Name-Calling and the Pitfalls of Revenge

People love to label things, and they also love to generalize.  When passions run high, there is a rash of heated name-calling and sloganeering.  The current war scenario in the Middle East is creating just this type of environment.

In my view there is no credible way to justify glorifying what Hamas did.  Indiscriminate violence targeting civilians and children is morally bankrupt no matter what the cause or conditions.  While it is true that terrorist events have been utilized by subjugated and oppressed people throughout the ages, these horrible acts must never be glorified.  

 

The world was deeply moved and rightfully horrified by the Hamas massacres.  The initial responses were almost universally sympathetic to the grief and anguish that Israel experienced.  Tragically, there were no good options for an Israeli response that would satisfy an understandably enraged constituency without killing large numbers of Palestinian civilians.  So Israel did what every nation seems destined to do in such a time – overreact and end up disproportionately killing those ‘on the side’ of the enemy.

 

The Jewish history weighs heavily here.  Even the slightest appearance of weakness or lack of resolve is anathema to the Jewish state.  And in the past, most of the Western world has been supportive of this hyper-vigilance and aggressive action.

 

But as the situation in Gaza has deteriorated to a cataclysmic state and the civilian deaths have grown to five times the casualties in Israel, the support has begun to waver in some areas.  Few deny Israel’s right to punish Hamas, but many find it hard to condone a punishment that is visited on a helpless and desperate population.

 

Now, two weeks after the massacres, a significant part of the world has begun to express support for the Palestinian people.  That does not always mean that people condone what Hamas did, but many believe that Israel at least partly brought this onto itself by the many years of neglect of further peace efforts and the continual extension of West Bank settlements and stranglehold on Gaza.

 

Is this response anti-Israel or antisemitic?  The fact that Israel is a Jewish state makes the distinction hard to discern.  When people are angry and vengeful, they use whatever nasty descriptions of an enemy that they can find.  Every war American has fought has seen our propaganda and public expression go into high gear slandering every aspect of the enemy – race, cultural stereotypes, physical attributes.

 

Jewish leaders who speak of the massacre in terms of antisemitism, modern day pogroms and holocaust comparisons are at risk of crying wolf too often.  Israel is undeniably the most powerful and sophisticated state in the Middle East, and the only one with a nuclear capability.  The world will cry for the innocents killed, but they will not buy the idea of a victimized, vulnerable Israel. 

 

Even with its current extreme right government, Israel is by far the most democratic and stable country in the region.  America is right to unconditionally support its existence and its right to defend itself.  However, we have also turned a blind eye to the underlying problems that years of political neglect have created in the region.  As Israel’s strongest ally, we had the opportunity to influence a course correction in Israeli policy and we failed.  We put our money (literally) on the economically-motivated détente with more friendly regional regimes and failed to see the potential for the socio-political landmines along that path.

 

Israel has only to look at the post 9/11 debacle that the USA raced into to get a sense of what awaits them if they forge ahead now without careful consideration of the likely consequences.  There are no easy alternatives, but the road they are on now is not likely to lead to a good place.

The Danger of Stifling Debate

The merciless carnage unleashed by Hamas has put Israel onto a wartime footing and also initiated a rush to stifle any debate in the USA on the topic.  Groups who have voiced support for the Palestinian cause, regardless of whether they condemn the Hamas massacres, have faced censure, ostracism and even more punitive consequences (job loss?) for merely voicing their opinions.

Any time there is a dramatic and tragic act of violence there is a bloodlust that takes hold and seeks to force all opinions and voices into a single chorus of revenge.  This is understandable. It is, quite frankly, the same thing that drives the other side in their celebration of the murder of innocents.  Once the dogs of war are let loose, there is no humanity, no rationality, no mercy, no kindness.

 

In WW2, we dropped napalm on Tokyo and gleefully cheered the mass murder of over 100,000 people, mostly civilians.  War has no conscience.

 

Palestinians, and for that matter much of the Arab world, have simmered with rage over the disproportionate killing of their people in comparison to the deaths of Israelis over the last 50 years – about a 10 to 1 ratio by most accounts.  Their hatred and bloodlust are kept fresh by Hamas and other groups by calculated means such as the most recent massacres.  To those people, Israel and Palestine have always been at war and no one is innocent.  And now, Israel will slaughter tens of thousands of Palestinians who they deem to be unfortunate collateral damage in their bloodlust to eliminate Hamas, the relatives and friends of whom will harbor lifelong desires for revenge. And so it goes.

 

Is there ever any way to end this cycle of hate and violence?  It will certainly not end if there is no debate allowed on the key issues.  One may argue that debate can come later, once Hamas is eliminated, but that is a tragic fallacy.  We made that mistake after 9/11 and paid for it over the last 20 years in endless, futile wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

Sober thinking and open discussion about long term solutions is critical at the outset.  It is noteworthy that Haaretz, the respected left-leaning news organization in Israel, has been more outspokenly analytic and critical in its appraisal of the situation than most American politicians and media.  We do ourselves an injustice and we jeopardize the future by limiting debate and labeling other opinions traitorous or unacceptable.

 

I don’t know what the answer is for the present conflict.  There must certainly be significant consequences for Hamas.  But if anyone thinks that invading Gaza with the attendant massacre of ten times the number of innocents killed in Israel will do anything but create more violence in the future, they are most likely delusional.

My Family Dinner in East Berlin, 1975

I studied at the University of Bonn (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet) for 2/3 of my junior year.  It was a great experience in so many ways.  My girlfriend Elke’s grandparents and aunt lived in Bonn and I became very close to them, eating Sunday Mittagessen (midday meal) with them almost every week.  I was also able to visit several of Elke’s family friends who lived in cities nearby.

