Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Back to Middle East Justice

I wanted to continue with this thread after such a forceful post on Saturday.  I will be focusing on the Middle East and terrorism for a the next many posts. 

I don't share the religious comradery  for Israel nor the hyped paranoia against Arab countries that the rest of the Western political world obviously has.  The dynamics the West has with the Arab world is key to our most recent wars and the threat of terrorism around the globe.  Where to start this conversation, though?  Let's start very simply from the beginning.  The creation of Israel.  I cannot say the creation of Israel and Palestine, because Palestinians do not have a nation state to identify with (and that is part of the problem).

Why was Israel created?
1.  After WWII, it became really unpopular for the dominant powers of the world to have imperial colonies, so they countries systematically set 'free' previously colonized geographic regions...one of them being Britain's Palestinian Mandate. 

2.  Antisemitism was rampant, before, during and after the holocaust- and not just in Germany, but around the world.  Many countries refused repatriation of Jewish people and many Jewish people feared to return to previously hostile communities. 

So, the international community just DECIDED to create the state of Israel.  Protests of the Palestinian people were known, but no diplomatic efforts were made to resolve these seeds of terror before they magically created the new homeland for the Jewish people.

There are many states which were created this way, leaders of dominant nations in a board room with a map and ruler just carving out states without thinking about the social aspect of what they were doing.  This strategy is the root of many war torn nations. 

So the question I pose is, "Was the initial action of creating the state of Israel a just action toward the Palestinians?" 

Let's just start there.

2 comments:

  1. Okay, well, i just lost my reply, so i will try to make this one shorter. 1st: it is ludicrous to say that because jewish people lived in the area thousands of years ago, that they have some right to it now. the maps have changed A LOT over the centuries. This case applies only to Jewish people based on religious bias. 2nd: Israelis themselves are uncomfortable with Zionist leadership, and many moderate voices and dissenting voices are silenced in Israel. Also, discrimination/inhumane practices are wrong no matter the circumstance. Third: who exactly should create this other state for palestine? This is just going to displace more people and put demographic/cultural stress in more places. I seem to recollect this being talked about though. I don't have specific info now, i will have to data mine that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So, with new information: I did not know that the Jewish Congress had formed in the early 1900's with the intent of buying land in Palestine and creating a Jewish nation there. Apparently this is Tel Aviv, which was a Jewish city before WWII. Britain had a hand in this, especially in the UN resolution to create the State of Israel...so politics go. It was just one of many moves that usurped the power of Middle Eastern states for the benefit of the west, hence- terrorist.

    ReplyDelete