Israel: Depravity of political analysts
Israel, our media moghuls inform us, is a bully in the Middle East that kills babies in Gaza. Supported by the West, the Jewish state continues to bomb targets, regardless of the civilian casualties. Palestinians are fighting for liberty and nationhood, while Israelis are bloodthirsty war-mongers, we are told. A closer examination would, however, show that situation is entirely different.
Even the most objective commentators in our country end up committing two errors: first, accepting moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas and, second, asking Tel Aviv, and only Tel Aviv, to be a little more accommodating. While Israel is a modern democracy that treats minorities well, Hamas is a murderous organization devoted to establishing an Islamist state in which the minorities and women will enjoy a status similar to that of animals.
Similarly, demands are made only of Israel. The Indian Express editorial (July 17) accepted that the current escalation “began with the killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, allegedly by members of Hamas.” It also talked about “the barrage of rockets that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have been launching at Israel from Gaza, which in turn brought on extensive strikes by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).” Further, it said that Hamas “has a track record of indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli cities and stockpiling weapons in densely populated civilian areas that has long ceased to surprise.”
Yet, the editorial continued, “this could be the moment for Israel to face up to the larger question: how long does it expect to continue this chain of violence that neither secures Israelis nor delivers a state to the Palestinians?” Further, “Israel cannot solve this conundrum without going the extra mile to resume direct talks with the Palestinian leadership.” In short, the onus is on Israel.
Hamas is widely acknowledged to be a terrorist organization which has links with Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS. Even liberals do not deny this. It preaches jihad, prepares suicide bombers, murders Israeli citizens of all ages, and is committed to the annihilation of the Jewish state. But it is Israel that has to go “the extra mile to resume direct talks with the Palestinian leadership.” For what? Ensuring the less painful end of Israel and slaughter of Jews?
This is the constant refrain of liberal commentators. So, in an article in The Times Of India (July 24, 2014), Minhaz Merchant wrote: “Hamas is a terrorist group with little local support and Arabs have been fairweather friends to India. But that does not alter the argument: Israel must negotiate—and negotiate quickly—by relinquishing the territory it has occupied and ratify, despite its misgivings, the two-state agreement.”
Again, it is Israel that “must negotiate,” even when it is conceded that “Hamas is a terrorist group.” Notice that few demands are made of Hamas. It can jolly well murder Jews, but it is Israel that has to the extra mile. The jihadist outfit may keep poisoning the minds of little boys and girls with Islamist propaganda, but Tel Aviv has to negotiate.
Such tendentious and disgraceful commentary is also surprising in India. There is often discussion in our country over the possible retaliatory tactics that we can adopt against Pakistan in view of its aiding and abetting terror attacks. It needs to be underlined that though our western neighbor is responsible for many such activities, it doesn’t launch rockets at our cities on a regular basis. Nor does Islamabad announce its ultimate goal as the destruction of India. But Hamas is doctrinally committed to the annihilation of Israel. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said that at a graduation ceremony for Hamas camps in the Gaza Strip’s Yarmouk Stadium in January this year.
Misinformation and Leftist vileness continue to pour in. An editorial in Hindustan Times (July 15) said, “The world has been looking on aghast while Israel bombs Palestinian civilians in Gaza in the name of fighting the militant group Hamas.” Notice the mischief: Israel is bombing “Palestinian civilians in Gaza in the name of…” As if Israel was looking for a pretext to slaughter non-combatants. It is worse than moral equivalence that so many show–here the victim is vilified as a bloodthirsty villain. The scandalous edit goes on to pontificate about “disproportionality.” It says that Hamas fired over 700 rockets but not one got past Israel’s anti-missile defence system, the Iron Dome. Ergo, Israeli bombardment “is little more than a vengeful collective punishment of civilians masquerading as a counterterrorist operation.”
So, if somebody shoots at you but you escape because of an effective bulletproof jacket and hit back at the attacker, you should be prosecuted, not the attacker. That such dementia and depravity can find place in one of the largest newspapers of the country speaks volumes about the perversity of public discourse.
It is just like Hindus should accomadate arguments.I am neutral about the Palestinian-Israel conflict as both sides are equally condemnable.