Elke’s parents had left Germany just before her birth in 1954.  Her father had been a Luftwaffe pilot during the war and was fortunate to have survived.  He then completed a doctorate in physics and was recruited by Lockheed to come to the US.  They retained most of their German customs. Visiting them had made a big impact on me, inspiring me to energetically pursue mastery of the German language.  

 

They also had friends who had remained in East Germany.  In January of 1975 the foreign exchange student group (primarily American and French students) at Bonn had a week-long field trip to Berlin.  I took that opportunity to contact one of those friends who lived in East Berlin and they invited me to visit them and share dinner one evening.

 

I had already crossed over into East Berlin a couple times with the other students.  The Ostzone (east zone) held a fascination for us.  It was dramatically different – drab and colorless, with an impressive number of humorless police roaming the streets.  But it was also somehow intriguing in its austerity.

 

I traveled on the S-Bahn past the border control and out beyond the East Berlin city limits into the suburbs where the family lived.  I found the house, situated in a fairly nice neighborhood with well-tended landscaping and window flower pots, and rang the bell.  From within I heard a child cry out “Es ist der Ami” (it’s the American!).  It struck me that the children had probably never met an American.

 

The family had a boy and a girl, ages 11 and 8.  They greeted me happily at the door along with the mother.  After introductions we all sat together and talked about our worlds.  The kids were especially curious and very friendly.  They were very charming and cute.

 

As the time approached for the father to arrive home, the mother moved to the kitchen to prepare the meal.  The kids showed me their toys and we watched West German cartoons – apparently the East German ones were boring (probably too pedantic and moralizing).  

 

The little boy ran off to do some things and the little girl showed me her stamp collection.  She had divided the collection into capitalist countries and socialist countries.  Interestingly, Yugoslavia was placed in the capitalist group.  As we finished looking through the book, she moved closer to me and said conspiratorially, “Weiss Du, Ich bin nicht so sehr Kommunist” (you know, I’m not all that communist).  That knocked me out!  I understood that she was trying to endear herself to this very intriguing stranger from another world and I was totally charmed.

 

The father arrived and he was also very welcoming and outgoing.  We all sat down again to talk and we had some before-dinner drinks and appetizers that all came from the Eastern bloc.  I was fascinated!

 

Both of the parents were chemists, perhaps even with doctorates, and worked in some sort of a chemical plant.  They were happy with their work.  As the alcohol took effect, we began to explore some of the differences between my world and theirs, and this continued through the dinner and late into the evening.

 

The meal was excellent, as almost all family meals were in my time in Germany.  The parents spoke some English but preferred speaking in German, and this also allowed the kids to participate until they had to go to bed.  I hugged them and felt very sad, knowing that I would probably never see them again.

 

Once the kids were gone, we began speaking even more candidly.  They were proud of the accomplishments of their nation, especially in providing more equal opportunities and reducing inequality.  No one was homeless, there was little crime.  But they confessed to being very frustrated with the lack of freedom to express their thoughts and to travel.  They were not overly impressed with the consumer society of the west, but they were eager for the DDR to continue to improve living standards.

 

The evening I spent with them profoundly moved me.  We shared our thoughts honestly and with as little prejudice as possible in people of two completely different societies.  I found them incredibly warm and compelling and was very sad when the time came for my departure.

 

It was mandatory to get back over the border before midnight.  I’m not sure what would have happened if I were late, but I did not want to find out.  The father walked me to the S-Bahn.  As we neared the station, he asked me to be careful talking about our discussions with other people.  I understood and promised to do so.  It had been a night I will never forget.

 

 

 

 

Gaza and the Bitter Fruit of Israel's Palestinian Policies

The surprise attacks on Israel by Hamas last week are heart wrenching – civilian massacres, innocents taken hostage and random missile attacks meant to harm indiscriminately.  Hamas is a hard-liner extremist organization that will only ever contribute to the cycle of violence in the region.

But in our justifiable rush to condemn the actions of Hamas, we must not neglect to tell the other side of the story – the years of brutal repression of the Palestinians, the ever-increasing illegal settlement of formerly Palestinian lands in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the inhumane air, land and sea blockade of Gaza since 2007.

 

Any efforts to create a just peace between Israel and Palestine ceased with the advent of the Netanyahu era.  The increasingly fundamentalist Jewish government that has flourished under his rule has no intention of ever ceding an acre of land or making any effort to negotiate a lasting peace. 

 

Many in the USA are aghast at how the Gaza attacks were celebrated throughout the Arab peninsula and in many other countries.  The knee-jerk reaction is to attribute this to antisemitism.  To be sure, there is still plenty of antisemitism in the world.  But the line between antisemitism and anti-Israel/Zionist policies is a difficult one to draw.  Israel has done itself no favors in the last 30 years with its policies of occupation, settlement and disproportionate responses to Palestinian violence.  A simple tally of Israeli dead vs Palestinian dead is clear evidence that Israel has expanded the biblical eye for an eye to 100 eyes for an eye.

 

One can argue that Israel has done what it had to do to survive.  But there were more visionary Israelis in the past who had a much different approach to finding a lasting peace.  The most remarkable of them was murdered by an ultra-religious Jewish assassin.

 

The attitudes in the USA reflect our typical jingoistic response to any violent act.  ‘Murder them all’!  The same people who weep as they view murdered Israeli families will punch the air when they see air strikes that murder ten times as many Palestinian civilians.  By the end of this war, there will certainly be 10 or 100 dead Palestinians for every Israeli lost.  

 

There is no ‘justification’ for what Hamas did.  But refusing to recognize the historically ironic (the formerly oppressed become the oppressors) brutality of the Netanyahu regime against the Palestinian people will just lead to more heartache and tragedy down the road.