Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, who left Israel last month after overseeing the training of Palestinian security forces for five years, liked to tell the story of his first assignment in the Middle East. Charged with locating Iraq’s elusive weapons of mass destruction after Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003, General Dayton found no weapons but kept coming upon something else inside Iraqi military barracks — drawings of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem being squeezed by a serpent labeled Israel.Fair enough, I suppose. But here's a thought. Had General Dayton been able to to travel back in time to any moment between, say, 400-1800 CE, to any place in Europe with Christians, he might have been surprised to see varying local expressions of the certitude that Jews had killed Christ, they hate God and God hates them, and they're despicable and hateful. He might even have been amazed that thousands of miles from the Holy Land, not to mention centuries after the event, an argument between Jesus the Jew and some other Jews felt so immediate and significant.
He was amazed to see that hundreds of miles from the Holy Land, the Arab-Israeli dispute felt so immediate and significant.
In trying to understand the unrelenting American effort to keep alive talks between Israel and the Palestinians — this last week produced the image of the Obama administration chasing the Israeli government with an enticement of more fighter jets — it is worth standing in General Dayton’s boots for a moment.
From there one can see why, in many ways, the United States feels a greater urgency and drive for the peace talks than do the Palestinians and Israelis themselves. Here, neither side believes the other is serious about real compromise and each actively cultivates a sense of historic victimhood. Washington, by contrast, deeply believes that ending this conflict is the key to unlocking its own regional strategic dilemmas.
My point being that there's a limit to how much Jews can bend over backwards to make their enemies like them. If Iraqis and Pakistanis insist on detesting Jews for being connected to Jerusalem, well, there's not much the Jews can do about it; devising a policy whereby the Jews revoke their essence so as to calm their enemies is not likely to recommend itself to the Jews.
This is not to say Israel shouldn't strive for a just peace with the Palestinians. It should. Just, for both sides; just, respecting both sides. If that can be done. The opinions of Iraqis and Pakistanis aren't part of the equation.
18 comments:
The opinions of Iraqis and Pakistanis aren't part of the equation.
Except that the opinions of Iraqis and Pakistanis, insofar as they match the opinions of Palestinians (and they do), are precisely part of the equation.
Um, no, wrong, sorry: They are precisely the equation.
I think this gen. is a little narrow-minded (well, he´s a military guy) and trying to shift to Israel only, the hate muslims have of the West, particularly the US. And to narrow simple-mindedness one should add a dint of magical thinking (well, he serves the current US administration) as if the so-called peace process was key to the problem.
How can someone be so naive??
commnter Jack Schwartz at Elder of Ziyon asked this interesting question:
good post, Elder -- the only question I have is whether the West itself really wants peace between Israel and the Arabs.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/11/ifthen-fallacy.html
Silke
Sergio
I read Giora Eiland's piece on the second intifada last night -
and more often than not I hear smart men's lectures at the Pritzker Military Library - in fact Military Historians seem to have a lot to say that is worthwhile to listen to, especially if they are of the kind who has seen combat himself.
Silke
And why would people all over Europe have been expressing that view? Because they had previously heard, and accepted, precisely that view, in just that way, from others.
Antisemitism, in some powerful and ill-understood way, is uniquely good at getting itself propagated in that manner. (It is, to use Dawkins' term, a meme whose fecundity, resilience and fidelity have few rivals.)
General Dayton was not just mistaken about the cause of those drawings, he was recruited by them and now believes their message and is propagating it exactly as though The Jews had harmed him personally, just as the authors of the cartoons and the medieval blood libels had expressed them exactly as if The Jews had harmed them personally, and so on right back to the dawn of this arch-calumny of human history.
I think Jews should care less about what their enemies think of them. There is no reason in the world they have to give up what is near and dear to them to be liked - and they shouldn't.
Drawing an analogy between the anti-Semitic drawings General Dayton saw and the prevailing anti-Semitism in Europe from 400-1800 demonstrates, once again demonstrates a complete unwillingness to take any grievances against Israel seriously. Were those specific drawings seen by Dayton inspired by anti-Jewish animus? Seems like it. Do a non-negligible number of Arabs hold anti-Semitic views? Most certainly. But to use those posters as a proxy for Arab opinion writ large is to accuse Arabs of a complete dis-ingenuousness when it comes to the Israel-Palestine issue and to ignore the fact that many, if not most, Arabs are motivated primarily by an identification with Palestinian suffering. So while some plenty of the anti-Israel animus in the Middle East is anti-Jew, not all or even most of it is. There's no comparable dual nature to the European anti-Semitism referenced by Yaacov.
anonymous at 5:10 am
If it were true that "... many, if not most, Arabs are motivated primarily by an identification with Palestinian suffering." Would they not do something about it. I mean simple things such as grant them the right to work, to live outside UN camps, etc?
I think you are projecting.
@David
This is exactly what I mean when I say an utter unwillingness to grant that any expressions of sympathy or outrage on the part of the Arabs is genuine. Are there cynical manipulations of the Palestinian situation (mostly by regimes)? Yes. Do Palestinians get caught up in intra-Arab politics and get the short end of the stick? Yes. Do their Arab benefactors sometimes lose patience with their antics? Sure. But first, some Arab countries do treat them with a modicum of respect (Syria, for example). Where they're treated like total shit (Lebanon), they're caught up in a struggle that's bigger than them (the sectarian make-up of Lebanon) or have stiffed their hosts (Kuwait).
But to conclude that the vast majority of Arabs don't identify and sympathize with Palestinians on a visceral level just shows you've never spoken with an Arab, engaged with Arab culture, or observed the Arab media.
