The debacle of Israel and Palestine

In the last week, a significant event occurred at the United Nations with Israel being condemned for building houses – settlements on areas belonging to Palestinians. When I first saw that the United States had abstained in the condemnation, I thought here we go again with the United States supporting Israel. But as I read the post about it on Facebook, I came to realise that this was the first time that the United States was not backing or defending Israel. Abstaining on this discussion was a significant event and sent a message to Israel that even the United States cannot be relied upon to support them when their actions are so wrong.

One of the countries that pushed the resolution was my home nation New Zealand. Of this I am very proud. While New Zealand has gone down an economic path of neoliberalism with serious evidence of wealth disparity, on many social or moral issues, New Zealand is very progressive. While New Zealand pushed through civil unions for gay couples many years ago, now gay marriage is also legal. New Zealand stood up to the United States over visits of nuclear warships in the 1980s, something that I was very involved in helping to bring about. On race relations, New Zealand has made lots of efforts to attempt to resolve the past and the ongoing effects of colonialism on indigenous people. All government signs are now bilingual, as is the national anthem. 

I have lived in Australia most of my adult life, and have worked there many years as a teacher, so I have Australian citizenship as well. The different position of the Australian government over this Israeli expansionism compared to New Zealand is so predictable. When the US began its war in Iraq, Australia offered assistance while New Zealand opposed the action. When New Zealand stood strong against nuclear warships visits, Australia showed no support, but rather developed a stronger military alliance with the United States, excluding New Zealand. Now as even the United States is concerned about Israel’s actions, even Australia seems more loyal to Israel than the US. How ridiculous! What it suggests to me with Australia being a fairly small nation in terms of world affairs, is that the Jewish – Israeli lobby have made strong inroads with various Australian political leaders.

My interest in Israel and Jewish issues began as a child. I learnt about the Holocaust when I was about 10 years old. I was watching ‘The World at War’ which was a brilliant documentary series of the 70s and when they showed the bulldozers grading piles of corpses into graves at the extermination camps, I was shocked at the horror, and realised this was a significant event for humanity. I did not know anyone Jewish in my town. I knew Jewish was a type of religion. At school, other students would make jokes about Jews, which looking back on it is both awful and interesting. Awful, that despite the Holocaust, Jews were still fair game for jokes of ridicule and contempt. Interesting that jokes would be made about them, when no one actually knew anyone who was Jewish. In 1972, at school we studied the Olympic Games. We had an athlete from our home town who won a bronze medal. We had rowers who won gold medals. The Olympic Games being held in Munich were a great focus for me as a child. And then the terrorist attack against the Israeli team occurred. In those days, there was no Internet or news 24-7. There probably was radio news on the hour, but the first I learnt of the event was when I went to collect the evening newspaper from the letterbox. There on the front page in gigantic writing were details of the fatalities. I remember feeling very upset for those people and their families, and understanding that for Israel it would have been a traumatic experience. For Germany, it was also a terrible event. For Germany, it was their first hosting of the Olympics since the 1936 Berlin games and here were Jews once again dying in Germany! A few years after this event a movie was made of the tragedy, and I remember going to watch it at the cinema, as I did with almost every film that was released in those days. Another film during this period, which shored me up as a defender of Jewish people, and therefore by default Israel, was the Odessa file. All these films and information were helping to form my commitment to the justice and rights of all people, but especially minorities.

All my life, there has been an ongoing war in the Middle East, primarily focused around Israel. Israel began as a nation in 1948, but its origins as an idea go all the way back to about 70 A.D. when Jews were forced out of the region by the Romans. Thus, began the exodus and the wandering Jews, especially in Europe. In the 19^th century Zionism developed as an idea amongst many Jews in Europe. For a long time, the message had always been next year in Jerusalem. Zionism was a plan to make that a reality.

Large numbers of Jews began moving into Palestine in the 1930s especially as Germany became more anti-Jewish especially after 1933 when Hitler became leader. As Hitler gained control of Europe, during World War II, most Jews were trapped and as most people know 6 million Jews died.

Britain had control of Palestine at this time and tensions began to develop between the Palestinian inhabitants and the increasing Jewish population. Britain promised a lot to both sides, and then pulled out of the area, leaving the Palestinians and Jews to resolve it themselves. The story goes that Jews offered half the area to Palestinians but that Palestinians saw it all as theirs, so had no intention to go 50-50 with the Jews. War soon break out and the Jewish group gained power in 1948 forming the nation of Israel.

