaza’s case). This isn’t a temporary situation, so yes, I consider the territories as part of Israel, where many inhabitants don’t have democratic rights.
So basically, the dilemma is that we’re currently bankrolling something which is at complete odds with our most fundamental democratic values.
And just a reminder, that Gaza is essentially a total humanitarian disaster, as has been for quite a while now (i.e., Oxfam International reports here that Gaza is largely dependent upon foreign aid, with the ongoing crippling blockade certainly not helping matters any).
OK, so, if this is the problem, then why doesn’t Israel just end the occupation already, so that the Palestinians can finally live freely under their own independent, democratic government (thus solving the problem)?
Israel is frequently compared with apartheid South Africa, and there is some basis to this- i.e., the settlements in the West Bank that Palestinians are barred from living in, connected by roads that Palestinians are barred from using- this seems pretty clearly to be segregation. TriStateDem noted,
Netanyahu is more or less deliberately trying to Balkanize Palestinian territory illegally seized by Israel in order to make a two-state solution impossible. It’s not about whether or not Jews are allowed to live there, it’s about turning Zionism so tribalistic that any independent Palestine would be met with outcry by the massive numbers of Jewish settlers inside of territory that the UN and every country on earth other than Israel and the U.S. has reiterated was Palestinian territory for 50 years.
Israel is trying to literally rip Palestinians’ own homeland away from them by settling en masse inside their territory, then use their own numbers to justify taking away what remains of their independence as well, using the most inconvenient means possible, which is the human element the settlers create. Large swathes of the West Bank have been under full Israeli military occupation for decades.
Who is the fucking villain here? The Israelis or the Palestinians?
So, back to the question of why Israel doesn’t relinquish the Occupied Territories to the Palestinians, for them to become the sovereign nation of Palestine- is the answer to this, as TriStateDem put it, simply that Israel is “the fucking villain”? Is the situation really entirely like that of apartheid South Africa, where the whole issue stems solely from one side being racist jerks? One could come to this conclusion, if only certain select facets of this matter were factored in. But consider the following, that an Israeli man had said to me in a discussion we had a couple of months ago:
An example. In 1967, the Arabs promised to destroy Israel and throw the Jews into the sea. I PERSONALLY remember mobs in Cairo and Damascus screaming "Slaughter the Jews". Israel was not occupying anything.
With this, the simplistic South Africa analogy breaks down somewhat, in that the reluctance of Israelis to allow for the creation of a Palestinian state can’t be blanketly attributed to greed and bigotry, but rather, what has a significant influence are security fears, legitimized by many past events- and reinforced though the present day, with statements such as Sinwar’s- hence my opening contention that this directly relates to the very core of the stalemate. As aliberaldoseofskepticism put it,
But you’re saying “They need a state NAO!” and I say they need to stop launching rockets.
I should clarify that Hamas’s implacable belligerence- while it may justify the inclination on the part of the Israelis to delay granting Palestinian independence- it does not justify the continued settlement expansions (I’ve strongly, explicitly criticized the settlement expansions, like for example in this recent diary). But likewise, the settlement expansions don’t justify Hamas’s continued insistence on destroying all of Israel.
My position has been accused of being “both-siderism-ist”. And, rightly so- it unabashedly is. Just because “both-siderism” doesn’t apply in some circumstances, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t apply in all circumstances.
I will concede though, that the situation is far from perfectly symmetric- it is a plain, indisputable fact that Israel is in a much more powerful position. But being more powerful doesn’t automatically make you wrong, and being less powerful doesn’t automatically make you right- and nor does being more powerful automatically make you right, or being less powerful automatically make you wrong. Being right or wrong has no correlation whatsoever with power- the only thing it’s correlated with, is whether they’re actually right or wrong.
But because of the asymmetry, I’ve heard it argued that the concerns of the Israelis do not need to be heeded, and the terms of any agreement should be thoroughly dictated by the wishes of the Palestinians. I.e.,
No you can’t turn the tables on me. Those are not the rules. You can’t just walk over to Mexico and take it over, just because you think Mexicans are dangerous. China doesn’t like India. India doesn’t like China. China can’t just go over to India because it feels like it. Neither can Israel. People have to learn how to get along in a world full of danger. Israel isn’t special. And Palestinians don’t have to live in a goddamn fucking ghetto, and be treated like rats, in their own country, just so you can feel safe. Get over yourself. You’re not better.
So according to this way of thinking, the Israelis deserve absolutely no reassurances that their nation won’t continue to be plagued by random deadly attacks against innocents (often children), even if they fully concede to every last demand of the Palestinians, to the letter…
But according to my way of thinking, BOTH “#JewishLivesMatter” AND “#ArabLivesMatter”- which I’m not seeing as being the case with the “non-both-siderism-ist” approach to this.
In a nutshell… I think the extremists on both sides– the likes of Netanyahu, and the likes of Sinwar- have dominated the scene for far too long.
I do not believe that reason should be stifled by fear of the rage of the unreasonable.
If the reasonable were to allow themselves to speak up and be heard, they would end up drowning out the extremists, and render them less relevant.
This video captures this spirit perfectly: