I’ve reached the end of my present interest in Israeli affairs, but there are still a couple of comments I wanted to make before abandoning the subject for the time being. There are some people who I just can’t seem to talk to about this issue. As a rule of thumb, this is generally people who believe that the only acceptable solution is for the elimination of the Israeli state. While I can argue with someone who thinks that Israel should just start nuking its neighbors, this discussion is only made possible because I can find some common ground in which to plant a seed of doubt. On the other hand, the view held by someone who truly believes that all Israelis should be displaced and their land “re-claimed” seems to have extremely racist roots. Supposing that the Israelis have no claim to continue living in the area seems to deny that they are just people, with the same interests and needs as the Palestinians who feel upset over being denied the right to kick them out. If you can’t acknowledge them as equals, then there’s no way to compare their welfare with the Palestinians and my protests will fall on deaf ears.
Sometimes it’s helpful to recall why the Jews were placed in the area in the first place. It’s not like they scouted for a weak area of the globe they could move in and occupy. The location is uniquely related to their past and there just isn’t anywhere else they would have recognized as their homeland. This point also relates to the Palestinians in the area, but this only serves to further highlight the need for compromise and to avoid one-sided thinking. There are some hopeful developments in the area, most notably the new initiative to establish a secure and independent government for the Palestinian people, forwarded by the Israelis. But peace will remain elusive so long as people continue to espouse incommensurable and inflexible objectives.
