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The Basis for Israel
Presently, Israel exists as a homeland
for refugees from the Holocaust. About 20 years from now most Holocaust
survivors will be deceased. In another 20 to 30 years after that, most of
the children of Holocaust survivors will be deceased.
Given that
most European countries are no longer engaging in pogroms or mass
persecutions of Jews, the central cause for the expansion of the state of
Israel is beginning to crumble.
I suspect that if anyone looked
closely at the balance of trade and the budget of Israel they would find
that Israel doesn't earn enough or trade enough to support itself. The
United States government pays the main bills for Israel's
existence.
Israel has failed to create voluntary allies in the
region. Having bad relations with neighboring countries appears
depressingly normal in the recent history of Europe and the Middle East.
But usually the neighboring country beyond that has good relations.
For example, from 1815 to 1950 the
governments of France have had bad relations with the governments of
Germany. But after the final fall of Napoleon, the governments of France
have almost always had good relations with the governments of Russia.
Russia has always been the nearest large foreign power that could oppose
Germany, which could potentially help France. There's an obvious strategic
alliance.
In contrast, Israel has so antagonized the entirety of
the Middle East that it has no strategic allies. It does have
non-antagonistic relations with Egypt and Jordan.
Who's paying the
bills to those two countries to keep them off the back of Israel? The
United States, ofcourse.
One day, forty to fifty years from now,
and even before, people will begin to ask a question. It's the same
question Americans asked about the white Russian government after the
Bolshevik revolution. It's the same one asked of US support for
Nationalist China prior to its exile from the mainland in 1949. It's the
question finally asked about South Vietnam before their total collapse:
Why are we sinking money down this rat hole?
Peace or Purity: A Tale of
Two Israels
Israel can move in two possible
directions . One Israel thrives as a bright,
living and vibrant democracy where Jewish people live in freedom, and
justice, at peace and free to trade with their neighbors. All adults have
the right to vote and participate fairly and equally in public life, regardless of
their religion or ethnic background. Everyone enjoys full and equal access
to courts and equal treatment under the law. Police in such a state are
subject to the law too. All people have the right to own property without
fear of the state or fear of vigilantes supported or ignored by the state.
Human beings in
such a country live in respect of the government, not
in fear of it.
The other Israel holds itself up as
the land of the pure. This country is constantly cleansing itself of those
who don't fit the elite's vision of who is human. It may appear to be a
wholly Jewish and religious state, but in fact, being on the wrong side of
theology, ideology, or ethnicity in this purifying state can mean death.
Changing one's mind to be on the right side in such a state will not be an
option. In such a place both the powerful and the powerless exist in
constant fear of their lives. Enemies of such a state are all around with
no real allies.
Such a country would be one of naked aggression and
ruthlessness. In the name of survival it deals with any devil. It resists
no Faustian bargain. Survival of the strongest in such a state is the word
of the day. Very few people will want to visit such a place or immigrate
to it. Many people, even the children of the privileged, will do their
best to leave it. Comparison Rather than compare the latter imaginary
country to France at the height of the Terror, the Soviet Union under
Stalin, or Cambodia under Pol Pot, I would compare that second,
hypothetical, state to other, much more banal lands of intolerance and
lack of freedom.
An intolerant Israel could become
just another Pakistan, an alternate Saudi Arabia, or a Middle Eastern
Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Ivory Coast.
What's Happening Now: Justice
through Force?
Some imagine that just a little more force, a few more
humiliating checkpoints, another wall, and a few more "regrettable
examples" to show who's boss, will somehow make the survivors and
witnesses respect the government of Israel. These crimes are perpetrated
against a few guilty but a large number of innocents. The continuing
violence committed by the strongest military in the region upon a populace
which has been deliberately denied access to employment, education, trade
and travel will not make those suffering this discrimination love the
Israeli government.
This racial discrimination based on
ethnicity can only breed hatred and distorted thinking amongst its
victims. This intolerance can also create people who bide their time,
waiting for the day when Israel begins to slip so they can hasten its
demise. Already there are calls for transportation, getting rid of all
Arabs in Israel. Those on the lunatic fringe who call for this solution
imagine that they will wipe out the crime by wiping out the witnesses.
Most of Israel's neighbors are
Arabs. Will they forget what happened? If the extremists, who are clearly
a minority, persuade the voting Israeli majority to wipe out the Arab
people within their country, then what's to stop them from wiping out
their neighbors?
The war on terror is a permanent,
never-ending war. A source or cause, among many, is the conflict between
Arabs and Israelis within Israel. People will soon awaken to that conflict
as being a major driving force behind the ideology and theology of
terrorists. Will the government of Israel be moving toward the right
side of justice and freedom when people awaken? Time still exists for
Israel to right itself and become a land of peace and justice. That time
to act is now.
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