Power
Posted: January 26th, 2009 | Author: noam | Filed under: this is personal | Tags: Barak Obama, John Carlos, Olympics, Peter Norman, Tommie Smith | 9 Comments »The famous Black Power salute in the 1968 Olympics is one of my favorite news photos. It is one of these rare moments where a simple, spontaneous act carries so much political meaning. Like the sole protester standing in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square. I probably saw it hundreds of times, and it still deeply inspires me.
Even if you have never seen it before and you have no idea of the political context, this scene remains extremely powerful: the black Mexican night, the black tracksuit of the athletes, the black gloves raised and the bowed heads of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, winners of gold and bronze medals in the 200 meters race. They only had one pair of gloves – that’s why smith raises his right hand and Carlos his left. Carlos has his tracksuit top unzipped. He did it to show solidarity with all blue collar workers in the U.S.
This act cost Smith and Carlos a suspension from the US team, their expulsion from the games and later on, decades of vicious criticism. Their lives have changed forever, and not for the better. It was no surprise then, that not one of the 11,028 athletes in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing had the courage (or the will) to protest the hosts’ poor human rights record. People find these kind of acts to be “weird” or “unprofessional”, which really means “scary” and “dangerous”.
The third man in the 1968 picture is Australian Peter Norman. He also wore the badge of The Olympic Project for Human Rights (the black protest organization established before the games). Norman, who also suffered harsh criticism for this act, died of a heart attack in 2006. Here is a photo of Smith and Carlos carrying his coffin.
Yesterday a friend sent me this photo (taken by Stan Grossfeld of the Boston Globe). Tommie Smith and John Carlos are hugging with their wives as they watch Barack Obama sworn as the President of the United States.
Wow, I didn’t know this picture. It’s truly powerful and touching. We need more people like these guys.
How is racist show boating good? As representatives of America they disgraced our country and our people.
It was not a spontaneous act either, it was planned and choreographed before the event. It was a selfish and racist expression of black power, which fosters an insidious form of acceptable discrimination.
Michael, I understand that you don’t agree with this act politically, but I fail to see why you call it “racist”.
Noam,
I think we can agree that it is highly inappropriate to use the Olympic Games as a forum to make a political statement, for advertising, or as any other personal outlet. Imagine the chaos if the games were to become an exhibition for self interest.
Now, while you are confused as to why I call the act racist, I am just as confused as to why you fail to see the obvious racism. If a white athlete gave a “white power” salute or a Nazi salute would you be offended? I am mostly white and I would, just as I am offended by red power symbolism (I am also part native American).
Reverse racism is a despicable form of acceptable discrimination and a disservice to the individual efforts of all citizens to end racism. The recent election here is a classic case. Black and Hispanic Americans colluded to seize power from white Americans, they turned out in record numbers to vote for a black candidate, yet it is unacceptable to point this out unless you are willing to risk being branded a racist yourself. In America we have all “black” beauty pageants, ie… Miss Black America Pageant, Miss Black United States Pageant, Miss Black American Princess Pageant, Miss Black Deaf America Pageant, Little Miss Black Pageant, Black Teen Pageant, Miss Black Universe, and 50 states have Black Pageants, we also have acceptable racist institutions like the NAACP, the Urban League, the Black Congressional Caucus, Affirmative-Action, black only colleges and scholarships, Black Entertainment Television, dozens of black only magazines, the Black Press, National Black Chamber of Commerce, National Black Child Development Institute, and dozens of others. By contrast we do not have a single “white” only institution. Because whites happen to be the majority it is assumed that they are going to discriminate in spite of the laws preventing whites from taking pride in their own race.
I argue that the blow back from a white power salute would have been swift and harsh. Why? The only persecutions we seem to identify with are the ones sanctioned by politically correct mutants crusading against [insert power hating cause here].
I haven’t read much of your blog, but from what I have it is obvious that you have deemed the Arabs calling themselves Palestinians to be the victims of Israeli aggression. This is a virulent form of discrimination in itself. By disempowering them and portraying them as objects deserving sympathy you are perpetuating a culture dependent upon the “evil Jew” for its survival. The question is then, what motivates you to do so?
