And so, what are your thoughts about the gratuitously reckless, unilateral relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, Mr. Stephens?
What do you think about the accompanying Israeli Prime Minister's obscene crowing about how the Great Trump's free gift has finally recognized what Netanyahu called "an historical inevitability?"
Inevitable to whose history?
7
The last picture I can clearly recall from the recent violence in Gaza was that of a 9 month old child whose body was wrapped in white cloth. His mother still cradling him in her arms. His limbs polking out having just a few minutes before beem full of life and possibility. Mr. Stephens, you may never know this kind of loss but god forbid you to blame this innocent child or dismiss his death as you have. Blaming Palestinians for this ongoing conflict is senseless. The USA has a president with no respect for human life. A few days ago he disrupted hope for peace in this region and just yesterday he called immigrants "animals." May we find our moral compass underneath these ashes as I fear our future is only darker each day with articles such as yours.
4
Right. Israel has done nothing to contribute to the current situation.
2
This column is a cruel provocation against the people of Palestine. Whatever the limitations of Hamas and the other Palestinian leaderships they did not murder more than 60 individuals committing the "crime" of scaling a border fence. For Bret Stephens to argue the absurdity of victim as perpetrator is an affront to the intelligence of his readers. He merely parrots, in another guise, Nikki Haley's line before the UN that Israeli snipers targeting protesters with deadly force are really exercising "restraint". The NYT policy of civility prevents me from accurately characterizing the nature of these remarks. How about shameful and "fake news".
1
One word Brett- Yes
5
I am overwhelmed by the force of Bret Stephens' narrative, none of which I can rebut as inaccurate.
So why doesn't this information appear in New York Times news reports, along with the ubiquitous Palestinian narrative, to fulfill "all the news that's fit to print"? Why does the absurd "the world expecting nothing from the Palestinians and everything from the Israelis", underlie Times news reports? For example, the Times reports "Israel kills 40 Palestinians in protests" without the context that most of those killed were armed Hamas operatives using the crowds as human shields as they their attempted to invade Israel and kill or kidnap Israelis.
As long as Israel gets a black eye in headlines, articles and photos, Hamas will continue sending Gazans to their deaths - because their self stated goal is not to help their own people but to discredit Israel and kill Israelis.
No media or politician should be a party to Hamas' unspeakable agenda.
18
Attention commenters. Gaza is NOT occupied by Israel. There are NO settlements there. Gaza was returned in 2005. All Israelis and Jews left Gaza in 2005. Gaza is NOT run by Israel nor controlled by its military. Gaza elected Hamas. There seems to be major confusion among a lot of you. Note also that Gaza is NOT contiguous with the West Bank; they are two separate areas. It would be helpful if you at least got some of your facts straight before commenting(and blaming Israel) as if they could control what happens in Gaza and what their elected leaders(Hamas) do with the funds they are provided. Gazans are NOT Israeli citizens and do not live in Israel.
15
Mr. Stephens' history and logic is faultless. The Palestinians, a rich, powerful people from the get go, are responsible for what has happened to them while the Zionists are not. When rich, powerful Palestinians fled Israel seven decades ago, it wasn't in terror but rather a calculated move to drive the Zionists into the sea. And it's been that way ever since. Got it?
6
God bless you for setting the record straight. Unfortunately, the truth is of no consequence to the "journalists" of MSNBC, CNN, and so-called responsible papers like this very one. This article should have stood as the opinion of The New York Times' editorial board, instead of an op-ed buried well below the fold.
15
History is long, it is far longer than acknowledged in this arrogant article.
At the very least, the author's historical perspective should go back to 1948, when the Palestinians were driven off their farms, out of their houses, herded into squalid camps, imprisoned and impoverished by fences, walls and 'settlements', their children slaughtered, brutalized, strongly encouraged to just leave, disappear. Through no fault of their own, other than simply being in the 'wrong' place at the wrong time, when invaded by a stronger power.
Of course Jewish experience in Nazi Germany was horrible, but they should understand better than anyone else how it feels when 'their right to exist is denied'.
If only, in 1948, the new Jewish homeland state had been sited in some vacant corner of Kazakhstan or Brazil, rather than in a land that was already historically fully occupied by a resident population of native people who credibly considered it their own! If only the world community had recognized their right to this land then.
History is long, and it will be much longer. Peace will not come to Israel until the Jews acknowledge that Palestinians have actually more right to live on this tiny crumb of land than do people of (pre-1948) mostly European millenial-long residence.
Peace will not come to Israel until the Jews extend kindness, equality and inclusion, and acknowledge the Palestinians do have the greater right to be there.
6
The problem with Mr Stephens' article is that all Palestinians are people and deserve to be treated as such, just as the Jewish people should have not suffered as they did under Hitler. Having traveled to Israel/Palestine just under 2 years ago, I was amazed that there hasn't been even more violence. A friend who was there last summer says another intifada is coming. I'm sad to believe he is right.
I sincerely feel that our government is supporting a government that is as corrupt as our current president. Their president was either about to be indited or has been indited for bribery, and ours is under investigation as well. To bomb in Syria is to deflect attention from his own problems.
It pays for us to pay attention to our own government and it's actions but also to the government we currently are supporting with no reservations or accountability for their actions.
3
I find that my comments cannot be submitted by pressing submit. Am I being edited as I am typing? I find this op-ed very biased with contrived truths which are really lies, justified reasons which are laughable, all at the expense of a subjugated people, without hope, without power to pull themselves up for generations to come. Yet they are the perpetrators of their victimhood. While the real perpetrators Israel with it's guns and planes and tanks become victims as in this op-ed. Laughable at this blatant reasoning of lies except that it involves humans crushed in body and spirit.
3
95% of the original "pali partition" is currently held by Jordan, Egypt and Syria. 5% by Israel. That's only if you believe the land taken from Jordan and Egypt have magically morphed into pali lands.
All palis have to do is ask their arab brothers, politely, to return their lands seized in 1948 and they can have their country.
Like palis did in Jordan when they tried to murder the jordanian king. 50,000 palis killed in black september alone by the Jordanian army. Not a word was said by anyone.
The message for Israel is clear - treat palis as arabs treat them - kill them by the 10's of thousands and no one will care.
3
Excellent piece, which, needless to say, will be totally ignored or dissed by the "progressives " both in this country and around the world.
Alternative headline in Tuesday's NYT :
HAMAS OPERATIVES USING HUMAN SHIELDS INVADE ISRAEL;
BLATANT AGRESSION TO DISRUPT ISRAEL'S ANNIVERSARY;
ISRAEL TROOPS KILL DOZENS OF INVADERS
9
«Meine Leute haben ihre Pflicht einwandfrei erfüllt. Ihr Kameradschaftsgeist war beispiellos.»
meaning in plain english,
«My men did their duty without objecting. Their camaraderie was unparalleled.»
wrote Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop of the SS on the 16th May 1943 to his commander.
“Israeli soldiers did what was necessary. I think all our soldiers deserve a medal,” stated Israel Defense minister Avigdor Lieberman on the 1st of april 2018.
The Gaza strip is looking more and more like a huge concentration camp. The peopulation density in Gaza equals the population density in Hong Kong, but people in Gaza earn in average 6,4 times less income than in HK; their are enclosed and apart from extremist religious ideas and life minimum dispending UNO agencies, they have nearly no ressources. Palestinians act out of despair, because they have no hope left and nothing to loose except their lives, is this not evident Bret?
Palestinian lives matters.
3
Simplistic transparent propaganda. Grammatically correct and artfully constructed. A+ for execution, D+ for content.
3
Blame the victims. Mutitudes of dispossessed Palestinians crammed into Gaza so Israel can have all the land it wants, especially the good land. Of course they misbehave. Just read the history of this disgraceful land-grab.
3
The Palestinians have fomented three major wars and innumerable terrorists activities against Israel over its 70 year lifetime and with no letup. Hamas has run the Gaza strip into the ground for 10 years with the only goal being to attack Israel and seek a public relations victory with the left-leaning anti-Israel world community.
Why do we give any credence whatsoever to the Palestinians and their sympathizers? The fact that they lost every war to Israel alone should disqualify them from ever seeking any territory from Israel. No other defeated nation would have the temerity to seek the destruction of the country that defeated it in three wars. And yet, Israel has made several important and substantive offers to the Palestinians conditioned upon just one thing: recognize Israel's right to exist and leave us alone! But no, the Palestinians never agreed to even acknowledge Israel's existence. They are just hell bent on their plan to destroy Israel by any means necessary. And some of us actually sympathize with them.
16
The fact is that the Christian world is obsessed with every action that Israel takes. For example while it completely ignores the wholesale killing of innocent civilians in Yemen by Saudi Arabia that has been going on for years, which is bombing Yemen for purposes that have nothing to do with self defense, every single action taken by Israel that results in the death of Palestinians, regardless of the circumstances are a cause for uproar across the Christian world.
And the reason for this is that seeking to find fault with anything and everything Jews do, is something so ingrained in that world, going back over a thousand years, that is has become part of the DNA of those people and their cultures. Those cultures have been fed a steady diet of preaching about the evils of the Jews from the church pulpit for the bulk of their written history. From how they caused the Black Death to how every Passover Jews must eat Christian blood at their festivities, and to believe everything the Jews are accused of.
People of European ancestry view rats till this day as vile animals [Asians on the other hand eat rats] not because they know they were responsible for the Black Death, but because its ingrained in the culture and their DNA. And the same is true of their outlook pertaining to Jews. So while the greatest atrocities committed by all other nations pass without so much as a comment, they feel obligated to see evil in the Jews without even understanding why.
10
How many Israelis were killed or wounded? As far as we know not a single Israeli was hurt, much less killed. The snipers killed from a long distance.
Gaza is a concentration camp with about 1.5 million people, it is larger than the Warsaw Ghetto for Jewish people in Poland was, they too rose up against their German oppressors. They had every right and so do the Palestinian people.
2
Bret Stephens states only the facts, and the facts / truths sometimes hurt those who twist and manipulate facts. The Times regularly prints opinions that are the polar opposite of what Stephens opines, and even in the Times "news" reporters like Isabel Kirshner regularly sympathize with the terrorists of hamas and other organizations. So, it's refreshing to see the other side in print (even if one disagrees with it). As for the pre 1948 map of the land of Israel, it's unfortunate that some people feel displaced by the legal establishment of the State of Israel - many Jews were expelled from Iraq, Iran, Egypt... the list goes on and on. And there were Jewish expulsions before that too... And some of us in the USA may now be living on lands that once belonged to American Indians. Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East, and even had a truly free press like we have here in the USA. Saying what you think out loud in Gaza will get you killed. Not here (though sometimes the "Times comments police" are a little aggressive with the censuring) and not in Israel.
11
Bret Stephens' views here represent the worst of the worst Jewish-Israelis. These supposed gifts he writes of being presented Palestinians is just paternalism and tokenism. Why would anyone be appeased by a couple of empty gestures when everyone has the right to provide for oneself?
If Zionists had not seized lands belonging to the ancestors of both Jews and Arabs, Israelis wouldn't have to toss a few plastic bones over the fence to people who were once their neighbors and even friends. Such "gifts" are just control by another name.
If Israel shared borders, democracy and understanding with its internal exiles, instead of trapping them behind barbed wire and chain link, Palestinians wouldn't need handouts. No wonder they destroy them in defiance. If their equality were assumed, Arabs would qualify for the same education, rights and opportunities as their oppressors. There is only one kind of freedom, and that's for all.
I am the Jewish-American granddaughter of Eastern Europeans who fled prejudice. But if Palestinian, I'd also fight my oppressor. I've lived in autocratic nations with systematized bigotry and massacre, so I've seen rebellion and have trouble arguing with it.
What I hate most is cries from conservative Jewish-Israeli leaders of victim-hood. Arabs did not imprison and gas 6-million Jews. But after some fled to Israel seeking peace, they helped tear its cloak from others. Had they not, they would not have created a bitter enemy fighting to be free.
1
One glaring omission by the "Palestinians" over the last 70 years:
Visionary Leadership.
4
That is a straw man argument. Hamas is a terrorist organisation Israel is a democracy. Accountability is Part of being a democracy. It is not easy being a democracy but that is the way it goes
5
$38 BILLION IN US MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL.
