Let’s face the facts. Throughout history, nations all over the world have driven out thousands, in fact millions of people with various ethnic backgrounds. This world has a serious and long-standing “refugee” problem.
Have we already forgotten that Turkey expelled over a million Greeks? Or that Algeria expelled over a million Frenchmen? Indonesia drove out millions of Chinese and no one said anything about refugees. Russia, Poland and Czechoslovakia (to name a few) have also initiated ethnic displacement.
However, in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs become eternal refugees. The world insists that Israel must take them all back.
Arnold Toynbee said the displacement of the Arabs was an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Wow. That’s an awfully bold statement.
Other nations victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, the nation has to ask for peace?
Typically, when a nation suffers a defeat, they inevitably survive and eventually recover. However, the day that Israel is defeated, it will be destroyed. If Nasser had triumphed in June [1967], Israel would have disappeared from the map and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
It’s highly ironic to have witnessed the global outcries that occurred when civilians died in Vietnam or the public outrage when two rebels were executed in Rhodesia. But when the Jews that Hitler murdered in cold blood, no one at the time protested.
The Swedes were prepared to sever ties with the United States simply for our involvement in the Vietnam War, but didn’t say a peep when Hitler slaughtered Jews. In fact, they shipped Hitler high-grade iron ore, metal bearings to outfit their tanks, and lent their services to Nazi troops sent to Norway for training.
The Jews are alone in the world.
If Israel survives, it will be thanks to their own efforts and resources.
My view of Israel has changed throughout the years, mostly related to my views of the country’s leaders. I’m not particularly a fan of Sharon or Netanyahu but happened to like both Rabin and Begin.
However, at the moment, Israel is America’s only true unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than they can depend on us. Imagine what would have happened last summer if the Arabs and their Russian allies had won the war… In effort to fully realize how vital Israel is to America and the West in general.
It’s not relevant whether Israel had received some weaponry from the United States. In deference to other U.S. allies, including Jordan and Egypt, the amount of hardware was relatively minor. Moreover, one glance at a map shows that extra military equipment would hardly offset the size differential of Israel relative to those it fought against.
One thing that stands out clearly is mention of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were systematically slaughtered, nearly eliminating Jews from Europe. The utter cruelty toward Jews during WWII is brought home in many works of both fiction and nonfiction.
“I have a hunch that will not leave me alone, what happens to Israel will seal our own fate. If Israel perishes, the Holocaust will fall upon us all.”
Eric Hoffer
This hunch was deeply influenced by the thinking of a U.S. philosopher, Eric Hoffer, originally brought to the public’s attention by President Eisenhower when he recommended Hoffer’s first book, The True Believer. It’s possible that one reason Eisenhower made the recommendation; he saw Hoffer’s book as identifying future problems with the military-industrial complex.
Hoffer was noted for his intellect and learning because he was entirely self-educated. He had no formal education and worked for over 20 years as a longshoreman. Yet he wrote 10 books, the first of which is arguably a masterpiece. In the wake of the 1967 war, Hoffer, who was not Jewish, penned an opinion piece in the L.A. Times. A short quote illustrates several points I want to emphasize, penned in May 1968:
“The Jews are a peculiar people: What is allowed to other people is forbidden to them.”
Eric Hoffer
Another book that stands out, William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice, brings home the cruelty that goes beyond the recitation of numbers that are all too easy to intellectualize.
British author Ian Pears also put a human face to the Holocaust and to earlier instances of antisemitism in his book Scorpio’s Dream in which he depicts Jews who were falsely blamed for the Black Plague and killed. In that sprawling historical novel, he characterizes the Holocaust as the greatest Western achievement, referencing the extraordinary level of planning faultlessly carried out in the mass slaughters. One of the book’s major characters is a Jewish painter who is taken from her lover and executed in a concentration camp. It’s significant that the incident occurred after Germany had clearly lost the war.
In commentary about the current conflict in Israel, I have heard almost no mention of the Holocaust. A notable exception is former president Obama, who said that the Holocaust should absolutely be part of any discussion. It surprised me to hear the amount of public criticism in regard to his comment. Obama certainly wasn’t arguing that the Holocaust and other historical instances of antisemitism gives Israel license to deliberately kill civilians in Gaza.
What has stuck with me most from Hoffer’s commentary is the last sentence I quoted, which I find haunting. I do believe in the validity of “hunches” especially and maybe only for those who have that indelible sacred “image” in their consciousness.
I would describe Hoffer’s hunch as an “if” hunch as opposed to an “if and only if” hunch. His meaning, in other words, is that the destruction of Israel would ensure the destruction of the West, but it does not mean that Israel’s continued existence ensures the continuation of the West.
Furthermore, I believe that Israel will survive and, indeed be party to an eventual two- state solution, one that will likely be mediated by China and Russia. I also believe that Israel, a religious country with sacred values, will continue to exist as a democracy in the spirit of Jefferson and very likely will align itself with the Global South — probably by 2025 — becoming a member of BRICS.
