Opinion
Common ground key to Gaza peace
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There is no denying the plight of the Palestinian people is one of the most unfortunate crises taking place in the world today. For years they have been forced to live in a situation unacceptable for any person, regardless of nationality, creed, gender or age. It is the world’s moral obligation to deal with this intolerable condition. Regrettably, many, like Mr. Szarzynski, fall into the trap of a finger-pointing blame game that does not lead to a peaceful solution; rather, it leads only to further conflict. Szarzynski’s insistence on blaming Israel for the situation in Gaza is not only wrong, it is exactly the type of rhetoric that begets further violence.
If we truly want to find peace in the Middle East, we must stop this frivolous blame game; we must shift our attention to the future, rather than the past and search for common ground on which we can begin to build the foundations for a lasting peace. To some, what I am suggesting may sound like a cop-out. Many may want to automatically reject what I am proposing as a Zionist attempting to avoid tough questions about the history of my country, but I assure you that this is not the case. If it is a rebuttal you are looking for, I will give it, but the fact is that the situation in Gaza today cannot be characterized as simply as Szarzynski would like, and his accusations will get us nowhere.
Szarzynski asserts, “The Israeli invasion of Gaza did not begin with a band of renegade Muslim literalists vowing the destruction of an entire state; it begins with the simple fact that 80 percent of Gazan families originated from what is now called Israel.”
While I, too, can easily contend that my father was born in Iraq and displaced with no right of return, I also submit this is not the cause of today’s situation. In fact, the cause might be exactly what Szarzynski is trying to deny. Surely, if I wanted, I could make a case that the cause was Palestinians fleeing Israel in 1948 after leaders of the Arab world assured them that they would be able to return, once the Jewish state was completely destroyed. Or the cause may have been the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem’s close ties with Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime.
On the other hand, I could argue that the Jordanians killing tens of thousands of Palestinians in 1970 was the cause or even that it was the Cairo Agreement of 1969, which allowed rockets to be shot into Israeli villages. I could argue that it is fueled by the Hamas charter calling for the destruction of the state of Israel or even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust.
I could argue that when Szarzynski quotes a doctor as having said “over 50 percent of Gazan children under the age of 12 … have no will to live” may be caused by Hamas’ insistence on teaching Palestinian children to strive towards Shahada (seek death for Allah). The clips from Hamas’ TV station are appalling. Simply put I could allow Ralph Galloway, former UNRWA director, to say it for me: “The Arab States do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the United Nations, and as a weapon against Israel.” I too could point fingers, but I don’t, because none of those things are relevant to my point.
My point is not to debate who deserves the most blame — that is an unnecessary, unending argument that will get us nowhere. My point is as follows: It is a plea to the media, to governments around the world, and to every student on this campus to help find that common ground. It is a plea to the two both sides to stop the fighting and to start to coexist. You may say that I am naive, that I am a dreamer, but in the words of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, “In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.”
If we simply end the blame game and strive for common goals, perhaps the horrid cycles of violence and hate will end, and we will ultimately achieve the only worthwhile goals there are, namely salaam, shalom and peace.
Jordan Soffer (soffer@wisc.edu) is a sophomore with an undecided major.
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Yeah Soffer - reading this from Israel guy!
Get rid of Hamas and Hezbollah. There were many times when Israelis and Palestinians got along just fine without them. It would also help if western liberals would stop bashing Jews on the street, insisting they’re not anti-Jewish. They friggin’ are. Got a complaint about a foreign government? Take it to that government’s embassy!
Your article is so well-put and insightlful. When discussing the justification of the rockets launched into Israel, Szarzynski claims that it was “inevitable” and, “this point is plainly obvious to anyone with some semblance of an open mind”. I think that Szarzynski, as well as many other people, can truly learn from you what it actually means to have an “open mind”.
Jordan, you’re missing the point. All of the possible scenarios you mention that could lay blame to the Palestinians are a direct effect of the Zionist’s overtaking Palestine well before 1948. I agree with your overall point that we need to move forward but that is very easy for someone on the Israeli side of the argument to say. It would be like someone coming in to your house, kickking you out and then you proceeding to have all of your attempts to get your house back (legal and otherwise) responded to by the new occupant of your house saying “Come on lets move passed this and figure out a way where I can keep all or most of your house.” To say the blame is equal on both sides is misleading simply b/c it was the Zionists who initiated the entire conflict. While it may seem childish to say “He started it,” it does matter. If you cannot understand that than you are as you caution against, naive.
Well western Jews like Norman Finklestein would like to go the that embassy, but he is not the “right” kind of jew, so he is banned from Israel for a decade.
totally agree very well written piece deserves some sort of award/ job promotion
To the person who said “he started it” Actually… if you go back in history it was the Jewish people that were in the land today known as Israel first and then were kicked out of it. Even in Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic portrayal of the Jewish people in the Passion of the Christ, take notice of the people who were there. The Jewish people were, not the Palestinians. So, if you say it does matter who started it, well then look at the history of the land before 1948 and you will see it was the Jewish people who were there first.
yeah, the jewish people were there first. good point. the native americans or ‘indians’ were here first- less than 300 years ago, as opposed to over a 1000 years ago. I don’t see the point in figuring out who was ‘there’ first.We can’t rely on the fact that at one time, this group of people resided in this piece of land. The point is, this is the 21st century and two different ethnic groups that both have some valid claim at a land should learn to live peacefully together otherwise the only other option is to annihilate one of the groups, which isn’t really an option. So where does that leave us? We should look to the past and realize that two decidedly different groups of people can live together without destroying each other. Blacks, Whites in American History. Northern Ireland is another example. We have been through experiences that prove we can peacefully coexist if we decide to not accept the status quo. Jordan has it right.
1:19, 10:40 here.
You are missing a different point. Im not saying that the “he started it” argument is viable simply because of semantics. Im saying think of it practically. The Palestinians who were kicked out of their homes are still living, it happened less than 70 years ago. It isnt some rhetorical claim that “this is their land.” It actually was these people’s land and the land of these people’s parents and grandchildren. They can physiically look at a space of land and say that they themselves had lived there. The argument does not really rest in some ultimate “Truth” about who the land belongs to. It has to do with the political and direct overtaking of specific peoples homes. The Jews who claim that the land was taken from them 2000 years ago cant claim such a direct grievance as can people whos grandparents, parents, and themsevles were removed from their homes not even a lifetime ago.
I’m sure that the Anglo-Saxons would like their land back from the Normans but then didn’t they take it from the Britons?
I don’t think the Huns started off living in Hungary.
ALL land titles are, at bottom, “By Right of Conquest”.
Too bad their Arab brothers don’t do a damn thing for the Palis except cheer them on, “Let’s you and him fight!”
idiotarian @ 5:43pm drooled: “The Palestinians who were kicked out of their homes are still living, it happened less than 70 years ago. It isnt some rhetorical claim that ‘this is their land.’”
That is a bald-faced lie. Arab refugees FLED Israel voluntarily to join the Arab armies attacking Israel from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, etc. Those Arabs that stayed remain full Israeli citizens with property rights.
For a more complete illustration of the history, go here; http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/
Meanwhile, Jewish refugees from neighboring Arab states had their property forever dispossessed by Arab conquest. But there are no reciprocal international cries of any Jewish “right of return” to their Libyan homelands (for example); where today no Jews remain in a land where once thousands lived and flourished.
But I’ll tell you what: Demand Muslim Turkey return the occupied Greek metropolis of Constantinople and the sacred Hagia Sophia (Christendom’s second holiest shrine)… then we’ll talk.