I think it is because America and Israel are suffering from what author Shelby Steele calls “white guilt”, http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008318 “Today words like “power” and “victory” are so stigmatized with Western sin that, in many quarters, it is politically incorrect even to utter them. For the West, “might” can never be right. And victory, when won by the West against a Third World enemy, is always oppression. But, in reality, military victory is also the victory of one idea and the defeat of another. Only American victory in Iraq defeats the idea of Islamic extremism. But in today’s atmosphere of Western contrition, it is impolitic to say so.” Israel suffers from the same malaise. Israeli victory in Gaza would defeat the idea of Islamic extremism, but guilt ridden patsies are so burdened by the false idea that Israel exists at the sufferance of the Arab that victory is not achievable. Victory over the Arabs becomes oppression no matter how much provocation Israel must bear. As a Captain in the IDF I am curious as to why you hold the views you do.
Micheal
First, there was a Nazi salute in the Olympics – in 1936 the German athletes gave the Salute as they were passing in front of the fuhrer. And the hypocrisy is that that time the IOC did nothing and said nothing about it. That goes to show that politics was always part of the games. The only question is who was powerful enough to say what’s legitimate and what is not. And it is not a long way from declaring the games “have nothing to do with politics” to the one of the most shameful decisions by the IOC ever – the continuation of the 1972 games immediately after the murder of 11 members of the Israeli delegation, because “the games had to go on”.
A few years ago i would have argued that there is no such thing as “reverse racism” but I’m not that naive anymore. Yes, even a discriminated minority can be racist. But that’s not what the 1968 salute meant: it was an act of protest, and while i don’t think any protest at any place is justified or legitimate, I do think that blacks in the 60’s were discriminated in the US, and that this particular protest was just.
You touched a delicate point in the power relations debate in Israel. Yes, i do think that Arabs (both citizens of Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank) suffer from discrimination and aggression (in the Palestinians’ case). I know that this position carry a sort of disempowerment of them. But first, in the local reality as i see it, they ARE weak and disempowered. This is the reality, and I’m not totally post modern as to say there is no such thing. Second, I’m an Israeli, and I write as an Israeli, fighting to change the politics of his own country. I leave the Arabs to think what sort of politics and political discourse will be best for them.
As for your last remark, believe me, the occupation is very real. I have been to almost every Palestinian city and seen it with my own eyes. It is unjust and cruel. It has nothing to do with a sense of guilt on my behalf. It is an urgent problem. Not only for Palestinians, but also for the Israelis. If we don’t find a solution – and fast – we risk the existence of the state of Israel.
Noam,
Your mention of the Nazi salute in the 36 Olympics is a red herring. The official Olympic salute is a variant of the Roman salute, which resembles a Hitler salute. It has been banned since WWII because of the Nazis, but before then Americans, French, Germans, and others used it. You took what I said out of context. In 1936 a Nazi salute did not carry the full symbolic weight of the horror of the Holocaust and racist supremacism behind it as we understand it today. In the context I used it would be repulsive, just as a black power salute is a repulsive, divisive, and racist gesture that dishonors the nation.
Blacks of the 1960s were discriminated against in America, so were Native Americans, homosexuals, and other groups, but the acceptable discrimination that followed through legislation caused more harm, it was collective punishment against guiltless people to atone for sins of the past at the sufferance of the present. Remember it was white Americans that spilled blood to free the slaves and it was government that forced segregation on the nation under protest from millions.
Your acceptance of a racist gesture leads me to believe you are confusing the civil rights movement with the black power movement, they are not the same and often were antagonistic to each other. Perhaps the Australian sprinter did not understand it either. Unlike the civil rights movement, the black power movement incited confrontation and militancy, neither of which was justified after the slow but steady progress seen by 1968. Further, racism and exclusion is never justified regardless of color and regardless if others are doing it too. The black power salute symbolized everything that is wrong with racial grand standing, hate mongering, revenge, and intolerance. Regardless of how much racial discrimination blacks faced there was no justification for more of the same.
