China belongs to the Chinese people.
France belongs to the French people.
Germany belongs to the German people.
The above statements are self-evidently true. Regardless of whether or not you like the policies or the cultures of those countries, their right to exist is undisputed. It would make no sense to call for the destruction of China but claim to not be anti-Chinese, and the same is true for any other sovereign nation. I disagree with the ideology and policies of China's government, but I do not call for the destruction of China.
Israel belongs to the Jewish people.
This is self-evidently true. It is not complicated, nor should it be controversial. It is made complicated and controversial by people who hate Jews and who want to kill Jews. The Jewish people are the only people in the world who are demanded to prove their right to exist in their own homeland. It is by definition antisemitic to call for the destruction of Israel, because to do so demonstrates "hostility toward, or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group" (the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of antisemitism). The fact that some Jews hold antisemitic views about Israel--just as some Americans hold anti-American views--does not validate those views or make those views not antisemitic. People who chant "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free" are chanting an antisemitic slogan; they are not disagreeing with an Israeli policy: they are stating that Israel should be destroyed and replaced by another national entity, and by definition that means exiling or killing millions of Jews. That offensive slogan is a call for genocide.
It is not coincidental that antisemitism (hatred of Jews as individuals) and anti-Zionism (hatred of the Jewish national movement) are connected to anti-American sentiments. As I explained in The Fear and Shame at the Heart of Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism, "[T]hose who who hate America are often jealous of America in much the same fashion
that those who hate Jews and/or Israel are jealous of Jews and/or Israel." In that article, I quoted Ralph Peters, who was interviewed by Fredric Smoler ("The Shah Always Falls," February/March 2003 issue of American Heritage): "Jealousy is a powerful human emotion. Hatred is a tremendous emotional
release. Blame is cathartic. At this time in history, the United States
is humane, free, and powerful. The Arab Islamic world is just the
opposite. Our success is infuriating to people who value their own
culture, who love their traditions even though they no longer work, and
who look at our enormous success with inchoate envy...In the future,
we'll get around to recognizing the neuroses, if not psychoses, that are
far too prevalent within the Arabian heartland of the Islamic
world...The transition from women as property to women as full
participants in society has been the greatest revolution in human
history, and its reverberations will be felt for centuries. Repressive
cultures are horrified by it because it calls into question their most
fundamental biological, sociological, and religious ideas. However, the
oppression of women anywhere is not only a human rights violation, it's a
suicide pact with the future." Hamas' brutality toward Israeli women during Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack is just the latest example of the "neuroses, if not psychoses" of the Arab/Islamic world.
The 20th century saw the collapse of many colonial empires as the colonizers left the lands that they had occupied and returned home. The Jewish people survived occupation by many colonizers--including the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire--before regaining independence in the Land of Israel in 1948. The Jewish people will never leave the Land of Israel because the Land of Israel is the Jewish homeland, just like China is the Chinese homeland, France is the French homeland, and Germany is the German homeland. Those who assert that Hamas is a legitimate anti-colonialist movement betray their ignorance of historical facts and contemporary reality; unlike the Romans, the Ottomans, and the British, the Jews are deeply connected to the Land of Israel, as all nations are deeply connected to their homelands.
Arabs are from the Arabian peninsula, and they not only have created multiple countries in the Arabian peninsula, but they have created countries spanning most of the area from Morocco to Pakistan. A strong argument could be made that the Arabs colonized North Africa, much of the Mideast, and portions of the Indian subcontinent, and that a true anti-colonialist would oppose Arab rule outside of the Arabian peninsula the same way that anti-colonialists opposed British rule outside of Great Britain.
Jews are not welcome to live in most of these Arab countries, and in fact hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from those countries in the wake of Israel's modern rebirth; in contrast, Arabs are welcome to live in Israel, where they have full civil and political rights. Many of the Arab countries openly call for Israel's destruction, but Israel does not seek the destruction of the Arab countries.
Israel's current war against Hamas must culminate in the total defeat of Hamas, and the transformation of Gaza from a terrorist stronghold where civilians are used as human shields to a functioning, modern society. The only realistic way for that to happen is for Gaza to be under Israeli administration for the foreseeable future. Such an outcome does not represent oppression or colonization; Gaza's Arabs are free to choose to live in peace alongside Israel, or to live in peace in the Arab country of their choice, but they should no longer be given the option/opportunity to attack Israel, which is what Gaza's Arabs have done ever since Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It is normal and natural for a war to end with redrawn borders and population transfers; that is what happened throughout Europe in the wake of World War II, to cite just one example.
This is what I prophetically wrote less than two weeks before October 7, 2023:
The core unresolved issue is not "land for peace" nor is it autonomy; it is the unrelenting quest to destroy Israel that is fomented by various Arab/Islamic states and the terrorist groups (including the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, and others) that they sponsor. There is zero chance that Israel giving up land will resolve that issue, and the Oslo Accords are just one example of the folly of assuming otherwise.
Many leftists falsely accuse Israel of war crimes and of intentionally harming Arab civilians, but the real war crime--or, to be precise, the real treason--committed by Israel's government in the past three decades is signing the Oslo Accords, which directly led to the slaughter of more than 1300 Israeli civilians. As long as that treason goes unrecognized and unpunished, there will be no justice and no peace in the Land of Israel, because justice and peace cannot be built on a foundation of falsehood and terror. The PLO has publicly stated "Our war is with the Jews," and Arab/Muslim terrorists often chant, "We love death more than you love life." Such a war conducted by people who fervently embrace a death-loving culture will not be resolved by Israel giving up land; indeed, if Israel disappeared, the war against the Jews--and against Western, democratic civilization--would not only continue: it would intensify, fueled by the "triumph" of destroying the "Little Satan" (Israel) and giddy about the possibility of destroying the "Great Satan" (America).