Why didn't the author of the opinion piece share the dollar amount that the US gives Israel? The US gives $368 MM to the UNRWA.
2
Imagine if the Germans maintained the Warsaw Ghetto for over 30-40 years instead of the less than 3 years it was in existence.
It is not an equal or strictly fair comparison but it is not so far off the mark.
But look at it this way...nowhere in all history have a people been fenced in, sanctioned, controlled, attacked and deprived of so much and lived with so little whilst under constant guard and of being raided and interrogated randomly at any hour for any reason over 2 generations.
It is unbelievable that every Gazan hasn't rushed the border to escape such continued and perpetual misery and a crime that any State would impose such conditions on over One Million people for such a long period of time and show and have no intent of making things better but to continue their policy of containment and misery to such degree that the U.N has reported that so bad are the conditions in Gaza it will be unable to support life by 2020...
Nobody should be treated like this for 40 years...and to kill them before they even reach the imposed border is just testimony to the utter disregard for life that Israel is showing towards these broken, miserable , tortured and beyond desperate people.
2
notice, children lined up at the barbed wire. Front row of a violent confrontation planned that day.
They aren't home or hidden away safely, they are placed in front in order that they should be the first victims of violence.
The terrorists who are the elected govt of the palis know that dead babies are great PR
5
A parallel and a difference.
People were horrified when Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement had "Negro children" marching in Selma and Birmingham. Some were more horrified by their presence than by the white authorities' use of fire hoses and police dogs against them.
Similarly, we are horrified when we see Palestinian children among the gunshot victims and the dead.
But there's also a difference. Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy, and others marched at the head of their demonstrations. They did not urge others on to do what they would not do themselves; they led by example and others followed.
In contrast, the Hamas leadership urges others to do what they won't. Hamas' leaders are both moral and physical cowards.
Dr. King and the civil rights movement trained marchers to remain non-violent, even when subject to provocation. They knew for civilians to oppose white authority with force would be both ineffective and suicidal.
In contrast, the Hamas leadership trains demonstrators in violent provocation. This is both military and morally incompetent. Slingshotted rocks and burning kits are harmful, but are no match for trained soldiers with guns. Any military commander who sent troops into combat so vastly outmatched would be removed from command. And the attempt to do so gains no new territory, but cedes the moral high ground.
A two-state solution is the only moral, just and peaceful solution. One must suspect both sides' motives in consistently opposing this.
2
Brett makes some good points, but the root cause of the problem is not anything happening now.
It's the 2,000 year-old dream of the Jews that their imaginary god gave them the land of Israel, and this gives them unquestionable title to biblical Palestine.
Meanwhile, the Arabs who were involuntarily displaced in 1948, as well as the many who voluntarily fled, believe that their imaginary god justifies any and all violence against non-believers in Allah.
There is no reasoning with unreasonable beliefs, and the problem is insoluble because it is not based on reason.
2
Yes Hamas deserves much blame for this, but how could Israel fall for it? One of the most sophisticated countries in the world battling people living in rubble and they can't find a better way to deal with protest? A cop in Toronto disarmed a terrorist who had just mowed down people with his van, without violence. Don't the Israeli's have rubber bullets or water cannons? My guess is that this was all done on purpose. Bibi knew the protesters would get out of hand and deliberately murdered people to feed his extremist ego and that of his religious backers. As a big supporter of Israel I find this truly embarrassing and depressing!
1
After 40 years as a Pro-Palestinian Zionist, who believes that Israel has a “first people/U.N. Sanctioned” right to exist, who also believes that Palestinians need and deserve a viable state, I sometimes like to pretend: Say both peoples are equally right and equally wrong. Now what? I see no way forward. For Israel to pave the way for a true democracy in “Greater Israel” would be its end. For Israel to accept the right of return of Palestinians from the pre-1967 Israel would mean its end. For the Palestinians to accept only Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem as a State would leave them without a viable nation. Those who want to wipe Israel off the map don’t have a vision forward. Those who want Palestinians to continue to live in horrific conditions, subjected to increasing land grabs daily in the West Bank, don’t have a vision forward. I used to dream about one land with two virtual nations: Palestinians taxing their neighborhoods and running their schools, utilities, cultural/national events; Israeli’s doing the same (Jerusalem operates this way in some modest ways today.) Anyone live anywhere. Be a citizen of whichever country you choose. Then came Palestinian suicide bombers and Israeli Orthodox Jews burning a Palestinian teenager to death. I hope others see a way forward because I do not. I read all 2149 comments. I wish commenters would try to be solution seekers, not blamers. I hope Pete Seeger ends up being right: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
2
Bret, You have a good sense of history, but not a great sense. What you don't seem to remember was that 750,000 people were driven from their homes when Israel was formed in 1948. Their descendants are at the fences today in Gaza. Where should they go?
2
To truly understand the raison d’etre of Hamas, read their Manifesto. The destruction of Israel is a primary requirement. Those who are quick to feel sorry for Hamas and angry at Israel should remember that IF SOMEONE IS PROMISING TO KILL YOU, BELIEVE THEM.
10
Among several distortions of history that this opinion piece repeats, one stands out - that the Palestinians, one and all, seek the destruction of Israel. This defamation does not accord with an Arab nations’ proposal put forward in 1947.
In 1947, Arab nations proposed a unitary Palestine with a democratic constitution guaranteeing full civil and religious rights for all citizens and an elected legislative assembly that would include Jewish representatives.
The Arab proposal for a representative government based on self-determination was presented to the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) which had been set up in May, 1947 (without any Arab state representation) to investigate and make recommendations to the General Assembly.
The UNSCOP rejected the Arab proposal for self-determination for Palestine as “extreme” and instead, recommended that Palestine be partitioned with 45% of the land reserved for Palestinians and 55% given to Jews - even though UNSCOP acknowledged that Arabs constituted a majority of the population and were in possession of 85 percent of the land of Palestine, compared to about 5.8 per cent owned by Jews. The UNSCOP proposal to partition Palestine was passed in the General Assembly and forwarded to the Security Council - where it died.
Despite the rejection of Res 181 by the Security Council, Zionist leaders on May, 14, 1948, issued a unilateral declaration announcing the creation of Israel by the UN.
2
This obtuse commentary steps into a 70-year-old tale in year 70 and assigns blame with selective references to the past. It is a defense not of Jewish Israel, which includes sympathetic Jews with a capacity to understand The Other, but of the reactionaries who are in charge of the government now, led by Netanyahu.
Those who have paid attention not over months or years but for decades have a deeper understanding than this column offers.
W.H. Auden's poem "September 1, 1939" was illuminating in its time, and is so today:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
The first evil was the suffocating terms of peace imposed on Germany in 1919, which sowed the seeds of fascism less than two decades later.
The second evil was opportunistic Zionism barging into the chaos left behind by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, with Western military experience and international funding, and declaring a state before indigenous Palestinians who had been occupied for centuries had a chance to awaken and organize themselves. That sowed the seeds of enmity by Palestinians, who discovered that they had only traded one master for another before getting a real taste of freedom.
Israel could have chosen to be magnanimous and measured, instead she chose to press her comparative power advantage, annexing more and more land, first through war, then through settlement activity.
Evil was done to Palestinians, now they are doing evil in return.
2
Thank you Bret Stephens, for this thoughtful article.
10
As others have stated, I am continually baffled by the Gaza population. Instead of demanding that Hamas be a forthright government with the goal of developing a thriving community, they allow the plentiful funds donated to be used to continue a futile guerrilla war. Now they attack the border with women and children, then turn to the world and say, “Look what Israel did!” Wake up folks, nothing will change until The Palestinian people dump Hamas and elect a real leader.
16
""Everybody sees a difficulty in the question of relations between Arabs and Jews. But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question. No solution! There is a gulf, and nothing can bridge it... We, as a nation, want this country to be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this country to be theirs."
David Ben Gurion, 1919
2
The Palestinians are victims. Victimized by oppressive Israeli policies. Victimized by an inept and misguided leadership. Unwelcome by neighboring Arab countries.
In a perfect world, Palestinian leadership would recognize Israel’s right to exist, disavow violence and forego the claim to return. Israel would give up settlements on Palestinian lands and provide economic aid to their now friendly neighbor. Arab countries would welcome immigration and provide a path to citizenship.
But alas…
1
Sadat, Begin, and Rabin proved that leaders can be statesmen. These types of leaders are nowhere in sight and Stephens feeds into the myth that one side only is to blame. Stephens is a fool.
4
In the middle of the 20th century, just as European and Asian colonialism was being defeated, two states took up the colonial banner, the United States and Israel. The US replaced the French in Vietnam, the Japanese in Korea, the Brits in Iran, the Belgians in Congo, the Dutch in Indonesia and continued its colonial domination of Latin America and the Caribbean. Israel replaced the Brits in Palestine. Defending colonialism is just so 19th century. Having taken over the land, the homes, and the country, murdering or starving and caging the expelled, the thieves don't bother to justify their theft. They cry, "Look at those people who are making trouble for us innocents!" Theft remains theft, still illegal under international law. Resistance to all this theft and murder is still legal under international law. Unjust, illegal and ultimately bound for defeat.
2
No matter what excuses Israel and Mr. Stephens offers for Israel's behavior towards the Palestinians, the truth is that most of the world blames us--the American people--for this. They see, correctly, that both political parties are profoundly corrupt on this issue and that accordingly we leave the Palestinians little more than desperate violence to get the world's attention. Moreover, this indifference or hatred of ours towards the Palestinians resonates totally across the whole Islamic world, making Americans, including our troops, enormously vulnerable to retaliation. That's what my West-Point educated nephew told me after 28 months of combat duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. We pay a big price for our mindless support of Israel. Someday, the American people may actually wake up and repudiate our responsibility for this cruel violence.
3
I wonder how someone can argue for people to want to return to the land they were born in as a terrible sin. What would any other group do? Sadly, there cannot be a a democratic AND Jewish state (It fall into apartheid), there can and should only be a democratic one with equal rights for everyone. Hamas was created in the late 80s, the Palestinian struggle has been happening since the 40s. Want peace, give people a hope of life and a future and stop trying to make their lives so miserable so that they move somewhere else. Palestinians in Gaza are suffering, but so are Palestinians in the West bank and within Israel's borders. (I wonder what the author has to say about that)
2
A two state solution would require a Palestinian state that can keep peace within its borders and peace with its neighbors including the state of Israel. As there seems to be no sign of the development of such a Palestinian state, as Palestinians given the chance to vote elect terrorists pledged to Israel's violent destruction, what difference does it make where the US embassy is located?
9
Let me put it simply, too simply to be completely true, but I hope you get the idea. Billionaires have a lot of testosterone. The wealth created the testosterone, not the other way around. People who are put down all their lives don't have the hormones to rise up even when they have half a chance. Half a chance is the most they are likely to ever get. Success breeds success. When its all about winning or losing then their will always be winners and losers. The emancipation of man - our general enlightenment - is still far off, sadly. It will take science. Science will provide chemical antidotes to being down, unable to get up. Science will provide more understanding of ourselves and will shine a light on the insufficiency of the old-time idolatrous religions (including Bible worship and Koran worship) that cause hate and bigotry and general bad actions of humans against each other. Humans have a ways to go. We must change, all of us. Our animal natures must be brought under control for the emancipation to happen. Join the enlightenment now and never vote Republican.
We forget the power of Israelis in our own country as far as their ability to maximize anti-Palestinian and Iranian lobbying. No group related to the Palestinian cause has such such influence. Therefore it is necessary for them to take whatever means is necessary.
2
Stephens appears to defend Israel's actions and yet does not. An effort to deflect blame, his piece is also a defense of authoritarianism that demands obedience and calls dissent violence.
The killings have no justification, and he presents none. Except that: Israel is defending its borders, the protestors want to (but obviously cannot) abolish the State of Israel, Hamas is bad leadership, and protest is wrong if stems from the belief that one is a victim.
Most incredible is this last. By definition, protestors are against something and/or for something else, and more often than not the matter is framed as one of justice or injustice. Does Stephens actually wish to deny that Palestinians are victims? Even if they have bad leadership, which bears some of the blame for their plight, and even if it is a bad or unrealistic idea to demand the end of a Jewish state, any person of intelligence and humanity will agree that the people of Gaza are victims (of Israel).