I also think you missed my point about mislabeling the Arabs as victims. In America I am nominally a member of a minority group that receives pity from well meaning dupes, much as you are pitying the Arabs. By disempowering those you deem the victim you are engaging in acceptable discrimination. When the Arabs refuse to work for an acceptable civil society and engage in violence you blame Israel first. To you the Arabs are the perpetual victim and forgiven for what they do. It is demeaning to those you feel sorry for and it is counterproductive in promoting social responsibility. This refusal to demand the Arabs take responsibility for their own actions is getting us nowhere.
The Arabs are not suffering from aggression, if they were they would be swept aside in days. They are suffering from the political scheming from their leaders and their masters in far off lands. And they are also suffering greatly from people like you who refuse to see them as anything more than irresponsible children. The West has offered so much to them for free they are addicted to begging for handouts and expect it. They recklessly produced far more children than they can support, and they did it because we are willing to feed them, and there is no end in sight to the aid. Meanwhile they plot murder and fantasize of a blood bath for the Jews. Why? Why do we lower the bar for them every year? If they don’t deserve a state why are we pushing them into one and why are we pushing Israel into risking more and more of its security? When Yossi Olmert came to my town and delivered a speech I got to the microphone and asked him why. Why accept the creation of a terrorist sanctuary on land that was set aside to be a safe haven for Jews? Once it happens there will be no going back and the world will arm them to the teeth. What are you prepared to do then? He refused to answer me. He sputtered and stuttered but couldn’t bring himself to tell the audience. So what about you, Noam. If Hebron goes to the Arabs will the ancient Jewish community there be able to live in peace? Are you suffering from Stockholm Syndrome so badly that you have deluded yourself into thinking they want to live as neighbors with dhimmi peoples like Jews? You can’t ignore their politics or the locus of their hatred, which is their religion. To fail to understand your enemy is dereliction of duty. The lives of too many gentle and tolerant Jews depend on making the right decisions. Giving them more aid so they can recklessly produce even more children and spend their money on bombs is not helping the situation. Blaming Israel for Arab commission of crimes is not helping. Demanding they stand on their own two feet will. Ending the cycle of dependence and the stigma of shame it fosters will.
No the occupation is not real, Noam. What you witness is the result of misplaced pity and a failure to treat men as men. By absolving the Arabs of responsibility and accepting their claims without verification they have been able to avoid the hard work of building a civil society and have been laughing at our stupidity the whole time while they play political games. If they have a legitimate cause to claim Judea and Samaria, where was it before 1967? The answer is clearly racism and religious bigotry. The Arabs on the east bank accepted Hashemite invaders that brought dictatorial monarchy without a complaint. Have you read the original Palestine Charter of 1964? In article 24 it states that the PLO did not recognize authority over the west bank or Gaza. Only when Jews control the land do they suddenly discover a homeland. Why do you accept that without question? Nothing Jews are doing to Arabs is by choice. The Arabs, through their actions, have forced the situation upon themselves and on the Israelis. How many times do you get searched? How many public places have metal detectors and security to enter? How many Jews must carry weapons? They don’t go around armed here in America. The Arabs have imposed everything on Israel, from the extra expense to the hardened attitudes of normally peaceful people. The problem is the Arab, his shame/honor dynamic, and more specifically, his Muslim leadership demanding intolerance and jihad. There is nothing you can do as an Israeli (I assume Jew?) except see to your own self defense and stop feeling guilt or a sense of responsibility for the actions of your enemy.
Sorry I ramble, do not correct spelling, and seem pushy. I genuinely want to understand your point of view and I only want what is best for everyone involved. I advocate for tough love for the Arabs, but tough love will force them to redirect their energy or fail. And if they fail, so be it. Propping up a failure and dressing it up as something it is not is dishonest.
