There are some things in my life where the answer to a
particular issue has always felt as if it was obvious. Some issues are just
easier to see in terms of black and white. Israel and Palestine, for me, have
not been one of those issues. My opinions have radically changed in the past 10
-15 years.
When I was younger I had an affection for Israel, or at
least an affection for the myths surrounding its creation. My interest in its
existence might of had something to do with the fact that Israel was born just
a year earlier than I was, we sort of grew up together; part of it might have had to do with the sense of romance
and adventure created as I read Exodus
by Leon Uris - a novel about the
Jewish underdog freedom fighters battled the British (we would now call them
terrorists) who were stopping them from creating a safe haven for persecuted
people. Certainly there was a very strong sense that,
especially after having read about the Holocaust, that the creation of a state
for those of the Jewish faith, was the least the West could do. There was no
place where I could read about the other side of the story.
I did not think seriously about what had really happened
when the State of Israel was created until I read T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It was then that I started to realize that for
almost a hundred years the Europeans and initially to a slightly lesser extent,
the Americans had lied, tricked, manipulated and just out and out bullied the
peoples of the Middle East. After the WWII, it was not surprising that the
"world powers" assumed that they could create a country when none had
been there. They had been doing exactly the same thing for a century.
All of which gets the world to the point where this week Benjamin
Netanyahu's re-election as the leader of Israel is causing some concern for many
countries in the west (except of course for Canada who agree with his policies).
Just a few days before the election it looked as if Netanyahu and his party
would lose. He then made an announcement that if re-elected he would not
support any negotiations with Palestine that involved the creation of a state
for Palestinians nor would he discuss the building of homes for
Jewish people on land claimed by the Palestinians. In other words, he was not
prepared to negotiate anything. He appears to have gotten enough votes to
remain the leader of the coalition that will rule Israel for the next few years.
It would take someone far smarter than me, or perhaps
someone even more foolish than me to say that they have a solution as to what
to do with the perennial conflict between Israel and Palestine. Israel, in
existence for just over 65 years is not going away. Whether they have claim to
the land because the Bible says so is a discussion for someone else at another
time but it really does not matter. The Israelis are not going to leave. Where the people who
now live in the Palestinian refugee camps (some of whom are second or third
generation refugees) should go is an incredibly difficult and complex question.
It is however, inhumane to continue to refuse to find a permanent solution. Regardless
of what solution is found, I would suspect that no one will ever be happy with all
of its components. But I do know that no solution will get be negotiated if one
party to those negations refuses to even consider the
demands/requests of the other party.
The West for far too long, perhaps because of the residue
guilt of not dealing with centuries of pogroms and the continuing anti-Semitic attitude that
seems impossible to eradicate, appears to lack the courage to tell Israel what
to do. Failing that they must withdraw the financial and military support that
allows Israel's leaders to refuse to negotiate a solution to a problem that
they and the Palestinians did not create, but that they must jointly solve.
Addendum
The Globe
and Mail has reported that newly re-elected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
is changing his stance. He is now saying that he supports Palestinian statehood
- when things in that region improve. Which is great although it is hard to
conceive of the Palestinians becoming less restless as long as Israel continues
to build settlements on lands that the Palestinians think need to be part of
the negotiations. Sort of like the when the provincial or federal governments
allow logging or resource development on land that is part of an ongoing treaty
negotiation with a First Nation.