If Hamas were to invade Israel and present the prospect of its military destruction (which is absurd), then one could speak of Israeli self-defense. What their prople are engaged in is not an act of war but a protest.
Israel doesn't like Palestinians to protest, and would prefer to keep them walled in in Bantustans. Like it or not, the Jewish state is also a neocolonial state. The militarily almost powerless Palestinians have the sole weapon of international censure, and are right to use it.
1
Thank you Bret Stephens for an articulate reasonable article. Of course those who cannot hear you will not, and those who can will. Hatred deafens us all. It is indeed time for the world to be honest with the Palestinians. There will be no return. We have lied to you most everyone of us here continues to lie to you. There will be no return.
4
Why is it so difficult for the media in the democratic world to refresh the fact that Palestine authorities will not accept anything less that receiving the complete State of Israel as the price for "peace"? In the meanwhile, Palestine politicians have an easy life well financed with oil profits and the Palestine population, with the exception of those who are Israeli citizens. live in misery risking their lives upon request of their leaders!
6
Unfortunately, this is very true. Hamas leaders may not only be encouraging the poor naïve Palestinians to do this, but they may even would penalize them if they don't display such scenes.
ISIS may have done "terror-tactics" with suicide bombers, if they refuse to volunteer.
More or less, a different version of that is happening in Yemen. Yesterday I listened to the callous brutality of the interior minister, on PBS Newshour. Tonight there's a follow up report on it.
Tamil Tiger militia became so successful that way for so many years.
In far too many conflicts the innocents get slaughtered for the aggrandizement of the leaders, whether they're kings & dictators or popular leaders.
6
Congratulations! You nailed it
You have it exactly right
9
The same thing could be said regarding Latin American leaders, their citizens, and our southern border! Why are we working class and middle class citizens expected to allow the wages for our jobs to be killed by 10's of millions of legal-illegal slave laborers, and then pay billions in welfare to keep alive here after they invade our nation by the 100,000's/year by sneaking across our southern border, and also coming into our nation on fake visas and then never leaving? Why can't our holier than thou, branding most Americans(who dare to question this) as racist, xenophobes, despicable .... major media, democratic party, corporate billionaires, wealthy Leftists who hate the middle class hold the leaders and people in the Global South morally responsible for working, protesting and if necessary fighting to the death to make their nations decent places to live? As opposed to fostering "cultures of emigration" of selfishly and cowardly bailing out, "going for the money" to the USA which as Latin American intellectuals have explicitly stated allows the corrupt murderer leaders south of our border to use the US as a "political escape valve" which retards progressive change there? Well of course because our elites imagine themselves to be superior to most of us of the 90-99%. And think they deserve to have a slave-wage class, and a right to continue to insult the rest of us peasants for being so ignorant as to allow them to get away with their open borders manipulations.
2
I have to learn more about our immigration laws. Why is one country more acceptable than another? How are the legal Quotest decided? How can we condemn people for going for the money as you say, when most of our ancestors did the same did they not? They came to find greater opportunities. With the Wall Street Journal mentioning today that our reproduction rights are getting for a lower than they have been in the past, won’t all workforce need the benefit of the population immigration brings? Guatemalans have an excellent reputation for work, and the Mexicans literally built Las Vegas. It is hard to find American born people willing to workPutting on roofs in large housing developments, for minimal wages. When I lived in briefly in Las Vegas I met first generation Mexicans who were named America. Why wouldn’t we want such people here?
1
Hamas has made sure that a supposedly peaceful protest has turned into a bloodbath. The fact that 50 of the 62 killed belonged to Hamas speaks volumes.
When the people of Gaza decide to rid themselves of this poor excuse of a government that holds their lives in low regard, Gazans will be better off in every way, politically, socially and economically.
Meanwhile, they are harming themselves by blocking the route through which much of their necessities flow.
And Hamas reaps the benefits because it can blame Israel for the deaths of Gazans who are trying to harm Israelis and their land.
41
The Gazans are locked into an open air prison. Their land was taken away from them in a historical injustice comparable only to the expropriation of Indian lands when the USA was spreading westwards to bring life and liberty to all (except the Indians of course). Most of the protests were peaceful and sling shots and kites flying molotov cocktails are no match for the IDF who were methodically shooting people far from the fence. Watch Democracy Now if you want some real news on this conflict, not the biased coverage of the mainstream US media controlled by corporate interests. And by the way, as awful as Hamas may be, they were elected democratically. If we believe in democracy, we have to live with the choices. People don't deserve to die just because they voted for a bum government.
2
From the article: "There’s a pattern here — harm yourself, blame the other — and it deserves to be highlighted amid the torrent of morally blind, historically illiterate criticism to which Israelis are subjected every time they defend themselves against violent Palestinian attack."
The above statement isn't true. Historically, MANY have defended Israel's right to survive and defend itself. Far from being morally blind, it is morally necessary to ask why these people were killed. It's a difficult problem, but this was NOT the right solution.
And as for "historical illiteracy" need I remind the author that the founding of Israel was made possible by terrorist actions of Haganah, or by the brave actions of Haganah freedom fighters. Both views are correct.
And as for "harm yourself, blame the other" let me remind the author of the story of the S/S Patria, a ship carrying Jewish deportees from the port of Haifa in 1940. It was blown up by Haganah in order to prevent it's departure. More than 200 Jews were killed. That sounds like 'harm yourself'.
This conflict does not have a right side and a wrong side. It is a conflict in need of resolution.
24
It's much more complicated than that. Had the Patria sailed than 1800 Jews would have perished in the death camps. That the explosion killed so many was a grave error. But at the time, deportation back to Europe meant death...
4
You can cherry-pick factoids, present out-of-context anecdotes, conspiracy tales, outright lies and mere distortions, to your heart's delight...
But history, current facts and just, rational thought are not on your side:
• Israel—under both left- and so-called right-wing governments—has never walked away from a peace overture, as the Palestinians have, many times. True, that's because the Palestinians have never actually made any such gestures (does that earn them a pass?) From the start, they have played a dual role of victim/tough guy, cocky/downtrodden warrior/martyr, both full of despair, and bravely looking toward their future State (sure to be a utopian model of Arab govermental efficiency and benevolence).
… And the world's greatest suckers---or merely people who nee donly a shred of a fig leaf to side against the Jewish state---buy this ridiculous act.
• The British hanged Jewish freedom fighters ruthlessly, and without restraint---and no one really protested.
• Israel goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualites---way, way beyond what any modern nation would do, if faced with angry mobs of people bent on the destruction of the their State, and threatening harm to its citizenry, btoh implicitly and overtly. The number of Palestinian casualties caused by Israel gunfire is a tiny, tiny fraction of the number of people killed in Syria—by their own government! Does anyone care? Do YOU care? No, not really.
4
Can't believe you just gave the Patria incident as an example of harm yourself blame the other! Don't know if to laugh or to cry from this. The S/S Patria was carrying about 1,800 Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe whom the British authorities were deporting from Mandatory Palestine to Mauritius because they lacked entry permits. The Hagana tried to stop the deportation by putting a bomb on the engine. They miscalculated and made a big hole that got the boat to sink in 15 minutes. They never wanted people to drown and definitely didn't blame anyone but themselves.
And by the way Hagana never targeted civilians and didn't rule any territory or people. It was a gaurilla group that acted alone and their main concern was getting Jews into Israel and let I remind you that this happened in horrible times for the Jews in Europe.
Lastly Shenbowen, I didn't know you are an expert but what is the right solution then? I feel sorry for the Gazans but to go rioting with children and woman doesn't sound safe to me.
In fact there are multiple videos showing they're trying to break in with weapons. You probably think there should be some Israeli casualties in order to equalize the proportions of death, to make it fair.
3
When Israeli soldiers in safe, well-fortified positions are killing dozens and injuring thousands because they are using live ammunition to keep unarmed protestors inside a blockaded reservation in order to avoid living in a multi-cultural world, you will find that you have more and more difficulty getting converts to the "blame it all on Hamas" club.
31
Ignorance is bliss. Visit Israel. I suspect there are more ethnic groups living in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem then live in Oregon. And yes, people threatening to slaughter civilians should expect the IDF to defend their country.
5
Wait, what? Do you seriously think the Israelis don’t want the Palestinians to rush the border because the want to “avoid living in a multi-cultural world”?! Not because, oh, I don’t know, maybe because they weren’t exactly trying to come over to enrich their culture, more like slaughter all the Israelis. But yeah, I guess they should’ve let them in with open arms anyway, right?
3
Have you ever been to Israel? It is extremely multicultural!!! They even have Palestinians in their government. I agree the response was unwarranted and they should have used non-lethels. But let us be honest someone would have complained that that was too aggressive. So before you declare Israel as xenophobic get your facts straight! Disagree with the aggressive nature but make sure your facts are straight. I love how we’ve develop our opinions about something from 30,000 miles in the sky inatead of actually seeing how it is on the ground.
3
The IDF used killing force when there was no immediate threat to Israeli life. Period, full stop.
This was a massacre, little different from infamous early 20th century slaughters like Amritsar in India or Bloody Sunday in Russia--except in one crucial respect: Israel is, or claims to be, a modern and enlightened society that values human life.
I have no regard for Hamas; as a Jew myself, I know exactly what they'd likely do to me. But I can understand, even if I can't quite imagine, the misery, despair and rage that might drive a brutalized people to embrace extremism and violence. As Israel falls further into the grip of religious extremists and the cynics who enable them, the cycle will become ever more vicious. In the end, I fear Israel will lose both its soul and its state.
30
Not true at all. One person getting the border with a knife can kill a family. How can you say that 40,000 storming the border is not a threat?
5
No immediate threat? Really? 40,000 people rushing the fence, sent by their leaders bent on the destruction of Israel. People pick their truths according to preconceived notions. Back in comfy NYC, it's easy to pass judgement on others.
4
What an angry editorial. The sort of writing that accomplishes little and oversimplifies everything.
Take one of Mr. Stephens's paragraphs:
"No decent Palestinian society can emerge from the culture of victimhood, violence and fatalism symbolized by these protests. No worthy Palestinian government can emerge if the international community continues to indulge the corrupt, anti-Semitic autocrats of the Palestinian Authority or fails to condemn and sanction the despotic killers of Hamas. And no Palestinian economy will ever flourish through repeated acts of self-harm and destructive provocation."
Let's see what happens when we substitute the word Israeli:
No decent Israeli society can emerge from the culture of victimhood, violence and fatalism symbolized by these attacks. No worthy Israeli government can emerge if the international community continues to indulge the corrupt, anti-Palestinian autocrats of the Israeli Government or fails to condemn and sanction the despotic killers of Palestinians. And no Israeli economy will ever flourish through repeated acts of self-harm and destructive provocation."
Most of this works rather well...how strange.
Perhaps the Manichean worldview expressed by Mr. Stephens is an oversimplification.
31
Sorry, I don't think that most of it works rather well. Israel has much less gun violence and general crime than the USA. Surrounded by enemies, they have managed to create a modern economy and a "Start Up Nation" that is the envy of many much larger countries. The "despotic killers" you describe are subject to a code of ethics and a legal system that is not found anywhere in the Middle East. And the Israeli economy is flourishing quite nicely, thank you, thanks to their hard work and ingenuity, as well as the financial support of other countries (which they invested in building their country and not in building tunnels to be used to commit violent acts like the Gazans).
15
The Palestinians have chosen terrorists as their representatives, they have chosen hate - and that was entirely their choice. One cannot negotiate with hate, one cannot compromise with hate. Until the Palestinians choose a different route Israel have little choice but to isolate the haters, and prevent them from causing harm.
8
The first Partition of British Mandatory Palestine in 1922 granted the Arabs 77% of British Mandatory Palestine, to form what is now the sovereign state of Jordan...an Arab country.
In 1947, again to appease the Arabs, the UN suggested a further division, partitioning the remaining 23% of the Mandate territory between Jews and Arabs...an offer that the Jews accepted and the Arabs rejected in favor of perpetrating a war of annihilation to ‘drive the Jews into the sea’.