Micheal,
I’ll leave the debate about affirmative action aside, and only say that I don’t agree with you: I think both affirmative action and political correctness – thought they caused some injustice, as you rightly noted – have brought The West to a better place. The fact that you have a Black president – while Israel never had a Sephardi PM, and only one Arab minister – proves that racial discourse here is yet to develop.
I also believe that “Black pride” (or “Arab pride”, or “Jewish pride”) ideas might help a community, though I agree with you that there is a line one should not be tempted to cross between talking about the discrimination of the past and putting oneself in a position of an eternal victim, relived from responsibility for its own actions (that’s why, for example, I don’t think the occupation justifies suicide bombing against Israeli civilians).
As for your perceptions of the political situation in the Middle East: First, every study – not just from left-leaning groups – shows that the Arab population in Israel is discriminated in budgets, access to education, health services, housing etc. It is enough to say that although Arabs make 20 percent of the population in Israel, there wasn’t any Arab city or settlement built since the state was born, and many Jewish cities do everything in their power not to allow Arabs to live in them.
As for the Palestinian problem, I don’t think anyone still argues that Israel didn’t expel most of the Arabs during the independence war of 48. So even if you think establishing the state of Israel was just – and I think so – you can’t deny the state’s partial responsibility for the Palestinian problem. It doesn’t mean that Israel has no right to exist – like some people think – only that we should take part in solving the Palestinian problem.
As for the West Bank: I think you don’t judge the situation there correctly. The Israeli occupation is not only about security. It’s about the settlements. Most of the military force there is engaged in actions that has to do with securing roads and protecting settlements than actually fighting terrorism. And again, whatever reason it has, the occupation is very real. Palestinians are not free to do almost anything: not build a house, not drive a car, not plant a tree, without the Army’s approval.
But even if I buy into your line of though, I wonder, what kind of solution are you offering? The situation in the West Bank and Gaza is very unstable, but basically there are two future options: either we annex the land, or we hand it back to someone – the Palestinians, the international community, the Jordanians. You think we should keep the land. But what do we do with the Palestinians? If we give them equal rights, we risk losing the Jewish majority. The first elections will be the end of the Jewish state. And if we don’t give them rights, we are replacing our democracy with Apartheid. That, I think, will be the end of the state as well. So, what do you suggest?
Noam,
You are making some of this more complicated than it is. On the one hand you agree that affirmative action and political correctness causes injustice, but you praise the results of reverse discrimination nonetheless. How is lowering standards for one race or sex bettering society? It does the opposite. It fosters a division that will never close so long as a system of entitlement prevents a color blind society from forming. Here is an example of affirmative action harming the country: Female firefighters do not have to meet the same physical qualifications male firefighters do. If your home caught fire and your wife was inside, which minimum strength and agility tested fireman would you want to break the door down and find her needing to be carried out before the house collapses? Except to promote racial division I can not think of a single positive byproduct of affirmative action. What does it matter to a color blind society whether our leader is black? The Obama election proves that racism is not dead. Blacks turned out to vote in record numbers. He does not deserve the position he is in and the only reason why we know his name is the color of his skin. What is to envy in that?
I’m glad you don’t think suicide bombing is justified. The Arabs you champion disagree with you, though. If I recall the Pew report on global attitudes correctly, the vast majority of them think suicide bombing is justified…as is shooting, stabbing, bludgeoning, and chopping Jews to pieces. And this includes many Arab Israeli citizens as well. Israeli Arabs stood and cheered as Hezbollah rockets streaked overhead towards predominantly Jewish communities. The question is, in your condemnation of the IDF and the security measures Israel is forced to take to protect the vulnerable members of its society what happens to the back drop of terror in your writing? People reading your words get the impression that Israel’s actions exist in a vacuum on their own as you condemn without providing context.
