This might be the last song, the last words, of an awful poet. I hate to part, am afraid of the meeting with Someone unknown. There's no time under the sun for fights and wars. There's no time under the sun to wait." - Aviv Gefen, "Ein Zman Tachat Hashemesh"
I would like to follow up that rambling with a post that will hopefully be more coherent:
Hatred is destructive to the character of a nation. Arguably, hatred is one of the biggest challenges that both Israel and the Palestinian people face. It is easy and understandable to hate a Palestinian after a terror attack - but it is not justified. It is also easy to hate Israelis after military operations in the West Bank and Gaza - but it is not justified. (I do not mean to imply moral equivalency between the two: terror attacks are infinitely worse in intent.)
Most Israelis who I've encountered want peace. Nevertheless, the trend of Arab-hatred (and I say Arab, and not Palestinian, for a reason) among Israeli settlers is unsettling. (pardon the pathetic pun) The scary thing about the trend is it is slowly extending to those Orthodox Israelis who, while they do not live in settlements, espouse a settler-messianic religious-political outlook. There has recently been either a rise in settler violence against Palestinians or the reporting on such violence, depending on one's opinions. At the same time, Adalah, an organization that defends the rights of Israeli-Arabs in Israel, reports a rise in acts of discrimination.
I have not had much meaningful interaction with Palestinians. I would like to assume however, that most want peace. Some might call this naive. The fact remains however, that the two main groups fighting for Palestinian independence, Fatah and Hamas, are enshrined in hatred. This is dangerous to the Palestinian national movement. Hatred blinds one and prevents one from seeking compromises and peaceful ways to accomplish one's objectives. One of the reasons Israel came into being is that Israel's leaders, who were not blinded by hatred, were willing to accept the UN partition plan despite its granting them less land than they wanted. In order to create peace and gain independence, it may be in the best interest of the Palestinian leadership to follow Israel's example and accept less land than they want - and to give up on the right of return, something Israel will never accept - or to at least amend their demand to "right of compensation/reparations".
Furthermore, the mixing of religion and politics in Hamas is dangerous. Separation of religion and government is essential to forming a healthy democracy - something that is in the best interest of all Palestinians.
The Israeli government must do more to combat the Arab-hatred of settlers - and the Palestinian people must demand more pragmatism from their leaders. Ultimately, hatred is most dangerous not in the effect it has on the hated, but in the effect it has on the haters.
2 comments:
i like your calling the players in this drama "haters;" it makes me think of a freestyling rap-off with tamer on one side and subliminal on the other, both calling each other "hataz" and droppin the f-bomb.
but srsly: combating hate is less easy and unfortunately less important right now than combating lunatics with tractors.
I disagree, darling. (Note to anyone else who might read this: I am not a creep. I know Adi in real life and have thus earned the right to call her darling.)
Hatred is easier to combat bc it requires education, words and not guns. It requires people to speak out, and more specifically, teachers, politicians and rabbis and imams to speak out.
Also, bulldozers/piguahs can tare us apart from without, but having a society full of hate tares us apart from within, and that is, in my opinion, much more dangerous. Countries can endure attacks, it is when the fabric of societies starts to shred due to internal struggle that countries fall apart. Rome could not have fallen where it not due to its internal problems.
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