The Arabs are STILL trying to win the war they started 70 years ago...and lost. Until they surrender to the reality of Israel’s existence and relinquish their dream of annihilating the Jewish state, nothing will change . The ball is in their court.
36
I don't understand why an Arab who lived in say Haifa would feel satisfied with the British saying Haifa would be part of the Jewish state, but he had a homeland in Amman. Why do we expect Arabs to accept things none of us would accept?
Until they surrender to the reality of Israel’s existence???
Say what? And their right to make the big grab landwise while squishing them into the equivalent of an American Indian reservation to starve and suffer? NAY!
History repeats.
The siege of Masada happened around 73 CE when the Romans conquered the Israel/Palestine/Judea area.
The Jews of Masada suicided rather than giving up to the Romans.
Gaza appears to be the Palestinian Masada of today.
Where ironically, the Jews are in the position of the Romans.
19
This is nonsense.
The Roman Empire was an imperialistic power that conquered and colonialized all territories around the Mediterranean Sea. Judaea was at that time just one of several dozens of Roman provinces.
Nowadays, Israel is the only homeland for (Jewish) Israelis which has to be defended against Arab attacks at her border. This constellation is in no way similar to or comparable with Masada.
5
Jews are not the invaders nor occupiers of their own indigenous land.
3
The Romans were trying to conquer Israel.
The Jews are not trying to conquer Gaza.
2
To complete the earlier note: I thought most of the 19th and 20th century pre-state settlements were in areas where there were not Many arab.? As for the land “taken“ if one cares to check public records much of the land was sold to Jewish settlers by Arab landowners. That, and land kept after the fifth war is part of the state of Israel. Some of the cities were originally Arab, shared or Jewish cities. But in the Middle East over centuries many cities have changed hands. Wasn’t Medina originally a Jewish City conquered by Mohammed? I think a big piece of the hatred for Israel is a medieval society not wanting western influence in the Middle East. But in an era of many people settling in the west, how can one complaint of people having spent time in the west returning to their homeland?
23
So what is the Hamas peace plan? We already know that Israel accepted the Clinton-sponsored peace plan. What does Hamas want in order to be happy, and why hasn't Hamas come out and made a pitch for it at the UN? Easy for Hamas to be against all proposals. Hard for Hamas to say what it wants to the world community in any binding form.
26
What does Hamas want to be happy? ISRAEL!
3
Excellent article. The only thing I find more surprising that seeing it in the NYTimes is reading the many comments from those who choose to ignore it.
. . . on second thought, perhaps that is not so surprising after all.
31
This author needs to zoom out a little bit and get a broader perspective of the context/genealogy of the conflict. Instead of assigning guilt to individuals, let's look to structures or systems through which the powerful and the oppressed relate. Deficit thinking and assigning individual blame is unlikely to lead to the kinds of systemic overhauls necessary to allow Gazans to live with a sense that there is hope for their own and their children's finances, emotional/physical health, and culture to be sustained. And without that, of course they should be pushing back and challenging entrenched power imbalances and one-sided borders.
Zooming out even further, it's not enough to blame the structural imbalances between Israel and Palestine. Rather, Israel is also a victim/pawn in the western imperial elite's stranglehold on global trade, resource management, and industry/consumerism... A recent book I've read on this is called, "Whites, Jews, and Us" by Houria Bouteldja. It's definitely worth a read!
3
Push back and demand what? Are the Palestinians going to start manufacturing kitchen appliances? Come to work at 8am to staff technical call centers? Write software that does your taxes? What? When all you can do is say “no” every situation looks like a question whose answer is obviously “yes”.
1
I remember that on and immediately after May 4, 1970, the governor of Ohio, and most conservatives argued that the students shot by the National Guard just got what they deserved for the reprehensible crime of protesting a war.
12
Were are the students shouting death to choose, throwing rocks explosive devices and burning contraptions over the border?
2
The problem with Stephens argument is that it ignores the views about the state of Israel held by both Israelis and 100 generations of Jewish people who longed for a country of their own. Even in the most benign of countries, Jews felt like outsiders. All the impractical behaviors of the Palestinians comes back to their craving for a land of their own, where ancient Palestine existed from Roman times to seventy years, ago. Israel is a long way from feeling safe with such a country whether it's half or all of the land that was Palestine.
The recent demonstrations need not have been controlled with deadly force, that was a reflection of a complete disregard for the humanity of Palestinians by Israelis. Israeli forces could easily have used non-lethal force with demonstrators and posted units about the area to deal with any terrorists trying to use the demonstrators to infiltrate. Instead, the Israelis just chose to kill everyone who got too close.
The Palestinians and the Israelis have one thing in common, they want to see the others utterly and completely vanquished and totally demoralized so that they will quit.
6
You seem very sure that non-lethal force could have been used. Were you there? Did you see the reports that 50 of the dead were Hamas members? This was not a March on Washington with MLK speaking. It was a violent attempt to infiltrate a neighboring country and commit violent acts.
4
Casual Observer
Please explain in more detail how Israel could have stopped the invaders without lethal force.
"posted units about the area to deal with any terrorists trying to use the demonstrators to infiltrate."
How would these posted units deal with terrorists?
Please be specific.
4
When you see people living in what is essentially an outdoor prison (the result of failed policies, failed brokerage, and bad faith), it should come as no surprise that Gaza is a pressure cooker. It elicits sympathy from people like me who know little but can call an unfair fight when he sees one. I would challenge the writer to take a less hawkish and more nuanced position and not cast so much decided blame. You can find fault with Hamas yet sympathize with the plight of Gaza and its people, support Israel, yet hold it accountable for its policies, ... none of this is inherently self-contradictory. But you have to feel something first... and maybe then litigate your case for Israel, which seems to be doing fine from the pictures I saw the other day of the Trumps in Jerusalem.
20
I love it. Blame Israel for not only surviving, defending itself but producing products the rest of the world enjoys. Throw your cell phone away immediately, and do not use the latest medical advances in treatment for Parkinson’s disease and the AlS etc
5
Adiel Coleman, Ziv Daos, Netanel Kahalani, Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal, Rabbi Raziel Shevach, Hodaya Asulin, Solomon Gabariya, Yussef Utman, Or Arish, Elad Salomon, Haya Salomon, Yosef Salomon, Ha'il Satawi, Kamil Shnaan, Hadas Malka, Hannah Bladon, Elchai Taharlev,
Yael Yekutiel, Shir Hajaj, Shira Tzur, Erez Orbach are
dead. Israelis live in fear.
2
People quickly forget about Camp David and Taba when the Palestinians were offered almost all of what they were asking for and refused to negotiate. The fact is that the countries that wanted peace (Egypt and Jordan) have had long standing and successful peace treaties.
27
There are disputes about how good the deal really was from a Palestinian perspective, though it certainly is the best the Israelis have ever offered, and also seems to have offered a fair amount.
The question though is why, after the Palestinians' initial refusal was it taken off the table and no further negotiations pursued? Maybe more to the point, why did Israel proceed to expand its settlements making the proposed solution impossible if the Palestinians ever changed their minds?
8
Please refer to the 1948 map of Palestine, compare to that of the 2018 map and come back to me.
One reaps what one sows Mr Goldberg.
The Israeli / Palestinian conflict we are discussing is very young, relatively speaking- 70 years.
Try 800 years, which we all endured in Ireland. The horrendous murders of 1000's on both sides, just counting since the 1960's. The extremely painful and pityful progress of peace brokering over the last 30 odd years- sustainable peace that has finally arrived. Resolution was only achieved when both sides were given power.
There are a lot of similarities between both conflicts.
8
617to416
The settlements would help, not hinder, a 2-state solution because the settlers are generally wealthier than the Palestinians so their presence would help the Palestinian economy.
Mr Stephens has ensured his article only projects his one sided bias Hamas are to blame for everything and Israel is innocent of any action and always within its right to act as it does.
And by pushing his narrative I find it incredible that to make it sound as anti Hamas and pro Israeli as possible, Mr Stephens leaves out gaping pieces of history, fact and reality as well as anything that might interfere with his objective to completely demonise Hamas, Palestinians and those who live in Gaza (In that order)
Hence we hear of greenhouses destroyed in 2005 but are also referred to an industrial zone set up in 1970 but shut down by Israel because of an incident in 2004, in fact Mr Stephens is at pains to not mention or edit events that do not help his cause of which there are Many.
We are told Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 despite the fact that Israel, America and others were helping Fatah to take over from Hamas all control and then disband them from Political power which is what in fact happened except that Hamas kept control of Gaza despite attempts to remove them.
Not mentioned by Mr Stephens that Hamas won parliamentary elections in the Palestinian Territories taking more than 70 seats to Fatahs 45 seats in free and fair democratic elections (and never again held) although Fatah, Israel and most of the western World didn't like that outcome and much was done to stop, bankrupt and/or overthrow it.
Much more needs saying but wont suit the narrative projected.
Sad
27
I think the green houses and the industrial zone with two different efforts. The green houses were part of the Jewish settlements the Israelis moved Jewish settlers out of against their will, When withdrawing from Gaza.
3
Sadly, it appears that you wish to do the exact same thing: blame Israel without taking into account what Hamas is doing.
There could have been a peaceful two-state solution many times, but Palestinians are committed to killing Jews and dismantling Israel rather than living side-by-side. Their own manifesto says so.
Hamas is causing the problems and deserves the blame in the current situation.
3
I once thought that NY Times readers were intelligent and somewhat unbiased. I now realize how mistaken I was. Congratulations to Mr Stephens for telling it like it is. I would love for some of the writers of these posts to go live under Hamas rule and then tell me how wonderful and sympathetic they are. Hamas is killing its own people in the most cynical way possible all the while making very clear that their only goal is the destruction of the State of Israel - not the return to any UN approved borders. They have also found a way to get a large number of blind Americans to voice their support for this murderous band. Mr Stephens please keep telling the truth.
64
If Israel had maintained the 1948 borders set up by the U.S. to begin with, and not unilaterally (and unprovoked) taken over Palestinian lands in 1967, there would probably be no Hamas.
And if there was Hamas, Israel would have the world's sympathy and support.
7
I think you need to do a little bit more reading on the 47 and the 67 wars. Particularly regarding the use of the word unprovoked. As to who was messing with who’s border I guess you need to do a little bit more reading there too. We are very lucky to have Canada and Mexico and two oceans surrounding us, and not having a 45 minute waist
3
"unilaterally (and unprovoked) taken over Palestinian lands in 1967". Israel took that land in a war that was anything if unprovoked. The provocation was all of Israel's arab neighbors preparing to wage a war in order to destroy it. And were it not for Hamas and likeminded Palestinians who still are sworn to Israel's destruction, Israel may not have the security need to keep those lands under its control.
Talk about the bigotry of low expectations!
Clearly many who support the arabs in the west bank and gaza do not believe they are capable of behaving in a manner that demonstrates that they want anything other than more violence, death, and terror.
These arabs will never be held to the level of accountability applied to civilized cultures the world over. Their treatment of women, religious minorities, LGBT, and others is accepted because their supporters understand that barbarism is the best that can be expected of them.
Offers of statehood, assistance, autonomy, and peace have been met with terrorism and cries of "death to Jews" the world over. No peace is possible when one party categorically rejects it.
This scenario and others like it will continue, not because Israelis haven't offered peace but, because arabs will not accept it.
42
I'm sorry, but do you actually know any Palestinians? That's what they are first and foremost- Palestinians, not Arabs. Not all Palestinians are Arabs and, in my experience, Palestinians are mostly very moderate Muslims and lovely, lovely people.
Please refer to the 1948 map of Palestine and the 2018 map of Palestine and come back to me.
2
Here is a more historically informed account: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/05/15/what-the-gaza-protests-portend/
5
I came hoping that others had taken him and his oppressors' views to the woodshed. I was not disappointed. I need read no further.
The world is witnessing how a gravely oppressed and persecuted people can become the oppressors in one generation. Sad.
16
Apparently, there is a tendency for abused children (powerless people) to grow up (gain power) and abuse children.
It's sad to believe that narrative. Easy to pass judgement from the comfort zone of Virginia.