Now, I won’t argue that there is no discrimination against Arabs in Israel. What I will argue is that there is a limitation to tolerance. Tolerating intolerance crosses a line that creates resentment amongst the Jewish victims. Israel has lived under the threat of extermination by its Arab neighbors since it was reborn, meaning the main problem is not a demand for equality as much as it is a rejection of the right of Jews to determine their own fate. In fact, the Arabs have rejected peace at every turn. I argue that most of the discrimination you see against Arabs is based on trust issues. The Arabs are rightly seen as a fifth column due to their own actions and rejectionist stance. They say as much themselves. Unless you site some specific reports it is hard for me to respond further, but I can say that the Arabs view integration as a threat. If they refuse to be part of Israel, and work against Israel under the current situation, discrimination against them is a defensive mechanism that must be placed in the context of self preservation to understand. I’m surprised more Jews do not snap under the pressure. There is much to be admired.
As to your characterization of the flight of the Arabs as expulsion, I strongly disagree with you. Arab villages were left alone if they did not offer resistance and if they did not harbor terrorists. There is a long list of writers that disagree with you, Efraim Karsh, Netenel Lorch, Eli Hertz, Samuel Katz, Mitchel Bard, and others.. But what is most disturbing to me is your inability to allow blame to be accepted by those who deserve it. Not a single Arab refugee would have been formed had the Arabs not chosen war. This is the single most important factor in the equation. Without the war of annihilation there are only Jewish refugees fleeing for their lives throughout the Middle East. Without the war launched against the Jews there would be no Arab refugees. Israel has no responsibility for these refugees. All the Arabs on the Israeli side of the demarcation line when the dust of war settled were given citizenship and immediately became the only free and equal Arabs anywhere in the region. Arabs confined other Arabs to camps and kept them there. What is so hard to understand about this? No Arab war, no Arab refugees. Where is Israel’s fault? In defending herself? Where is the flaw in the Israeli leadership in 1948 that offered immediate reunification of 100,000 Arabs, but found the offer quickly rejected at Khartoum? And more to the point, how many Arabs even owned land that they left behind? Most were tenent farmers working someone elses land. What did they really lose? Only a tiny fraction of them owned private property and most of these big land owners were the first to leave the area when it looked like trouble was coming. The majority of the Arabs claiming to be refugees lost absolutely nothing except for pride at being defeated by what most of them considered effeminate Jews, and even fewer of the ones that actually left are even alive now. The Arab refugee issue is only an issue because the Arab world has demanded it remain an issue. There is miles and miles of open land in the Middle East, if the Arabs cared about the welfare of their brothers and sisters they should have allowed them to become citizens instead of using them like pawns to keep the war slowly burning.
As to Judea and Samaria, I have this question for you to answer. What prevents Jews from living there? If the acquisition of land in war is illegal than Jordan and Egypt acquired land illegally in 1948, meaning Israel has just as much right to title there as anyone else, even better, since the treaty that established the right to immigrate gave the right for Jews to settle on land anywhere inside the borders of the Mandate for Palestine, including what became Jordan. For political reasons the world has ignored the fact that Jordan and Israel established the center of the Jordan river as the border between the two countries. So when you complain that Israel also defends Jews you refer to as “settlers” it makes no sense at all that you would complain about restrictions on Arabs when they are trying to kill Jews. Again you seem incapable of demanding the Arabs take responsibility for their own actions. Jews have every legal right to live in Judea and Samaria and have every right to expect their government will provide them protection from genocidal Arabs. Doesn’t it speak volumes that the Arab civilians do not need similar protection from Jews on the scale that Jews need protecting? Why would you ignore this in your rush to blame Israel for everything first? Hold the Arabs to the same standards you hold Jews. Stop feeling whatever sense of guilt or pity for them. It is demeaning and counterproductive.
