Israel-Palestine: THE question
There is one absolute pre-condition for ending the Israel-Palestine conflict by diplomacy and negotiations on the basis, as it would have to be, of justice for the Palestinians and peace with security for all. It is that the Jews acknowledge (1) that a terrible wrong was done to the Palestinians by Zionism in the name of all Jews everywhere – the terrible wrong being the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, a process that continues to this day slowly and by stealth on the occupied West Bank; and (2) that this wrong must be addressed. THE question arising is this: Why are most Jews unable and/or unwilling to acknowledge the wrong done to the Palestinians?
My Gentile answer begins with a short, one-sentence statement that begs another question.
Most Jews do not want to know about Zionism’s crimes.
The question is – why don’t they want to know?
A longer version of the question is something like this. Why are the minds of most Jews open only to Zionism’s version of the history of the making and sustaining of the conflict, a version which asserts for propaganda purposes that Israel is the victim and not the aggressor and oppressor it actually is, and closed to the truth including the fact that Israel was created mainly by Zionism terrorism and ethnic cleansing?
In my analysis the key to understanding why most Jewish minds are closed to the truth about Zionism’s crimes is in a single word – fear. Of what? That there will one day be another great turning against the Jews. and that when it comes they will need Israel as their refuge of last resort. In this way of thinking the Zionist state is their insurance policy. So, they believe, they must not do or say anything that could assist Israel’s enemies and put their insurance policy at risk. And that means, among other things, not challenging Zionism’s version of history.
Given the fact that Jews were persecuted on and off down the centuries, there is a case for saying that in the immediate aftermath of the Nazi holocaust a Jewish perception of the need for Israel as an insurance policy was not irrational. But there is also a very strong case for saying that because of the Nazi holocaust the monster of anti-Semitism would have gone back to sleep, probably remained asleep, and might even have died in its sleep if Zionism had not been allowed by the major powers to have its way. (More on this in a moment).
In other words, there is a case for saying that after the Nazi holocaust, and because of it, the perception of the need for Israel as an insurance policy became irrational with the passing of the years.
The evidence which supports this case is the completeness of the acceptance by the overwhelming majority of non-Jewish Europeans and North Americans of their fellow Jewish citizens. European and North American Jews had never had it so good. Anti-Semitism still existed to some degree in the shadows but throughout the second half of the 20th century there was never the danger that it would emerge from the shadows and go on the rampage again anywhere in the Western world.
Why then did most European and North American Jews cling to the view that they still needed or might need Israel as a refuge of last resort?
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