Saturday, January 03, 2009

[palestine] just the facts please 4


I wonder if I might ask a question: “Do you feel accepted by your nation, your land, your peer group?” For most of you, that’s an irrelevant question, stupid even.

What would you say then to a friend of mine, a Yorkshirewoman, who moved to another town twenty odd years ago and not so long ago told me, with a touch of irony, that she was now finally accepted because the baker had waved to her for the first time ever, as he’d driven by?

Cutting closer to the chase, last year I was nominated for the American weblog awards in the UK section, largely on the strength of American and British votes but a certain lady left a comment at this site, saying: “Oh, are you a UK blogger, James?” Nice putdown.

Going way back in time, to the 4th class/year/form, I always thought I was one of the lads but one day I was bumped off top spot in our weekly class tests by a girl called Gail and I was mightily p---ed off because she’d been given help with the last test. To be honest, a tear or two crept from the eyes.

At lunch break, out I went to play football with the lads but no one was passing it to me so I just took it and tried for goal myself. Even my own supposed mate wouldn’t tell me what was wrong later but from that day forward, there was a coolness from my peers.

Now, leave aside these trivialities and look at a people who not only haven’t managed any peer acceptance in 5000 years but they’ve also put up with pogroms, oppression, putdowns and all sorts of unpleasantries – anyone know the story of Clifford Tower in York or about the Volga River pogroms?

Forever seen as foreigners and usurpers in their own homeland, taken captive and deported, they’re quite logically going to develop a jaundiced view of life, wouldn’t you think? The word that springs to mind, regarding the attitude they’re likely to develop is “intransigent”.

Unpleasant to deal with but understandable, all the same.


I’ve had two interfaces with the more extreme members of this community, one for three years and one for two weeks. In the former, one month the gentiles’ salaries were not in the bank but the Jewish ones were. Our money had been used to pay for the new chandelier in the synagogue.

In the latter case, I was staying, during the holidays, in a cottage on a hillside and a group of Jewish children passed by, singing Top 100 hits. Suddenly, a voice cried out from behind for them to stop and a man ran up, circling them like a sheepdog and exhorting them to start chanting a Hebrew song instead and so they went, all the way down to the fields below.

Most of the Jewish families I knew were just your average family, “more English than the English”, a statement which would upset them because they were English, in their eyes. This is the thing, isn’t it – non-acceptance of who they are and what they believe in? That then causes an attitude problem in them and confirms the worst suspicions of the non-Jews around them who’ve been fed a diet of hostile folklore all their lives.

Cf the Irish question.

Things stick in the memory and my father always told of how, in the war, he stood on the banks of what might have been the Jordan and on one side were the Jewish settlements, with irrigated land and crops and on the other – desert and Arabs. Blame my dad, not me, for that story. Either way, it sure affected those soldiers and they were far more pro-Israel after it.

Looking at it from the Palestinian point of view, there they were, minding their own business and doing sfa with the place, when along came dispossessed Jews from Europe and man, these people were intransigent in a big way. From 12% of the local population to some enormous number, these Jews posed an enormous threat.

For a start, there was the worldwide caliphate to consider, the goal of every intransigent Muslim and they, the Palestinians, were right in the heart of it. But a different loyalty was also tugging at them at the same time – the nature of being Arab and all it entailed, with a long and glorious past.

With the various mandates in the area, a new idea had also sprung up – that of nationhood. Iraq became Iraq, Persia and Egypt already were, the Lebanon and Syria became distinct.

So, torn all different ways and observing what, to them, were foreign powers imposing a Jewish state on them, they were likely to become intransigent. It was beyond the pale to cast an eye across this vast Arab Muslim caliphate, a source of great pride and to see this ancient blot on the landscape return – the hated Jew. And not only return but right in the prime piece of real estate they suddenly wanted.

All the time, their own holy book speaks of finding Jews hiding behind trees in the end times and killing them, along with other choice scriptures. What chance any sort of accommodation with the Jew? Parts of the Talmud are equally revealing.



The instant Israel formed, wham – virtually the whole Arab world attacked in force, once, twice, three times, even on a religious holiday. Having refused to accept the two state solution, they preferred war and in war, territory gets taken which could never have been taken in peace time.

Then they turned around and cried, “Usurper!”

The Arab leadership must shoulder a large portion of the blame for this. Yes, the life of the Palestinian is dire but look at the intransigence of Hamas, which only stirs up the intransigence of the Jews, which stirs up the intransigence of Hamas and so it goes on. Stop the rockets and see what happens, whether things become better in Gaza.

