As the Gaza Strip continues to be decimated by Israel, I think it’s important to properly contextualize the situation, as reading the mainstream media one gets a sense that overnight a wily gang of bearded, Islamic, anti-Semitic terrorists appeared out of thin air to launch rockets at its democratic and benevolent, if quick-tempered, Jewish neighbor. As any serious – and even not so serious – student of 20th Century history knows, that is nowhere near the case. Rather, the most recent timeline, if one wishes to trace it back, finds this wily gang having been elected to represent the Palestinians in 2006, nearly overthrown by a U.S.-backed coup soon after, and struggled to rule a territory that has had the economic life of it choked out by its erstwhile Israeli occupiers ever since. Going back further, of course, opens up an entirely new can of worms – needless to say, the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank continues to be illegal, as it has been since 1967, and said occupation continues to cultivate an environment of brutal desperation, poverty, and hopelessness – especially in the Gaza Strip. Launching air strikes into the strip, and then launching a ground invasion – regardless of Hamas’ admittedly brutal, albeit by-and-large pointless, volleys of rockets into Israeli territory, at Israeli civilians – will do nothing to ameliorate the situation for either Israelis or Palestinians. Killing more than 30 civilians at a United Nations-run school also, of course, does little to make things better, whether or not Hamas was firing from it. I will be discussing this in further detail over the next few days.
On that note, then, I give you this thought experiment from Stephen Walt, a foreign policy expert, author, and a new blogger over at Foreign Policy. Here’s the link, but I’ve pasted it in full below. Feel free to post your thoughts after, of course – I appreciate that this topic is fraught with a lot of emotion, biases, and varied and strongly held points of view, but I would love to have a broader – and civil – discussion on it.
Here’s a thought experiment:
Imagine that Egypt, Jordan, and Syria had won the Six Day War, leading to a massive exodus of Jews from the territory of Israel. Imagine that the victorious Arab states had eventually decided to permit the Palestinians to establish a state of their own on the territory of the former Jewish state. (That’s unlikely, of course, but this is a thought experiment). Imagine that a million or so Jews had ended up as stateless refugees confined to that narrow enclave known as the Gaza Strip. Then imagine that a group of hardline Orthodox Jews took over control of that territory and organized a resistance movement. They also steadfastly refused to recognize the new Palestinian state, arguing that its creation was illegal and that their expulsion from Israel was unjust. Imagine that they obtained backing from sympathizers around the world and that they began to smuggle weapons into the territory. Then imagine that they started firing at Palestinian towns and villages and refused to stop despite continued reprisals and civilian casualties.
Here’s the question: would the United States be denouncing those Jews in Gaza as “terrorists” and encouraging the Palestinian state to use overwhelming force against them?
Here’s another: would the United States have even allowed such a situation to arise and persist in the first place?
January 6, 2009 at 8:43 pm |
These “civilians” voted in a government that has the extermination of all Jews written explicitly in its charter. Civilian casualties are sad, yes … especially those that didn’t vote for Hamas. However, as one of those targetted to be wiped off the map by Hamas, I can hardly feel sorry for any card-carrying member that is killed, nor those that let them fire rockets from their homes, nor those that willingly voted them into power initially. The whole situation sucks no matter what the stance is, though. But, on a personal level, I have absolutely no qualms with ridding the world of people who wish me (and all of those under my religion’s umbrella) dead.
Still love you though, Mundy <3 You make me harder than a katyusha rocket.
January 6, 2009 at 11:43 pm |
The previous submission didn’t seem to work .. maybe there’s a URL spam filter or something.
A couple very short, small little insights that I found interesting:
http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/nizar_rayyan_of_hamas_on_gods.php
http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/the_worlds_pornographic_intere.php
January 7, 2009 at 6:32 pm |
The previous comment makes it sound like all of the Palestinian people living in Gaza are anti-semitic….kind of a disturbing generalization, the same sort of generalizing and ignorance that has caused so much suffering for innocent groups of people (including, obviously, Jewish people for many years). Being okay with killing innocent people – including scores of innocent children – because they are members of a certain ethnic group and live in a certain place is definitely taking a step backward in terms of thinking, and really comes across as (for lack of a better word) kind of ignorant. I agree that any group or government that wishes to kill Jewish people (or any other group) is fair game to be targeted and that actions need to be taken. But wiping out civilians indiscriminantly, and bombing the hell out of schools and such – seriously don’t get how someone could be okay with that or convince themselves that the kids that are dying are a threat to Jewish people all over the world…..just my humble opinion…
January 7, 2009 at 8:46 pm |
You may want to read a tad closer, Mr. Anonymous. I never said “all” in my post nor did I generalize that the entire population should suffer. I clearly stated that only those associated with Hamas: the people that voted them into “office”, allowing them to use their homes as rocket-launching pads, and Hamas members themselves. Of course I don’t think the innocent, non-participatory civilian should be held accountable for any of this! That’s ridiculous!
January 8, 2009 at 10:24 am |
Mr. Freud, apologies if I misunderstood something here. I think your statement about the civilians that Mr. Mundy was writing about might have come across differently than intended. Saying that it is sad to kill civilians, “especially” if they are innocent, is not the same as saying that you think Israel should cease its bombing (which has targeted schools, etc.) because so many civilians are dying and being targeted. Arguments about the threat Hamas poses for the Jewish community and how that justifies what is currently happening in Gaza are, though not ill-intentioned, certainly somewhat ill-informed. I just can’t see how anyone can support bombing the hell out of UN schools and aid trucks – which, as well all well know, is happening left and right. Apologies, though, if I misunderstood the message you were trying to get across. Sounds like I misread it a little bit and reacted too soon. Too often, though, people support the mass killings of Palestinians under the guise of protecting the Jewish community, however, particularly in the mass media – and I just find it a little unsetting. I would find it unsettling if this was happening between any two groups. I support the right to attack military and governmental targets, but not the regular folk who just happen to live there. And, truth be told, I am just trying to keep the discussion going – so I hope you didn’t feel picked on, and I’m sorry that I misunderstood, I just like hearing this debate talked about. I appreciate hearing your side of things, too, though. Oh, and it’s Ms. Anonymous
January 8, 2009 at 10:59 pm |
Sorry Ms. Anonymous! I didn’t realize that Mundy knew any females.
January 15, 2009 at 9:46 pm |
[...] detaches the situation from any meaningful context – a criticism of the media I mentioned in a previous post. And while it’s difficult to fault Friedman in particular here – he is merely one of many [...]