By Rabbi Ben Kamin
SAN DIEGO — “Israel may be 63 years old today but its days are numbered.”
So declared one of several thousand frenzied Arab protestors along one of three borders with Israel who broke into mayhem and violence yesterday—the May 14th anniversary of Israel’s independence (Huffington News).
I don’t think so.
The result of the wholesale aggression on the day Arabs call “nakba” (“the catastrophe”) was as follows: Several people were dead, the government of Syria was satisfied that it had successfully diverted attention from its own brutality against Syrian citizens, and Israel is standing and open today. The Palestinian people themselves, who deserve much better than their cynical manipulation by the oily sheiks that still run most of the regional governments, are not a single step closer to their realization of freedom and sovereignty.
Israel has not always been completely enlightened since the bittersweet victory of 1967, when it successfully and swiftly defeated several combined Arab armies in the Six Day War—in sane and savvy response to an unprecedented buildup of armaments on all its borders and a sworn threat to “throw the Jews into the sea.” The 44 year occupation of territories (which, by the way, Jordan and Egypt occupied prior to 1967) has spoiled the fruit of Israel’s founding promise and must be resolved. But Israel still deserves the natural right to negotiate peace with partners that are not benighted and disingenuous.
Israel remains the only party in this tragic narrative to have returned land in successive pacts, to underwrite the Palestinian Authority with funds and protection, and to remain totally and utterly democratic. Israelis are much more critical of their government, in the press and in peaceful street vigils, than most American Jews dare to be. Israel is the only nation in this discussion being vigorously expected to divide its national capital of Jerusalem in half just to satisfy a global misplacement of history and anti-Semitism.
Imagine, just try to imagine, demonstrations in the streets of Damascus or Beirut or Tripoli asking for reconciliation with Israel. The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated (by a crazed Jewish militant, granted) just after addressing a Peace Now rally in 1995. Imagine Arab money being funneled into Israel to help uphold Israeli infrastructure—as Israel has done for years in the West Bank. Imagine an Israeli leader openly decrying the killing of Osama bin Laden, as one of the key Hamas chiefs did.
Peace will come when Arab leaders stop using the Palestinians as pawns for their own indulgence and greed. Then, maybe, we will start numbering the days of a truly free Palestine.
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Rabbi Kamin is a freelance writer based in San Diego