Israel

Christopher Ebbe, Ph.D. 12-23

I am completely willing to guarantee the borders and safety of Israel from all attacks, but it is my opinion that the Israeli government could tomorrow, even unilaterally, divest themselves of some of the occupied territories and establish the formation of an independent Palestinian state.  I fault them for not doing this because they could do it without threat to Israel’s existence.  I understand that there is much fear within Israel about their safety and much reluctance to have a functioning Palestinian state next door, but with U. S. guarantees against all aggression, I believe that they would serve the cause of world peace by accepting the establishment of that Palestinian state and allowing it to happen.  This should be done whether or not the Palestinian Authority “accepts” the details, since if it is a fait accompli, then the Palestinian Authority (or whatever organization is in charge) will be forced to pick up the pieces and do the best that it can with the situation.  This does not even require pre-agreement on what is to be done about Jerusalem, which can be worked out later.  The establishment of a Palestinian state will take much of the energy to destroy Israel away from those militants who now dedicate their lives to destroying Israel. 

There are those within Israel who believe that Israel is chosen by God to rule the world and who therefore aim to take over adjoining territories as much as possible (such as all of the West Bank).  This attitude will not serve Israel well in the long run.  All peoples have the human right to choose their own governments.  Israel has already aggressed enough to take what it has now, and that aggression may be grudgingly acceptable by the rest of the world due to what happened to Jews in the Holocaust, but further aggression should not be acceptable.  Israel has no right either to claim that it deserves to have the same boundaries that it did under Roman rule, just as no other country can justify taking over territories that is had decades or centuries ago just because it had them back then (such as China in Tibet).

Let’s also be very clear about the difference between criticizing Israel and anti-Semitism.  They are not at all the same.  Any thinking person can legitimately criticize short-sighted or even racist Israeli attitudes and policies while at the same time being highly supportive of Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for Jews (and therefore never fully democratic) and highly committed to defending that right.  It is unfortunate that Israel came into existence through taking what was someone else’s land at the time, but the situation of Jews in the world in the preceding centuries gives some justification for us now for leaving things the way they are.

In terms of the current state of war with Hamas, the Hamas aggression of 10-7-23 is absolutely to be condemned, even if we understand at the same time the degree of unhappiness and hatred among Palestinians that has been the product of Israel’s policy of appearing to stay out of Gazan affairs while purposely keeping Hamas at its current relatively low power level (as the best alternative at the time as Israel saw things).  The Israeli policy is now reaping for it the results of its inaction on the two-state issue over the past decades. 

The Hamas strategy of embedding its presence inextricably with the daily lives of the citizens of Gaza so as to protect itself is partly responsible in a moral sense for the 20,000 Palestinian civilian deaths (so far) that have occurred, just as Israel is partly responsible for those deaths since it is doing the direct killing.  Both sides can argue that they are “justified,” but those arguments are little comfort to the friends and relatives of those killed, on both sides.  An immediate ceasefire can only be acceptable if Hamas would agree to leave Gaza; otherwise Israel “must” eliminate Hamas in Gaza.  Hamas appears to have chosen possible suicide for itself in Gaza for the hope of inducing other Palestinian factions such as Hezbollah to go to war against Israel and the hope of staving off the current trend toward Arab countries coming to some détente with Israel.