Israel: The worst curse ... (moral, choice, Isaiah, prophet, experience)

[Jayhawker Soule]

From ynetnews ...

The worst curse

The worst of all curses is the inability to recognize injustice

I have noticed that over the years I have become impervious to the scenes and words coming from "over there," from the moral twilight zone we have been calling the "Territories" for the past 40 years. As with experienced athletes, our heartbeats quickly return to normal and we go on as usual.

The other day it hit me again for a moment while watching Channel 1 TV: In wake of the prolonged Israeli blockade, which has led to near destitution, Palestinians and left-wing activists were filmed trying to transfer crates of grapes grown by Palestinian farmers.

It wasn't a particularly brutal scene: The violence wasn't anything irregular; on the contrary, it was predictable and standard: The grapes were thrown on the road, protestors were beaten, and nonsensical excuses regarding Israel's security were sounded.

The threat to our existence was lifted, thank God. The Palestinian grape growers were refused entry. Next we saw news anchor Haim Yavin raise an eyebrow and go onto the next item.

Israeli leftists also shot at

The 15 seconds of air time given to the incident was only due to Israeli involvement. Israeli left-wing activists are not fireproof, as demonstrated in the shooting incident of an Israeli demonstrator at Masha, a Palestinian village south of the West Bank city of Qalqilya in 2004.

When Israelis cross the line, namely the Green Line, the IDF doesn't hesitate to open fire on protestors (not to mention the foreign left-wing activists – God have mercy on them).

In such an instance the IDF is careful to clear perpetrators of any guilt and suffices with reviewing "the rules of engagement." However, the presence of Israelis, even leftists, warrant documentation. Without it this little bit of injustice would have gone unnoticed and would have quickly been suppressed.

Far more lethal conflicts take place everyday, but not a word is heard. With complete honesty, how many of you remember when IDF soldiers fired towards unarmed protestors demonstrating against the fence in front of the TV cameras, and how many remember that one of them was seriously wounded and almost lost his life? How many of you remember how quickly the IDF covered up the incident? I'm willing to bet, not many. We have become accustomed to such events.

But habits are powerful. They enable us to turn cries into noise and to turn injustices to deviations from protocol. They enable us to keep a clean and moral self image, even when the stench emanating from the piles of injustices cover us from head to toe.

The most shocking aspect of the event the other day wasn't the use of force. I do not advocate turning a cheek, and am not among believers of proportionality (it enables the attacker to dictate the intensity of the conflict). I believe that a life-loving country has the right for self defense even when it calls fro preemptive strikes. I am of the opinion that violence is the only language that all parties understand.

However, what we witnessed the other day wasn't violence aimed at achieving an objective – because what type of threat could the crate of grapes possibly pose to state security? It was outright violence, foolish evil that demonstrates our brutality and the loss of any basic human capability for empathy towards man – let alone the enemy.

Worse, I realized that the mind has to muster energies the heart is unable to produce to actually feel shocked.

The prophet Isaiah described this process in one of his most chilling prophesies:

Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

The inability to recognize injustice, to see and hear morality, and to comprehend it, is the worst of all curses. I recognize the symptoms in myself; I recognize them within my society, but not to worry, it'll be gone in an instant and we can resume our routine.

At some point the cost becomes too great. I sincerely hope that if and when we reach that point I will be wise enough and honest enough and strong enough to choose correctly, but I doubt that I will ever be capable of not hating those antisemitic, genocidal forces that brought us to this point.

[Trey of Diamonds]

I agree that senseless violence is wrong and the cases you stated certainly sound senseless or worse, intended to spread terror in much the same way the Palestinians use violence. I understand the concept of use fire to fight fire but I think terrorism is an example of how this can backfire.

I do believe that the situation in Israel is purposely prolonged by the Palestinians with backing by the Arab states. If the Palestinians would approach the issue as a human rights issue instead of a nationality issue, (and stop using violence as a tool), they would quickly gain world wide support and Israel would be forced to concede many points. In fact, they would probably do so willingly.

