For years, Samuel Tenenbaum has tried to turn the attention of economic development types in SC toward Israel. This is understandable, given that Samuel is the father of our state’s endowed chairs program, and Israel’s tech prowess.
But I hadn’t seen the same argument presented in strategic terms until I read this piece this morning:
America’s enemies understand deeply and intuitively that no U.S. goals or resources in the Middle East are remotely as important as Israel. Why don’t we?
Israel cruised through the recent global slump with scarcely a down quarter and no deficit or stimulus package. It is steadily increasing its global supremacy, behind only the U.S., in an array of leading-edge technologies. It is the global master of microchip design, network algorithms and medical instruments…
While it wasn’t the main point of the piece, I also was struck by what a neat summation, from the pro-Israel perspective, this was of why the peace process hasn’t worked in recent years:
Actions have consequences. When the Palestinian Liberation Organization launched two murderous Intifadas within a little over a decade, responded to withdrawals from southern Lebanon and Gaza by launching thousands of rockets on Israeli towns, spurned every sacrificial offer of “Land for Peace” from Oslo through Camp David, and reversed the huge economic gains fostered in the Palestinian territories between 1967 and 1990, the die was cast…
Not the whole story. But neither is blaming Israel.
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I can understand that arguement. But, I can also understand why the Palestinians continue to fight. I was just in Israel this last Christmas. In Jerusalem, I could tell the Palestinian from the Jewish sectors by sight. Those of us who can remember the “colored sections” of town (to phrase it politely) from back in the 50’s can remember what areas that are financially depressed and which are not receiving adequate government services looks like. It’s not pretty, and it’s not just. I’m not blaming the Israelis for the UN’s decision to displace Palestinians to give Israel a homeland, but I was bothered by Israel’s treatment not only of aliens within it’s borders, but of it’s own Palestinian citizens. I heard Israelis speaking of Palestinians as “uncivilized” and heard one state that all Palestinians “smelled bad.” I also toured the Holocaust Museum and read the translations of the German newpapers from the 30’s. I’m not comparing what is happening to the Palestinians now to the holocaust, but I could not help hearing the similarities in the way the Germans spoke of the Jews, or for that matter, in the way Southern white folk often spoke of African-American persons. If you haven’t read “Blood Brothers” by Elias Chacour, I recommend it.
I’m missing the economic argument for supporting Israel. Because they are advanced in high tech areas? What does the U.S. get in return for its support? And if they are doing very well now, what’s in it for Israel to do anything differently?
And you sort of glossed over part where it says they made it through the global slump with no deficits and no stimulus package. Maybe we should try emulating Israel and see if we can get out of our current slump the old fashioned way: hard work and frugality.
This is one of those topics that makes me feel ashamed to be a liberal, since most of us are just plain wrong on Israel. Dennis Prager is a great resource (Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism and Why The Jews? especially.) Thanks for sharing the Tenenbaum piece but sadly I don’t think an economic argument is going win over anyone who supports the PLO.
The economic argument, to me, is that this is a good partner to be in business with, so it would be a shame to see anything… HAPPEN to it. As wise guys would say.
And Karen… maybe YOU wouldn’t blame “the Israelis for the UN’s decision to displace Palestinians to give Israel a homeland.” But the people driving the conflict from the Palestinian side DO, to the extent that they want, above all, to have that action undone. To put it euphemistically.
Brad, of course they do. If the UN had voted to turn your homeplace into “Israel” and you were forced to leave your land, I’d dare say that you’d be mad at Israel and “want that undone, also.” And no, I’m not particularly pro-Palestinian at this point. It’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle, and there’s plenty of justification for the state of Israel. I’m simply saying that it’s not all one sided. Both sides need to stop killing each other. And how is noting an easily observable difference between the living situations of one type of Israeli citizen (Palestinian) and another type (Jewish) to be considered pro Palestinian. BTW, Brad, please do not come back with a statement that since the motives of the Palestinians and the Israelis are not the same, that it is a fallacy to compare the Palestinians losing their home to you losing yours. The situation is a universal human situation, and likely to provoke the same response from any human.