In a condition of peace, see if Israel continues to choke the border crossings or oppresses the Gaza residents. Let’s not you or I speculate but let’s just see what happens. Let’s see how Hamas spends its billions in aid – on Iranian weapons to wipe Israel off the face of the map or on the living conditions of their own people.

I’d say as long as those nutters are in charge, putting innocent Palestinians in the firing line for their own purposes, as with Hezbollah in the Lebanon, then the Palestinian cause will never be served.

At least Fatah offers some sort of hope for a lasting peace. At least there is a way forward for cooperation on irrigation, on food supplies, on housing, on a reasonable lifestyle.

Let it just happen.

15 comments:

  1. There is a peace vigil being held locally today to honor, the dead,injuring and bereaved.

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  2. Good piece James; why did you not include the Mandate Palestine in your recitation of nationhood? (just wondering) :)

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  3. Cherie, with the greatest of respect, a question about the peace vigil:

    Including the Israelis killed by rocket fire in their own home, I trust?

    Or is it all one-sided, for the Hamas militants?

    Or is it for the Palestinian innocents Hamas kept close to the military targets to create collateral damage, knowing the Israelis were going for Hamas institutions?

    Will that be mentioned in the speeches, do you think?

    M'lord - the Mandate is a whole area in itself. Next post.

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  4. It is supposed to be for all who have suffered and are still suffering within the region. It is being organised by a local group (Palestine Talks) and they want the vigil to be totally inclusive.

    I may be able to update you later, one of my friends is hoping to be there.

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  5. For all sides but run by the Palestinians? Tell us about it later, Cherie.

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  6. I think it's possible that Hamas started this latest round to test the incoming US President's reaction. If he shows firmness against their current tactics, they'll seek a (temporary, but for some years) accommodation with the Israelis; if he wobbles, it's Guy Fawkes Night.

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  7. Well, someone has to organise the event Cherie refers to, James. Vigils have been or are being held in many British towns, I read. Also, I must be stupid or something but how were the Arabs supposed to cultivate a desert?

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  8. Hamas is the ONLY thing that has prevented the Palestinians from being dispossessed of thir homeland completely!
    One , the Jews, does not have to be he abuser to prevent their continued victimization.
    I guess they learned a thing or two from the pogroms!

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  9. @Ubermouth: if your comment is a response to mine, all I can say is that I was talking about tactics and timing. The argument about rights and wrongs could go on forever, just as in Northern Ireland.

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  10. just another battle in a 1300 year old war to bring about a perfect world under allah. As for cultivating the desert...the Israelis did a pretty good job.,,,God bless the IDF.

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  11. Sackerson, my comment was a very restrained comment about the post. :)

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  12. I see tanks and infantry, under suppressing fire, have now moved into gazoo.

    10,000 IDF reservists called up to north to prevent anticipated Hezbullah attacks from Lebanon.

    Things are getting interesting. If the north progresses, the IDF should get to meet some of the latest Russian technologies.

    I reckon Israeli software will be better, but, who knows.

    Certainly Israel must regard it as being so, and their waltz around the Syrian nuclear building last year will have given them confidence.

    You'd have to wonder, with oil under $40/barrel, how much longer Iran can fund Hezb, and Hamas, and provide armaments. Maybe this is a way of draining the stock pool by the IDF.
    However, if Saudi Arabia is involved in finance.............

    Now if the EU, and the US, would stop funding the palestinians, they might just have to devote more time to normal businesses to survive.

    Oh, well.

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  13. All comments appreciated, even Uber's but I think Anon's gets the prize, where he says:

    "You'd have to wonder, with oil under $40/barrel, how much longer Iran can fund Hezb, and Hamas, and provide armaments."

    How long will it stay that low for though?

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  14. How long will it stay that low for though?

    There's the rub!

    I have a sneaking suspicion that the price of oil and certain commodities will be kept as low, via the futures, as they were kept high a few months ago.

    Unfriendly countries would suffer.

    However, mines are now being shuttered, and oil wells capped, capex expenditure budgets/intentions closed, and industrial output for Dec, 08 in the US was at 1948 levels
    That's how far this thing is unwinding.

    If you can, position yourself for abject failure of this country.

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  15. So far I haven't got the report back on the local vigil. But I have found this measured response on the event.

    I think the final sentence is quite key to what happens next...

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