Rory Penman
The cease-fire between Israel and the Gaza government Hamas, recently brokered by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, is a fragile one. The last Israeli offensive ?Cast Lead? four years ago was also during an Israeli/American election cycle.
From Operation Cast Lead until now, the dynamics have changed on the ground, not only in Israel/Palestine but in the region as a whole. The ?two-state solution? is dead, and so is The Palestinian Authority, which was never elected.
Hamas, which was democratically elected, should be given the chance to lead the Palestinian people without a suffocating Israeli presence that causes dangerous rocket resistance against innocent Israeli civilians. Israelis and Palestinians must learn to share all neighborhoods, businesses and any other institutions a democratic society has in common.
That is, the correct path to take from here is to build one state ? democratic, not theocratic ? with equal rights and representation for all who live there. The Palestinian refugees, who were forcefully expelled from their homeland in 1948 and 1967, must be granted their right to return, as is the case with any country in the world.
Jews, Muslims and Christians lived peacefully together in Palestine for centuries before Zionist nationalism divided them, beginning in the 1930s. They can live peacefully together again. In fact, they must ? for the good of the Holy Land and the world in general.
It is paramount Jerusalem remains an autonomist city too ? under collective control from the United Nations. States culturally define the space within their borders. All three major religions worship in Jerusalem, and it would be unsustainable for only one or two of the three to control the holy city.
Arabs and Jews are both Semitic people. Insulting Palestinians is just as anti-Semitic as insulting Jews. Moreover, Palestinians are indigenous to the land, whereas the majority of Israelis are immigrants from Europe, Russia and the United States, and many of those immigrants are converts to Judaism.
It is not possible for anyone who hasn?t physically been in Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and Gaza to wrap their minds around all of the complexities of the region.
I have studied and stayed in the West Bank several times. There is a distinct divide between right and left Jews in Israel. The Israeli right are mostly all white, and they carry banners saying ?death to Arabs? and ?remove? the blacks from Israel. There are tens of thousands of asylum seekers and refugees in Israel who have fled war zones in Eretria, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan.
The Israeli left fights tirelessly for Palestinian rights, which would be the best for Israelis, too. They are loving, generous and courageous people, a flagship of traditional Jewish culture. They have gone to the West Bank and taken Palestinian women and children into Israel to visit their homelands. The Israeli Jewish left has brought hope to Palestinians, something even other Arab countries have failed to do.
There are many violent confrontations between the two Israeli sides, and unfortunately it is getting worse. The Israeli Orthodox Jews fight with the secular Jews. Orthodox Jewish communities maintain the right to segregate men and women in public.
I went to Gaza the first time following the Israeli offensive Cast Lead in 2009. I can?t find words to describe what I saw in Gaza. Even worse, my tax dollars paid for the destruction and carnage.
In the two weeks I was there, I didn?t meet one family that wasn?t affected by the Israeli bombing campaign. Most families had lost at least one family member ? some lost their entire family. Four hundred and sixty-nine children and nearly as many women added to the death toll of 1,483 in three weeks in Gaza. Thirteen Israelis had also been killed, four of them from friendly fire.
The Gaza population of 1.5 million lives in a country smaller than the size of Salt Lake City. Gazans are locked in with nowhere to go to escape the bombing, like they live in an open-air prison. The Israelis have high-tech siren alert systems, shelters and American-funded Iron Dome defense shields against Gaza rockets.
I worked in the Jabalya refugee camp with a medical team from Turkey that was volunteering at the time. I held 3-year-old Muna while they sewed her toes back on with no anesthetic. I watched an 8-month-old Ayman die of his injuries, and listened to a 14-year-old boy say he wanted to be a martyr to avenge the death of his mother and baby brother.
Four years later ? today ? Israel attacked the people of Gaza again, with resistance rockets from Hamas now capable of reaching Tel Aviv. The siege has only strengthened resistance in Gaza, and this time it nearly led to a full-scale regional war, which would have happened had Israel proceeded with a ground invasion.
Hamas has international support, sympathy and dignitaries from all across the world visiting. The Israelis must see that even though Hamas now has weapons much more advanced than they did four years ago, they also have 10 times as much support. The Israeli attacks do nothing more than embolden the resistance.
Netanyahu might get the votes he needs to maintain his prime minister position in Israel, but unless he suits up for a one-state solution soon, Israel could end up on the wrong side of history.
Related posts:
- Israel Attempts to Kill Hamas Leader
- Palestine Tries to Forge New Alliance
- Violence Disrupts US Visit to Israel for Peace Talks
- Israel Strikes Back With a Vengeance
- Letter to the Editor: Israel-Palestine Coverage Unfair
Short URL: http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/?p=2580960
Source: http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/?p=2580960
dan marino passing record ipad 2 cases movie times serene branson matthew mcconaughey to catch a predator davenport
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন