Absalom, King of the Israelites

Sometimes I don’t quite get what’s going on with Israel. I do understand that the convoluted political, cultural and military situation in the Middle-East is replete with both heroes and villains of all stripes and that telling the good guys from the bad guys is often largely a subjective exercise. I realize that the United States, Europe and even the Ottoman Empire have all done their share to muddy the waters over the years, but complexity and ambiguity should reasonably call for prudence and nuance, not blunt force trauma. It seems to me, however, that the Israelis, many Palestinian groups and much of the Arab world still inflate their throat pouches in a bellicose manner whenever any divergence of opinion arises, and, as usual, it’s the powerless, and those trying to assist them, who suffer.

I will say up front that I am never going to be receptive to any argument that certain territorial claims are validated by Holy Scripture, so that does not factor into my reasoning. Who owns what in Israel and Palestine is subject to the dictates of history, the realities of power, and whatever common sense of equity we as a world can sustain; just like it is everywhere. I, myself, am currently sitting on land one could reasonably argue Common Law dictates belongs to the Tocabaga Tribe, but since they no longer exist and are, therefore, not here to contest the issue, my fee simple title is not in jeopardy. Everyone’s happiness is to some extent built on someone else’s misery and the Middle East is no exception. Having said that, there is no justification to a process that displaces people and then makes criminals of them for being displaced. Binyamin Netanyahu, I am talking to you.

I believe the collective Israeli psyche is still greatly affected by the many centuries of maltreatment of the Jews by their European hosts, culminating with the surreal horror of Hitler’s wholesale exterminations. I think that this is a real and ever-present factor in Israel’s behavior, not just an emotionally manipulative ploy to garner undeserved sympathy. There is a collective sense of isolation and vulnerability which underlies Zionist thinking and the Nation of Israel was intended to be not just a homeland, but a refuge, maybe even a fortress, for all the Jewish people of the world, even those who weren’t much interested in it. We can all debate the legitimacy of this philosophical framework, but if it is a real concept in Israeli minds, then it has to be given consideration in any analysis of the dynamics of Middle Eastern politics. I’m not saying that your fears don’t make you do stupid stuff; I’m just saying that your fears make you do stupid stuff.

Anyway, the Palestinians have never been too keen on being on the short end of the Judean land rush and many have expressed their discontent in various ways, including through what I consider to be the outright murder of people who have done no wrong. I’m not talking about ambushing Israeli military patrols in the Occupied Territories, which is about as close to fair game as you can get in this type of dispute; I’m talking about Leon Klinghoffer and Israeli Olympians and various other persons minding their own business at outdoor cafes in Tel Aviv. Add to this the constant threat of increasingly sophisticated missile barrage from various adjacent locations, and the Israelis are just about clinically paranoid when it comes to controlling the access of, and to, the millions of disgruntled Palestinians lurking on Israel’s self-designed borders.

So a bunch of people who are sympathetic to the isolated Palestinians in Gaza decide to take them some medical supplies and building materials in a flotilla from Turkey. Even though Turkish officials said they supervised the loading of the cargo, the Israelis are still thinking to themselves that this effort could easily be a subterfuge to sneak military contraband into Gaza City. They hop in their helicopters and fly out beyond their recognized territorial waters and drop in on the aid flotilla, whether to inspect them or discourage them, I’m still not sure. A ruckus ensues which the Israelis claim they didn’t anticipate, although they brought plenty of guns. Anyway, the people on the boats didn’t take kindly to what amounted to Israeli piracy on the high seas and took sticks and stones to the vaunted Israeli commandos, who then succeeded in losing some of their weapons to the angry crowd and then had to open fire in order to defend their lives. As a result, nine people are dead, none of them Israeli, many more are wounded and the Israelis look like both assholes and dumbasses at the same time.

I have always had a certain respect for the Israelis. If nothing else, they have demonstrated a high degree of competence over the years and have often prevailed against staggering odds. The history of Israel is so complex and full of the intrigue of empires, saints and madmen, the Israelis themselves probably have a hard time keeping it straight, but we know it started with Abraham, worked its way up to Menachem Begin booby-trapping the corpses of British soldiers and then, at some point, America and Europe decided to assuage their post-Holocaust consciences by letting the Zionists have the run of Palestine. Apparently not much thought was given to the ultimate fate of the Christian and Muslim Arabs who were already there and, so, here we are.

Like America, Israel is a democratic state which ostensibly respects the rule of law and the basic rights of all humans. Like America, Israel has grown powerful and seldom is forced to drink from the bitter cup of defeat; and like America, Israel has come to be the subject of the disgust and hatred of many in the world, and not just the Arab world. I suspect that this is not because Israel is, as America is not, an evil nation or a deliberate fomenter of suffering or destruction, but because there is such a clear and dramatic disconnect between its stated principles and its behavior. Those who yearn for Zion should be the most cognizant of the wretchedness of the powerless and the moral emptiness of the hopeless; yet Israel continues to value its own fears above fairness, and sometimes even simple humanity, for the Palestinians. They condemn the outrage of the disenfranchised and arrogantly demand authority over lands for which they refuse to accept responsibility, and all of this continually disgraces the nobility of what they strive to achieve.

I have no solution for the problems which plaque Israel and its neighbors. I do not know what it will take to achieve a set of circumstances which will be adequately advantageous to both the Israelis and the Palestinians to allow them to put aside their hatred and fear and live in peace. Perhaps it is a problem that only time can solve; perhaps the solution is beyond the power of the human spirit. I do know that it is both a moral and an intellectual failure to violate international law and kill and maim a few contrary hippies, old ladies from Cleveland and angry Turkish women in headscarves, even if only through negligence, while achieving nothing, when there are so many alternatives which would have been so much more decent and effective in protecting Israel’s security, and the fact that the Israelis cannot admit, or even see, the truth in this is a sad reflection on what Israel has become. David was redeemed of his betrayal of Uriah only through his lamentations and a lifetime of service to justice; Israel better start to get on the side of the righteous, or Absalom will surely be king.