In a "world-gone-wild", I believe that any country so threatened should take the strongest measures possible to defend its homeland and sovereignty, as well as its various domestic and international economic and political interests.
But the recent Israeli military incursion into Gaza has disturbed me so greatly in the first days of the new year because it seems to violate so many of the precepts of human decency. Israel's timing of its military action during a political power vacuum in US politics (between Bush's exit from office and
Obama's imminent inauguration) adds another dynamic to America's already tense domestic drama. In the long run, I believe that Israel has made an unfortunate tactical error, exposing itself to the international community as a fascist regime against Palestine. Observe the anti-Israel protests throughout the world.
After a healthy dose of late night cable news, followed by a restless night of tossing and turning, I contemplated the causes and effects of this conflict and woke up to an overwhelming sense of Ralph Bunche's presence upon me. His soft but powerful voice seemed to reveal a deep sense of disappointment in Israel's behavior towards the Palestinian people.
Despite the media overkill, Americans remain particularly uninformed about world history, and even more so about the events leading up to the current Middle East crisis. This lack of knowledge and understanding is the cause of so many irrational views about Middle Eastern affairs. Such aberrant views constantly creep into public opinion and the foreign policy mechanisms and explanations concerning Israel and its security interests. Israel's tendency towards paranoia always seems to overshadow the interests of others, which is both an arrogant and dangerous posture. But it may be understandable given its espoused superiority complex and subsequent difficulty in being a good neighbor.
Enter
Ralph Bunche, arguably America's foremost African American diplomat and one of the world's leading international mediators in the 20
th century. Here's a biographical snippet of how Bunche left his mark of distinction on the ever-present conflict between Israel and Palestine.
In 1946, the
first UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie sequestered Bunche from the US State Department, and from June 1947 to August 1949, Bunche worked on the confrontation between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. Bunche served first as assistant to the
UN Special Committee on Palestine, and then as principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission, which was charged
with carrying out the partition approved on November 29, 1947 by the UN General Assembly.
UN Resolution 181 (
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine) was supposed to end the
British Mandate of Palestine by August 1, 1948, and facilitate the
creation of two states, one Jewish and one Arab.
In early 1948 when this plan was scuttled and fighting between Arabs and Israelis became especially severe, the UN appointed
Count Folke Bernadotte as mediator. Ralph Bunche was named
Bernadotte's chief aide. Regrettably, while Count
Bernadotte was in
Jerusalem in the fall of 1948, he was assassinated by members of the underground Zionist terrorist group dubbed the Stern Gang or
Lehi (Hebrew acronym for
Lohamei Herut Israel, "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel"). Subsequently, Bunche was named acting UN mediator on Palestine.
After nearly a year of seemingly ceaseless negotiations, Bunche succeed in persuading Israel and the Arab States to ratify the
1949 Armistice Agreements. Because of his heroic efforts, Bunche was welcomed home to a New York ticker-tape parade up Broadway. The next year in 1950, Bunche was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first-ever such honor conferred upon an African American. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy.
Despite his exemplary role in these efforts, Bunche, even to this day, is barely mentioned in history books, media commentary, or discussions about Israeli-Palestinian affairs!
Needless to say, Bunche's dream of a peaceful Middle East has not yet been realized. Instead, Israel has planned for some time and launched a complex Public Relations-Military campaign against the Arab World that vilifies Palestine while characterizing itself as a victim compelled to fight "terrorism". Israel seems to have forgotten it's own sullied revolutionary history of terrorist activity in the name of statehood, and consistently chooses guns over diplomacy.
What really happenedThe convoluted history of Israel has confused many with respect to the question of Israel-Palestinian relations. Because of my own faith tradition, I became quite knowledgeable about both the ancient and modern histories of Israel, as well as many of the
geo-political dynamics of Israel's nationalism. I acquired this knowledge from several sources.
As a child, I was raised as a devout Christian with a substantial religious education in Judaism. For more than a few decades since then, I have regularly read, studied, and recited the 24 Books of the
Tanakh (Old Testament scriptures that include the
Torah,
Nevi'im, and
Ketuvim) in the Christian Bible. As a seminarian, I excelled in the study of Judaic and Christian history. As an independent researcher of the Jewish tradition, I have studied the works of
Raphael Patai, noted Hungarian-Jewish Rabbi, ethnographer, and anthropologist who earned the first doctorate awarded by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1936. I am an admirer of certain aspects of the
Ashkenazim tradition that I believe can help achieve economic justice for African Americans. As a university student studying political science and international relations, I was an ardent dilettante of Ralph Bunche, then Deputy Secretary-General (second highest ranking UN official), and world-renowned expert in Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
Therefore, I understand that the 2008 "60
th Anniversary of Israel" is a misnomer. Most
observers are not aware that the new state of Israel came into existence only after the
Land of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants had been disaffected during
over two thousand years of invasions and conquests! Some theologians even argue that
Yahweh or Jehovah ("God" in
Abrahmic religions) destroyed the Land of Israel ages ago, never to exist again, because of Jewish disobedience and violation of the covenants between God and the
Children of Israel.