The Hindu right is very misguided in its support of Israel in this conflict. The war in Gaza is asymmetric with the Palestinians on one side and entire Western world on the other side. The real issue has been obfuscated and is being projected as fight between modern secular democratic liberal ideals and Islamic jihad. Both sides are to blame for this. After World War II, the British empire which occupied Palestine gave it to Isreal because of the Holocaust. The Arab inhabitants were not party to this decision and were subsequently dispossessed and driven out by the Zionist militia. The UN did not give justice to Palestinians who are also Semites and also have Christians in their midst. The US and Europe are indirectly controlled by Jewish lobby groups. Religion has been used to rally Arabs. Calls for Jihad and the muslim prejudice against Jews have been used to mobilise Palestinians in what is really a nationalistic cause. Hindus should not support Israel blindly as anyone who follows geopolitics would know their true intentions and potential for mischief. Enemy’s enemy is not a really friend but useful temporary ally.
Please don’t spread Islamist propaganda unwittingly. First off, the war is indeed asymmetric, but not in the way you describe. It is a war between Israel on one side, and the entire Islamic world on the other, that wants Israel destroyed and all the Jews dead. It is indeed a fight between modern secular democratic liberal ideals and Islamic jihad, because Israel is the only country in the entire region that espouses the former, and Hamas wants to destroy all of that to create another Islamic hell hole. The British did not arbitrarily decide to “give” Israel anything. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after WWI, the newly created League of Nations created a Mandate for the Palestine area and gave it to the British to administer (they also had Mandates for other parts of the Middle East and Africa to be administered by the British, French, Belgians, etc which is how the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Tanzania, Burundi, and other countries were created.)
The British allowed Jewish immigration (which had been happening since the 1800s under Ottoman rule) at first, but later tired to curtail it in response to Arab attacks on Jews and the overwhelming number of Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Increased Arab attacks and British apathy caused the Jews to form their own self defense force, the Haganah, which was the forerunner of the modern Israeli Defense Force When the Mandate was set to expire, the British decided to wash their hands of the situation and let the UN sort it out. The UN voted in favor of partitioning the land to create a Jewish and Arab state (the British abstained from the vote). The Jews accepted and created Israel, while the Arabs rejected this plan, as they had previous partition proposals made by the Peel and Commission and St James Conference. They proceeded to attack Israel with the support of the surrounding Arab states of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. Though the Arab states wanted Israel destroyed, Israel prevailed. It was because of this war, which the Arabs started, that some Arabs were dispossessed and driven out, though many left of their own volition without even seeing an Israeli soldier, as the invading Arab states had told them they could avoid the fighting and return once Israel was destroyed. As such, to say that the Arabs were not party to the partition decision is incorrect; they simply rejected it, as they rejected all offers before and since that would give them an Arab state. As far as justice and Christians are concerned, the Palestinian leaders have a long history of persecuting Christians. Bethlehem, the formerly Christian town now under the governance of the Palestinian Authority, has experienced a sharp decline in its Christian population. In contrast, Israel has experienced an increase in its Christian population, as it is the safest place in the region for Christians.
The rest of your post about Jews “controlling” Europe and the US, and how Israel has “true intentions and potential for mischief” is racist nonsense disturbingly similar to traditional European antisemitic theories about Jews “controlling the world” though finance and backroom conspiracies. It is rather ironic that the Jews are apparently able to control distant capitals but can’t exert similar control over their murderous Arab neighbors. The Jews of Israel are as good a friend as Indian Hindus are likely to get. They are technologically advanced, proud of their culture, economically prosperous, and militarily strong, all of which Indian Hindus are not but ought to be. Hindus can learn quite a lot from them. They are certainly better allies for India than the scum of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that India’s shameless leaders have always bent over backwards to appease.
Hindus can definitely learn from Jews and even Muslims for that matter. But in reality, there are no friends for Hindus. Enemy’s enemy is not a really friend but useful temporary ally”. Israel definitely would love India’s support. At this point in time, we must be friendly. But to believe they will help us beyond tackling Muslim terror is not correct. I would like to add a few things to your summary of the historical conflict. Roughly two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire brutally put down Jewish uprisal in Judea, destroyed their second temple and scattered the Jews across the world. This is the most important event that is relevant to modern history. So the nation of Israel did not exist for 2000 years. Jew always wanted to return to Israel and build the third temple. Now in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Zionist movement tried to rally support for this cause and started settling people by buying land in Palestine and change demographics. The Zionist movement was rewarded by British with the promise of a Jewish state in Palestine after their aid in pulling the US into the conflict. (Balfour Declaration 1917). So many decades before the holocaust and end of World War 2, Britain had promised a new state for Jews. The post world war climate just made this possible. The issue here is, the Arabs who lived in Palestine never had choice in these matters. Rich Zionists influenced Europe and US to get what they wanted. Arabs in Palestine cannot be dispossessed in the twentieth century just because the Romans did the same to Jews in the second century. Hindus must know the true history and the real face of all players. We must be realistic and not positive or optimistic.
