I’ll admit that I’m a bit slow in understanding all the details of the current Israeli-Gaza conflict that’s tearing apart the Middle East and causing the deaths of countless innocent men, women, and children. I know the bloody history and understand that Israel must defend itself. And what’s more, as an American evangelical, I know the expected response is for us to automatically side with Israel. But, as always, there’s more than one side to the story. And in this case, people who have nothing to do with the central conflict have become the primary victims of the violence. So, as Christians, how are we to think about this thing?
I’m serious about that last question. I’d really like to hear from you regarding your thoughts on this issue. If there are articles, books, blog posts, etc. that have been particularly helpful to you in sorting out this issue, please share your recommendations here. I, for one, need to brush up on the history and its relationship to the present crisis. For instance, I found the perspective in this op-ed from Wednesday’s New York Times to be very informative.
For you strong supporters of Israel out there, please don’t take this post the wrong way. I’m not anti-Israel; I’m genuinely trying to make sense of this thing. So, I look forward to your suggestions for resources.
In many ways, I feel like Glenn Loury in this Bloggingheads.tv clip—shocked, saddened, exasperated. I know how I feel, but how should I be thinking? And, more important, how exactly should we be praying for peace in this situation?
Reconciliation Blog 
I have a friend who lives in Amman, Jordan who blogs regularly about life in the Middle East. His recent posts about the violence in Gaza have provided a helpful and not often heard perspective.
http://sojourney.wordpress.com/
David,
Thanks much. I’m checking it out.
Ed G.
I appreciated some Former President Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid. It doesn’t deal so much with Hamas but with Fatah and the Israeli government. Good background reading.
Phil,
I’d forgotten about Carter’s book. Thanks for the reminder.
Ed G.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/01/09/opinion/1231544842105/bloggingheads-israel-s-end.html
The New York Times website currently features a video (see above) in which two professors accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. To be fair, one professor explicitly accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing, while the other seemingly agrees with him (or at least says nothing to refute his charges).
Professor Glenn Loury, of Brown University (http://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/Glenn_Loury/louryhomepage/), specifically accused Israelis of ethnic cleansing in 1948 on the Times’ popular “Bloggingheads” page in a segment entitled “Israel’s End?”
He spoke of the Palestinians’ reaction to “…the historical wound of what was ethnic cleansing, I mean, um, what was a dispossession of hundreds of thousands, what was a horrible historic crime. Uh, again these are very harsh words and I will be judged for them, but let me just say them anyway. Their refusal to accept that fait accompli, and to simply allow it to pass, and to move on, does have them in a death embrace with the Zionist project, with the State of Israel. They do dance ‘the dance of death’ together…but there you are. That’s how they have chosen to deal with what history has dealt them…I don’t know what i would do, if I were in that situation, what politics I would embrace.”
It is difficult to know where to begin. Is Loury speaking from ignorance, or does he know the facts and choose to ignore them in service of a cause? Loury neglects to mention the great Arab hostility that existed against the Jews in the Middle East even before Israel’s war of independence. History for Loury starts in 1948. He doesn’t tell his viewers that the Jews accepted a partition plan put forth by the UN, while the Palestinians and Arabs rejected it and instead opted for a war whose openly stated goal was genocide (“pushing the Jews into the sea,” as some prominent Arab leaders said). The Palestinians joined with several other Arab armies and set to work trying to exterminate a people who had just collectively survived the Holocaust. Meanwhile, it is well documented (by Time magazine, as well as by many other sources) that prominent Arab leaders instructed Palestinian civilians to relocate during the war, because they didn’t want them to get hurt/killed during the violence.
None of this was mentioned, because Loury’s Palestinians are totally passive actors who have no role in shaping their own destiny (the familiar condescending attitude that Western academics so often apply to Arabs and Palestinians). Palestinians have no moral responsibility, they are like children reacting to events beyond their control. Indeed, in the above quote we see that Loury isn’t sure what he would do. Maybe he too would join a fundamentalist movement like Hamas and blow up a bus filled with children because his genocidal war in 1948 failed, if he were a Palestinian.
One would hope that the other academic would inject some wisdom into the silliness of this historical alteration and propaganda. Unfortunately, Ann Althouse of the University of Wisconsin Law School (http://law.wisc.edu/profiles/index.php?iEmployeeID=97) sat comfortably. She didn’t challenge Loury’s re-writing of history. Instead, she basically agreed with him. My reaction when thinking about terrorist violence is not ”what are those crazy people thinking?'” said Althouse. )
Apparently she too understands why the Palestinian terrorists have been firing rockets at Israeli civilians for the last eight years, even after Israel completely withdrew from Gaza.
