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Imagine there are terrorists who want to kill you and take over your state. 300 of them walk into a mega-mall where there are thousands of holiday shoppers. From various locations they randomly shoot rockets into the surrounding area. The police, surrounding the mall, engage in what they call "targeted bombing" by determining where they believe the terrorists are headquartered and then dropping bombs on those locations. They kill terrorists but they also kill shoppers. By the fourth day food and supplies are scarce and the shoppers are desperate. The few medical personnel among them are tending those who have been injured by the police bombs using the limited supplies originally designed for first aid. The targeted bombing has killed 15 terrorists, but it's also killed over one hundred shoppers and injured scores more. The terrorists have killed three in the community.
Outside, trucks with medical supplies, food and medical volunteers have arrived. The volunteers are willing to risk entering the mall to help the hundreds of injured and dying shoppers. Then the word comes from the police..."The mall is sealed. Nothing and no one goes in or comes out." The media receives cell phone calls from shoppers begging for food and medical help. But the police refuse to change their minds and ban further cell phone contact.
Reality:
Think this couldn't happen? Well it was happening in Gaza. As of this posting a ceasefire
has been declared but no one believes there will be lasting peace since both Hamas and the Israelis refuse to accept each other's legitimacy. I've never lived in fear that I couldn't walk down the street without being bombed so I don't know how the Israeli or Palestinian people feel. But bombing and killing innocent people when you have overwhelming power has got to be wrong.
Israel claims it only seeks to secure its safety but anyone who looks at a map of Palestine in 1947 when Israel was founded and compares it to now can see the shocking shrinking of Palestine. Not only has Palestine shrunk, but huge areas of it have Israeli settlements in them. The disingenuousness of Israel is obvious. Why do you take over territory if you only want to protect yourself? A trapped person fights back. What do the Israelis expect?
I always say I was raised Catholic in a Jewish neighborhood. I have family and close friends who are Jewish. The Judaism I know is a religion of compassion and acceptance. It's a religion of fighting for the rights of others. The Civil Rights movement and Jews are inextricably linked in my mind. I wonder, how can Jews do this? My heart breaks as I watch and wonder how such a good and noble people could sink to this horror. I look for explanations but only see the same political tripe. Gandhi was said to have remarked, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and we'll all be blind and toothless." And if Israel is any indication, heartless.
WTG Deb! I'm glad to see that people are starting to see the truth to what is happening to the people of Palestine. How the occupation has smothered these people to the point of fighting back even when they know there is no hope for change.
ReplyDeleteDear Dr. Orlowski
ReplyDeleteI don't see that all jews accept these massacres to be committed in the name of Judaism. The truth to be said: Judaism was hijacked by Theodor Hertzl and his companions and followers. They have done massive propaganda and brainwashed many Jews about the promised land that was empty and just waiting for all Jews to immigrate to. Many Jewish organizations are absolutely against the establishment of the state of Israel by forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing and dispossession of more than 700000 Palestinians of their properties and their homes to make them refugees generation after generation for more than 5 decades. Not only that, any Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza are suffering from extremely restricted movement to go to work, to study or to seek medical care! They are simply living in concentration camps surrounded by the apartheid wall, awaiting the ultimate forced transfer policy to be implemented by the Israeli government or bombs raining on them to wipe them out.
Thank you for your comments. I do not believe that all Jews here or in Israel accept what is going on. In the U.S., Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show, has had numerous intelligent and thoughtful conversations with guests about this. Rabbi Lerner from Tikkum is an outspoken advocate for a fair peace. Starhawk has also written and spoken with great courage. I know there are wonderful Jews who are not famous who also pray for peace and some sort of solution. And I can't believe the believers in the real Judaism...the religion I know and love...won't stand up and defend it's true spirit.
ReplyDeleteI often feel hopeless when I think of this issue, but the Jews of whom you speak give me hope that perhaps we will be able to find a way that doesn't involve hate and fear and guns. In my head I hear the voice of a dear Muslim friend who once said of Jews and Palestinians, "We are cousins." May we soon realize that and act as a loving family, not a dysfunctional one!