Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » If you are VERY PRO-ISRAEL you are VERY ANTI-PALESTINE! How could it possibly be otherwise? Is anyone PRO BOTH?

If you are VERY PRO-ISRAEL you are VERY ANTI-PALESTINE! How could it possibly be otherwise? Is anyone PRO BOTH?

Posted - July 21, 2019

Responses


  • 3684
    It depends what you mean by pro or anti either country, really.

    The problems in that region really go back to the time of the Versailles Treaty in 1919. Although the main part of that was officially ending WW1 it was accompanied by a lot of activity between, particularly, Britain and France, who both had territorial claims in Arabia.

    Palestine became a British Mandate, meaning it governed itself but under some British oversight and protection.

    After WW2, a understandable desire by "The West" to give the Jews somewhere they could call home, resulted in the UN (still at the time the League of Nations?) ending that mandate, carving off a chunk of Palestine and calling it Israel. 

    This understandable created considerable resentment and division between people who had until then lived fairly amicably together; but it became worsened later by the rise in an aggressive expansionism and suppression by the Israeli Government, of the Palestinian Arabs who also resented the support given particularly by the USA to the Israeli politicians. The Arabs hit back, by violence, and this tit-for-tat warfare continues.

    President Trump's unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, which the Israeli government itself foolishly backed, only made things worse. The capital was in Tel Aviv because Jerusalem is so significant and sensitive to the three major religions that were invented in the Middle East. I have no idea if Trump knew that, but he doesn't seem to have cared. 

    No-one in these situations considers the citizens on either side, who would normally live quite peacefully. It's done for political ends, and now of course is further poisoned by rising religious and sectarian fundamentalism - again by unscrupulous men (almost all are men) for their own ends.     

    There used to be quite a lot of co-operation at local level between Palestinians and Israelis, but whether any of this continues I have no idea. Whether Israel as a state is justified, I cannot say, but whilst it continues to suppress the Palestinian Arabs and while they fight back, there will not be peace in that region. There is good and bad on both sides, but really much of the dispute springs from a century or more of European and American governments trying to run the show without bothering to understand the place and its people.  

    It should not be a matter of being pro one so anti the other country, but recognising the wishes of the people of both to live in peace without being fought over by governments and political factions backed by foreign countries who frankly made a mess of the region in the first place.

    It needs a much more conciliatory and neutral stance from the West, a lot more mutual respect between the Arabic and Jewish leaders; and for those leaders to do a lot more to reign in their own extremists.   


      July 22, 2019 9:49 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    Thank you once again for a very thoughtful helpful informative and educational reply Durdle. It is clearly stated and therefore I can follow it. As you describe the history behind the mess it seems to me that BOTH SIDES should be respected and considered. As it is one side is demonized unilaterally and I know you know which side that is. In the long ago as you state they lived together amicably. Then outside forces butted in and took sides. I wonder when that is ever a good thing. I shall ask. Happy Tuesday Durdle! :)
      July 23, 2019 2:00 AM MDT
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  • 3684
    Thank you Rosie.

    Yes, we should respect and consider both sides, but their own leaders also need to do that.
      July 24, 2019 3:38 PM MDT
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