Ahhh, your question is ‘what is my solution?’. That is the Holy Grail of conflict resolution isn’t it? I have an opinion, logic to back it up with, and speculation on the outcome, but who am I to say? I once suggested to General Kochavi briefly that Israel should embrace a policy of self preservation. Though he seemed curious, I am not sure he understood. Here is the deal. I have no doubt that Jews can live peacefully amongst any people on earth. You have done so for two thousand years, though not by choice. Muslims on the other hand, can’t. Where Muslims are in contact with other cultures there is strife. For instance there is Muslim aggression against the Buddhists of Thailand, the Hindus of India, the Christians of Yugoslavia, and the Animists of Sudan. And in case you are thinking it, I am not anti-Muslim, I could care less what others believe so long as their beliefs do not impose on me. The problem is that the death for Allah culture is motivated by Islam and it is Islam that is a supremacist religion that has no tolerance for others. This is why Jews fear the demographics. In general, Israeli Muslims do not identify with Jewish Israel. They may prefer the Israeli freedoms and standard of living but they are not Israelis at heart. How can they be? Israel’s Independence Day celebrates the defeat of the Arabs, the story of Israel is a story of Jewish triumph, and Israel is the Jewish state. The non citizen Arabs in the disputed territory shouting death to the Jews are at least honest in their open hatred. So the question is do the Arabs have the right to have as many children as possible at the expense of the Jewish state in their effort to use democracy to destroy Israel? I think most reasonable people, including myself, want to live in peaceful coexistence, but the Arabs do not share that view, nor have they ever, which leaves a painful reality which the world ignores. The Arabs have no intention of living with the Jews. The Israeli Arabs have no choice for the moment and the non citizen Arabs are openly at war. If the opportunity arises to destroy Israel both groups will seize on it. That leaves two people that can not live together as one under any natural system. So what can we do? Since it is not immoral to separate two people that can’t live together the only question that remains is which side should go. Gambling with demographics and borders that can not be defended are wishful thinking to me. So I offer an actual solution, which will bring pain and war in the short term but peace in the long term. Israel must compel the Arabs to go and live in any of the other 22 Arab countries and leave the Jews in Israel alone. I think it is time to give the Elon plan a hard look.
Many stop listening after hearing these words. The problem is everything else has been tried. The bar is so low for the Arabs to become responsible members of the world community it is beyond pathetic. The Arabs do not deserve another state and Israel does not deserve a hostile population that will work from within to destroy the only Jewish sanctuary. We accept that Jews will be ethnically cleansed from Arab land, we accept that Arabs will target and murder Jewish civilians, we accept that any new state would not be free, but we can’t accept that Jews deserve a secure place to live and be free? Transferring the Arabs to the east bank, which is Arab Palestine does not mean violence, any violence would be an Arab choice. You are prepared to see Jews be evicted from their homes, but somehow it is an outrage when Arabs are asked to leave. Why the double standard? I say offer an incentive to leave and do it soon.
Michael,
I think the logic behind affirmative action is that the society is not color blind, Not really, and we can’t make it so for the time being, so there is no point acting like we are color blind.
I’m not familiar with the firefighters issue, but from my experience I know that the problems is never as simple as you put it. You start to look into things, and than you find out they don’t let women become fire truck drivers as well. This has nothing to do with breaking into a burning building, So you ask why, and they tell you that it happened once that a driver had to break into a house, so we need him to be a strong guy, etc. and than you look deeper into things and you find out that no women has ever been some sort of administrative manager in the fire department – so you ask why and they come out with another reason, and we end up with women being only secretaries.
Again, I don’t know if that’s the way things worked in your example, but I know places it did happen like this. For example, for some reason, Israel’s power company never hired Arabs. There was some sort of security pretext for the matter, but when civil rights organizations started to look into things, it turned out there was no reason at all.
AS FOR THE ISSUE OF Arabs attitude towards terrorism: I don’t know the world figures, but I know Israeli society quite well. I challenge you to present one poll that shows most Arabs citizens of Israel support suicide bombing, or targeting civilians in any way. BTW, there were some polls within the Jewish population concerning targeting Palestinian civilians, and the results weren’t so pleasant (but they don’t come to a majority as well, so I still have hope for the region…)
During the Lebanon war the Palestinians in Israel didn’t support the war, but most of them condemned the attacks on the Israeli towns as well. And that’s understandable, since many casualties were Arabs.
