I couldn’t help but notice over the weekend that I was all but ignoring the fact that it’s been a year since the outbreak of the war in Gaza — and yet was focusing obsessively on Iran.
I’m not proud of this fact, but I think I understand why: Having lived, studied, and written about the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for (I finally figured it out last night) a total of 27 years, I am all but bereft of hope for that part of the world. Iran, on the other hand, for all the mayhem and the blood — well, it’s like hope on a stick, isn’t it.
One place looks like no one will ever find a way to break out of the grinding cycle of hatred and willed ignorance and power dynamics that get spun as Israeli victimhood, and the other looks like a grand awakening, a noble grasping of human dignity in the face of despair.
Which would you rather think about?
I will allow that it was not an intentional act, and it’s not an urge that I’ll give into. As an Israeli, I owe the hundreds of Palestinians killed a year ago, the thousands of Palestinians killed since the mid-80s, my best effort to secure a just peace. As an Israeli, I owe my fellow Israelis whatever little contribution I can make to securing their future — and without peace, I’m pretty certain Israel will eventually disappear from history.
I remind myself that women’s suffrage took 78 years to achieve in America, that from the publication of the first abolitionist newspaper to the establishment of the Civil Rights Act, some 130 years passed. The arc of the universe bends toward justice — it just does so slowly.
But I will confess that, in retrospect, I’m not surprised that I remembered the Shi’ite holy day of Ashura, and forgot the my own country’s War on Gaza.
The estimable Rabbi Brant Rosen did not forget, however, and posted this wrenching piece on his blog about his own reactions to the war, and the view from the distance of a year.
As a Jew, I’ve identified deeply with Israel for my entire life. I first visited the country as a young child and since then I’ve been there more times that I can count. Family members and some of my dearest friends in the world live in Israel.
Ideologically speaking, I’ve regarded Zionism with great pride as the “national liberation movement of the Jewish people.” Of course I didn’t deny that this rebirth had come at the expense of another. Of course I recognized that Israel’s creation was bound up with the suffering of the Palestinian people. The situation was, well, it was “complicated.”
Last year, however, I reacted differently. I read of Blackhawk helicopters dropping hundreds of tons of bombs on 1.5 million people crowded into a 140 square mile patch of land with nowhere to run. In the coming days, I would read about the bombing of schools, whole families being blown to bits, children literally burned to the bone with white phosphorous. Somehow, it didn’t seem so complicated at all any more. At long last, it felt as if I was viewing the conflict with something approaching clarity.
I urge you to read the whole thing. And to take a moment to remember what the war did to the people in Gaza — and what it did not do for Israel: Stop rocket attacks, or bring Gilad Shalit home.
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Earlier:
Israel/Palestine peace advocacy – places to start.
Israel/Palestine – a reading list.
As a Jew, I’ve identified deeply with Israel for my entire life. I first visited the country as a young child and since then I’ve been there more times that I can count. Family members and some of my dearest friends in the world live in Israel.
Ideologically speaking, I’ve regarded Zionism with great pride as the “national liberation movement of the Jewish people.” Of course I didn’t deny that this rebirth had come at the expense of another. Of course I recognized that Israel’s creation was bound up with the suffering of the Palestinian people. The situation was, well, it was “complicated.”
Last year, however, I reacted differently. I read of Blackhawk helicopters dropping hundreds of tons of bombs on 1.5 million people crowded into a 140 square mile patch of land with nowhere to run. In the coming days, I would read about the bombing of schools, whole families being blown to bits, children literally burned to the bone with white phosphorous. Somehow, it didn’t seem so complicated at all any more.
thegrandpanjandrum
/ December 31, 2009For lack of an open thread I will wish you a happy new year right here! HAPPY NEW YEAR!