Since then, Israel has been opposed by most nations in the region who see the country as a threat to themselves, a mouthpiece and middle east presence for the United States, and as an abuser of other Arabs, namely the Palestinians.

I have had a lot of involvement in this topic. I have been involved in many groups with Jewish people, working for human rights, having conversations about anti-Semitism to develop good insight, while also embracing Palestinians and their struggle against exploitation and disempowerment.

When I was at University, most student activists were very clear in support of the Palestinian cause. Despite my knowledge of the Holocaust, it seemed evident that Palestinians were getting a bad deal from Israel.

In 1985 I had figured out that I was gay and was very involved in the political campaign for homosexual law reform. During this period, I became more knowledgeable about the fact that many gay men had been exterminated in Nazi Germany along with Jews and other groups. I learnt about the pink triangle, the symbol for gay liberation taken from the patch that gay men had to wear in the concentration camps.

1985 was also the year that I moved to Sydney Australia. Seeking a warmer climate, but also a place that seemed to have a sizeable gay population. Having developed my political insight of a connection between Jews and gay people based on shared historical experiences of persecution and discrimination, I had a hankering to meet Jewish people. I had some Jewish friends through a counselling group that I belonged to, but I thought that it would be interesting to build more connection between the Jewish and gay communities. So, I started a group! In 1990 I created a group called Jews and friends. Also, known as Yehudim V’Chaverim. The first person who responded to my notice in the gay newspaper was Jewish and was interested that I, a goy (lol), would want to meet Jewish people. At our second meeting, we were joined by another guy, also Jewish. News rapidly spread and later in that year we began to have meetings at different people’s homes. Almost all the group was Jewish. There were quite a few lesbians for a few meetings, but then several became annoyed with some of the guys, and started their own separate group. Our group continued to meet monthly, and at some meetings we had 30 or 40 people. Every person in the group was gay except for Kitty Fisher. She was given honorary status. She was Jewish and had a very good reason to be part of our group. Kitty had survived Auschwitz, along with her sister, but her parents had been murdered there. One of the reasons that she managed to survive in the camp, was because a man in another section of the camp, passed potatoes through the fence to her. He was an Austrian prisoner who was gay. He wore the pink triangle. Kitty was only 14 and had no understanding of homosexuality, and asked him if it was a religion! Lol! Because of that kindness, and alliance building that had occurred in such a significant location, Kitty always knew that gay and Jewish people need to support each other. She was a wise person and a good friend. She was often the highlight of the meetings, and developed good friendships with many of the group. Over the years, I have been fortunate to have many good Jewish friends, boyfriends and crushes too.

The complications of Israel are many.

For me, as an ally to Jewish people, the situation of Israel can be a complicated one, but the situation can be challenging for Jewish people as well. While huge numbers of Jewish people have unquestionable loyalty to Israel, there are many who are critical of the country’s strategies and policies. There is a tendency for anyone who criticises Israel in any way at all, to be labelled as anti-Semitic or a self-loathing Jew. Not a good way to develop democratic processes and ensure best practice for a country. This last year I found ‘Jewish voice for Peace’ which posts intelligent dialogue with a support for the two-state solution.

It has often seemed to me that a lot of progressive people fail to understand Israel. There is a lot of morality and judgement about how Israel should be. There needs to be more examination of why Israel is as it is. There could be issues in Jewish psyche that need resolving and there certainly are issues to do with safety, but many progressive people seem to lack interest in that kind of examination. Likewise, the pro-Israel lobby treats any critic as an enemy, when in fact much of the support for Israel comes from people who are fundamentalist Christians, intolerant of minorities, and probably anti-Semitic too. When I engage in conversations on Facebook and other places, I know that my position on the issue is slightly different to many other people. I have a commitment to supporting Israel and making sure that it survives as a great country, and for that to happen, it must have good relations with its neighbours and it must give full recognition to a two-state solution.

