Saturday, January 24, 2009

Israel vs Palestine - The elephant and the mouse -Synopsis

This is a conflict unlike any other. Two states, one group of people removed from their forgotten homes, another group of people relocated for God's will and word. It is said that it is the divine plan. Presently, faced with aggressive government on one side and an allegedly corrupt prime minister on the other, the conflict can only get worse.
The two major factions of Palestine, Hamas and Fatah, have been at each others throats since 2003. Despite the fact that Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006, they have not been recognized and could not participate in official international negotiations in the past, and possibly in the future.
When WWII finished, Britain, after colonizing and trying to govern the region, and selling land to Jewish settlers(as the Ottoman Empire before Britain did) who have had it in their minds (according to the Hebrew bible) that the land which includes most of Palestine was promised to them, washed their hands of the region and handed the issue over to the UN(United Nations)

In 1947, the UN approved the partition of the area into two states(Israel agreeing but Palestine not). The general approval of Europe and the West no doubt had to do with the persecution of the Jewish people, and the fatigue of war. Thus grew Zionism and the Jewish settlement of Palestine and the dislocation of its people.
This dislocation of locals, subsequent settlement, conception and declared independence in 1948 of the state of Israel infuriated all Arab states in the area and erupted in various conflicts over the decades. Israel, with support from the west, has been victorious is most of these conflicts.

Surely, had a God been watching over us, this nonsense would have been the last straw. But since no divine intervention had come to aid, the Palestinian people formed the PLO(Palestine Liberation Organization)resulting in more military conflicts over the years that have seen changes in border lines, demilitarized zones, no fly zones, looming concrete barricades spanning kilometers and alienation of anyone by anyone who is of different creed.

In 1987, the First Intifada (Palestinian uprising against Israel occupiers) broke out. From this failed uprising, Hamas was born, which has been involved in armed resistance against Israel until now. In 2000, following the failure of the 1993 peace process, which saw no true agreements between the two states, the Second Intifada broke out, and has not officially ended. Hamas, the official-un-official government of Palestine does not recognize the state of Israel.

("What right did the Jewish settlers have to the land? Other than divine decrees. Other than the horrors of the holocaust, which does not give them the right to displace a people and take the land for themselves.")

Is it right or wrong? Objectively, seeing all these deaths for so little makes me cringe. What makes me depressed is that from a perspective of religion, again the blood of the innocent is spilled over what God may or may not have said according to man(key phrase here "ACCORDING TO MAN"). It sounds and is ridiculous. Logically speaking, the Israeli people have never had a right to that land and never will have a right to it, no matter how much money they paid the previous occupiers of that land.
I will make a small parallel. Imagine the United States started selling land in Iraq or Afghanistan to ... lets say... the Mormons because Joseph Smith wrote that it was the land of Mormons, information he acquired from golden plates found with the help of an angel, translated with magic stones.

Nevertheless, Palestinian support is lacking due to the aggressive stances they have had to take to keep their state alive. Without knowing the story we can not judge. Do not take my word for it. Please research the subject yourself. Israel is receiving billions from the west and European government, the Palestinian state seems willing to give itself up as a martyr. There is no balance.
Presently, Israel receives the majority of support because it is the most docile, the most forgiving and the most accepting when it comes to American demands and western culture.

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