So, to be a bit childish: No, David, I think you are insulating yourself from the uncomfortable thought that a lot of Arabs, under the influence of a significant amount of propaganda and lacking a nuanced, balanced perspective on the conflict though they may be, are genuinely pained by the situation of the Palestinians. And you are insulating yourself by dismissing it as nothing more than anti-Semitism.
....Which of course is why the Palestinians have bent over backwards, have tried their absolute hardest---and then some, have done more than is humanly possible, have pulled out all the stops to stop being oppressed, to end the oppression, to avoid being oppressed, to free themselves of their oppressor.
To find a solution to their problem.
And, it barely needs saying, to pursue Truth to the four corners of the earth.
I happen not to care what "they" feel or not feel.
I happen to be interested in their actions.
and I seem to remember numbers and numbers of actions which ever so vaguely point in the direction of highly discriminatory anti-Jewish feelings. i.e. "they" behave in a way that were I a Jew I wouldn't trust them for one second.
and no it is not their regimes - when the world came to visit Germany for the Olympics in 1936 they probably made similar claims about all the "normal" Germans which one shouldn't mix with their regime.
Silke
Anonymous
What did I write that made you imagine that I dismiss Arab behavior as antiSemitic? I asked a serious question and your answer was not responsive.
I think that the Palestinians are the Jews of Araby. A very talented people who have contributed significantly to Arab countries when they have been so allowed, but dispensable a a moments notice. The sympathy on the Arab street does not extend very well to action.
You should explain to me, slowly and with simple words, why Palestinians in camps in Lebanon are not allowed to emigrate? why Jordan, with a Palestinian queen, is canceling Palestinian citizenship? why the Palestinians were persecuted in Iraq after the downfall of Sadam? why the Palestinians have done nothing to empty the camps in the West Bank and Gaza, even though lots of money is available.
Even more, you should persuade me that I must care more than a horse's patootie about opinions in the Arab streets while knaves do their best to separate me from the living.
I think that in spite of all, one should be sensitive regarding the Palestian tragedy: that they have failed, alas, to push the Jews into the sea.
That they have continued to fail.
An unmitigated tragedy.
To their credit, their Arab brothers (not to mention so, so many others) feel their pain, feel their indignity, feel their failure, wish them every success.
But faith. The Palestinians are still trying; and who knows? Maybe Obama will be their Great Enabler?
David
a great part of Arab antipalestinian sentiments was caused by political errors from Palestinian leaders.
1970's: "Black September" Arafat trying to usurp the throne of the Hashemite King.
Abu Nidal kills a minister of Egypt.
1980's Arafat destabilizes Lebanon
1990's Arafat supports Saddam Hussein
2000's Hamas offends Egypt by stopping reconcilation with Fatah.
Who had to deal with the cosequences? The Palestinians, of course.
300.000 were thrown out of Kuwait,
several thousands were shot by Jordan. Egypt's accusation of Palestinian treachery led to massive discrimination.
Regards, André
Anon/André,
The difficulty with your argument is that Arabs seem to be "motivated primarily by an identification with Palestinian suffering" only to the extent that it can be blamed on Jews. It could be that the Lebanese neglect and abuse the Palestinians in Lebanon as a side effect of Lebanese sectarianism — but that doesn't explain why Egyptians or Jordanians, say, aren't incensed by the foul conditions in the Lebanese camps. Jordanians may be down on Palestinians in their country due to memories of Black September — but why aren't concerned Syrians and Saudis screaming bloody murder about Jordan rescinding their citizenship? To say nothing of the general lack of empathy for other Arabs and other Muslims suffering throughout the Middle East and Maghreb. Saying that Arabs have tender feelings for the treatment of Palestinians by Israelis begs the question why, when it is so out of general character.
André
if a lot is due to Palestinian leadership, what then about the time between 1948 and your first example in 1970, that's 22 years
what was it due to in those 22 years?
which is a whole generation, isn't it?
Was that time span used to increase numbers with the help or compliance of UNRWA (see Martha Gelhorn on it) so they could become a more impressive lever?
Was there a consensus that if one left the problem to fester and multiply, it might come in useful one day? and if there was who agreed to this "rosy" prospect?
Silke
Anonymous November 23, 2010 5:10 AM
is to accuse Arabs of a complete dis-ingenuousness when it comes to the Israel-Palestine issue and to ignore the fact that many, if not most, Arabs are motivated primarily by an identification with Palestinian suffering
From the early 1950s when the British general Galloway in charge of UNWRA noted, as quoted by an American Congressional report
It is perfectly clear than the Arab nations do not want to solve the Arab refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront against the United Nations, and as a weapon against Israel.
Then, by way of emphasis he said: Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die.
A Tale of Two Galloways
The congressional reference id included in the above.
To the many UN resolutions against Israel's attempts at constructing decent housing and infrastructure in the Gaza strip after 1967 for example,
to the "Three Nos" of Khartoum
to the current situation where the PA keeps the "Refugees" confined to a squalid camp in Nablus, West Bank, with no rights
is indicative that vocal identification of suffering is either taqiya or plain crocodile tears.
The plight of those refugees could have been resolved years ago as has that of the millions of other refugees around the world, but as it involves Jews it has been allowed to fester and suppurate.
The principal of the school then spoke up. "In our school, we teach the children from their first year about their country and how it was stolen from them. I tell my son of seven. You will see: one day a man of eighty and a child so high, all, all will go home with arms in their hands and take back their country by force."
Martha Gelhorn October 1961
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/the-arabs-of-palestine/4203/
Silke
Post a Comment