LibertyBob.com

Red Winged Black Bird on a fence post in a field.

On Israel and Palestine

2003-01-05

Category: politics

There is always talk about trouble in the Middle East. Big in this talk is the trouble between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Naturally, if there is trouble then the United States has to get involved. This time, I don't see that the U.S. Being there serves anyone's good.

To begin, Israel is pretty much an artificial country. Its recent history is that the Allies, after WWII, felt guilty about the Holocaust and decided to give Jews a homeland. Since the Bible said the Hebrews once occupied the area know to us as Israel, the Allies chose that spot. It helped that the area was a British colony at the time and the U.K. had no qualms about handing land over regardless of who already lived there.

The Palestinians were at the whim of the British up till that point. Now they are at the Whim of the Israelis who claim that there was never a Palestinian State so the Palestinians don't deserve one now. For this reason, they push the Palestinians around and force them to live in small areas reserved for them.

If I remember, the United States still feels reasonably bad about the massacre of the Native Americans, despite the fact that they had no Native American State, and the forcing of the natives to live on reservations. If the U.S. feels that this was a bad thing, it is somewhat surprising that they don't consider it bad when the Israelis do it. One would almost think it might rank right up there with other human rights violations.

I'm not sure why the U.S. still supports the Israelis, or at least seems to. It can't be to keep a toehold in the Middle East. By appearing to support Israel, we just annoy the Muslims. Add to this that we are on somewhat friendly terms with a few Arab nations, such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, there shouldn't be a concern about an American presence.

I might assume that the U.S., being predominantly Christian, might prefer to have Jews in Israel rather than Muslims. That's not good foreign policy but it is possible. It is probably that the British colonial forces didn't have much respect for the non-white, non-Christian Palestinians.

There is no threat of Communism spreading to the region. Any of the old Cold War reasons for supporting Israel are pretty much gone. Similarly, Israel is not a direct threat to America. Appearing to support Israel does encourage the Muslim extremists to attack the U.S. a little more aggressively.

Since they are not a threat, but encourage threats, and they have a history of really nasty human rights violations, I don't know why anyone would even bother to recognize them as a civilized country. If they were to not exist as a political entity, I don't see a down side. They could easily be replaced by a Palestinian State.

Of course the Israelis don't see it this way. According to the Torah, God Himself gave them that bit of land and the British were only watching it for them while they were away. It is a Holy Truth to them that the land they are on is theirs. With that reasoning, it is reasonable to assume that if we leave them to their own devices against the Arab world, God will protect them and there is no need for the United States to get involved.

There may be those who would suggest that I am anti-Semitic for saying all of this. They are wrong, of course. The line of thinking that leads to that conclusion assumes that the Israeli political entity is the same as the religion of Judaism. My opinion is that the Jews are just as welcome to exist as any other group of people as long as they try to get along in peaceful coexistence. If they aren't going to play nice with others, then I see no reason why they aren't entitled to the same butt-kicking that any other group would get.


Comments (3)
You gotta pick the right guy to do the job.
Go out now and vote for LibertyBob.
  Liberty
    Bobbity
       Boo
I am a humble follower of shiny things.