Don’t care either way, we’re talking about people who have been fighting and killing each other for thousands of years. This country tries way too hard to please everyone.
Without getting into the whole complex issue of Israeli-Arab politics, I just have to say that I find Doug’s comment unconvincing: “Maybe we should try emulating Israel and see if we can get out of our current slump the old fashioned way: hard work and frugality”
Hard work, frugality . . . and massive U.S. monetary aid used to support the Israeli defense establishment. To emulate this model we need to find a country that can subsidize our defense to the extent that we subsidize theirs.
I find the attitude, among many Palestinians and their apologists, that excuses terrorism — the killing women and children riding the bus kind — over these issues unthinkable.
And I’m completely aware of the cultural barriers that keep me from seeing their point of view. But because I am who I am, as I said, I would never be able to excuse terrorism — or sitting on the sidelines hoping that the goals of terrorism are achieved.
Yeah, I get that it totally bites to be a Palestinian living in a refugee camp or the equivalent. I get that it would be lousy to be in those circumstances. But that does not excuse fighting to eliminate Israel from existence, or cheering for those who do.
No, Karen. No to this, I mean: “If the UN had voted to turn your homeplace into “Israel” and you were forced to leave your land, I’d dare say that you’d be mad at Israel and “want that undone, also.””
No, I wouldn’t. That is to say, Brad Warthen wouldn’t. Nor would any alternative-universe “Brad Warthen” I can imagine. I’ve lived in… well, I lose track of how many places. I made an indirect reference to it on a recent comment, but it’s a lot of places. And neither I nor anyone else in my family owned real estate until well into my adulthood.
So no, you can’t say I would act the way someone does who is willing to kill for his great-grandfather’s land 60 years later. It’s unimaginable to me. And you could say that if you put me in those circumstances, I’d be different. But then, I wouldn’t be me, would I? The “you” you refer to would be a completely different person, right? And maybe, just maybe, there’s something essentially different about me, independent of my circumstances. Maybe I’d be a Palestinian who struggled to get away and build a new life elsewhere in my youth. Who knows? No one does. That’s the problem with “what-ifs”…
@lynn
Agreed. The first step in our frugality movement should be to stop sending money abroad, particularly to countries doing better than us. Never happen though. It’s all about oil.
Um, Doug — Israel doesn’t have oil. If it were all about oil, we’d help the oil-producing countries get rid of Israel.
So, it’s not all about oil.
Karen did you watch Bibi’s address to congress?
Right. If Saudi Arabia was the leading exporter of jelly beans, we’d be just as interested in Israel.
Let’s say the United States stopped all aid to Israel tomorrow. What happens?
Brad–you are a man without a country, I suppose, but I do understand how people who have lived in one place their whole lives (you don’t get any credit in my book for any you personally didn’t live–no tacking on ancestors) would be seriously, uh, upset, if forced to move….I have lived many places, but have a very strong connection to Aiken, where I lived my first 17 1/2 years, and SC where I have lived a majority of my life, notwithstanding my aversion the ghastly steamy climate and backwards politics….
This is my favorite part of that speech, btw:
So now here is the question. You have to ask it. If the benefits of peace with the Palestinians are so clear, why has peace eluded us? Because all six Israeli Prime Ministers since the signing of Oslo accords agreed to establish a Palestinian state. Myself included. So why has peace not been achieved? Because so far, the Palestinians have been unwilling to accept a Palestinian state, if it meant accepting a Jewish state alongside it.
You see, our conflict has never been about the establishment of a Palestinian state. It has always been about the existence of the Jewish state. This is what this conflict is about. In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews said yes. The Palestinians said no. In recent years, the Palestinians twice refused generous offers by Israeli Prime Ministers, to establish a Palestinian state on virtually all the territory won by Israel in the Six Day War.
They were simply unwilling to end the conflict. And I regret to say this: They continue to educate their children to hate. They continue to name public squares after terrorists. And worst of all, they continue to perpetuate the fantasy that Israel will one day be flooded by the descendants of Palestinian refugees.
