Thoughts on Israel

 Hi All,

Another awful event that came through too late on Friday was the news that there had been several shootings & terrorist murders  in a Synagogue in Jersualem or as the BBC put it 'Occupied Jerusalem'. 

This is the trouble with the way the whole Israeli-Palestine issue is reported, because the BBC, like most western organisations has bought into the Arab lie. This lie is  that this is essentially a struggle between a colonial-settler state on one hand (Israel) and the native Palestinian Arabs on the other. Seen from this lense the conflict is seen as freedom fighters (not terrorists) on one hand and the imperalist occupier on the other, so we can make the comparisons with the Americans of 1776, Arafat as the latter day George Washington etc etc . 

The problem with this worldview is that unlike other nations in the past, 'imperial' Israel has no-where to go, either in terms of territory or people : if the territory is given up, then where are the 8 million plus people going to go? I doubt that they would want or be allowed to live under either a corrupt Arab State or a corrupt Islamic Arab State. It cannot as the British Empire did remove itself from the Raj, Africa or everywhere else and retreat into the centre and even this wasn't a pain free event for either side. Israel is not, therefore ,an imperium trying to hold down a population or land  for resources or greatness and a terrorist war of attrition simply won't work in those circumstances. Israel cannot recall home the legions, because for better or worse it is stuck where it is stuck and sees itself fighting not for a far or not so far flung empire, but for the safety of her survival, Jerusaelm is the centre , not an imperial outpost in the NW Frontier and for her citizens.

You may disagree here and suggest that the BBC is, like the UN, referring simply to the territory of the west bank, gaza and Jerusalem and not the 'rest' of Israel. Yet before 1967, that 'other' was considered to be occupied and dare I say it ask most Arabs and they would say the same today, it is just to westerners they talk of gaza and west bank.

It is not the case that Israel has never sought peace or given up land. Israel did so with Egypt and returned the Siani in return for peace. Israel left Gaza and instead of peace, got an islamic dictatorship whose goal was not the welfare of Gaza or its people, but war against Israel. Gaza could, given its backing of wealthier gulf states, become a Hong Kong or Singapore or a tax haven for Europeans and Arabs , but instead it is what it is today. Gaza is in fact exhibit A as to why Israel might be reluctant to give up any further territory , who would do so if in the back of their minds, an Islamic fundamentalist state would arise and given the matchstick thin border would threaten Israel with further rockets and attacks?