After the Israeli Prime Minister was assassinated by a right-wing fundamentalist Jew in the early 1990s, the peace process that had been developing so well between Israel and Palestine nosedived. It has never been the same since. The last 20 years have seen escalating violence by Palestinian terrorists, because Israel was not moving towards any improvements with Palestinians. A giant wall was built by Israel to protect itself from these terrorists and that in itself has worked to reduce terrorist activity in Israel. But Israel needs to ask itself why a majority of Palestinians would vote in a pro-terrorist political party. The position held by the current leadership of Israel, which may be democratically elected, but are still dictatorial, is that Palestinians are just bad to the core. I do not subscribe to the idea that any race or nation is bad to the core. I think groups move towards violence when they have experienced much hardship in challenge and hatred, and they see no other option. I believe that most Palestinians and most Israelis want to live in peace. I believe that most people all over the world, want to live in peace and want to see prosperity for everyone. Keeping a nation under control with a giant wall to enclose them in, with military strikes is never a good path forward.

Many people who are progressive think Israel is the bad group. But things can always change. And often people are quicker to change than we think. In the 1980s, apartheid looked like it would be in South Africa for ever, and then within a year or two, a transition began and Mandela became President. A great moment for the world. I often quip, I hope the Palestinians have a Mandela. Because there is a lot of anger amongst the Palestinians.

Every group must change in some ways for improvements to occur. Leaders are often not representative of the thoughts and feelings of a country. Propaganda and fear based media gets used regularly to keep the majority of Israelis supporting the suppression of Palestine, but in the 1990s a majority of Israelis supported the peace process, and I read that many Israelis today still have that commitment.

It is clear to me, that building houses on areas considered Palestinian for Jewish settlers is not going to move forward a peace process. Israel currently is on the attack against Palestinians and wants to get rid of Palestinians I suspect as well. The UN resolution may not stop that from happening, but it has added support to the boycott campaign against Israel.

It has long been my belief, that anyone who genuinely supports all people and cares about stopping anti-Semitism, must bring Israel into line. Currently Jewish populations are not large in many countries outside Israel and the United States. Anti-Semitism is not common in most countries because there are not many Jewish people living in most countries. However, as Israel continues to mistreat Palestinians with huge military budgets supplied by the United States, people all over the world, come to have a negative view of Israel, and by default Jews. The Alliance that has existed between Israel and most Jewish organisations has created this messy situation. The propaganda that being anti-Israel equates to being anti-Jewish adds to this problem. If Israel was not engaged in an attack on Palestine, there would be almost no anti-Semitism in the world, I suspect.

In the 1990s, with my involvement in Jews and friends, I participated in all kinds of Jewish celebrations and events. I know a lot about the culture and the humour. When I was living in Los Angeles in 1998 I became good friends with another survivor of Auschwitz. We have continued to be friends over the years.

To analyse the situation, we must look at three different issues. Firstly, the topic of Jews and wealth. Secondly the issue of fear and security. And lastly, capitalism and the drive for profit through war.

The issue of money and Jews is one that most people will not talk about in public, but the conversations occur in private. There is huge confusion on this issue, mainly caused by populations of people with limited knowledge of history and education in general. For example, most people are unaware that in the Middle Ages Christians in Europe, were not allowed to lend money. Jewish people were not controlled by similar rules and over time became moneylenders. Not all of course, but enough for a stereotype to develop that Jews were rich, that Jews might steal your money, that Jews could not be trusted etc. Even some Jews have family names connecting them to the wealth such as gold and silver. Most people do not know that huge populations of Jews lived in Poland in shtetls. Most of the people living in these villages were poor, but when the stereotype of Jews being rich was reignited by the Nazis, all Jews became targets regardless of their financial standing. Rather than all being wealthy, a more correct analysis of Jewish populations might be that they are middle-class, especially today. This situation has been enhanced by the connection between a culture valuing education and the opportunities that this gives, similar to many Chinese populations as well. Because of this stereotype, Jews have always been scapegoated during times of crisis in different societies. In some ways, this situation also applies to Israel. Israel appears as a tough nation controlling others, but there is a degree that it is being used for the agenda of others. Additionally, there are some extremely wealthy Jews such as the Rothschild’s, who are responsible for massive exploitation in the world, and that acts towards confirming the Jewish stereotype. As long as there is extreme poverty in the world and businesses that make massive profits through war, tensions will exist between the haves and the have nots. And whether it is true or not, the stereotype of the exploiting Jew continues.