My friends, this must come to an end. President Abbas must do what I have done. I stood before my people, and I told you it wasn’t easy for me, and I said… “I will accept a Palestinian state.” It is time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say… “I will accept a Jewish state.”
… and he needs to say it in Arabic. I refer, of course, to the old Arafat trick of saying one thing to the West in English, and another thing entirely to his own constituency in Arabic…
Once Palestinian leaders say that, and mean it, and are able to keep power in spite of saying it and meaning it, we’ll be on the road to peace. But that’s a big trick — both convincing Israel and the West that you mean it, and holding on to the power necessary to translate the idea in practice…
Ok. Brad, imagine. People with guns come into your house now, and your children’s houses, and evict you. You get no compensation, and are forced onto land that offers little if any support. On top of that, there are lots of you, too many for the people living on the land to which you have fled to support you. Also, the support arm of the group the outside world (ie. those not living as you are) call terrorists are the people who are helping you survive. Now, you are living a subsistence living in a small house in a village. Some of the militant side of that group (without asking or even warning you) shell one of those new settlements that have appeared. In response, the Israelis level the village, including your house, you and your grandchild, leaving only 1 or 2 of your children. Of course, your child would never support terrorists, thereafter, or would he/she?
That’s the senario. I think that the Israeli army is honestly trying to defend it’s homeland. But I’m not going to brand every Pakistani as a terrorist; in fact many, such as Bishop Chacour whom I have met are not. Meanwhile, second class treatment of all Pakistanis is a poor way to win any to the Israeli side.
@Maude. Not yet, but I’ll certainly follow the link as soon as I get a chance. Meanwhile, Maude, please understand, I’m not anti-Israel. Having been to the area, I simply see the situation as much more difficult. Neither side is with the angels, nor is either with the demons. I can only pray that perhaps they can start treating each other as fully human beings, brothers and all children of the God of Abraham.
Maude, what you’re doing is spelling out the Israeli position. And that’s fine, there’s certainly much truth in that. But it’s not the complete picture and certainly doesn’t address a number of legitimate grievances of the Palestinians. Most important among these is the settlements which virtually everyone acknowledges are illegal. Clearly this is more than a security issue for Israel given their enormous advantage in technology and weaponry.
But all of this misses the main point. Simply put, why is this a concern of the US? And why do the taxpayers have to continue to fund aid for Israel? Heck, it always has seemed like to me the Jews and Palestinians could just share the same land. Does it really matter what religion your neighbor is?
What we should do is simply say as Americans we live next door to folks of different religions and do so peacefully and without prejudice. Everyone in the land of Palestine/Israel can do that as well, otherwise we just don’t care what you do. It’s that simple. Get along or we take our ball and go home.
Karen, as I said, I get it. But there’s no scenario that excuses either terrorism, OR cheering for Israel to cease to exist.
And there are no angels, and no demons, among human beings. This, by the way, is a major theme of my blog — I keep saying it with regard to Democrats and Republicans. Same deal here…
Brad, I don’t disagree with you about terrorists. Maybe I hear you wrong, but you seem to me to be grouping all Palestinians with the terrorists, which simply doesn’t match what I saw and heard while I was in Israel. Nor is every Israeli determined to wipe out all the Palestinians. Meanwhile I can understand why, when each side engages in acts of terrorism, it’s hard to reach a peace agreement.
Bud are you seriously asking what the benefit is for us to have a democratic ally in the ME? Your neighbor’s religion only matters if it compels them to launch 12,000 missals at you. (Especially if they are capable of hitting every city in your nation within 60 seconds.)
We can hardly grasp the depth of hatred that motivates some of these conflicts (although a replay of the Secession Ball might provide a low-level example). When my wife and I were in Russia last month, we heard much about the horrific death toll which that nation suffered in WW2. It would have been indelicate to mention the fact that a significant proportion of those dead were Jews. If we don’t make some effort to understand, though, we’ll never gain any wisdom about dealing with such conflicts.