It is certainly “interesting” to watch professors try to re-shape history while the war for public opinion once again plays out between Palestinians and Israelis. Maybe The New York Times should reconsider having uninformed amateurs speak about subjects they clearly are not well-versed in.
Meg,
Eric is stating that 65% of those that voted in the Gaza election picked Hamas, not that 65% of the total population voted for Hamas.
Your reading of Eric’s post seems to have been clouded by bias, since it’s obvious that children don’t vote anywhere. Having said that, Eric could have been clearer by stating the date of the election he is referring to. None of these things change the point that he was trying to make.
Akira
“And in this case, people who have nothing to do with the central conflict have become the primary victims of the violence.”
More than 65% of Gazans voted for Hamas in the last elections. Surely they were aware that:
A) Hamas is a terror org. dedicated to the destruction of Israel
B) Voting for Hamas was not going to make peace more likely
Every single poll shows that huge masses of Palestinians favor both terror attacks on innocent civilians and the destruction of Israel.
Where are the Palestinian/Gazan/Arab protests against Hamas?
Professor Glenn Loury, of Brown University (http://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/Glenn_Loury/louryhomepage/), specifically accused Israelis of ethnic cleansing in 1948 on the Times’ popular “Bloggingheads” page in a segment entitled “Israel’s End?”
He spoke of the Palestinians’ reaction to “…the historical wound of what was ethnic cleansing, I mean, um, what was a dispossession of hundreds of thousands, what was a horrible historic crime. Uh, again these are very harsh words and I will be judged for them, but let me just say them anyway. Their refusal to accept that fait accompli, and to simply allow it to pass, and to move on, does have them in a death embrace with the Zionist project, with the State of Israel. They do dance ‘the dance of death’ together…but there you are. That’s how they have chosen to deal with what history has dealt them…I don’t know what i would do, if I were in that situation, what politics I would embrace.”
It is difficult to know where to begin. Is Loury speaking from ignorance, or does he know the facts and choose to ignore them in service of a cause? Loury neglects to mention the great Arab hostility that existed against the Jews in the Middle East even before Israel’s war of independence. History for Loury starts in 1948. He doesn’t tell his viewers that the Jews accepted a partition plan put forth by the UN, while the Palestinians and Arabs rejected it and instead opted for a war whose openly stated goal was genocide (“pushing the Jews into the sea,” as some prominent Arab leaders said). The Palestinians joined with several other Arab armies and set to work trying to exterminate a people who had just collectively survived the Holocaust. Meanwhile, it is well documented (by Time magazine, as well as by many other sources) that prominent Arab leaders instructed Palestinian civilians to relocate during the war, because they didn’t want them to get hurt/killed during the violence.
None of this was mentioned, because Loury’s Palestinians are totally passive actors who have no role in shaping their own destiny (the familiar condescending attitude that Western academics so often apply to Arabs and Palestinians). Palestinians have no moral responsibility, they are like children reacting to events beyond their control. Indeed, in the above quote we see that Loury isn’t sure what he would do. Maybe he too would join a fundamentalist movement like Hamas and blow up a bus filled with children because his genocidal war in 1948 failed, if he were a Palestinian.
One would hope that the other academic would inject some wisdom into the silliness of this historical alteration and propaganda. Unfortunately, Ann Althouse of the University of Wisconsin Law School (http://law.wisc.edu/profiles/index.php?iEmployeeID=97) sat comfortably. She didn’t challenge Loury’s re-writing of history. Instead, she basically agreed with him. My reaction when thinking about terrorist violence is not ”what are those crazy people thinking?'” said Althouse. )
Apparently she too understands why the Palestinian terrorists have been firing rockets at Israeli civilians for the last eight years, even after Israel completely withdrew from Gaza.
It is certainly “interesting” to watch professors try to re-shape history while the war for public opinion once again plays out between Palestinians and Israelis. Maybe The New York Times should reconsider having uninformed amateurs speak about subjects they clearly are not well-versed in.
May I correct you, Eric? More than 50% of Gazans are under the age of 15. Presumably children don’t vote in Gaza.
Meg