PASSING FOR NORMAL

On Israel's "Right to Exist"

Now that the Palestinian civil war long sought by Israel, the U.S. and the EU appears on the verge of breaking out, it may be timely to examine the justification put forward by Israel, the U.S. and the EU for their collective punishment of the Palestinian people in retaliation for their having made the "wrong" choice in last January's democratic election -- the refusal of Hamas to "recognize Israel" or to "recognize Israel's existence" or to "recognize Israel's right to exist".
These three verbal formulations have been used by media, politicians and even diplomats interchangeably, as though they mean the same thing. They do not.

"Recognizing Israel" or any other state is a formal legal/diplomatic act by a state with respect to another state. It is inappropriate -- indeed, nonsensical -- to talk about a political party or movement, even one in a sovereign state, extending diplomatic recognition to a state. To talk of Hamas "recognizing Israel" is simply sloppy, confusing and deceptive shorthand for the real demand being made.

"Recognizing Israel's existence" is not a logical nonsense and appears on first impression to involve a relatively straightforward acknowledgement of a fact of life -- like death and taxes. Yet there are serious practical problems with this formulation. What Israel, within what borders, is involved? The 55% of historical Palestine recommended for a Jewish state by the UN General Assembly in 1947? The 78% of historical Palestine occupied by Israel in 1948 and now viewed by most of the world as "Israel" or "Israel proper"?

The 100% of historical Palestine occupied by Israel since June 1967 and shown as "Israel" on maps in Israeli schoolbooks? Israel has never defined its own borders, since doing so would, necessarily, place limits on them. Still, if this were all that were being demanded of Hamas, it might be possible for it to acknowledge, as a fact of life, that a State of Israel exists today within some specified borders.

"Recognizing Israel's right to exist", the actual demand, is in an entirely different league. This formulation does not address diplomatic formalities or simple acceptance of present realities. It calls for a moral judgment.

There is an enormous difference between "recognizing Israel's existence" and "recognizing Israel's right to exist". From a Palestinian perspective, the difference is in the same league as the difference between asking a Jew to acknowledge that the Holocaust happened and asking him to acknowledge that it was "right" that the Holocaust happened -- that the Holocaust (or, in the Palestinian case, the Nakba) was morally justified.

To demand that Palestinians recognize "Israel's right to exist" is to demand that a people who have for almost 60 years been treated, and continue to be treated, as sub-humans publicly proclaim that they ARE sub-humans -- and, at least implicitly, that they deserve what has been done, and continues to be done, to them. Even 19th century U.S. governments did not require the surviving Native Americans to publicly proclaim the "rightness" of their ethnic cleansing by the Pale Faces as a condition precedent to even discussing what reservation might be set aside for them -- under economic blockade and threat of starvation until they shed whatever pride they had left and conceded the point."---By John V. Whitbeck. Full article here.

What feels amazing to me is that, growing up, we did not speak of Israel. Saying the name Israel will give us feelings of fear and resentment and absolute hate. We did not understand why we hated to hear that name because, believe it or not, we were not raised on hate or on politics. Our parents wanted what is better for us. It was very hard though not to be exposed to the hate the Palestinians who took refuge in Lebanon carried with them and since they became part of the Lebanese society eventually, it became part of our national memory as well. The hate did.

When one grows up, one tries to examine his values and i do not say re-examine. I had the time and the freedom to think about how i feel towards Israel. I had to get rid of the pre-conceived ideas and the rooted feelings that were even involuntarily planted in me by my society. As a kid, the name Israel was associated with fear, with running for life, with neighbors getting blown up in the invasion of Beirut, with poor Palestinian refugees and their kids that my mother helped, mostly with confusion seeing my parents being helpless. As an adult, the name Israel evokes pictures of babies blown up under the bombs, ruthlessness and unfairness, mostly it is my turn to feel helpless. I then realized, I did not hate then. Kids do not hate. I hate now.

(And more useful documentaries that mone linked here)

And a short quote nicely summarizing what to anticipate in the war between the US and Iran, posted by Rhiannon (soon to have her own blog to have all this valuable information available in one place and backed up)

"Now, we must turn our attention to Iran. I believe that our government is considering initiating a war with this Islamic mega-power. They aren’t quite sure of exactly how to go about this in order to rally the American people behind this decision. So they will either state that Iran is a nuclear threat, or that their support of the Shiite Muslims in Iraq is empowering the "civil war."But I believe the truth is simpler than that: Iran no longer accepts our dollars for oil. This deflates the dollar on the world market and creates inflation in the United States. Therefore, we might possibly stage a false operation of Iranians killing our soldiers in Iraq in order to give us a good enough reason to declare war.....or we might just sit down and talk to them. The coming election will decide this. If the present administration maintains control of Congress, it might only be a matter of days before a new plan is executed. If control of the House is lost, America will be forced to negotiate. As our position in Iraq becomes more tenuous we are being forced to reassess our foreign policy concerning Syria. The United States has maintained no connection with them stating this isdue to their previous alliance with the Soviet Union and their occupation of Lebanon. Yet, the real reason we refuse to recognize Syria is because Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 war between Israel and the Arabs. Despite a UN resolution stating Israel must return the Golan Heights to Syria, they have never done so. This is because the Golan Heights holds the most precious resource on earth: Water."--- Dannion Brinkley, November 2006.