Hoplite
2nd March 2011, 10:21
I have to admit to some conflicted feelings about the issue of Palestine and Palestinian resistance.
On the one hand, you have a people that were basically elbowed in the face by the collective guilt of the rest of the (non-German) world and told "You will live with this decision." They were subsequently treated like crap by the one group of people in the world that should have more empathy than most for oppressed people and they're STILL treated like crap today. Israel throws it's weight around the region, flaunting it's close ties with the US, and doing whatever it really wants with respect to Palestinians.
Many Palestinians seem very radical to me, but I have a hard time finding fault with some of their logic in this regard; I would definitely classify them as an oppressed people that the rest of the world has basically given token support to when it was fashionable to do so and ignored the rest of the time. I can understand the desperation that would make people turn to suicide bombing and other tactics that we would consider terrorism; irregular warfare is often the last choice left to oppressed people and I think it's horribly arrogant to demonize people for NOT laying down and being doormats.
On the other hand...I really cant square the abject racism that many Palestinian resisters have towards Israel and some of the tactics of the Palestinian fighters seem to be more acts of revenge than acts of resistance. Suicide bombing is one thing, suicide bombing buses full of people who have little or nothing to do with the conflict is another. As much as I dislike the racism, I can understand why that attitude would arise; people generally do not look favorably on their oppressors. When I see Palestinians saying "We need to kill every Jew in the world" or blaming ALL the world's problems on "the Zionists", it doesnt make me want to lend support to the Palestinian cause because it seems more an exercise in revenge killing at this point and less about a desire for freedom.
I can understand that the kind of treatment the Palestinians receive at the hands of the Israeli government and the rest of the world is not one to engender a desire for a "proper" revolution, but I cannot, in my own view, rationalize away the inherent discomfort I feel when I see how many of the Palestinians fight.
On the one hand, you have a people that were basically elbowed in the face by the collective guilt of the rest of the (non-German) world and told "You will live with this decision." They were subsequently treated like crap by the one group of people in the world that should have more empathy than most for oppressed people and they're STILL treated like crap today. Israel throws it's weight around the region, flaunting it's close ties with the US, and doing whatever it really wants with respect to Palestinians.
Many Palestinians seem very radical to me, but I have a hard time finding fault with some of their logic in this regard; I would definitely classify them as an oppressed people that the rest of the world has basically given token support to when it was fashionable to do so and ignored the rest of the time. I can understand the desperation that would make people turn to suicide bombing and other tactics that we would consider terrorism; irregular warfare is often the last choice left to oppressed people and I think it's horribly arrogant to demonize people for NOT laying down and being doormats.
On the other hand...I really cant square the abject racism that many Palestinian resisters have towards Israel and some of the tactics of the Palestinian fighters seem to be more acts of revenge than acts of resistance. Suicide bombing is one thing, suicide bombing buses full of people who have little or nothing to do with the conflict is another. As much as I dislike the racism, I can understand why that attitude would arise; people generally do not look favorably on their oppressors. When I see Palestinians saying "We need to kill every Jew in the world" or blaming ALL the world's problems on "the Zionists", it doesnt make me want to lend support to the Palestinian cause because it seems more an exercise in revenge killing at this point and less about a desire for freedom.
I can understand that the kind of treatment the Palestinians receive at the hands of the Israeli government and the rest of the world is not one to engender a desire for a "proper" revolution, but I cannot, in my own view, rationalize away the inherent discomfort I feel when I see how many of the Palestinians fight.