Israel has already helped India beyond tackling Muslim terror, in everything from water purification to space technology. If that isn’t friendship what is? You insist that Israel has a “potential for mischief” and “true intentions” that they were hiding. I don’t see any evidence for such a serious accusation. India has plenty to learn from Israel, so I don’t see what is wrong with being optimistic about this relationship. What can it learn from the Muslim world? How to treat women like chattel and hang gay people? As far as the history of Israel is concerned, as I mentioned before, the Arabs were indeed given a choice in the matter, several choices in fact. The British created several commissions to investigate Arab/Jewish tensions in the Mandate and proposed multiple Partition plans, all of which the Arabs rejected. By the end of the Mandatory period, the British were more supportive of the Arab side than the Jewish side and had tried to stop Jewish immigration into Palestine. The Arabs were not dispossessed in response to the actions of the Romans, they were dispossessed in response to a war that they started.
Israel controls the US through its lobby agencies like ADL, AIPAC etc. If US succumbs to Israeli interests, how would India fare. The three Abrahamic religions are not very different in terms of their attitudes towards women and queers. Ever since the expulsion of Jews in the second century, their dream of Israel existed. Zionists did not consult with Arabs first. But they colluded with the British who had nothing to do with Palestine until it was captured by them from the Ottomans. The first thing they tried to do was to deceptively alter the demographics of the region from late nineteenth century. Only when they were in sufficient numbers, they made the move for a racist state. Arabs would not have sold their lands to Jews if they knew that a future state of Israel would be created. Why would anybody accept their terms ? Palestinian Arabs are as indigenous to the land as Aborigines of Australia and Native americans of the American continent. Just because Islam is bad in our opinion, it does not give us or anybody the right to do whatever we wished to the Arabs. West justifies Israel because they did similar things to Australian aborigines and native americans in North and South Americas.
What we can learn from Muslims ? If you are a Hindu, We can learn not to be ashamed of our traditions and not to give the benefit of doubt to Western imposters and their house slaves. May be the Muslims don’t throw the bathwater insisting it is the baby, but we can at least not throw the baby with the bath water. We can learn to take our religious practice a bit more seriously.
The notion that Israel controls the US through lobbying is an insulting and ridiculous claim rooted in traditional antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world. As I said earlier, if the Jews could exert control over a rich, powerful, distant country like the US, why can’t they control their broke, violent Arab neighbors and stop the fighting? There are indeed pro-Israeli lobbyists in Washington, and they are often successful in influencing US policy, but the same could be said of the lobbies of corporations, unions, and other moneyed interests in the US. To say that Israel controls the most powerful country in the world is a ridiculous, baseless accusation that ignores the reality of American sovereignty. As far as women and gay rights, Israel gives them more freedom than they have in any Arab/Muslim country, and even in India, which retains outdated attitudes towards gay rights and women’s rights. Furthermore, there was nothing “deceptive” about Zionist immigration to Palestine. The Zionists openly bought as much land as they could, and many Arabs welcomed their arrival. The number of Arabs in the area actually increased significantly thanks to Jewish immigration, because the higher standard of living that they created attracted Arab immigrants. As I said earlier, the British consulted both Jews and Arabs on a regular basis to find a solution to tensions in the Mandate. Your repeating the same “they were never consulted” lie is therefore ridiculous. Furthermore, the Israeli state is not racist, though there are racist individuals in Israel, as there are in any country where different racial groups have to coexist. Arabs have more rights and freedoms in Israel than they have in any Arab state. In fact, it is the neighboring Arab states, (which cleansed themselves of Jews at around the same time Arabs were driven out of Israel) that openly promote the idea that Jews are less than human (in accordance with the Quran and Hadith) and even discriminate against Palestinian Arabs.
