Hi Humans,
As a politically slightly left of
center, religiously non-fundamentalist, American Jewish Zionist little dog, I
am concerned about the extremism pulling apart human Jews in Israel, America,
and the rest of the world as well as all the other humans in Israel/Palestine,
America, and the rest of the world. Leaving out us dogs and other conscious
creatures (as usual), the Left claims to speak for the welfare of all humans,
but the extreme left is unfortunately selective as to which humans’ welfare
counts. For example, “black lives matter” is a noble cause, but the
organization that calls itself Black Lives Matter has recently digressed from
their primary cause of ‘black lives matter” by bashing Israel in its charter. I
also have issues with the present rightist government in Israel and with the
settler movement, but to single out Israel and ignore the much more serious
issues in its surrounding neighborhood is wrong. And don’t say anti-Zionism is not
anti-semitism. After all who lives in Israel? It’s inhabitants are not non-specific
aliens from outer space.
On the other hand, I find it
increasingly difficult to defend policies of the government of Israel that
support the settlers in taking land away from the Palestinians. The Arabs in the
territories crave and deserve hope for self-government, and they deserve
dignity. Unfortunately, there is a growing minority of human Jews in Israel who
believe that God is a real estate agent who wants them to own all of the Land
of Israel/Land of Palestine. That point of view is wrong, untenable, harmful to
the Jewish people both in Israel and the Diaspora, and promotes the worst on
the Palestinian side, just as BDS goes against the best and promotes the worst
in Israel.
On the other hand there are many Arabs
(maybe most) and their friends who never accepted the legitimacy of the State
of Israel and view the Jews as interlopers. Therefore to them, killing Jews is just
and Jews retaliating in self-defense is unjust.
The light at the end of the tunnel is
that a just accommodation between both people (not just governments) would
benefit both sides. Jews and Arabs both exist and will not go away. They
actually have common interests. The Palestinians, if they are willing, can
offer the real peace to Israel that was the original purpose of Zionism. Israel
can offer to the Palestinians education, prosperity, and a window to globalism.
To some extent that is already happening.
The good in Israel outshines the bad,
but the bad muddies one’s ability to extol the good.
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