guilty as charged, but I don't think anyone reads it, except maybe my students.
I'll think about what you wrote - it's true that there are precedents. Also in reaching people - there are precedents, like Einat Wilf, for instance. I'll look up that podcast. You have lifted my spirits some before Shabbat, and I thank you for that.
guilty as charged, but I don't think anyone reads it, except maybe my students.
I'll think about what you wrote - it's true that there are precedents. Also in reaching people - there are precedents, like Einat Wilf, for instance. I'll look up that podcast. You have lifted my spirits some before Shabbat, and I thank you for that.
IтАЩve been working through your kind and patient message last Friday, where you gave some hope about a future living in peace with the Palestinians. You gave the example of the Japanese and the Germans after WWII, and how reconciliation, at one time perhaps inconceivable, eventually was achieved. I was heartened.
Then I began to think of the differences. Both Japan and Germany unconditionally surrendered. They knew they were defeated, and for the sake of their populations, admitted it. Hamas will never admit defeat. As Sam Nara pointed out - everything, all the destruction, the deaths, the suffering of Gazans, all of this is accounted by the Hamas leadership as victory. They will build on this and rebuild. They are not looking for a singular military victory; they are committed to the way of Mukawama. It might take 50 or 500 years, but they would rather suffer for 500 years than accept a Jewish state (this is a paraphrase from a conversation Ben Gurion had with a Arab Palestinian leader in the 1930s. Ninety years of what we would call failure are for them only the first steps in a long term campaign). Individual suffering is meaningless, children with no future is meaningless, poverty, humiliation, disease, ignoranceтАж. all can be borne if the end is kept in sight.
Which leads to another difference: the sole meaning of Palestinian nationalism lies in the destruction of the Jewish state. I know that sounds like an extreme declaration, but even a former student who works in a peace and co-existence group that brings Palestinians and Israelis together admitted to me that this indeed is the case. Micha Goodman admitted as much in his hopeless/hopeful book Catch тАЩ67. The Palestinian people was created to fulfill this task, and decades of education and narrative indoctrination has forged a nation out of hatred.
America sought the help of Germans after WWII to confront the Soviets in the Cold War. Germans wanted to regain a measure of respectability in the eyes of the West and played ball, mostly. The Palestinians are not concerned about gaining acceptance in the eyes of Israel or the West. They are on a mission from Allah to destroy the Jews and reclaim the lands from the river to the sea for the nation of Islam. There are some Muslims who disagree with them in private, but the masses are with them. A poll I saw today said the two thirds of Mid-Eastern Arabs thought the horrors of October 7 were justified. I imagine that the Arabs polled were probably the wealthier city dwellers who are more accessible, so that the actual percentage could be much higher. The Palestinians (or at least their war against the Jews) enjoy strong support in the Arab world. The most radical elements enjoy strong support among their Palestinian brethren.
You are so right when you say that must be someone aside from Israel who is running things in Gaza after the war. My candidate(s) are Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The have the money to rebuild the place, they would benefit from international opprobrium, and they can also display the necessary cruelty to chop off a few heads and hands as needed.
So i hold no great hopes for reconciliation with the Palestinians. Extending the Avraham accords to more Arab nations will help, but not solve the basic issue: they live to kill us.
guilty as charged, but I don't think anyone reads it, except maybe my students.
I'll think about what you wrote - it's true that there are precedents. Also in reaching people - there are precedents, like Einat Wilf, for instance. I'll look up that podcast. You have lifted my spirits some before Shabbat, and I thank you for that.
I've read several of your posts and very much enjoyed every one. Shabbat shalom!
Shalom David,
IтАЩve been working through your kind and patient message last Friday, where you gave some hope about a future living in peace with the Palestinians. You gave the example of the Japanese and the Germans after WWII, and how reconciliation, at one time perhaps inconceivable, eventually was achieved. I was heartened.
Then I began to think of the differences. Both Japan and Germany unconditionally surrendered. They knew they were defeated, and for the sake of their populations, admitted it. Hamas will never admit defeat. As Sam Nara pointed out - everything, all the destruction, the deaths, the suffering of Gazans, all of this is accounted by the Hamas leadership as victory. They will build on this and rebuild. They are not looking for a singular military victory; they are committed to the way of Mukawama. It might take 50 or 500 years, but they would rather suffer for 500 years than accept a Jewish state (this is a paraphrase from a conversation Ben Gurion had with a Arab Palestinian leader in the 1930s. Ninety years of what we would call failure are for them only the first steps in a long term campaign). Individual suffering is meaningless, children with no future is meaningless, poverty, humiliation, disease, ignoranceтАж. all can be borne if the end is kept in sight.
Which leads to another difference: the sole meaning of Palestinian nationalism lies in the destruction of the Jewish state. I know that sounds like an extreme declaration, but even a former student who works in a peace and co-existence group that brings Palestinians and Israelis together admitted to me that this indeed is the case. Micha Goodman admitted as much in his hopeless/hopeful book Catch тАЩ67. The Palestinian people was created to fulfill this task, and decades of education and narrative indoctrination has forged a nation out of hatred.
America sought the help of Germans after WWII to confront the Soviets in the Cold War. Germans wanted to regain a measure of respectability in the eyes of the West and played ball, mostly. The Palestinians are not concerned about gaining acceptance in the eyes of Israel or the West. They are on a mission from Allah to destroy the Jews and reclaim the lands from the river to the sea for the nation of Islam. There are some Muslims who disagree with them in private, but the masses are with them. A poll I saw today said the two thirds of Mid-Eastern Arabs thought the horrors of October 7 were justified. I imagine that the Arabs polled were probably the wealthier city dwellers who are more accessible, so that the actual percentage could be much higher. The Palestinians (or at least their war against the Jews) enjoy strong support in the Arab world. The most radical elements enjoy strong support among their Palestinian brethren.
You are so right when you say that must be someone aside from Israel who is running things in Gaza after the war. My candidate(s) are Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The have the money to rebuild the place, they would benefit from international opprobrium, and they can also display the necessary cruelty to chop off a few heads and hands as needed.
So i hold no great hopes for reconciliation with the Palestinians. Extending the Avraham accords to more Arab nations will help, but not solve the basic issue: they live to kill us.