On the issue of fear and security, this is an issue that is extremely important for resolution between Israel and Palestine. Many progressive people see the missile attacks on Palestine by Israel and become increasingly angry and justifiably so. But what might be useful for understanding the situation could be the fear factor. Israel presents itself as a tough country. Israelis have a reputation of being rude and aggressive. Often people see these qualities be it country or person, and they judge the behaviour to be wrong. Which it is. But the question that is probably more important, is how do we change the situation? Israel has moved from a position of fear based security to arrogant and aggressively entitled. However, underneath this demeanour, still exists a frightened population. It is important to remember that only 70 years ago, 6 million Jewish people were being gassed and burned in huge extermination camps. A group will not forget that situation for a long time. People may operate like the situation is over, but you can guarantee that underneath the demeanour, terror still exists. That is why I believe, Israel plays hardball. Israel is one of the most aggressive countries in the world. And people think they can stop Israel or change Israel by moralising against them. No! Israel has no plans to change its ways. It feels much more secure attacking and killing others than risking its own safety. It is a kill or be killed mentality. There is no kindness. This is war. After World War II was over, two big statements emerged within Jewish populations. One was that God does not exist, because if God existed, he would never have let the Holocaust occur. The other is that the rest of humanity abandoned the Jews and so Jews are best to go it alone. You can see this in how Israel operates today. Many people are unaware that in the 1930s, anti-Semitism was huge all over the world. The anti-Semitism had largely been raised because of the great depression. Enough Jews were involved in banks and stock markets to create the story, that Jews were responsible for the financial collapse. Certainly, some would have been, but many non-Jews as well. People often think that only Germany was anti-Semitic, when in fact the proof of anti-Jewish sentiment is shown by the fact that German Jews returned to Europe in 1938 on a ship, because no country would allow them to remain. As far as I know, here in the Dominican Republic was one of the few places, and possibly the only one, where Jewish immigration was allowed. Many Jews came here to Sosua by invitation of the dictator. He wanted to whiten the population!

As long as we live in a world of capitalist economics where decisions are made around the profit motive, rather than providing for the needs of the populations, we see corporations producing weapons and making money through war. We see countries such as Israel wishing to expand their territory to gain access to various resources.

And then we come to the direction to move forward. This fantasy that Israel can be asked, or guided to move towards a two-state solution, is based on not comprehending the fear factor. Israel will not negotiate. Israel is scared to negotiate. The fear is cloaked and appears as bossy and belligerent and tough and aggressive. But people or countries who have fear operate like that. When people feel safe they become gentle and kind.

The way I see resolution occurring is through forced negotiation. It was similar with South Africa. As sanctions and protest intensifies, and as funding especially for military is minimised, then we will see negotiation. As long as it remains a choice, it will be rejected. But the plan for change will need to be done in a way where it is a requirement, but also where safety for Israel is clear.

Now as we get ready to enter the Trump presidency, we can expect business as usual to continue. Israel has long wanted to have its capital in Jerusalem, despite the city being significant for Muslims and Christians as well. Trump may be clever in certain areas, but his conversation about Muslims during the election campaign showed him to be a simpleton. His insinuations gave the impression that he regards Muslims, over 1 billion of them, as a threat. He has appointed a person to negotiate US relations with Israel who is known to be totally one-sided and totally supportive of Israel with little interest in the Palestinian plight. Given that viewpoint, I expect no major changes will come in the near future. Israel will feel free to continue down the path it is on, with continued massive economic and military aid from the United States. Other countries are now positioning themselves in various ways to be increasingly supportive of the Palestinian cause. Time will tell. Israel must share. Many born-again or Pentecostal Christians who believe in the rapture and that revelations in the Bible talk of a return of Jesus to save us, believe that the mosque in Jerusalem needs to be destroyed, and replaced with another great temple. For a long time, I have suspected that many of these characters have been pushing the agenda to bring this about. In fact, that Israel is now talking about moving its capital to Jerusalem would suggest that maybe the crazy Christians are helping Israel bring about ‘the last days’.

In the long term, the two-state solution will occur with very clear boundaries. I can envision a future of transition where Israel and Palestine both have good standards of living. Borders would remain strong to prevent acts of violence against either populations. Most Palestinians would continue to live in Palestine and most Israelis in Israel. But new settlements would emerge that would-be hybrid Israeli Palestinian populations of people wishing to live together in peace and wanting to end the division. These settlements or cities would be highly controlled and regulated to prevent outsiders trying to destroy such progress and all visitors would be carefully screened before gaining access to such locations.

Progress towards one world where all are taken care of and where there is decency & justice, is often curtailed. But it cannot be stopped. As humans become more educated and understand more & dialogue more, we can move forward together. But that requires intelligent leadership too. Leaders who put the needs of the population first. Where profit motive is a concept of the past.