Hi! I have no other way to contact you, so I am replying to your comment on my blog here.
Yes, I have been to Israel. 1982-1983. It is a beautiful place.
The American media pretty much follows the official Israeli line of how American Jews should think. Essentially, we are supposed to agree with anything Israel does because we do not live there. I wish we had the luxury of doing just that. But when we see our own gov't making poor policy decisions based on its friendship with Israel, decisions that jeopardize our relations with other important allies, we are forced to speak up.
Having been to Israel, I am more aware than most Americans that there is a lot of dissent within Israel on Israeli government policy. It is hard to fit everything I know into a short blog post. Essentially, Israel is in a reactive mode (HAMAS does this, then we do that). That is not good long-term policy. I would go so far as to say that Israel's only long-term policy is to keep building in the West Bank and finally push the Palestinians out. I think Israelis deserve leaders that can come up with something better than that.
I am not saying that if Israel changes its behavior, the terrorists will stop attacking. What I am saying is that what Israel is doing is not working and is even counter-productive. In addition, some of the actions of your gov't (such as building new settlements in disputed areas while negotiations on the fate of those areas are ongoing) are NOT HELPING end the cycle of violence.
Really, both the Israeli gov't and HAMAS benefit from having a downtrodden, impoverished Gazan population. HAMAS can point to it and say, "Look how awful Israel is!" And Israel can point to it and say, "Look at how HAMAS convinces these people to be terrorists! We can't possibly make a deal with them." Until someone in power is willing to stop this game, it will continue. And people on both sides will suffer.
I would like to say it is just your country's problem, but it isn't. When our gov't is giving your gov't money to do things I disagree with, I need to speak up. Also, Israel's actions are only serving to increase anti-Semitism around the world (and, yes, I am aware that there are people who would be anti-Semitic anyway - I'm not dumb). Finally, as I stated in my post, the memories of my ancestors who died in the Holocaust are being desecrated when Israeli Jews, using the Holocaust as an excuse, treat Palestinians as less than human.
Israel made a huge mistake 40 years ago by winning/annexing the West Bank and then never treating the people there as full citizens. If those Palestinians had had a taste of real freedom and democracy, and if they had been able to participate fully in the economic opportunities Israel offers, they wouldn't have been so ripe for terrorist exploitation. Instead, many are living in refugee camps with no real futures. Others may have made a future for themselves and it was bombed to smithereens last year by the Israelis. For Israel to shrug and say, "What can you do about these savages?" is about as disingenuous as you can get. Israel's actions over the past 40 years have allowed the extremists to win, both in its own gov't and in the Palestinian one.
Israelis need a leader with a real vision for the future. I sure hope you get one. We finally did.
1 comment:
Hi! I have no other way to contact you, so I am replying to your comment on my blog here.
Yes, I have been to Israel. 1982-1983. It is a beautiful place.
The American media pretty much follows the official Israeli line of how American Jews should think. Essentially, we are supposed to agree with anything Israel does because we do not live there. I wish we had the luxury of doing just that. But when we see our own gov't making poor policy decisions based on its friendship with Israel, decisions that jeopardize our relations with other important allies, we are forced to speak up.
Having been to Israel, I am more aware than most Americans that there is a lot of dissent within Israel on Israeli government policy.
It is hard to fit everything I know into a short blog post. Essentially, Israel is in a reactive mode (HAMAS does this, then we do that). That is not good long-term policy. I would go so far as to say that Israel's only long-term policy is to keep building in the West Bank and finally push the Palestinians out. I think Israelis deserve leaders that can come up with something better than that.
I am not saying that if Israel changes its behavior, the terrorists will stop attacking. What I am saying is that what Israel is doing is not working and is even counter-productive. In addition, some of the actions of your gov't (such as building new settlements in disputed areas while negotiations on the fate of those areas are ongoing) are NOT HELPING end the cycle of violence.
Really, both the Israeli gov't and HAMAS benefit from having a downtrodden, impoverished Gazan population. HAMAS can point to it and say, "Look how awful Israel is!" And Israel can point to it and say, "Look at how HAMAS convinces these people to be terrorists! We can't possibly make a deal with them." Until someone in power is willing to stop this game, it will continue. And people on both sides will suffer.
I would like to say it is just your country's problem, but it isn't. When our gov't is giving your gov't money to do things I disagree with, I need to speak up. Also, Israel's actions are only serving to increase anti-Semitism around the world (and, yes, I am aware that there are people who would be anti-Semitic anyway - I'm not dumb). Finally, as I stated in my post, the memories of my ancestors who died in the Holocaust are being desecrated when Israeli Jews, using the Holocaust as an excuse, treat Palestinians as less than human.
Israel made a huge mistake 40 years ago by winning/annexing the West Bank and then never treating the people there as full citizens. If those Palestinians had had a taste of real freedom and democracy, and if they had been able to participate fully in the economic opportunities Israel offers, they wouldn't have been so ripe for terrorist exploitation. Instead, many are living in refugee camps with no real futures. Others may have made a future for themselves and it was bombed to smithereens last year by the Israelis. For Israel to shrug and say, "What can you do about these savages?" is about as disingenuous as you can get. Israel's actions over the past 40 years have allowed the extremists to win, both in its own gov't and in the Palestinian one.
Israelis need a leader with a real vision for the future. I sure hope you get one. We finally did.
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