CSotD: I will fight some more forever
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Ted Rall posits the "What if it were happening to you?" question, neatly reversing Israelis and Palestinians to forestall the inevitable accusations of antisemitism that flow when settlements are questioned.
It's a shame that genuine antisemites do indeed advance the argument that you can question Israeli policies without being an antisemite, because you genuinely can, as long as you don't mind the toxic associations, since you will be accused not only of antisemitism but of giving in to terrorists.
There are plenty of Israeli Jews who question the settlements and would be willing to negotiate a two-state solution, though I suppose "plenty" is a debatable choice of words, since they don't appear to be numerous enough or vocal enough to sway policy to any discernible extent. But Israel seems perpetually in the tenuous hands of coalition governments, so there is active debate going on there.
And yet the settlements continue, and one thing Israel and the US have in common is a bland indifference to international opinion and a prickly disdain for UN resolutions, international courts and other trappings of the old League of Nations.
Were Americans as a whole a little more attuned to justice, mind you, or a little more attuned to history, Ted wouldn't have had to place his settlements in Jersey. We'd be ashamed enough of our own history to insist it not be repeated overseas.
In the early days of the American Indian Movement, AIM publicly made common cause with the Palestinians, and it's an argument that is still made in militant circles.
You shouldn't have to be on the fringe to see the historic parallels, and parts of that linked argument are more persuasive than others, notably when he quotes William Henry Harrison:
"Is one of the fairest portions of the globe to remain
in a state of nature, the haunt of a few wretched savages, when it seems
destined, by the Creator, to give support to a large population, and to
be the sea of civilization, of science, and true religion?"
Manifest Destiny and the seizure of land on the basis of it being the will of God are a pretty straightforward parallel, and both cases involve sporadic warfare but a great deal more simple encroachment.
Both cases also involve people acting against their best interests in what was likely a futile effort anyway. Then, as now, any act of what today we would call "terrorism," however ineffectual, counterproductive and unauthorized, served as an excuse for military reprisals.
But even without the cooperation of hotheads, the process continued against those nominally recognized as "nations" but not accorded the respect due a sovereign people.
It does not take an active military attack, and the fountain pen is as deadly as the sword. Unilateral declarations by the legislature of the encroaching nation carried the same weight as an actual treaty and, meanwhile, there were only sporadic and temporary attempts to prevent individual violations.
Chief Joseph's "I will fight no more forever" speech has made the history books, generally glossed as an acknowledgement of the need to modernize rather than an admission that the alternative was actual and immediate, rather than de facto and inevitable, genocide.
But what he had said earlier in the struggle to preserve Nez Perce sovereignty strikes a more compelling parallel:
"Suppose a white man should come to me and say, 'Joseph, I like your
horses, and I want to buy them.' I say to him, 'No. My horses suit me, I
will not sell them.' Then he goes to my neighbor and says to him,
'Joseph has some good horses. I want to buy them but he refuses to
sell.' My neighbor answers, 'Pay me the money and I will sell you
Joseph's horses.' The white man returns to me and says, 'Joseph, I have
bought your horses and you must let me have them.' If we sold our lands
to the government, that is the way they were bought."
It may well be that there can be no peace in the Middle East.
But if the settlements continue, endless conflict is certain, especially if we continue to place ourselves in the role of the man who agreed to sell Joseph's horses.
( Note: Updated to change misprint "US" to "UN" in fourth paragraph.)
Unintentional verisimilitude:
An upload failure shatters the fourth wall at LSoS.
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