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Recently we have witnessed a huge upsurge of violence in the Middle-East. From our Western standpoint we have observed disgusting reports about suicide bombers killing and maiming multitudes of innocent Israelis, including children, over the past few weeks in increasingly alarming circumstances and particularly on religious occasions, and equally disgusting reports about the Israeli army’s retaliation where they have killed dozens of innocents, including children, in the refugee camp of Jenin and reportedly buried their bodies so that they cannot be found, whilst refusing foreign journalists entry into the areas and creating even more poverty and torment for the Palestinian refugees.
All throughout history, the Jewish people have suffered. It can be said without any doubt that they have suffered for a longer time than any of the peoples in the world today. The state of Israel may have been created in very dubious conditions but following the Holocaust, the world rightly decided that the Jewish people should be given a safe haven and returned to the homeland of their religion to free themselves of Communist persecution and Arab extremism. And now, this…. It seems that every few days a suicide attack occurs which kills innocent Israelis. The lives taken have sometimes been those of children, which is incredibly distressing for the Israeli people as a whole. This is surely terrorism in its “purest” (or most evil) sense. The suicide bombers want to inflict death, but also damage to human lives and fear to every Jewish person living in Israel. Imagine how you would feel trying to lead a normal life in these circumstances – for example sitting in a café sipping a coke, fearing all the time that the shady-looking character sitting on the seat to your left may be a suicide bomber desperate to take your life. Imagine being a child and wanting to go and play in some fields whilst being anxious that someone might be waiting there for you. Imagine being a mother or a father to a child killed by a suicide attack – how would you feel?
Israelis want to stop worrying about bombs on buses, malls and discos. They want to lead normal lives. They want peace. But isn’t peace without security simply blatant suicide? When countries such as Iran and Iraq are constantly calling for Israel’s annihilation, how should the Israelis react? Hezbollah’s accumulation of weapons and missiles hell-bent on destroying Israel and the constant terrifying calls for suicide attacks on Israel heard in the West Bank and Gaza both add to this immense trepidation that the Israelis have to suffer from on a daily basis. Israel is scared for its future, the Israelis feel that there are many Palestinian schools in the occupied territories that brainwash their students into becoming suicide bombers, and mosques that urge good Muslims to take the path of “martyrdom”. The Israeli people want an end to the death and destruction, most of them want peace with their Palestinians neighbours. But from the Israeli perspective, this peace is not a concern for the corruption-riddled Palestinian Authority (PA), which seems only interested in advancing its own power. Even money given to them by the Israeli government fails to reach the people. So all the time you know that more and more suicide bombers are being created and no one is doing about it. And all these suicide bombers belong to organizations linked to Yasser Arafat and his Authority. What exactly is Israel supposed to do to ensure the safety of their citizens? If the Palestinians are not weeding out the fanatics, and clearly in many cases encouraging them, then surely Israel should do something about it?
The primary thoughts of the government of Israel would obviously be the safety of its own people. When suicide bombers take away innocent lives, Israel has a right to retaliate, as would any nation or people. This is defined in Article 51 of the UN Charter – the “inherent right of States to self-defence”. Some Israelis feel that every time a retaliation takes place and innocent people die as an unfortunate consequence, a picture is painted out to the rest of the world that the Israeli army has been targeting civilians (although later on we shall discuss this from another angle). This adds further difficulty to the situation for many Israelis.
And much of the time the Israelis hear not one word of denunciation by a major Palestinian figure. Many Israelis say that when a Palestinian is an innocent victim, the mood is sombre. However when an Israeli is the victim of a suicide bomber, they see pictures of some Palestinians celebrating on the streets. Some Israelis mention that Palestinians have suffered as greatly as a result of the PA as under Israeli occupation but the bombers are still only targeting Israelis – and they certainly have a valid point. Many Israelis also feel, again legitimately, that talks can never happen as suicide bombings are going on, and that too many Palestinians support the way of violence, too few the way of dialogue. I do not think this is entirely true, but nevertheless the Palestinian perspective would be greatly strengthened by ordinary Palestinians coming forward and systematically condemning the suicide attacks before providing their own perspective of affairs.
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N Gadd
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Feedback I have received N Gadd | Jun 5th, 2002
After receiving much feedback from many people about this article, I must say that there are a few striking omissions that I have made and these will be addressed before the second version, because I agree with them completely.
Firstly, it is increasingly evident that the first steps for peace have to be taken by the Palestinian Authority and that only when the terror networks are destroyed can anything positive happen.
Also, a very important issue is that in many Palestinian schools there is substantial hate-mongering, and blaming of all of the Palestinians' problems on the Israelis. Clearly the brainwashing of the Palestinian youths is another huge problem.
Looking at both sides, I have also forgotten to mention the dehumanization which allows either side to not feel guilty when they are committing all sorts of crimes. This is much more pronounced in the case of the Palestinian suicide bombers who think they are serving a just cause by murdering innocent civilians, or carrying out actions which are for the greater good, but we must also mention the prominent Israeli politicians such as Ehud Barak who make statements like "all Arabs are liars", a racist dehumanization which is the pretext of so much discrimination.
Other mistakes N Gadd | Jun 5th, 2002
I have been reliably informed by one of my friends who is a Zionist that Zionism is not expansionism (which is what I have equated it with in my essay) but rather the legitimate desire for a safe Israeli homeland. Hence I must apologize for this error.
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