Gaza has its own government, they need to get on the ball and be productive, not put all of their resources into building military tunnels into Israel and ranting and raving about the destruction of Israel. Then they will be helped.
4
As Golda Said, is there I would like to be liked but not to the point of suicide. It is amazing how many who are reasonably safe and secure between two oceans cannot fathom 130 Hamas another charters call for death to Israel, or pushing the Jews into the ocean, what do you think they mean?
2
Mr. Stevens's analysis of self-harm makes one think of the suicidal drive of Islamic (Islamistic ?) terrorists. In all human societies there has been at one time or another, and still is, a belief in ritualistic suicide as an act of atonement for something.
8
The entire situation is just a bit of theater into which innocent people were thrown and lost their lives. Does anyone think an "invasion" of 5,000 Palestinians is going "overthrow" the established Israeli government? Could the security forces have just let those protesters wander into the Israeli countryside until they would wander back in search of food and water? Hamas begged for Israeli bullets and the Israelis indulged them. The result is that Hamas is stronger and Israel is condemned. Well done Bibi!
9
Try more like 50k to 100k depends who you're asking. There are many small villages next to the border and Hamas gave the mob guidance where the closest villages are.. yeah sounds awesome. Very safe. Let Israel do nothing, at least they will not be criticized.
1
Yes, thanks for writing this. Hamas putting women and children closest to danger was intentional. The Palestinians had little choice electing Hamas to rule them, but Hamas knew exactly what it was doing.
35
To paraphrase my sister-in-law who has lived in Israel for decades----What would you do knowing that at the border of your country are waiting hordes of thugs bent on murdering you?
48
Just as the Palestinians must feel.
As long as folks are (rightly in some ways, perhaps) critiquing Israel for occupation of West Bank (historical Judea and Samaria) and Gaza, why don’t you at least mention that prior to 1967, those areas were Occupied by Jordan and Egypt, respectively, who receive and received little or no condemnation for being a military occupying force. Of course the Palestinians themselves acknowledged at least Jordan’s occupation of the territory, and formed the PLO and Black September in part to address that (remember PLO bombings at Jordanian hotels?).
30
Gaza is not occupied by Israel.
14
Israel does not occupy Gaza. Hama does.
3
Wow. Two million people crammed into the space about a tenth of the size of Rhode Island. Limited ability at best to come and go; lack of jobs, electricity, potable water, the basics of living. Surely, not every person living in Gaza is a terrorist. I have no problem with laying part of the responsibility at the feet of the Palestinian leadership. But, really, is it so hard to admit that Israeli policy toward the Palestinians is also part of the problem?
28
What problem? Good send equipment are permitted in, but since bomb making materials and now ternal making material is now attempted to be brought in, yes the Israelis have to check at the border what is coming in. As the article mentions the billions of dollars Spent on rockets and Tara ternal makings could have created so much more for the Palestinian people in Gaza. Hamas prefers to kill Jews than to take care of their own.
1
the Israelis offered peace, land and aid. all rejected by the terrorists
the only policy hamas will accept is mass suicide by jews
3
It’s not ‘Arab Land now, and never was. ‘Palestine’ was never a sovereign country, but rather a region populated by a mix of Arabs, Jews, Druze, and Christians of various ethnicities. The Jews are indigenous to the region and have been present there for more than 3000 years.
After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following WWl, the victors of that war partitioned the entire region into states: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan (all Arab states), and Israel. Of those five states, only ‘Israel’ has been contested. You can guess why.
31
Because it is being continually populated by people mainly of European descent immigrating to the area, one of the last vestiges of colonialism?
7
This is wrong. Out of WWI came Mandatory Palestine, not 'Israel'.
And if it was never a sovereign country, neither was 'Israel', by a long shot, until 1948. In fact the Zionist movement earlier proposed, and sought British approval, to establish 'Israel' in British Uganda.
The Balfour Declaration proposed that a Jewish 'National Home' be established in Palestine. But that that establishment should not in any way interfere with the rights of the indigenous population, which was overwhelmingly Arab.
In the census of 1922, there 486,000 Arabs in Palestine, and 84,000 Jews.
Since the Arabs had fought alongside the British to defeat the Ottoman Empire, they expected to rule Palestine after WWI. Britain had pledged to support their claim to self-determination and independence.
They expected Palestine to be a pluralistic state, under Arab rule, co-existing with and containing a Jewish minority. After all, Arabs and Jews had peacefully co-existed for centuries under Ottoman rule.
Instead, after an effective Zionist campaign to alter the balance of populations in Palestine by massive Jewish immigration in the decades after WWI (+452% population by 1940), they were faced with the establishment, not of a pluralistic, Arab-ruled state, but a Jewish state that excluded all Arabs.
"You can guess why" they would contest being displaced, within a few short decades, through Zionist and Great Power political maneuvering, from land they had inhabited for thousands of years.
1
No need to guess, it's because of those five countries only one was not formed by the indigenous population but instead by people from Europe. How can anyone look at a Palestinian that can trace his family back to the area over hundreds "if not" thousands of years to the very land he's claiming and tell him he does not belong there while claiming an Israeli whose family 3 generations ago was born in Russia.
1
I wonder how many of the letter writers here have actually been in Israel, and I'm speaking for both those praising and attacking Israel. I lived in Israel from 1973 - 1976, and witnessed firsthand both the bravery and fear of a people under attack from all sides while seeking shelter in an underground shelter for seven nights on end. There are currently approximately two million Arabs living inside the State of Israel - how many Jews are left in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt? While, I too am offended by the Israeli governments' reluctance to reach an accommodation with its Palestinian neighbors, Israel, on the other hand, will never commit collective suicide. Two people, one land, where are the voices speaking for reconciliation?
20
How many Jews were in Syria and Iraq? What percent of Israeli population were Arabs in 1948? And what is this percent now? I've heard some Jews are leaving Israel for USA and Canada. Does it mean that they feel discriminated against in Israel or there could be other reasons?
This whole debate reminds me of the struggle Native Americans have endured. They are told if only they would change their culture and beliefs, they can dine at the American table of plenty. On the other hand, Americans have visited untold misery upon them for generations. Is it the fault of white Americans that Native Americans remain poor? Or is Native American poverty their own fault for resisting enculturation even when given many equal opportunities to change? The Middle East conflict is not rational, logical, or intellectual. It is emotional, tribal, and painful on both sides. Can we find a way to work together? I'm doubtful. Much of the world has always been at each other's throats.
9
We live in a great country. Our "freedom" is guaranteed via a secular constitution. We do not know real state oppression and subjugation... yet. Americans do not want to hear Palestinians are really exposed to ethnic cleansing and isolation. That's the reason they are angry and violent. Wars of liberation are like that. America's certainly was.
Yet Stephens does not advise Palestinians to totally capitulate to the demands of Greater Isreal because the result will be Palestinian freedom. Bret Stephens knows that's the real "fantasy" our Ambassador Friedman claims Palestinians must remove from their hearts and minds. The future "Reality on the Ground" for Palestinians is an exclusive isolated Reservation like Gaza or Palestinian gulags on the West Bank. Anyone, sans a special Christian interest. reading international news from the Middle East understands this.
7
Another in the long litany of apologists for oppression, always blaming the victims. But the world sees the occupation for what it is.
20
sorry your point is not clear. Who are the "oppressors?" It can be Hamas that restricts rights of Palestinians within the strip where there is no free press or freedom of expression, who use their limited rersources for terror tunnels and rockets rather for improving the lives of the people, who oppress Israelis by supporting terrorism, firing rockets intended to kill as many as possible, who openly state their genocidal intent towards Israeli Jews, or, did you mean the Israeli and Egyptian governments that (mostly) close their borders to the Gazans, or did you mean the Palestinian Authority that sometimes refuses to pay for Gaza's electricity and supplies, or, as I hope, you meant all of the above. For I think it is clear that unless ALL sides stop oppression, nothing is going to change.
Excellent points though as the author concludes, explaining the “mystery” of why there is so little opprobrium for Hamas as its cowardly leaders send youth out to be predictably injured or killed, is really not that mysterious—any more than the history of pogroms and the Shoah are.
12
Your entire argument is based on the false notion that people should only be judged on their greatest accomplishments. So, if my kid gets an A on one test, I shouldn’t care if he starts getting F’s? Or, perhaps a better example, I shouldn’t be concerned about the Rohingya in Myanmar because Aung San Suu Kyi won a Nobel Peace Prize? It is wonderful and valuable to conflate the Zionists and the beginning of the modern human rights movement but Israel was taken by force and can not be maintained without it. If that is not colonialism we must redefine the term.
9
At the time Israel became a state, they then king of Jordan welcomed the Jews returning from Europe and predicted Jews returning from the west would combine with Arabs to to form an economic region that could compete with Europe. He was assassinated. Did you ever think that force was used by thugs who wanted to preserve A medieval culture at the expense of their own people? And while many wish to believe that their were no Jews in Israel prior to 1947, Jews have live there for thousands of years.
This article is right on. However, it fails to give further historical details, like the Palestinians never had a homeland in Israel, were denied entry by other Arab countries, and were only backed by Jordan and six other countries when they declared war on Israel and called for the annihilation of the Jews.
20
The author is exactly right. Those who blame Israel here present no realistic alternative for its military.
20
Not true. Alternatives are proposed since decades. Israel rejected all alternatives except his.
5
That is absolutely incorrect. Israel has repeatedly sought peace with its Arab neighbors. The response has always been rejection. Who can forget that after the Six Day War, the Arab response was No Peace, No Recognition, and No Negotiations. had the Arabs agreed to negotiate then, there would not have been an occupation. Had the Arabs been willing to even make a counteroffer at the 2000 Camp David negotiations, we would not be on the situation we are now. But the main Arab position, as shown in Gaza now, is that Israel should not exist, that Tel Aviv is just as much occupied territory as the West Bank. Gaza would not be in the situation it is in if Hamas had not turned it into a military platform when the Israelis withdrew in 2005.
Thankfully Trump “gets it.” It is sad but Palestinians do not want peace. Charging a border with burning tires, catapulting rocks, glass and homemade explosives— and what is the end game? Lives lost and more bad press for Israel. It’s not how you build a nation. But then, this from a culture where young men are encouraged to suicide in hopes of seeing women without a hijab in the afterlife harem the are promised. The only hope at this point (after Gaza returned to Palestinians years ago only to be met with more of the same cynical actions) is in a new generation of Palestinians who see through the propaganda they are fed from birth and realize that their cruel leaders are the architects of their people’s miseries. When they defy those leaders and begin a politics of engagement they will find willing partners on the other side of the wall, and world, and perhaps build a destiny different than their forebears.
17
I agree with everything you said except "Trump gets it." Trump has no understanding but is basking in the glory of moving the embassy.
1
"There’s a pattern here — harm yourself, blame the other." The Republicans who voted for Trump did exactly that so they aren't that different from the Palestinians and Israelis.
1
Because the Israeli’s have a functioning state and stable territory. The Palestinians do not.
3
but it's the palis that have turned both down in favor of murder and terror
Hamas has sold out the Palestinians in the cynical calculation that there is money and status to be made off their dead bodies. Gaza has no future, Israel won't assimilate them, nor will any third party country. I fear this reveals the true opportunistic nature of all human beings.
13
Let's start with international law, a construct that Mr. Bret Stephens and the US government acknowledge only when it works to their advantage. Under international law Israel is defined as an occupying power in Gaza and the West Bank, and thus it has duties but no rights in the territories it controls. The population of territories occupied by a hostile foreign power has the explicit right to defend itself against the occupier, and the occupier has no right to displace the occupied population and settle it's own population on occupied land. It certainly has no right to pen the occupied population within territories it controls and subject it to hunger, thirst and periodic attacks. As for the so-called "borders" Israel supposedly defends the fact is that Israel has no defined borders that it recognizes, itself another violation of international law. The fact is that Israel is a state unlike any other. An American Jew living in Brooklyn has more legal rights in Israel than it's native Palestinian citizens, who are subject to at least 70 laws that explicitly discriminate against them. As for Palestinian residents of the occupied territories they are without any rights that Israel recognizes, and they are constantly subject to ethnic cleansing from lands Israeli settlers seize every month, under the protection of the IDF. In short, the miseries Palestinians suffer no matter where they live have two authors: the state of Israel and the United States government.
14
Interestingly, you have not mentioned the fact that Jews have faced much greater hardships in Muslim countries than the Palestinians ever have in Israel. Forced expulsion, murder, and loss of personal property have all been mainstays of the treatment of Jews in those lands. If you shed tears for the "Palestinian people," but cannot provide similar sympathies to Jews, you might want to consider what factor makes the difference for you.
1
That is the truth! Thank you.
Mr. Stephens, have you spent a single day in Gaza and West Bank?
Pl spend a week in those 2 places and you will see how harsh is their life due to terrible restrictions,border crossings nightmares,
Put in for these people.
Israel thinks that if they put enough hardships Palestinian people will move away!
I do put lot of blame on Hamas and PLO groups also for their policies.
7
You are young. You do not remember the bombs left on passes etc. before checkpoints were put in.. you do not remember the wars and hatred directed at Israel before the West Bank was allowed to receive the Orthodox settlers. When I visited Israel before the Orthodox settlers moved into the West Bank, many Arabs, including the Bedouin created settlements just outside of Jerusalem in order to have steady employment by crossing into the city every day. Unfortunately the terrorism and Infitadas Left the Israeli government no alternative in it’s duty to protect civilians. You also do not now or do not remember that even Jordan, when it allowed the PLOw into its borders, King Hussein was thanked by the PLO’s attempted assassination of him.
7
We need people like Bret to shine light on the horrendous situation that the Palestinians created for themselves over the last 50 years. All these years Jerusalem issue could have been negotiated if they were willing to accept Israel's existence, which they have denied and are never willing to accept. Now Jerusalem is out their hands. Missed opportunities to make peace has continued to erode their aspiration of a Palestinian State. But this is not want they want. They want all the land of Israel, which means its destruction. How many countries are out there willing to sacrifice their freedoms so that others can take over their country? None. Israel will be condemned no matter what she does. So, Israel will continue to defend itself no matter what the world has to say. They have no choice.
43
"Why is nothing expected of Palestinians ... while everything is expected of Israelis?"
Generally, Bret, when one side is in power and the other side is being treated vastly unequally in the best of times, it is the side in power that needs to give up much more to achieve parity.
"There’s a pattern here — harm yourself, blame the other ..." What exactly do you think the Montgomery Bus Boycott was? It deeply harmed the black participants while it lasted, and harmed the bus company, too. Don't strikes by American unions hurt the workers? Do you imagine the struggle against the South African form of Apartheid did not hurt their people of color?
Yes, the citizens of Gaza suffer. But to pretend that the actions of radical Palestinians is the root cause is to ignore 70 years of Israeli Apartheid that has kept all Palestinians, even the 'good ones' second-class while their lands and other rights have been systematically trampled by a radical Israeli minority, the Likud/settler faction. If this column were not a distortion of the total picture, please explain why it is Palestinians dying in the recent events, not Israelis. Youths who fight and die with nothing but David's slings against body-armored Goliath snipers to show the world the asymmetric nature of this struggle. #PalestinianLivesMatter.
19
In response to your insistence that Muslims in the Palestine Territory be labeled "Palestinians": The Palestine territory, historically a province of Roman Empire (135–390 CE), in fact encompasses territory occupied by modern Muslims, and Hebrews including the Country of Israel.
It was Arafat who cleverly adopted and popularized the branding of "Palestinians" to refer to Muslims only, to the extreme of fashioning his headdress in the shape of his proposed state. In fact, subsequent to Judea/Christian religions, the religion of Islam originated (610 CE), from a dream of Mohammad who claims he received his commandments from God's messenger and enforcer of good versus evil, the Angel Gabriel. We can only speculate how those dream events went. Muslims, therefore, have no a priori claim, and are perpetuating a fraud.
What is certain, the Palestine Muslims are prepared to sacrifice their children's lives in attacking existing borders with Israel, for the sake of video news footage on English speaking network news.
20
There are, and have always been, Christian Palestinians.
2
Yup. I have a neighbor who was admitted to the U.S. as a Palestinian Refugee in her youth. She is a Jew native to Jerusalem who fled the anti-Jewish massacres led by the Mufti in the years prior to the creation of the State of Israel. When, clearly, the existence of the State of Israel could have had nothing to do with the attempt to ethnically cleanse the region's Jewish population.
6
Yes, and once the wall in enabled the Israelis not to patrol some neighborhoods in Jerusalem, The Muslim attacks on the Christian Palestinians force them out of their neighborhoods in Jerusalem. And yes, Israel is blamed for that too.
A life lost is loss to the humanity, whether Jewish or Palestinian.
Mr. Stephens, your journalistic skills would have been better spent if you addressed the core issue that has resulted in current crisis. Trump-Kushner duo has been coaxed into their declaration of embassy move by their conservative & pro-Israel hardliners who can care less about loss of lives; especially those of Palestinians.
But you wouldn't dare write anti-conservative commentary, would you?
11
The cause is nothing but the Hamas death wish for all of the Jews and of Israel. someone would try to do an accounting of all of the Palestinian civilians the plo and Hamas have killed over the years. There are so many comments here, who apparently Are more interested in condemning Trump and Israel, then knowing that the so-called new Embassy, is in the western part of Jerusalem, not in the Arab neighborhood.
Well said.
“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” - Elie Wiesel
8
Blame the victim is the theme of this column.
It is always the case when the weak, poor,
unemployed, discriminated wage struggle
for their rights. Gaza is an open prison
that gets pummeled periodically. Whole
world has condemned Israel's atrocities,
using disproportionate force to kill men, women,
children as young as 8 month old. There are
other methods to disperse the crowed which
Israel eschewed in favor of deadly force because
Palestinian lives don't matter-remind of a
country where black lives don't matter. No
wonder there is very close ideological allies.
12
Again, exactly what alternative for us would you use against thousands of people trying to preach your border, chanting slaughter all the Jews, and you have a track record of doing exactly that? How Many bodily attacks on shoes would be acceptable to you?
I think most rational people understand that both sides can and should work harder for peace. But when the Israeli military decides to go on a slaughter campaign and senselessly murder protestors, then we have a big problem. It’s not that Palestinians are exempt from guilt; many of their so called leaders have failed to realize broad based talks with both Israel and the US to author peace. As a recent though Israel has clearly been the aggressor and has decided to take matters into its own hands. Netanyahu has become nothing more than a bloodthirsty warmonger
5
So well argued - Brett you are are so right. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I am more cognizant then ever that those harshly critical of Israel while giving the Palestinians/Hamas a pass have only a snapshot view of present events, without any knowledge or understanding of the history of the conflict.
For decades prior to 1948, the Arabs tried to kill the idea of Zionism; for decades after 1948, the Arabs tried to destroy Israel by war and then terror; and now they are playing the victims with the hope that the world will . . . What? Force Israel to self destruct by letting in millions of Arabs claiming to be descendants of someone who once lived in pre-48 Palestine?
Thanks again Brett for speaking the truth.
42
Kudos to Mr. Stephens for responding to allegedly myopic coverage with... Completely myopic coverage. Particularly insane is the claim that no one blames Hamas- a group that is rightly despised and listed as a terrorist organization in every country on the planet. And yet, nowhere does he even hint at the fact that Palestinian despair is legitimate, that Israel rubs salt in the wounds with its appalling settlement and house bull dozing policies, to name just two. And no one has suggested a different way? Stop firing on unarmed protesters, including women and children? He whines about a double standard,, then endorses behavior that wouldn't be tolerated anywhere else on earth. There's a difference between supporting Israel, which I do, and being a total hack for everything it does.
7
The intended provocation of opening the American embassy in Jerusalem had its inevitable result. Thanks Jared for your efforts to broker peace in the middle east. Let's not forget the US role in pouring gasoline on Netanyahu's fire. Netanyahu is moving the middle east toward war and the US is happily helping him. This article portrays Israel as a victim; we're supposed to feel bad that the Israelis have to shoot women and children. How about if the Israelis DON'T shoot women and children? How about instead of following Netanyahu's wishes we again try and broker peace? Palestinians do have to once and for all give up the idea that Israel has no right to exist, that is also insane. Peace won't break out because Israel and America open an embassy in Jerusalem. It did nothing to further the cause of peace. We are complicit in Israel's apartheid.
3
Stephens: "the torrent of morally blind, historically illiterate criticism to which Israelis are subjected"
Mr. Stephens can you please expand on theses subjects. Specifically what morals are you referring to? Specifically what history are you referring to?
Mr. Stephens, do you consider it "immoral" to resist human rights abuse?
Mr. Stephens, do you consider it "immoral" to fight for justice under the law?
Mr. Stephens, does your knowledge of history include the terrorist acts of the Israelis in the 1940s; the history of the indigenous peoples of Palestine; or the political corruption which led to the creation of the State of Israel, etc?
6
As an example, try going through these comments and counting the commenters who seem to believe that Israel is occupying Gaza (said occupation ended with unilateral Israeli withdrawal more than a decade ago). Many of the "facts" upon which posters are arguing are equally inaccurate.
5
i don't know bret..... maybe a war in 1948 to create a zionist state had some unintended consequences? i think we need to distinguish between the palestinian people and their leaders. just as we are supposed to/must distinguish between the horror off trump and his supporters. it's all dirty water and everybody including Israel is bathing in it.....
4
Funny how so many of the comments to this piece insist on placing the onus on Israel to "provide solutions" to the Gaza miasma.
Only.....they already did. Ariel Sharon gave them a country, and a homeland. It's called........Gaza.
After that, it was up to the Palestinians to make a go of it. Which they did. If the tunnels cost $90 million, you can bet your bottom dollar that five times that went into the pockets of the Hamas leadership and their cronies. Hamas has done nothing for "their people" except to rob them blind.
It's sad to think how lovely a country Gaza could be. 25 miles of Mediterranean coastline. Groves of citrus and olive trees.
And a literacy rate (according to Wikipedia) of 1% or less among Palestinian youth.
As long as Hamas "leads" by siphoning off any and all available funds and screaming their message of hate 24/7/365, Gaza's going nowhere but further down the drain.
That's Hamas's fault. 100%, lock, stock and barrel. If you want to stop being treated like animals, try something novel and new.
Stop acting like them.
24
Because the Palestinians live under military occupation while the Israelis claim to be civilized military occupiers. That is why.
3
Anyone with even the slightest understanding of how Israel was created, knows that the Palestinian Arabs who lived in this area for centuries were given a totally unjust situation at no fault of their own. Just 100 years ago 600,000 Arabs and only 60,000 Jews lived in this area. With the help of western powers, Israel was allowed to be created, however well intentioned with imported Jews from throughout the world. What choice did the majority Arab population have? Now after decades of occupation the Arabs are being told not to resist. Land grabs with illegal settlements and minimal rights, yet don't resist. The entire world knows the truth. Only US and Netanyahu gloss over it with lies.
7
Many of those so-called "imported Jews" came from countries in the Middle East that evicted them from their homes and livelihoods. Why haven't those Arab countries taken their "Palestinian brothers" in? They have allowed them to remain "refugees" because they are counting on the eventual destruction of Israel. Good luck with that.
1
But for the fact I suspect you were ignorant of history, that is the cleverest presentation I have heard yet. They have also been Jews in Palestine for generations, back to biblical times. There would have been more Jews, but the herbs successfully, in particular from the 1930s on, had Britain limit immigration to Israel. The Jews of Palestine got to live in Palestine knowing that other Jews were being slaughtered by the millions. Because some folks successfully silenced Arabs who welcomed the return of the Jews, today most people who have not read on the subject, believe that most Arabs did not want the choose to come back. The fact is thoseThat welcome them back were assassinated. Read up what happens to young Palestinians who make friends with their Jewish counterparts, what happens to them in their Arab villages
The US, UK, and France used the UN to create Israel out of half of Palestine in 1947 and 1948 Israeli-Arab war.
They felt guilty for the Holocaust and decided to let the Palestinians pay for their sins.
And the Middle East will continue to have chaos.
Building settlements and not allowing the return of the refugees doesn’t help.
But that is what Israel needs if it wants to have a Jewish state.
