The Four Reasons
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Israel’s Palestinian “Problem “
The current overt
Israeli military aggression against the Palestinians, though steeped in the anti-terrorist
rhetoric we have all but come to accept here in the West, is by no means an
all-out "war on terror." Rather, it is a calculated and well-timed
campaign by Israel to once and for all solve its
"Palestinian problem." Collateral Palestinian civilian deaths
are far too numerous and too often overlooked as "necessary" to
absolve Israel of the guilt associated with its
real intentions. The cry by Islamic militants for "all the land
between the river and the sea" is indeed not only echoed by Israel, but shouted from the rooftops of
the hundreds of Jewish settlements in occupied territory, and more sadly, from
the ruling parties in the Israeli Knesset. The encroaching and seemingly
inevitable Israeli separation wall carves far too deeply into Palestinian
agricultural land to exonerate Israel from its real purpose, which is to make
all of Eretz Israel, including Judea and Samaria (the
entire West Bank), Jewish-only.
To equate Palestinian nationalism, and the armed Palestinian movement in
general, with "terrorism" is an over-simplistic, myopic, and severely
un-intelligent stance. Relying on force and separation as
"solutions" to the Palestinian "problem" is the result of
an ingrained philosophy of brutality and racism, and is a method that, by its
nature, dooms its end to failure. By completely discounting the
Palestinian endeavor for self-determination, Israel and the United States (via
its endorsement of all Israeli aggression, no matter how heavy-handed, in the
name of "security") together negate the fundamental premises on which
both of their societies are supposedly built - American even more so, as we are
supposedly a nation built on the principles of racial and religious tolerance
and a democracy founded on inerrant human rights for all. To be sure, Israel, as a nation that is openly
Jewish-only, has since its founding floundered in a racial dichotomy of its own
making, since over 800,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes during
the Nakba of 1948 and shortly thereafter nearly 400
Palestinian villages were completely leveled, in order to utterly forbid
refugee return.
The question still needs to be begged, "What is Terrorism?" If
we go by the US State Department's version, then both the US and Israel could easily be labeled as terrorist
entities, themselves. The main thrust of the Western definition of acts
terrorism, however, is that they are directed by "sub-nationals" at
state entities (or parties attached to state entities). How unfortunate
for the Palestinians, then, as they are and have been for 55 years, completely
stateless.
As “facts on the ground” imposed by Israel’s military occupation continue to
utterly deny normal Palestinians of their fundamental rights as human beings
and totally usurp any possibility of a fair two-state solution, the end goal
becomes not more elusive, but much simpler for the average American to
comprehend. That is, the social, racial and class walls imposed by the
systems of Apartheid upon which Israel is built must fall. Israel needs to shed the fear of losing
its “Jewish-only” character. By fully recognizing the 1.6 million
Palestinian-Israelis who carry Israeli passports and ID and incorporating their
Palestinian brethren on the other side of the “fence” into a one-state
solution, built on sound, democratic principles for all, Israel could easily
become an entirely robust and economically powerful community in the Middle
East. One that would be recognized in full by its neighbor states, and
one that wouldn’t have to rely on 9 billion dollars of aid annually from the
United States.
Americans of conscience need not sit mutely by while our country annually
spends these billions of our tax dollars to support an illegal and hostile
system of Apartheid that will inevitably engender the very acts of terrorism,
from both sides, that we purport to fight.
The solution is in our hands.
Adam Miller
Boston, MA
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