At this stage, any grievances that the Palestinians have about what took place decades ago is irrelevant. Palestinians should move on and accept that Israel exists and has a right to exist, and surrounding Arab countries should help everyone move forward by resettling Palestinians. That would follow the example of what happened in many other parts of the world. Having said that, I don't think it is helpful when people like you are deliberately obtuse. Yes, nobody questions that Germany (as presently constituted) is the Germany homeland. But do you think there would be questions if Germans claimed cities that are presently in Poland and Russia that were founded by Germans and were majority German for centuries? Do you think the people who currently live in such cities would be happy if many of them were displaced by Germans returning to their ancestral homelands?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous:
ReplyDeleteI am not being "obtuse," deliberately or otherwise. Israel is not claiming cities that are presently in other sovereign nations. Gaza is part of the Palestine Mandate, as is Judea/Samaria (the so-called "West Bank"). Great Britain agreed to help facilitate the creation of a Jewish State in the Palestine Mandate, just as Great Britain agreed to help facilitate the creation of Arab states in other areas under British control (including Egypt and Iraq). Great Britain then violated the terms of the Palestine Mandate by hacking off the eastern 80% of Palestine to create an Arab state called Transjordan (now known as Jordan). After Great Britain relinquished control of the Palestine Mandate without creating a Jewish State, the United Nations created a plan to partition the remaining 20% of the Palestine Mandate. The Jewish people in Palestine accepted the partition plan and created Israel; the Arabs rejected the partition plan, and have been trying to destroy Israel ever since.
Legally, Gaza and Judea/Samaria are unallocated portions of the Palestine Mandate. Since the Arabs not only rejected the U.N. partition plan but also used those areas to launch wars of aggression against Israel, Israel has every legal right to assume control over those areas on the basis of those areas being part of the Palestine Mandate and on the basis that territory that is used to launch aggressive wars may be captured and held by the defending nation. The latter basis is how the map of Europe was redrawn after World War II, and how many other maps have been redrawn by victorious nations. Look at Germany's eastern border/Poland's western border before and after World War II if you are not familiar with what I am talking about.
I agree that Israel has a right to its territory based on everything you described in your comment. I think it would make for a much more effective argument if you (and others) would stick to those facts and not insist that Israel has a right to its territory based upon the fact that Jews lived there thousands of years ago. You wrote: "The Jewish people will never leave the Land of Israel because the Land of Israel is the Jewish homeland, just like China is the Chinese homeland, France is the French homeland, and Germany is the German homeland." That is a very oversimplified and problematic way to put things, and unnecessarily adds confusion to the clear case for why Israel has a right to exist. It ignores the fact that borders change and people get displaced and often end up with a different homeland or no homeland. It is impossible to make the equivalent of your oversimplified "Germany is the German homeland" statement for many groups of people who have no homeland of their own. If making a silly statement like that was all that was required to assert the right to a sovereign country, the map of the world would be very different.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous:
ReplyDeleteThere are multiple valid arguments for why the Land of Israel is the Jewish homeland, including the Jewish people's indisputable historical connection to the Land of Israel, and the legal rights provided by the Palestine Mandate and reaffirmed in the U.N. Partition Plan. Why should it be forbidden to speak of the Jewish people's indisputable historical connection to the Land of Israel? There is so much talk about the rights of indigenous people, but many of the people who claim to be so passionate about these rights paradoxically deny the Jewish people's history while simultaneously creating a false "Palestinian" history. A big part of the problem in the Mideast today is that the true history is not taught while the false history is vigorously promoted. I will continue to lift my voice to correct that problem.
The reality is that Israel's enemies are the ones who refuse to accept that "borders change and people get displaced." The same political system that created modern Arab countries in the region spanning North Africa, the Mideast, and the Indian subcontinent also enabled the reestablishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. It is not right that the Arabs accept the creation of all of their modern states yet reject the creation of the Jewish state.
Different Anonymous here: David, I agree with you that if Israel was the homeland of the Jews which we know it is historically, then that is enough evidence for Israel to claim their land, unless there's some outside reason potentially. That reason I'm talking about is if Israel decides to start a war against another country for example and are defeated, would they be entitled to their current land still partially or entirely? If no, would they at some potential time in the future?
ReplyDeleteThis would be similar to Germany after WWII. Could the Ally forces have decided to take occupy all of what was Germany at the end of WWII and make it part of Poland, Russia, France, etc? Would Germans have any say of their homeland anymore? In short, did Germany forfeit their right to their homeland from WWII? If yes, is that temporary or permanent?
Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteNations should not start wars of aggression versus other nations; nations that start wars of aggression versus other nations risk suffering major consequences, including loss of territory. All of Israel's wars have been wars of self-defense, including the Six Day War, when Israel made a preemptive strike only after the Arab nations committed multiple hostile acts (including massing troops on Israel's borders and closing the Straits of Tiran).
It should be noted that Gaza and Germany are not analogous for a variety of reasons, including that Germany is a sovereign nation while Gaza is not a sovereign nation but is an unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate.