Solomonia Archive: "Israel: Change your vision for long-term peace"

Friday, August 15, 2003

"Israel: Change your vision for long-term peace"

From yesterday's Christian Science Monitor, the paper that just told us that the biggest thing to be concerned with about the recent suicide bombings was that they threatened efforts to stop the security fence, comes this jaw-dropping load of crap from columnist Helena Cobban (blog at justworldnews.org - link via the comments at LGF). I usually figure life's too short to read crap like this, and I've never been much of an angry fisker, but I happen to be in the mood to wade through shit (don't ask), so here goes.

Israel: Change your vision for long-term peace | csmonitor.com By Helena Cobban

Click on author's name for photo. Note multi-culti colorful garb. Her uniform just screams "progressive, anti-colonialist, human-rights conscious, lesbian (I've no idea whether she is or not, but the look - not that there's anything wrong with that...except in this case...yuck!), totalitarian-symp/dupe." Let's get started:

TOURNUS, FRANCE

An auspicious start!

How do Israelis see their relationship with their neighbors, the Palestinians, half a century from now? This is a question that President Bush and his advisers need to start asking seriously, in private and in public.

Ah, the local progressive has arrived to make sure the provincials have thought about the "long term!" I'm sure they've never thought about it. Say, while we're at it, do you think the Palestinians have considered their future relationship with the Israelis? Of course they have! They've been rather clear about it. The Israelis aren't in it!

The tangled relationship between the Israelis and Palestinians is at a turning point. The road map for peace crafted by Washington and three major allies seems to be leading nowhere.

Leading nowhere? You bet it isn't. The Palestinians have barely done a damn thing, including absolutely stating they have no intention of dismantling the terror groups. Now, it's possible that there are those within the PA who would like to do more, they're just scared shitless of what making the tough choices would bring. Well, that's what decades of indoctrination in the Palestinian death-cult will do to your society. It makes it tough to change course when the time comes, but that's your own damn fault.

But wait! She wasn't talking about the PA's problems...

Israel has continued its construction of new housing for settlers in the West Bank,

It has dismantled settler caravans, but they're tough to stop completely. Most of those places are nothing more than a couple of trailers.

its tight clampdown on Palestinian society,

Stop blowing things up and murdering people, and maybe the road-blocks and security checks will come down. That's the reason they're there, not so Israelis can get their jollies checking Palestinian ID's.

and its extrajudicial killings of Palestinian activists.

"Activists!" Bwahahahaha. These progressives really crack me up. Those are terrorist murderers you're talking about. They deserve to be euthanized, not euphamized.

These actions are all infractions of the road map. And they make it very hard for the well- intentioned but politically weak Palestinian Authority prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, to continue doing what he needs to do under the road map.

Not. The PA is expected to dismantle the terrorist groups which they categorically refuse to do. There's nothing in the road map which indicates that the Israelis must allow themselves to be attacked and killed and do nothing about it. The PA is expected to improve the security situation. If they can't, what are the Israelis supposed to do? Oh, we know your answer - they should die. Well they're not going for that...sorry old bean. Awfully unsporting of them, eh? You know that oldest of human rights? I'm sure you've heard of it, human rights supporter you are...self defense.

There are two other Israeli policies of great concern. Israel is building a vast barrier snaking deep into the occupied West Bank. The barrier effectively attaches large portions of West Bank land to Israel while it encircles Palestinian communities and cuts offthousands of Palestinian farmers from their land.

You bastard Israelis just won't play along! Son't you know you're not supposed to make it more difficult for the Paleos to blow you up...and shoot you on the highways. Here's a message to the PA: Don't like the fence? Stop killing people, or up it goes. Further, the fence is built with gates so that farmers can work their land. Again, lives or inconvenience, lives or inconvenience...which to choose, which to choose...

Israel is also hanging onto thousands of Palestinian hostages - men who have been detained without trial, sometimes for many months.

Hostages? Hostages?! Shame on the CSM for printing this Orwellian drivel. First, there are only several hundred detainees, and most not deemed to be a threat or having blood on their hands will likely be released. Hostages?! What does Cobban think they're being held for? Ransom?!

Is this a way to build long-term peace?

Possibly...but not from listening to dupes like you.

I write from France,

Yeah, we noticed.

a country that was invaded and occupied by Germany twice during the 20th century. In the process of dealing with those two catastrophes, the French and their allies learned a lot about how to build long-term peace between former enemies.

I think we've seen that the French themselves have learned very little, actually.

In 1918, after France and its allies (including the US) brought about the country's first liberation from German occupation, they adopted policies that imposed harsh, long-term punishments on Germany and its people. Those policies helped incubate Adolf Hitler.

They didn't smash Germany completely. They left issues unfinished and then turned the other cheek at every German violation of the peace. Sound familiar?

In 1945, after the Allies were successful in their second attempt to liberate France and the other German-occupied lands, they adopted a much smarter policy toward Germany.

Yes, they bombed the fuck out of the entire country, and didn't stop short until they had occupied every square inch of the place.

By the time the Allies reached Berlin, Hitler and some top lieutenants had killed themselves.

Yasser Arafat, are you listening?

The Allies put 22 suspected top Nazis on public trial. (Some were found not guilty. Some were hanged, and others imprisoned.)

Oooh...baby. You're makin' me hot.

But then, at the insistence of President Harry S. Truman and his advisers, a determined effort was made to rehabilitate the rest of German society and to tie an increasingly vigorous, de-Nazified Germany back into a web of good relations with its Western neighbors.

That policy proved notably successful. France and Germany, which had warred against each other dozens of times over preceding centuries, finally found a way to build constructive, lasting ties. The two countries are now at the heart of the movement toward European political union.

So, to re-state. The allies utterly smashed and defeated Germany. They removed the entire leadership who hadn't already cacked themselves and re-made the place in their own image with a leadership that they found acceptable.

Why, it almost sounds like we're getting on the same page here!

The French themselves put a lot of effort into building these ties. Realizing that they would always have to live next to a Germany that on most objective measures was weightier than themselves, French officials saw that building respectful relations with Germany based on solid joint interests was the best way forward for France.

So most French people found a way to get beyond their many grievances against Germany.

Yeah, after they got through smashing the place to bits, cutting the fucking place in two and trying to remake it in a way that it would never be a threat again - which the Germans had their own part to play in, as nothing turns one toward pacifism quicker than getting your guts stomped out and staring the destruction of your civilization in the face. Mr. Arafat, are you listening?!

It's worth noting that many Israelis have also found a way to get beyond their many even graver grievances against Germany.

Many Israelis will never get over what Germany did until an entire generation has died off.

So it is certainly realistic to expect that, despite the many grievances that Israelis currently have against the Palestinians (nowhere near as serious as those they had against Germany) and that the Palestinians now have against the Israelis, these two peoples of the Holy Land can indeed find a way to build respectful, long-term links with each other.

Maybe when one of those groups of people gets over wanting to kill the other one? Then maybe, just maybe there'll be something to talk about. Nice attempt at moral equivalency there, BTW.

But this won't happen if the Israeli government carries on trying to impose harsh collective punishments against the Palestinians while remaining deaf to the Palestinians' legitimate interests and concerns. It won't happen if Israel continues barricading off huge segments of Palestinian land, and implanting its nationals into it.

Who's land? Last I checked that territory was disputed. No one lives on those hill tops the Jews are building on. Want a country? Show you deserve one by refraining from killing people.

It won't happen if Israel holds thousands of Palestinian civilians in detention without trial, undertakes extrajudicial killings, and commits numerous other abuses of Palestinians' most basic human rights.

All of which happens because the Pals can't refrain from murder. Here's a clue: The Pals are at war. War isn't good for human rights. Be thankful the Israelis have held themselves back. That's right - held back. The Paleostinians would rue the day the Israelis took the Palestinian's concern for innocent life as their own standard.

Yes, there have been abuses of Israelis' rights by Palestinians, too.

Oh! You finally noticed!

But these were not committed by the Palestinian Authority. And though Israel has quite legitimately requested the Authority to prevent Palestinian hard-liners from launching their attacks, it has also frequently paralyzed the Authority's ability to do this.

You mean the PA overseen by Yasser Arafat? That Authority? Maybe they've had trouble because they are, in fact, part of the problem.

Because of the massive financial and political support that the US gives to Israel, Americans are deeply implicated in all Israeli actions.

Yes, and proudly.

Let's remember, that also means your French pals are also implicated in their important interlocutors, Hamas, et. al... You stand with your friends, I'm happy to stand with mine. Now who should be ashamed? You have a sense of shame don't you?

Now, the president and his advisers have a duty to ask Israelis how they see their long-term relationship with the Palestinians, and to spell out the alternatives as they see them. The central fact is that the Palestinians, who are deeply attached to the land of their ancestors, are not going to go away. They will always be the Israelis' closest neighbors. How will Israelis deal with this fact?

By continuing to vigorously defend themselves as long as their neighbors see it as their holy duty to murder Jews.

If Israelis are smart and sincerely committed to having a thriving democracy, then they should want the Palestinians to have a thriving democracy alongside theirs, and at peace with them.

They do, but that depends on the actions of one group - the Palestinians...and no one else. I know, I know, it's not convenient to a post-Colonialist, leftist mind-set to actually hold people responsible for their own actions.

But if Israelis continue trying to dominate, humiliate, and punish Palestinians, then they should know that such policies cannot bring peace. They only sow the seeds of further hatred and worse conflicts to come.

The Palestinians have an opportunity to have a state handed to them on a silver platter, without regard to just deserts or any action they have to take, other than refraining from murder. If the Palestinians cannot come to terms with the fact of Israel's existence, then they're going to have to get used to a lot more hardship to come, and they'll have no one to blame but themselves.

Helena Cobban is the author of five books on international issues.

They must be real winners.

Bonus dipshittery! From Ms. Cobban's links:

Not a Fish! -- stream-of-consciousness-y blog from sassy (if sometimes irritatingly provincial-Israeli) Israeli working mother Imshin

Hear that? "Irritatingly provincial!" Let me translate. That means Imshin sometimes reacts in an irritated manner to the idea of she or her children being blown up or shot and wanting her government to do something to prevent it.

Come on Imshin, don't be so [note upcoming homage to idiotarian-Left terminology...] parochial!

Posted by Solomon at 2:55 PM on Friday, Aug 15, 2003 | Comments (3)
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And that's the truth of it in this bizarro-world of ours. You could not make confluences like this up. Helena Cobban has been appointed Executive Director of The Council for the National Interest (CNI/CNIF). CNI is the Israeli-hating home for... Read More

3 Comments

#1 Jonathan Edelstein | August 16, 2003 10:03 AM

Don't worry about Imshin - she's adopted the "provincial" label as a badge of honor. She's more than equal to an idiot like Cobban ("hostages," indeed).

#2 Mike | August 16, 2003 5:58 PM

What an idiot the lady is. Not even worth the waste of breath.

#3 Solomon | August 17, 2003 9:00 AM

What's sad is, it would be one thing if she were just one more idiot with a blog, but this one was published in what should be a reputable, major newspaper.