But the Holocaust horrors of Nazi Germany left millions of European Jewish refugees seeking a place to resettle. The US Jewish Lobby recognized that Great Britain was not a proponent of Jewish resettlement in Palestine after World War II. So it sought a powerful partner who would support its Zionist campaign to target Palestine under the guise of reclaiming it as the Jewish homeland. The US enjoyed new superpower status after crushing Germany and the Axis Powers. Using its substantial influence as the preeminent player in the newly formed United Nations, the US won UN approval to designate Arab Palestine as the "modern"
State of Israel. The Jewish re-gentrification of Palestine was then enabled by US and UN military power that displaced the Palestinian people who have since struggled to reclaim their centuries-old homeland.
The Zionist movement then incorporated "anti-
Semitism" in their ideological sheath as a two-edged sword to attack and defend against any lesser Gentile mortals who dared question Israel's motives and actions in Palestine.
Nature of the ConflictHamas, the ruling party in Gaza and the West Bank, continues to express its frustration about prior agreements with Israel in which they [
Hamas] believe that Israel persists in arrogantly and unilaterally exercising oppressive control of Palestinian land and sovereignty, and the quality of life of its citizens.
Historically, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in June 1967 during the
Six-Day War and governed it until 2005. In between this period,
Hamas launched its
First Intifada in 1987 and the
Second Intifada in 2000 to assuage what it perceived as fascist Israeli policies towards Arabs generally and Palestinians particularly.
Here it's important to note that under its
Closure Policy, Israel still controls Gaza's airspace, territorial waters and offshore maritime access, the population registry, entry of foreigners, imports and exports, the tax system, and intimidates the Palestinian people on the Israeli side of the Gaza-Israel border. This situation enables Israel to control the inflow and outflow of Gaza's essential resources, including food. Whenever there has been a food shortage in Gaza, they've had to rely on food supplied by the
World Food Programme. Although
Hamas has been dubbed by America, Israel, and others as a terrorist group, we have to acknowledge that Israeli embargoes and border incursions have contributed greatly to the significant disaffection of the Palestinian people. Israel seems to be employing
lex talionis ("eye for an eye" principle of equitable retaliation for an offended party as expressed in
Exodus) to justify it's Gaza incursion.
On December 27-28, 2008, Israel commenced air strikes allegedly against
Hamas infrastructure and security forces in Gaza. Despite this allegation, Israeli Defense Forces (
IDF) under
Operation Cast Lead, have killed over 500 and wounded over 2,000 Palestinians, many of them innocent women and children. They call it collateral damage for which Hamas is to blame.
On Saturday, January 3, 2009 (Palestinians call it the "Black Saturday Massacre"), Israeli tanks and infantry invaded Gaza with air support from gunships. Israel vowed to eliminate
Hamas control of the region. Specifically,
Ehud Barak, current Israeli Minister of Defense, deputy Prime Minister, and leader of Israel's Labor Party stated that the operation will be "a war to the bitter end". The Israelis have cast their invasion as a war on terror.
Hamas claims that its rocket and mortar attacks were in response to Israel's Siege of Gaza and unilateral actions with respect to Palestinian sovereignty.
History Forgotten or History Remembered?
On page 284 of his book
Reason in Common Sense, George Santayana wrote that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".
It's ironic that Israeli Jews now abuse Palestinians, relegating Gaza as a peculiar form of concentration camp . . . almost analogous to the "Native American reservations" in America. One wonders: "Have the Jews forgotten the "
Endlösung der Judenfrage" (Nazi Germany's Final Solution of the Jewish Question). As the Israeli Defense Forces spray "
Willy Pete" on the Gaza Palestinians (chemical phosphorous bombs that can burn to the bone), have they forgotten what happened to their forebears in the Nazi "gas chambers"? Aren't the Israelis exacting the same Holocaust-type measures on the Palestinians that their forebears suffered at the hand of Hitler? What does one call this "abused-to-abuser" behavior of the Israeli Jews? Again, one wonders if the Jews have perverted
Zabludow.
Maybe we can all rest in peaceAs I've stated before, I am neither an advocate nor opponent of war. However, as long as human beings exist, war will continue. Our most primitive animistic instincts cannot preclude it. An end to all human conflict would require a perfect "state of faith" among all peoples of the world that is not likely to soon arise. Most critically, the duality of good and evil in the face of diverse cultures could hardly lead to a lasting peace.
Now I'm not condoning terrorism -- I abhor it in any form. . . but Israel needs to be careful that those who've been afraid to speak out against "any" Israeli action will be labeled as anti-Semitic. This form of political extortion is no longer unacceptable in the modern world.
A right to exist does not confer a right to abuse, oppress, or exact genocide. It's time for Israel to stop its charade of
, and acknowledge that other peoples, particularly those whom they've displaced, deserve respect and consideration. It's time for Israel to respect the right of Palestine to exist, as much as it insists that the Palestinian peoples respect Israel's right to exist.
ekend was a weeping season for me, as I know it has been for many others. While the strains of war and the current economic crisis are cause for our present concerns, my tears were tears of joy at the thought of the historical significance of the imminent inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama, America's first African American president.
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