And it is also à propos to briefly juxtapose the underlined sentimental
statements of Kimmerling's “My Holiday”, with those a bit more
poignantly expressive of “Their Tragedy” than simply “ Jewish - Arab
conflict, and the Jewish - Palestinian conflict in particular, has had
many victims and caused great suffering”, of the late Israeli scholar,
Tanya Reinhart, professor of linguistics, also at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, from her 2002 book “
How to end the war of 1948”:
The state of Israel founded in 1948 following a war which the Israelis
call the War of Independence, and the Palestinians call the Nakba - the
catastrophe. A haunted, persecuted people sought to find a shelter and
a state for itself, and did so at a horrible price to another people.
During the war of 1948, more than half of the Palestinian population at
the time - 1,380,000 people - were driven off their homeland by the
Israeli army. Though Israel officially claimed that a majority of
refugees fled and were not expelled, it still refused to allow them to
return, as a UN resolution demanded shortly after 1948 war. Thus, the
Israeli land was obtained through ethnic cleansing of the indigenous
Palestinian inhabitants. This is not a process unfamiliar in history.
Israel's actions remain incomparable to the massive ethnic cleansing of
Native Americans by the settlers and government of the United states.
Had Israel stopped there, in 1948, I could probably live with it. As an
Israeli, I grew up believing that this primal sin our state was founded
on may be forgiven one day, because the founder's generation was driven
by the faith that this was the only way to save the Jewish people from
the danger of another holocaust.
So – which way to go? “My Holiday” celebrations, or “Their Tragedy” matams
*? What do you think? What do the Jews think? More importantly, what do the Americans think?
Is it really true that “A person is closer to his own friends, tribe,
and people.”? If so, why should the world even give two hoots about the
Holocaust or the Jews suffering? The Jews compose only a mere 20 to 30
million of the Earth's 6 billion population (0.5%), and most say number
about 6 million among the United States' 200+ million peoples (3%) – a
tiny minority. Thus if the Jews expect the world to sympathize with
them, to remember their Holocaust and their suffering of two millennium
in Diaspora, to allow them to have their own Holocaust museum in
Washington D.C., to make national and global laws in sympathy with them
making anti-Semitism illegal and a cause célèbre for condemning anyone
among the majority, then surely, this statement must be false. Not only
must it be false, but every Jew must surely hold it to be false in
order for him or her to engage the world on their abhorrent Holocaust!
Thus the answer is clear by the simple logic of the argument – it is
not just “Their Tragedy”, it is a shared Tragedy of all humanity. And
it is not only a Tragedy, it is a supreme monumental crime, still in
progress.
Shame on humanity for our silent spectating of the ongoing Nakba of the
Palestinian peoples in their own homelands - now into its despicable
60th criminal year and still unrecognized by the apathetically guilty
world that swore 'never again'! And yet, we continue to accept the
ongoing monumental crimes against humanity of devilishly orchestrated
incremental faits accomplis that can be so trivially stopped by the
world without firing even a single shot!
Then, as Kimmerling further amorally sentimentalized their Nakba, which
he also referred to as merely “victims of this bloody conflict and feel
deep empathy with those who have suffered and still suffer as a result
of the fatal encounter between Jews and Arabs in this land” without
apportioning any blame on “his own friends, tribe, and people” for the
genocidal crimes against the “indigenous Palestinian inhabitants”,
“Their Tragedy” can finally be truly ended:
I hope that the day will come when we will commemorate together and
mourn together, Jews and Arabs alike, for all of the victims of the
conflict. Only then will we be able to live together in this place in
safety ... every man and woman under their vine and under their fig
tree.
What is that magic bullet that eluded Baruch Kimmerling to match his
afore-stated hopes and aspirations? It isn't magical at all. Incredibly
enough, it is quite commonsensical, and as blatant as any dancing
trumpeting elephant on a newlywed's bed!
Put an end to Apartheid in the land of Canaan as the world once did in Apartheid South Africa!
The Western Jews are made no more holy due to their abhorrent
Holocaust, and nor are the Eastern Palestinians made any less of a
peoples on account of not being Jewish!
Why should the Palestinians be paying for the thousand-year crimes of the
Europeans and the Western 'followers' of Christ against the Jews?
A new long-term monumental crime is once again being committed against
the Jews themselves by the 'same followers' of Christ – of attempting
to equate Judaism with Zionism, of brutishly displaying to the world
what really terrible peoples the Zionist-Jews really are, that the
moment they acquire the upper hand, they oppress everyone else! Wakeup
Jewish peoples – stop supporting 'Der Judenstadt' and demand
implementation of your own lofty Golden Rule 'do unto others as you
have others do unto you', for that may soon transpire, and in spades(!)
– the ultimate in patsy-setup in the great Anti-Semitic game of the
'same' Anglo-Saxon 'followers' of Christ!
Neither will work even in Armageddon - setting Jews and Muslims upon
each others throats as ultimate in anti-Semitism, or setting Christians
and Muslims upon each others throats as the ultimate in revenge for
2000 years of Christian persecution. Both shout-out the role of Zionist
criminal masterminds in a convolution of superpower-Zionist mutual
interests that is apparent to all outside of the Zionist dominated
Western shores where the majority of humanity resides.
The Jews themselves must act before one more death is accrued upon
their moral Jewish hands by their tacit or active support of criminal
Zionism thinking it has anything to do with Judaism; of support of
plans for Eretz Yisrael by being misled into supporting the imperial
fiction of 'war on terrorism'; and of support for the dreams of a 'Zion
that will light up all the world' – surely only in flames!
Yes – I too, as a non-Jew, as only a human being first, surely also do
know which way I must go for the best interest of all the peoples in
the Land of Canaan(!) for indeed, this is the shared shame of, and the
shared blame upon, all humanity. My only question is – beyond lip
service, what am I willing to do for it?
How about you?
*matams
– Urdu word for inconsolable lamenting and crying, sometimes chest
beating in abject grief; an ineffectual sorrowful mourning and
remembrance of a great loss or injustice in an exaggerated outward
display.
The author, an ordinary researcher and
writer on contemporary geopolitics, a minor justice activist, grew up
in Pakistan, studied EECS at MIT, engineered for a while in high-tech
Silicon Valley (patents
here),
and retired early to pursue other responsible interests. His maiden
2003 book was rejected by six publishers and can be read on the web at
http://PrisonersoftheCave.org. He may be reached at
http://Humanbeingsfirst.org.
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