It bothers me a bit when people don’t cut Israel any slack. I suppose I understand it – there are rather awful charges being leveled against the country in regards to their policies concerning the Palestinians. But given the circumstances, I think they are doing pretty ok. Not perfect. But who could be perfect in that scenario?
Wednesdays I have been meeting with friends at McMenamin’s – a local establishment here in Portland – for beer and food and conversation. It’s been a lot of fun. Last night one of my dear friends asked me what I thought about Israel’s Palestinian policy. I rattled off a number of facts: the exponential increase in Palestinian growth, representation in government and equal rights.
Palestinians want to live in Israel. That says quite a bit, considering.
People accuse Israel of being anti-Palestinian. I would argue Israel is merely pro-self-preservation. As an Israeli, I would be hesitant to sell my land to a Palestinian. Not because I don’t like Palestinians but because Palestinians may not sell land to Israelis under pain of death. It would greatly behoove Israel to not let Palestinians develop prime real estate due to the aforementioned penalty. However, because Israel is the bigger person, Israelis are allowed to sell land to Palestinians.
The countries surrounding Israel treat Palestinians even more poorly than that!
Jordan recently passed legislation saying that Palestinians were not allowed to purchases houses any longer within Jordanian borders. And beyond that, if they own land or houses Palestinians are not allowed to pass it on to their children as inheritance! Not a lot of motivation to live in Jordan.
The Palestinians are not a people group. Palestine has never in the history of the world been ruled by Palestinians. It’s tantamount to be Oregonian or Angelino. It’s where you are from, not your heritage. Also, there wasn’t even a Palestinian nationalist movement until after World War I and didn’t gain momentum until after the Six Day War.
Human rights in Arab countries are wholly atrocious compared to Israel. There’s no contest. Hello, women aren’t even allowed to vote in many Arab countries. You want to do a little research? Compare how Arabs treat Israelis in their countries to how Israel treats Arabs. Arab countries hardly treat their own citizens with much decency if those citizens are female. You won’t find a single human rights report that reads differently than that.
Recently, I was pretty mortified when I found out that a friend was saying that Israel was trying to exterminate Palestinians. First of all, Israel is doing a terrible job with their extermination because the population of Gaza specifically is growing. Please don’t say it’s Israelis who are growing the population of Gaza. That basically means that you believe Israel can’t tell the difference between Israelis and Arabs within its own borders. No one that incompetent could have managed such a disputed piece of land so well with such overwhelming odds. Clearly Israel knows which of its citizens are Jewish and which are Arab.
If Israel is treating Arabs so poorly, why are they lining up at the gates to move there? I think there has been a disconnect between rhetoric and reality, here. Regardless of what the news media or Palestinians are saying, Arabs still are trying to move to Israel.
Israel has strict rules in place, yes. If you are Palestinian and you leave for more than three years (or four?) you can’t return to the country. Given the propensity Arabs have for suicide bombings, I think that rule is justified. Not fair, but the world isn’t fair.
No, Israel hasn’t been perfect. But seeing as Israel is being run by humans, perfection isn’t possible.
For the record, I’m not anti-Palestinian. If at some point Palestine opens to international adoption, I will be elated. (I really want to adopt a little girl from Palestine.) I just don’t believe Israel is anti-Palestine. They are simply involved in their own self-preservation, just like every other country in the world.
Would love your thoughts on the conflict. There isn’t enough space to write everything I wanted to say about this topic.
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4 comments:
The conflict is as old as time. Never in history has there been a prolonged peace. It's the ultimate in delusion and hubris to believe that a leader (any leader) alone can bring peace to that part of the world.
There are essentially no human rights in the Muslim world beyond those granted under theocracy (as interpreted by one strongman or another). Given the choice, I'd live in Israel - faults and all.
Human rights as we in the West understand them, do not exist under Islamic law.
I'm with you, given the choice of options in the Middle East, I'd rather live in Israel.
I agree. As a feminist who often freqents feminist sites (which, unfortunately, are typically leftist-only), it's disturbing how little slack Israel is cut by many of my former (and current) running buddies.
I also found the recent statements of Naomi Wolf (backed up by a number of feminists at least in part) defending the burka to be depressing.
There are plenty of human rights in Islam, many of the older customs have survived in the "arab" world ( aren't israeli's technically arab). But i think the palestinians really got the short end of the stick, they aren't welcome in neighboring jordan, they had their lands taken from them (I mean they were living there, the formation of israel would be like the native americans trying to get back their lands from the rest of the U.S. ya like anyone is going to let them) I understand the need for a jewish state, but why couldn't it have been formed in Europe instead.
Since we can't change the past, the palestinians should except the fact that they have lost the war and should make the best of what they have. But does Israel have to rub it in their faces by building on their settlements, blocking almost all trade from the area, and then the imposing the only way some palestinians can make a living is through working for Israel. (Btw very few arabs want to live in israel, and those that do feel that they have a right to the land- i feel they should just let bygones be bygones)
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