But two Nations cannot exist in the same space. If Palestine continues to insist on the destruction of Israel and replacing it with Palestine, then Israel will continue to fight. And as their frustration mounts so will the number of atrocities. Even the noblest of men will snap when pushed too far.

Palestinians should demand citizenship in Israel with full rights. As a voting block they would have tremendous power. Change the demands from give us our country to give us our rights as citizens. The entire world would support them and Israel would have to do the right thing.

My .02 cents

[jewscout]

it is scenes like this one that can sometimes make defending the actions of the IDF a difficult task. I agree w/ the author, how do crates of grapes endanger the security of Israel?

i think the greater problem facing Israel in terms of humanitarian issues is how do you balance being a free democracy which gaurantees equal rights with national security against, as Jay put it, "those antisemitic, genocidal forces" who have not stopped in their plans and desires to destroy Israel and all those within her borders.

it's hard not to sacrifice one for the other...

[Victor]

Originally Posted by jewscout

it is scenes like this one that can sometimes make defending the actions of the IDF a difficult task. I agree w/ the author, how do crates of grapes endanger the security of Israel?

i think the greater problem facing Israel in terms of humanitarian issues is how do you balance being a free democracy which gaurantees equal rights with national security against, as Jay put it, "those antisemitic, genocidal forces" who have not stopped in their plans and desires to destroy Israel and all those within her borders.

it's hard not to sacrifice one for the other...

Isn't that what the force wanted? If anything they were able to accomplish what you just read. If they can't destroy Israel, they will have them checking crates of grapes for the sake of their security. But what else can you do?

[kai]

constant exposure to brutality has the effect of making brutality normal.
a box of grapes is an inocent image to conjure up but in that part of the world it may contain other things than grapes

[Booko]

Originally Posted by Jay

At some point the cost becomes too great. I sincerely hope that if and when we reach that point I will be wise enough and honest enough and strong enough to choose correctly, but I doubt that I will ever be capable of not hating those antisemitic, genocidal forces that brought us to this point.

I suspect if the choice was to become just like the antisemetic genocidal forces yourself, you would find the hate is something you'd be willing to give up.

[Capt. Haddock]

Originally Posted by Trey of Diamonds

I
Palestinians should demand citizenship in Israel with full rights. As a voting block they would have tremendous power. Change the demands from give us our country to give us our rights as citizens. The entire world would support them and Israel would have to do the right thing.

My .02 cents

This is an interesting point of view. I have wondered in the past what would happen if the Palestinians took the "Nelson Mandela" approach and demanded full rights and integration in Israel. Hypothetically, you're right: their cause would probably gain a great deal of legitimacy and they would make many gains in human rights.

I don't see it happening because the one state solution is ultimately unacceptable to both parties.

For the Palestinians, nationality is a big issue, it is "the issue" in fact. They view Israel as being an alien state, a nation that was set up to be a Jewish state. So, in becoming citizens, the Palestinians would enter the deal automatically having a sort of second-class status, on what they consider to be their own land.

From the Israeli point of view: it's all about demographics. Jews outnumber Arabs in Israel today, but the Arabs have a higher birthrate, so as soon as you make the Palestinians citizens, there will be a long term trend for them to gain demographic advantage and ultimately breed their way to domination. Besides, if all those Palestinians gained citizenship rights, they might have access to Israeli courts or political avenues to try to reclaim properties that were taken from them, and that will end up being a big mess.

The only real solution to the problem is to have two viable, functioning and independent states.

[Djamila]

Capt... actually, as far as I'm aware, Orthodox Jews have the highest birth rate in Israel. An Israeli (Jewish, not Arab) friend of mine was telling me they don't have to serve in the army and their population is already getting large enough to affect Israeli politics in the same way Evangelicals do in the US. So who knows.

[Capt. Haddock]

Perhaps, but they're starting from a much smaller base.
If we were to incorporate the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza as Israeli citizens, it's more likely they would reach a demographic majority sooner than the Orthodox because there are already millions of them.

The "counterbalance" is also in the very large group of recent immigrants, mostly from the former Soviet Union. They are also gaining political influence.