On the other hand, I wouldn't want the evangelicals to take over the US and give us an evangelical state.
3
It doesn't matter why they protest. It doesn't matter if Satan himself pushed them to protest. Shooting unarmed protesters is wrong. Shooting unarmed protesters is slaughter.
What Israel is doing now is evil, that is not a debate. Anyone who supports these actions is condoning a massacre.
8
I agree with Brett. The IDF has the power and they want all their enemies dead. Obey or die.
4
No other army in the world is expected to defend its citizens with the restraints imposed on the IDF. Exactly what would you do what would you order the army to do over the last few days?
1
"There’s a pattern here — harm yourself, blame the other — and it deserves to be highlighted amid the torrent of morally blind, historically illiterate criticism to which Israelis are subjected every time they defend themselves against violent Palestinian attack."
You can switch "Israeli" and "Palestinian" in this sentence and get a very useful description of how Israel vilifies all things Palestinian.
We do need more historical literacy when it comes to the history of the founding of Israel. We badly need moral vision. I remain appalled and ashamed to share a faith with those who blame the unarmed dead for having died when Israeli soldiers shot them down.
2
By the way, Mr. Stephens is the former editor of The Jerusalem Post, not exactly the prototype of rational, objective perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
6
Disproportionate use of force is rather unattractive, Bret old pip. As you would understand if it happened to someone you cared about.
4
Thank you. At last.
11
I have visited Israel and the West Bank. Palestinians suffer daily humiliation by Israelis. What would your response be if your existence was challenged everyday? Get below the politics and see the root of the problem.
6
And you lived through the period of time when explosives who are routinely brought into Israel in place does bombs on buses? Exactly what steps would you take to prevent your family from being blown up?
Thank you, Bret, for your clear-eyed assessment.
10
Bret,
On point as usual and everything you write is true.
Now let's consider thinking outside the box to end this stalemate.
Individual Gazans can not speak up publicly. Hamas will kill them.
So we need an anonymous means for them to reach out and make a deal with Israel. "Can't get your fathers house back?Perhaps trade for a new home in the Negev, or job training for your kids"
Maybe there are many who want to make a deal.
Israel is looking to build a new city south of Beersheba. Perhaps a condo in a new city with many other of the worlds Arabs. One can create a mix from Yemen, Morocco, north Africa, and even Jewish Arabs (yes they exist). Place it right next to Bedouin International Park. With high tech Wadi's with wifi classrooms an medical facilities. It is cheaper than war.
All transactions though must be done in private with those committed to living in peace. There may be more takers than we can estimate.
And as for the border crossings, how about building "Golda Mier combo border crossing and child care centers"! Like she said, "When they love their children's future more than they love killing us, we will have peace". Obviously a few will be blown up though eventually the message will get through.
Enough of pity. Give those that want it the opportunity to break this cycle..
6
As a Sephardic jew by marriage thank you for moving me and my family on the board like pawns. "One can create a mix" What white privilege hubris. Unbelievable.
This obtuse commentary steps into a 70-year-old tale in year 70 and assigns blame with highly selective references to the past. It is a defense not of Jewish Israel, which includes sympathetic Jews whose capacity to understand The Other found voice in leaders like Rabin and Peres and Barak and Livni. No, it is a shameless defense of the yobs who are in charge of the government now, led by the biggest yob of them all, Netanyahu.
These thugs not only despise the Palestinians, celebrating their misery, they have challenged the notion that there is such a thing as a "Palestinian" at all. They have even condemned brethren willing to imagine a functional Palestinian state next door as "self-hating Jews".
The author revels in pointing out the futile, self destructive tactics of Palestinian demonstrators, never explaining why it should be surprising that the children of a multi-generational diaspora from squalid refugee camps resort to the doomed tactics of the dispossessed, the hopeless and the powerless.
For good measure, he offers up the Boogeymen, Hamas and the rest, attaching the ultimate pejorative of our times, "terrorist", as if happy children playing in the shade of their parents' olive groves declare: "When I grow up, I'm going to be a terrorist!" But there is no mention of Irgun, Hagana or The Stern Gang, the Jewish terrorists of the pre-state era who had no qualms about blowing up British police facilities or carrying out murderous raids on Palestinian villages. None!
3
Mr. Stephens, nothing you have said here about the behaviour of Hamas warrants the atrocities of Israel, such as the bombing of Gaza to smithereens on a number of occasions. In the free world, countries don't shoot 58 peaceful protesters in the legs because they walked up to a wall — of Israel's own making. In the free world, countries don't get to hold thousands of people in an "open air prison" so that they can't travel in or out. When you fence a population of people in an open-air prison, you have to expect that sooner or later they will try to get out. Israel's wall is part of an apartheid regime. The comparative death-and-suffering toll on Palestinians goes off the scale of anything endured by Israel and does not support your claims of the Palestinians being so powerful and having the favoritism of the world. Show me blocks and blocks of rubble of bombed buildings in Israel, show me tens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of dead bodies, show me the dire privation. You can't because it only exist in Israel. There has been a massive PR campaign to cast Palestinians as the perpetrators and Israel as the victim. Gaza no longer has people, citizens, or civilians; it only has Hamas. And that's where all defenders of Israel point when their oppressive tactics are pointed out. I started out life greatly admiring and supporting Israel, but I have had it with this gross blaming of the victims. It looks like that would be the one thing that Israel supporters would avoid.
2
I have been saying the same thing as Bret Stephens for years--the Palestinians never take responsibility for helping to create their problems. Why should they when it's so much easier to blame Israel and the Jews for everything? No one plays the victim card better than the Palestinians--just look at the photo accompanying this article. The message is clear--the poor Palestinians who are yearning for their freedom are imprisoned behind barbed wire by the heartless Israelis. The media double standard is outrageous because Israel knows it can never win the Public Relations war orchestrated by the Palestinian Spin Machine.
15
Q: "Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?'
A: Because Israel has all of the power in their binary relationship with the Palestinians.
1
Yes the Jews went from using sticks and brooms during the war of independence to they will alarm to fighting for us. Condemned them for learning how to defend themselves!!! What would you have done? Leave you your family and And country to be slaughtered by others? My goodness he is really so I turned off they do and darned if I don’t.
1
Thank God [or Goddess, or The Universe -for putting this common sense dialectic under the pen of Mr. Stephens. His words bear out what I have been saying for years; nay, for decades: that the world falls all over itself to condemn Israel-FOR ANYTHING. This almost global condemnation -let us name the beast: anti-Semitism. The oldest canard--the Jews are wrong, no matter that they trear Palestinians in their world-class hospitals. Compassion doesn't count. What counts is: the Jews are wrong just because they live, breathe, and try to build a better world.
Having said that, I am NOT also saying that I support the wrongheaded, militaristic policies of Netanyahu. He is often wilfully blind in the ways of oh-so-many politicians who wield too much power.
God knows we had a peace process; we had a leader who shook hands with Yassir Arafat [the consummate liar, snake-in-the-grass who would sell his own mother for a couple of shekels] We had Yitzak Rabin, warrior-turned-peacemaker, who was murdered by a rabid Jew. Sometimes it seems that there is no way forward in the convoluted ways of the Middle East. We had the peacemaker and the peace within our grasp.
There will be no peace with the always, ALWAYS, stupidities and shenanigans of the Trump misbegotten administration. If tjhe gods themselves came down from Olympus, Trump would find a way to "dis" them.
4
This type of opining about the Palestinians is so old. The fact remains that Mr. Stephens so firmly believes that collective punishment is fine (a very strange position for the Jewish people to take, given history) and that one Jewish Israeli life is worth about 100 times (maybe more) the life of a Palestinian. This position is reprehensible and I hope that the New York Times is keeping track of which sides opinions' are getting published day-to-day. Unfortunately, it is all about sides. It would be nice if that context could be changed, but with columns like this -- that is highly unlikely!
3
At what point in history, like what decade, would the author have encouraged Native Americans to give up their struggle to get back their land from white settlers? I'm just curious.
1
I guess the frontier was deemed closed in 1870. Do you think we should include doing something for the reservations, as wasDone with Las Vegas in order to make better economic opportunities for the American Indian? Maybe insisting that they reparations promise to be paid should now be paid, and should we return some of the land we took from them? Will you be the first to give up your home?
thank you, bret stephens for addressing the elephant in the room; thank you new york times for shedding light on the truth amid emotional opinions . . . that's why your subscriptions are increasing . . . because they're worth it. like breathing fresh air.
8
This quote:
"This week, The Times published an op-ed by Ahmed Abu Artema, one of the organizers of the march. “We are intent on continuing our struggle until Israel recognizes our right to return to our homes and land from which we were expelled,” he writes, referring to homes and land within Israel’s original borders."
This is a patent lie, and he knows it. Arabs were not expelled from Israel in 1948. They were told to leave by ARABS in the five surrounding nations who were going to attack and destroy Israel. So they left, with the promise the war would be over in two weeks and they could come back to their land and carry on.
The fact is Gaza and all "refugee" camps were set up by ARABS to house those they told to leave Israel. After the war ended badly for the Arabs, they refused to allow these now homeless people to come and be assimilated into the Arab nations around Israel.
If we are going to talk about this, we must be honest. The people in those "refugee" camps are NOT victims of Israel. They are victims of the Arab nations which refuse to allow them to resettle in any one of the millions of square miles that is Arab, and Muslim, land. Israel owes them nothing.
18
And over half of Israel's population now are those Jews who WERE forcibly expelled from Arab and North African countries(and their descendants). Note that none of them are demanding the "right to return" to the lands where their families lived for generations. Only the Arabs who left somehow feel they now have a right to Tel Aviv.
2
In 1948, The UN partitioned Palestine into two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs. The Palestinians had their state 70 years ago but decided to go to war instead. And they have been warring ever since. And that is why Israel has become a modern, democratic pluralistic society. An economic & technological miracle that provides World class Medical technology and computer technology & agricultural technology to the world. And what do the Palestinians have...Nakba. Perpetual blaming and victimization, terror, misogyny, and dictatorship. This will continue for another 70 years unless the Palestinians take responsibly for all the terrible choices they & their leadership have chosen.
13
A 19th century Bret Stephens would have said the same thing about Native Americans confined to a reservation.
No serious person sees this issue in completely black and white terms, but the fact is that Palestinians, like the Native Americans, were forced off their land and to justify this the Israelis and their defenders have to demonize the Palestinians. It is an old story. So Stephens has his list of half truths ready to trot out, trying to convince people that Israel bears no responsibility whatsoever when they gun people down. And people who want to believe this will swallow it whole.
There are historians, many of them Israeli, who give a more honest account of the history. Avi Shlaim, Tom Segev and even Benny Morris, who wishes the ethnic cleansing of 48 had been more complete, are among them. For the human rights violations of both sides there is the Israeli group B’Tselem.
5
Wait, remind me....who took over the land to begin with?
1
Mr. Stephens thoughtfully articulates Hamas’s human shield strategy as well as their goal of destroying Israel along with its Jewish inhabitants. This is the same strategy used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. While the intentions and strategies of Hamas are well known, why does the media keep repeating Hamas propaganda? No doubt there is some blackmail and threats to their reporters in Gaza. But that doesn’t explain why media outlets in the US and Europe slavishly repeat and embellish their Hamas generated stories. Why is the “Hamas Ministry of Health” always the authority on injuries and fatalities? Why are IDF spokesmen treated as lying puppets? Why is Netanyahu always blamed when the same Hamas violence was initiated against past dovish Israeli Labor governments? Why would the NY Daily News print that grotesque cover showing Ivanka Trump as daddy’s little ghoul laughing at an inset photo of injured Palestinians? They must know that the embassy opening had nothing to do with the Gaza violence. I don’t like to blame antisemitism as Mr. Stephens hinted at and I don’t like to call the press “fake news”. But there is something disturbing going on with our press and it’s getting worse.
8
I'm sure the Palestinians built the wall to restrain themselves. And they used their funds to buy tanks, airplanes and other military hardware for the Israelis. Wasn't that nice of them? This article is nonsense.
4
"Look what you made me do to you" is the moral fig leaf of a tyrant and oppressor.
