A new vision for the Middle East

Israeli forces killed another activist in 2003. Rachel Corrie, a young American student activist, who knelt before a Palestinian home acting as a human shield to stop the house’s demolition was brutally crushed to death by a bulldozer of Israeli Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip.

As Noam Chomsky, a constantly dissenting American Jew, points out, Israel launched “the murderous and destructive Operation Cast Lead against Gaza in December 2008, with full US backing, an exploit of murderous aggression without the slightest credible pretext on either legal or moral grounds”. As a result of this operation, about 1,400 Palestinians were killed.

Following each Israeli crime, the uncritical Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel always defend the indefensible, and raise the same shrill cry, blaming the critical voices for singling out Israel for such crimes. As some commentators have rightly suggested, this disproportionate interest in Israeli crimes, rather than those of North Korea, Burma, Tibet, Sudan and Zimbabwe is justifiable.

Israel is considered a Western democracy and gets almost unconditional support from the US, and democratic Western countries, at least in theory, are not supposed to commit such crimes. But if they do, they must accept the criticism and scrutiny that comes as a result.

Israel, to dispel criticism, claims that it is the only democracy among all the dictatorial regimes in the Middle East. But isn’t Israeli democracy selective? Democracy for the Israeli-Jews, and despotism towards Arabs and Palestinians.

Israel’s defenders also try to quiet criticism against its state crimes by accusing critics of anti-Semitism. But isn’t it irrational to discount criticism of Israel by labelling it as anti-Semitic, just as it would be irrational to discount all criticism against the US as anti-American or criticism against Muslim countries as Islamophobia?

Furthermore, if all racisms including anti-Semitism are unacceptable, should not all Jews also condemn the racism against and inhumane treatment towards Arabs and Palestinians in Israel?

The reason for US reluctance to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is obvious: the more conflicts there are in the Middle East, the easier it is to control and rule this strategic region with its natural energy resources. Israel also enjoys its privileged status in the eyes of Americans by purporting to be fighting against the so-called Palestinian terrorists as part of the US holy war on terrorism.

Israel has many excuses to maintain its brutal military strategies against the Palestinians instead of making peace. It claims that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. In fact, in the past Israel used Hamas, an Islamist political movement in the Occupied Territories, against the secular nationalism of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).

However to Israel’s dismay, Hamas grew more powerful, and now it is the democratically elected government of Palestinians. Hamas is also accused of refusing to recognise Israel. As Noam Chomsky reminds us, “political parties do not recognise states”.

Chomsky also points out that “if the US and Israel not only do not recognise Palestine, but have been acting for decades to ensure that it can never come into existence in any meaningful form”, then why would Hamas recognise Israel?

Besides, it is important to understand the political and social circumstances that have caused Palestinian militancy, in particular in terms of suicide bombers. Understanding does not mean endorsing suicide bombings, which are as indefensible as the Israeli murders. But understanding the root causes of such militancy helps to formulate the right political strategies to prevent them.