The notion that Arabs are somehow indigenous to Palestine is another myth. Even you admit that the Jews were there 2000 years ago, long before the Arabs, who only invaded in the 7th century. Hence, it is the Jews who are akin to Australian aborigines and Native Americans who had their culture subjugated by Arab invaders, much like India also had its culture maimed by Arab Muslim armies. India has nothing whatsoever to learn from Muslims. Their “pride” in their savage excuse for “tradition” manifests itself in Bronze age savagery towards women, gays, ethnic and religious minorities, and a vehement hatred towards all modernity in general and the West in particular, which is why their countries are generally socially, technologically, and economically backward human rights cesspits. The Indian right is associated with Talibanization enough as it is. It is Israel, on the other hand, that is not ashamed of its cultural heritage and has successfully defied Western impostors and house slaves (much like India, Israel has its own Leftists who sympathize with terrorists, and are filled with self-loathing towards their culture and traditions).
Criticizing Islam/Arabs and their attitude towards women, gays etc is a separate issue. That cannot be an excuse to dispossess and expel Arabs. I am dealing only with territorial rights. The Arab people who were living there already cannot be expected to accept to a new state created by recent immigrants most of whom may not have been born in Palestine. Jews lived in that place before Arabs. But the European/Russian/Indian Jews who immigrated to Palestine in the twentieth century do not inherit that right. If nations were to accept that claim, then every nation would invade and colonize Africa. The world/UN were/are not fair to Palestinians. Israel is not possible without Western support.
US has sympathy towards Israel due to holocaust and anti-muslim sentiments among Christian evangelicals and also due to Jewish lobby groups. So it is easy for Israel to influence US. Israel receives lots of financial/technological/military support from the US since its inception. Arabs/muslims hate Jews/Israel to the core so it is not possible to influence them directly. They can be influenced only by internal conflict/proxy dictatorships in Saudi/Emirates etc. But now the situation is more dynamic than ever before. The Arabs/Muslims seemed to have gained enough political influence in Europe and US now that Obama ditched Israel to make a deal with Iran. So Israel is running out of options in the long term with Muslim political ascendance in the West.
I have never said that the Arabs deserved to be dispossessed because of their human rights record. I said that they were dispossessed due to a war that they started. You say that the Arabs could not be expected to accept a new state created by recent Jewish immigrants. However, if the Arabs take that stance and express their displeasure through war rather than through compromise, then they have no business complaining about the results of the war that they started, specifically dispossession. This wasn’t forced upon them, they brought it upon themselves when the refused to accept the state of Israel. This was hardly an unreasonable demand, or unique. Around the same time, thousands of people became refugees during WWII, the Partition of British India, the Korean War, and other post-colonial conflicts. Even the Pakistanis are not dumb enough to whine about preventable dispossession that they suffered almost 70 years ago, so I don’t see why the Arabs can’t just move on, as every other dispossessed refugee group has.
As far as Israeli influence is concerned, they aren’t running out of options at all, they are merely reorienting their foreign policy. It used to be that Europe and the US were generally sympathetic towards Israel while Asia generally sided with the Palestinians. Now, however, Europe has an increasingly large and radical Muslim vote banks its Leftist parties court,and the US is also run by a spineless President who refuses to confront Islamist jihad head on. Hence, Israel is moving away from an increasingly hostile West and courting increasingly receptive Asian countries, like India, China, and Japan.
What many are not getting perhaps is that all these sickular and sometimes well-meaning folks Minhaz just dont understand that (a) they cannot even ask those terrorists running gaza to back off and engage in meaningful talks (b) they can only play their emotional cards (including appeals) to the readers (and viewers) who does not understand the reality and who get easily swayed ! (Infact, it is such audience that gives the basis & justification of existence of such journalists)
What is really needed is the widespread education of ALL Indians on matters of what is truly strategic interests! Not what just appears to be nice and ‘politically correct’ that is wantonly damaging to India’s true interests!
Lets support Israel. We have the common enemy, “Jihad”.
India has defended this religion of peace for too long …..these seculars are incorrigible and will continue with Jihad no matter what ………………… Israel is doing what is needed to defend its nation against an aggression …. India needs to collaborate with Israel and learn to deal with Islamic terrorist with zero tolerance
And let us remember according to American government snoopers, Hamas is equal to the BJP.
U r AAPtard ……….. brain dead
I think you either are misinformed or you have misunderstood. The American Govt equated the BJP with the Hamas and other jihadi outfits and put six political parties from difft countries under their snoop scanner, two of which were Hamas and the BJP. This outrage is a fact and this was taken up by our Minister of External Affairs with their VP Kerry. America equated the BJP with Hamas. I suggest you cultivate the habit of civil discourse.