TPM Reader AC …
Perhaps this is just a matter of semantics, but Iâm wondering whether or not the people who âfeel that Israel is committing criminal actsâ feel that Hezbollah is also committing criminal acts.
One can argue that âan eye for an eye makes the world blind.â One can also argue that âthe difference between war and genocide is the presence or absence of shooting backâ. (Personally I donât think the two ideas are mutually exclusive.) What is important to note from an objective standpoint is that Israel is using an organized, identifiably uniformed military force, the IDF, to combat an organized, largely non-uniformed paramilitary force that has chosen to operate within a civilian population, Hezbollah. On the other side of the conflict Hezbollah, in addition to engaging in combat against the IDF, has opted to launch hundreds of rockets on a daily basis aimed squarely at civilian populations (including areas with Israeli Arab and Christian populations). Zionism doesnât make that true. Those are facts.
Whether or not you or I or anyone else embraces Zionism is beside the point. Hezbollah has quite clearly targeted Haifa, Tsfat, Kiryat Shmona and other Israeli cities as a strategic consideration. Zionism isnât forcing Hezbollah to embrace asymmetrical warfare. Zionism isnât forcing Lebanon to have a nationalized army which is either unwilling or unable to undertake the task of disarming Hezbollah. Zionism isnât forcing the citizens of Lebanon to embrace Hezbollah or provide them the legitimacy conferred by inclusion in a democratically elected government. Zionism didnât force the Bush Administration to sit on their hands for weeks before sending Secretary Rice to the region with no clear goals, objectives or guidance. Zionism isnât forcing the Lebanese government to disregard U.N. Resolution 1559. Zionism didnât force Hezbollah or Hamas to enter Israeli territory and kidnap IDF soldiers who were not engaged in combat operations against them. Those are also facts.
We can debate the merits of Zionism until the fatted calves come home. I know plenty of Zionists who have philosophical issues and deep personal and spiritual conflict with Zionism as a notion and in execution. But to conflate the merits of Zionism with the facts of this conflict as it has existed for the last month is irresponsible at best, whether or not one has a high blood alcohol content and whether or not one is engaging in that discourse with the Malibu Police Department. Until we (we meaning EVERYONE) embrace the fundamental principle that a life in Baghdad is equivalent to a life in Beirut is equivalent to a life in Bethesda is equivalent to a life in Bezet, we wonât get very far in our efforts at conflict resolution.
I’ve thought for a while, and considered posting on it, that for all the discussion of how targetted or not targetted Israel’s attacks in Lebanon are, there’s pretty little discussion of the fact that all of Hizbullah’s rockets are intentionally aimed at civilian areas. Every one.
More generally there’s little to be accomplished talking about the finer points of Zionism at this point. My point in raising the issue is simply to do what I’ve always tried to do with this site, which is give you my honest opinion on key matters at the given moment. That’s where I stand. And it’s a basic position that, as I told you yesterday, rises to the surface in me as I field various emails scoping out and evaluating the different parts of the world the Israelis should be deported to. For reasons I’m not quite clear on there seems to be a particular focus on Wyoming as the place they should all be shipped to. But that’s another matter. Many readers have pointed out that ‘Zionism’ has become a very loaded word, fraught with the potential for misunderstanding and provocation. I recognize this. And yet, there it is. We can’t run away from it. Certainly, someone in my line of work cannot. It’s a broad historical movement with a history and myths, glories and victims. And I’ve told you where I stand on it.
In any case, all that is happening right now confirms in my mind the central importance for Israel of coming to a settlement with the Palestinians not in the distant future but now. Very soon. Both as a matter of justice and self-interest. A full state, based on the green line, with access to water and the sea. With all that has happened over the last six or seven years it may not be able to be a warm peace at first or perhaps for some time. But it has to happen, both, as I said, as a matter of simple justice, but also as a matter of basic self-interest for Israel and the United States. The Palestinians themselves have never been an existential threat to Israel. That was clear as far back as the 1948-49 war. But some of her neighbors and particularly those in the wider neigbhorhood very much are. And the running wound of the occupation only inflames and complicates defending against those threats.
Now really is the time for those who believe in a just two-state solution in Israel-Palestine and a deescalation of the warfare threatening to tear the entire region (and US power along with it) apart to make themselves heard. Someone has to shout above the recrudescent Jew-haters on the one hand and the worshippers of force and militarism on the other.
