ISRAEL vs PALESTINE
January 17th 2007 22:00
Jonathan Kay recently wrote an article that caught my eye. He says, "I have never encountered an issue that divides people so radically as the Middle East conflict. What passes for debate consists of pundits flinging memorized mantras back and forth." And he's right. It's too easy to get caught up in meaningless rhetoric and forget just how this conflict started in the first place.
Mr. Kay makes no bones about the fact he is on the side of Israel. I don't know him and neither have I read a great deal of his work. But he has taken an in depth look at the problem using a book written by Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi titled ‘The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood.'
For those who support the Palestinian point of view, Israel is a terrorist state and a practices apartheid. To those who support Israel, the Jewish state is the Middle East's only true democracy, an ally in the fight against Islamist terrorism, and an island of civilization seeking to survive among Arab hatemongers fired up by anti-Semitic bloodlust. Mr. Kay writes, "The basic vocabulary each side uses -- "martyr" vs. "terrorist," "act of resistance" vs. "suicide bombing," "apartheid wall" vs. "security fence" -- is instantly toxic to the other camp." He says that, " It is a book all Israeli supporters should read -- not because it will change their minds or because it reveals anything shocking, but because it lucidly explains what the last century has looked like from the point of view of Arabs living in the area we now call Israel."
Prof. Khalidi is not an objective observer of events in the Middle East. In the early 1990's, he worked as an advisor to the PLO. Moreover, his denunciations of Palestinian terrorism often seem to portray an underlying sympathy with Palestinian political goals. Yet, in Palestine and other Arab states, his book is moderate. Jimmy Carter could learn a thing or two, I think.
Mr. Kay goes on to write, "Prof. Khalidi's basic thesis is that the Palestinian "catastrophe" of 1948 was largely rooted in the very different societies created by Jews and Arabs in the early part of the 20th century. The Jews of the Levant were mostly urban, well educated, politically committed European Zionists. Despite comprising a tiny minority in the region until the 1930s, their dynamism, wealth and international connections permitted them to develop the skeleton of a Jewish state from earliest days, complete with an organized bureaucracy and armed forces. Local Arabs, by contrast, were mostly rural, uneducated and illiterate. Their society was riven by clan, religion and social class. Far from the likes of David Ben Gurion, the Palestinian leaders of the British Mandate period were fez wearing grandees held over from another age -- bickering, risk- averse patriarchs who were far more concerned with preserving their traditional status than agitating for Arab rights, much less organizing a modern state. And so when civil war broke out between the two sides in 1947, it was no contest."
The Jews' transformation of Israel from an Ottoman backwater into a thriving, powerful Western nation continues to inspire: Here was an ancient people returning to their homeland following two millennia of statelessness and Hitler's effort at extermination. "Prof. Khalidi reminds us what all this looked like to Arab peasants, whose land was being sold to Jews by absentee local landowners, and whose sleepy, agrarian society was being transformed into a modern alien landscape by immigrants speaking another language and embracing another religion. From such a perspective, the Jews looked just as much like colonialists as the British officials they replaced." writes Mr. Kay. This is also probably true enough. Not that it makes a whole lot of difference in the strife between the Jews and the Palestinians. It doesn't excuse any of the bombings started by either side. It doesn't excuse kidnaping by either side. It just explains things from an Arab point of view.
The question here is whether or not Israel is an artificial colonial implant in a land that truly belongs to Arabs? I happen to think the answer is no. The only thing the book explains is why millions of others disagree.
Mr. Kay makes no bones about the fact he is on the side of Israel. I don't know him and neither have I read a great deal of his work. But he has taken an in depth look at the problem using a book written by Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi titled ‘The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood.'
Prof. Khalidi is not an objective observer of events in the Middle East. In the early 1990's, he worked as an advisor to the PLO. Moreover, his denunciations of Palestinian terrorism often seem to portray an underlying sympathy with Palestinian political goals. Yet, in Palestine and other Arab states, his book is moderate. Jimmy Carter could learn a thing or two, I think.
The Jews' transformation of Israel from an Ottoman backwater into a thriving, powerful Western nation continues to inspire: Here was an ancient people returning to their homeland following two millennia of statelessness and Hitler's effort at extermination. "Prof. Khalidi reminds us what all this looked like to Arab peasants, whose land was being sold to Jews by absentee local landowners, and whose sleepy, agrarian society was being transformed into a modern alien landscape by immigrants speaking another language and embracing another religion. From such a perspective, the Jews looked just as much like colonialists as the British officials they replaced." writes Mr. Kay. This is also probably true enough. Not that it makes a whole lot of difference in the strife between the Jews and the Palestinians. It doesn't excuse any of the bombings started by either side. It doesn't excuse kidnaping by either side. It just explains things from an Arab point of view.
The question here is whether or not Israel is an artificial colonial implant in a land that truly belongs to Arabs? I happen to think the answer is no. The only thing the book explains is why millions of others disagree.
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Comment by S.L. Bradish
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Comment by Bhumika
Political Minds
it is time that people like Kay and his friends admit that basically they don't care about Palestinians and will accept whatever crap the Israelis say..pathetic
Comment by youranter
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