I also think you tend to see the whole Arab world as one homogenous body. I don’t agree. I you can’t say sentences like “the Arabs reject peace”, since we have an agreement with two Arab countries. It’s the same within the Palestinian society. Different fractions have different ideas.
The Arabs in Israel are loyal citizens. Very loyal, if you take into account their delicate position (many in the Arab world still see them as traitors). But more important: It is the state that refuses to integrate them, not the opposite. That’s true in most economical areas, in government services, and in public symbols. The only area where Arabs are competing almost as equals is soccer. I am willing to point you to unbiased studies on this issue. The most important document on the matter is the background material provided by the Or Commission investigating the events of October 2000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Or_Commission
As for the refugee problem: there was significant research on the expulsion of the Arab population. It was discovered that in some cases the Palestinians fled; in others they were evacuated by force, and in few – told to leave by the Palestinian leadership. The most important work is Benny Morris’ “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem”. It is interesting to note that Morris – once considered a post-Zionist – is a right wing man. Now I am not sorry we won the 48’ war, but the point is we still have a certain responsibility for the refugee issue. Until we learn to understand that (and again, that doesn’t mean to adopt the Hamas’ point of view), we won’t be able to move forward in the conflict.
Two more things on that issue:
1. Arabs weren’t given full rights after the war – in fact they were under militry rule for 18 years, until 1966, unable to even move around the contry without permission from the districs’ high officer.
2. The Arabs lost much of the land they owned – and it doesn’t matter if it was the farmer who worked the land who lost it, or the guy who owned it. They all lost their houses, and most of their proparty. Everyone that left – even those who wanted to come back, and there were many of them in the 50’s (the famous “infeltration” problem) – lost everything. The government of Israel nationlized the land and the proparty soon after the war.
JUDEA AND SAMARIA: the British mandate can’t justify settling Jews there, because it ended on May 1948. I am aware of the legal debate concerning the land’s statue; with us saying it can’t be seen as occupied land, since it wasn’t the Jordanians’ to begin with. The world, however, sees it as and occupied territory and therefore sees settling people there as a violation of the Geneva Convention.
But I am willing, for the sake of the debate, to accept your point of view concerning the land. So lets talk political common sense: say we settle the land and annex it, like the right wing demand. What do we do with the Palestinians? There are at least two million of them, and if we give them citizens’ rights, this won’t be a Jewish state anymore. And if we don’t, than what about the Middle East’s only democracy you praise so much? (I will soon get to the solution you offer)
The question why do Jews need protection and Arabs don’t is taking things out of context, and you know that. It’s not two equal populations with equal protection of the law and the same rights. But even this is starting to change, as we see more and more Palestinians hurt from Jewish violence. There are at least 15 unsolved murder cases from recent years attributed to a Jewish underground.
As for some of your closing remarks:
Independence day is not about the victory over the Arabs, but rather about the new coming of Jewish independence. That’s why its date is not at the end of the war, but rather at the day of our declaration of independence.
Your remarks about Muslims are historically wrong. For many centuries Islam was more peaceful than the Christian West. And more importantly for us: there was no Islamic anti-Semitism before the 20th century. And even than – take all that’s happened to us, Jews, from the hands of Muslims in the last 100 years, and you won’t reach one week in Auschwitz, maybe not one day. But nobody dare say about the German nature what they say about Muslims’.
I believe in historical context and Geo-political circumstances. There is a conflict now, I am not so naïve as to deny it, but most of the time (not always) I’m not trying to think on whom to blame, but rather what to do.
Finally, Yigal Alon never offered transfer of the Arab population (though he carried it out in 48’). Surly not after 1967. he offered some sort of limited Palestinian state, excluding the Jordan valley and Jerusalem, and actually very similar to what the Likud offers now. We won’t be able to transfer the Palestinins without using considerable force. It will probably light up the entire region. But even if it didn’t, this sort of crime – the same sort of crime us Jews suffered so many times – is not something I’m going to be part of.