While I have always considered myself to be an enlightened and sympathetic supporter of the plight of Jewish people, after all, we have in some ways identified with the Jewish experience. I understand that the conflict between Israel and Palestine or the sons of Isaac and Ishmael, is complicated and requires a team of analysts to define , but I don’t have a team of analysts what I do have is some common sense and so when the smoke clears what remains of the conflict comes down to the unadorned fact that it is territorial, it is about the land, and one group of people (on the father’s side) telling another group of people (on the mother’s side) that they not only have no right to the land, but they are not the legitimate heir of their father therefore, they have no right to exist!
Having said that, I was outraged when Israeli commandos attacked a flotilla carrying hundreds of activists in international waters. The issues that trouble me are twofold; has Israel become the enemy they claim to fear? It is no great mystery that Israel has been at war for decades, they specialize in war, they are good at it. They have 230 nuclear weapons and everyone in and around the region is willing to concede that fact even Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s President. This latest violent incident makes me question Israel’s true motives? Did Israel really suspect weapons were being imported to Gaza? If so, why not seize the flotilla and document their findings. I suspect this is a more testosterone-driven-“bring-it-on”-ala-george-bush-dangerous show of force that manifests itself as “commando paranoia”. If it is, Israel has become a rogue nation and is dangerously out of control. As Israel’s largest, most powerful, political and financial supporter what position does that now place this country in the international community? It appears to me that an olive branch was extended to the Middle East last year when President Obama went to Cairo and called for a “New beginning in American – Muslim relationships.” President Obama talked specifically about Israel and Palestine when he said in his speech:
“…[t]hat is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest… America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs. We cannot impose peace. But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away. Likewise, many Israelis recognize the need for a Palestinian state. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true.”
I remember walking a little taller knowing that as country we were finally being represented internationally by a President that was intelligent, articulate and globally minded. No longer did we have to hide shame faced in the “Bush-es”. Later I read how President Obama’s Cairo speech was well received by everyone… with the exception of Israel who was not then and apparently is not now willing to make any concessions to relinquish a strip of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Israel that is slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC.
Is it now time for the U.S to redefine our loyalty to Israel without fear of being labeled anti-Semitic? Dr. King told us during the civil rights struggle of the 1960’s that, “The segregationists and racists make no fine distictions between the Negroe and the Jew.” American History has taught us two very different lessons. In the Jewish experience in this country, education and hard work eventually pay off therefore the future is full of possibility. Blacks, however, face a legacy of three and a half centuries of racism on American soil and the irrefutable sense that something more than dedication is required. There is hope however; it is with the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians that no longer subscribe to the teachings of hate and divisiveness but seek a global existence with the world in which they live thanks in part to the internet. It will be the same generation that mobilized the social networks for the Obama campaign, the generation that mobilized the Jena 6 movement in Louisiana, the generation that volunteered to support the hurricane Katrina victims, the generation that fights to expose the genocide taking place in Darfur, the generation that protested the Iranian election and continue to fight for the civil rights of all Iranians, the generation that volunteered aid to the victims of the earthquake that devastated Haiti , it’s the generation that protest the immigration FLAW, I mean law in Arizona, and it will be the generation of activists that were on the flotilla that Israel attacked. If we collectively do nothing should we all just put color coded stickers on our license plates? I’m just sayin’…
Peace & Blessings
No comments:
Post a Comment