6
BRAVO, Mr. Stephens, for bringing some reality to a complex tragedy in the Middle East and countering the simplistic and vicious slurs of the reflexively anti-Israel cohort.
11
This a great article and I wholeheartedly agree. Isreal had won 4 wars and several intifadas and yet they are still asked to return lands that no other nation is asked to return.
Also there is only one Jewish state. There are like 20 Muslim states. I dont see why our support to keep the one Jewish state intact is so evil. Or why Isreal defending those borders is so evil.
I mean, didnt Isreal give back Gaza after taking it over? And didnt they take over Gaza after a whole bunch of soldiers and weapons gathered there to destroy Isreal? Just because Isreal was smart and struck first doesn't make the Arab cause correct.
I think we just aren't used to understanding a situation where a country can actually win a war any longer. Isreal sacrificed many people to create the Jewish state after 2,000 years of oppression. I think they deserve to control Isreal. The Arabs lost, they tried to commit genocide and they lost. There should be consequences for that.
Finally, why does no one condemn Hamas? They are a real terrorist organization and their charter says that the Jews dont have a right to exist. They murder homosexuals and torture people who dont agree with them. They fire rockets into Isreal. They glorify death as some sort of religious quest. They refuse offers of peace and then dont rebuild their nation even though the world has given them over $20 billion over the years. Instead they dig tunnels for smuggling and tunnels for militants to pop out of and kill Jews.
12
With the author's logic, oner could claim as well: Native American miseries have Native American authors. Do not have Palestinians, most of whom have ancestors who where on the place before the Jews came there, a right to live on that very place? What is the common name used when a state keeps apart people based on their race or the colour of their skin?
3
Your words are saddening and enraging. Every day, the Palestinian people think of nothing other than "how do I survive?" They are literally fenced in, in abject poverty and have no prospects. They are being slaughtered for protesting. What would you do if you were in their position? Seriously, what would you do?
3
I notice nothing is EVER said about the 600,000 JEWS expelled from Arab countries in retaliation for the creation of Israel. This population is not only equal in size to the displaced PA, but unlike the PA, their desendents aren’t called refugees. Their loss was the same, yet their outcome wasn’t the same, because the Jews didn’t use them for political fodder in their game of hate for 70 years, in an attempt to wipe all Jews off the map. The PA are responsible for their own situation! If they wanted a two state solution they could have had it several times over. Further, with all the money they have spent on war, they could have built one of the most modern countries in the ME. Comparing them to this other set of displaced people, makes it clear. Both sets of refugees lost all they had: homes, businesses, wealth and were forced to flee with nothing. Yet today most people know nothing of the Jewish refugees, because they have rebuilt their lives. Many today are also unaware that the majority of Jews in Israel are not displaced, European holocaust survivors, but Jews from the Middle East. I might add that Israel putting the US embassy doesn’t preclude the PA from putting theirs in the same city; If they had any intent of sharing anything, it would be obvious— but of course they would loose the excuse to go on another rampage.
13
Amen, Bret. Amen.
9
It is ironic that the Jews of Israel, after becoming the victims of the worse actions against humanity in history, inflicted devastating harm on the people of their homeland. Where is the humanity of all this? Now Israel has to deal with the monster they created and I fear that the consequences someday may be terrible.
2
Has Bret Stephens ever visited Gaza or the Occupied Territories? Has he ever met a Palestinian, or read a narrative of history from the Palestinian perspective? Or is he content to reproduce press releases from the IDF and Israeli Ministry of the Interior? The Orwellian apologetics for Israel's behavior need to stop.
3
This is truly obscene. Stephens argues the elections that put Hamas in power were a coup; the Congressional Research Service, EU and the Bush administration all said it was fair and professional. Stephens talks about "the border" between Gaza and Israel as if it were a natural landmark when it's more a barrier enclosing almost 2 million people in an area roughly the size of Mobile, Alabama, with sporadic . Israel is enforcing concentration camp conditions on the Palestinians and Stephens is arguing that the Palestinians need to stop blaming the Israelis for shooting them? Give me a break. Explain to me what the Oslo Accords were supposed to do, reconcile that with what's happening now, and then you can lecture me on historical illiteracy.
4
On the ground - bullets versus rocks.
In the air - helicopters versus no returning fire from the ground.
Mr. Stephens you play an old game. Pick a side.
A tired game Sir. A very tired game.
1
If the Palestinians choose other representatives than the Hamas terrorists perhaps the Palestinians could choose words and intellect instead of rocks and molotov cocktails. But hate rejects compromise and intellect and easy to manipulate.
6
Mr. Stephens article is refreshing in accurately assigning the true source of responsibility of this train wreck called Gaza.
90
And WHO created that train wreck ... ?
Exactly, the US.
1
So, I suppose the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising were responsible for their acts of aggression against the Nazi oppressor?
8
Blaming the Palestinians for "authoring" their sad, pitiful state is like blaming Jews for creating antisemitism. If any people were walled in, disarmed, cut off, unrepresented, stateless, impoverished and increasingly in a state of despair, they would do anything to be free. Like rushing in waves at a hail of bullets. Look up the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Why is Israel held to account while the Palestinians are given a pass? Because the Palestinians are armed with brickbats, stones and crude rockets while the IDF is one of the world's most powerful military machines. Israel is held to a higher standard because Israel is the state, and increasingly Israel is the bully that acts with impunity; the Palestinians are the disenfranchised captives, hemmed in by settlements and walls and barbed wire.
Mr. Stephens would have us cheer for Goliath over David.
If any people should empathize with a people living in bondage, it is the Jews. And if any people could understand the yearning to be free and achieve self-determination, it should be the Israelie. Yes, the "peace" process has been fraught with setbacks and the Palestinian Authority is corrupt. But a process of negotiaton has been replaced by brute force and an expansive colonial agenda that slowly shrinks the Palestinian toehold on their lands until it disappears. It's no wonder the Palestinians have resorted to desperate measures. The slave is not required to be grateful to the master for the few crumbs he provides.
117
Mr, Hamilton: Have ever the Palestinians been interested in peace without receiving in exchange all of Israel territory?
16
Neil,
You're not incorrect but unfortunately, Stephens's view is more accurate. What Israel is doing, "An Eye-4-an-Eyelash" is abhorrent, but it ought to be viewed also as an exaggerated response to spurning of goodwill of Jews/Israel.
I'm an old man, an Indian American. Although Indian Govt.'s position was aligning with Arabs, most Indians who followed the news, were ecstatic with Israel's victory over Arabs in the 1967 war & in the Entebe raid 1975. But in the 1973 war, my sympathy was with Egypt.
Since then I have mostly been critical of Israel especially for the settlement. I detested Ariel Sharon & the massacre in the refugee camps in Lebanon. And I was extremely disappointed for the election of Sharon later.
I have a feeling that 50 yrs. from now Israel may not exist if they somehow don't come up with a genuine two-state solution, with East Jerusalem becoming Palestinian capital. There are Jews in Israel & elsewhere who genuinely want an acceptable two-state solution.
3
Wow, You just compared the situation in Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. Wow. Gaza population increases by 3% every year. The Warsaw ghetto population was exterminated in almost its entirety. Gaza is self-goverened by the Hamas terrorist organization
Warsah Ghetto was ruled by German soldiers who were shooting kids in the street for fun. The "uprising" in Gaza is an attempt to cross the border into Israeli towns and villages. The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto... Nah - what's even the point?
19
I live in Washington DC, which could be walled off pretty easily, trapping its residents inside, if a powerful interest ever set its mind to the task.
Think of it - the Gov. of Maryland lording over the WDCers, controlling their movements, their livelihoods - their lives - for 10 years, 20 years, for 70 years. Generations of WDCers trapped, jailed, behind a wall.
When I think of it that way, anything seems possible to gain my dignity, if not my freedom, and the freedom of my children and grandchildren, even rushing the wall in the face of the Governor’s live fire.
Mr. Stephens may understand Hamas and its machinations, but he has no concept at all what it means for real people with real lives to live behind a wall.
7
Stephens completely disregards the original sin and crime committed by Jews with the help of superpowers that Jews took their land and forced them out of their homes.
6
Rajni, historically Jews have been enslaved and persecuted for thousands of years. "Starting over 4,000 years ago, Semites began crossing the deserts from Palestine into Egypt. The tomb of the high priest Khnumhotep II of the 20th century BCE even shows a scene of Semitic traders bringing offerings to the dead (top picture).
Some of these Semites came to Egypt as traders and immigrants. Others were prisoners of war, and yet others were sold into slavery by their own people. A papyrus mentions a wealthy Egyptian lord whose 77 slaves included 48 of Semitic origin."
More recently, we all know what happened all over Europe when the Nazis indiscriminately picked on Jews and massacred them just because of their Jewishness.
1
Mr. Stephens' piece could have been written by the Israeli propoganda machine. It is repugnant. His piece pretty much attempts to justify killing Palestinian's for any reason. He is an apologist for Israeli policies that are already debated as crimes against humanity. So an unarmed man labelled as a member of Hamas walks up to the boarder fence. Israeli snipers are justified to kill them? So teenage boys throw rocks across the fence because they are imprisoned on a strip of land and have little hope for anything in life? Israeli snipers are justified to shot them in the leg and likely maim many of them for life? For me, Michelle Goldberg's piece in this same newspaper is a much more accurate depiction of the true moral character of what has happened to Israel and the United States. It is such a tragedy that a group of people who escaped the holocaust now cause such profound suffering on another group of people.
6
Brett,
You write, "everything is expected of Israel".
I expected Rabin's efforts to be continued after he was assassinated. Is that expecting everything?
Can something be expected of Israel other than violence?
You don't seem to have any sense of proportion as you report some facts without full context and then you pronounce judgement.
2
I expect hostilities between Gaza and Israel will resume after June 15 to coincide with the end of Ramadan.
2
Pure propaganda, with cherry-picked facts, on the heals of a massive violation of all civilized values by Israel's IDF. But one fact from which the journalist cannot hide is that the IDF did not have to use deadly force. That was a choice.
Joseph in Missoula, a Jew
4
LOL, holy cow.
*In before Stephen's future column "Why Israel should be admitted as the 51st state of the union."
4
This is not neutral opinion, calling it as he sees it, as an op-ed in maybe the world's major newspaper ought to be, but a deeply selfish, blame the victim, whine by a man who profits from the misery of others. He profits by affirming the prejudices of Israel supporters who will reward him, yet does nothing to explain to them why so much of the world, and increasingly America, condemns them.
3
It's terrifying to see such one dimensional, inflammatory pieces printed in such a prestigious paper. Mr. Stephens, you have no thesis here. How would your article read if it were accompanied by a map of Palestine in 1948 beside a map of Palestine in 2018? Put your pen down, for the love of God, and leave such pieces to the academics!
4
Bret Stephens = neo con. Really all you need to know.
4
Hamas is a terrorist organization that has sworn to destroy Israel as well as the United States, they routinely use children, women and old people as human shields, and in this new outrage they even tried to use the disharmony in the USA between the American President and a good deal of the countries Newspapers to gin up worldwide outrage. But it didn't work, and it didn't work for three reason. Reason number 1 is that most people who weren't Palestinian sympathizers saw right through the ruse, the 2nd reason it didn't work is that people have too much trouble of their owns to really care, I mean sure they can care to write a post on facebook or twitter, but what are they really going to do, nobody in America is going to March in the streets of America for Hamas, there will be no massive protests, and really, the story will fade with the News cycle that spawned it. the third reason is, that most of the ME is aligned with Israel against Hamas and Iran.
the only thing that came out of this tragic piece of history, is that US Newspapers did the propaganda work for a terrorist organization, they used bias reporting and inflammatory photos, in both cases they only told half the story, and slanted the news to fit a narrative. These newspapers should be ashamed of themselves and they strained their credibility and gave all those MAGA hat wearing people a real reason to believe in fake news.
12
"Nothing is forgiven" when it comes to Israel says the author. Lets consider that for a moment. In 1948, 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes by terrorists known as the Irgun and The Stern Gang. This was not only forgiven, but major American did nothing even report what had in fact occured.
In 1967 the crew of the USS Liberty was masacres by Israeli aircraft and gun boats. This was forgiven and nothing reported by a major American publication until Bob Guccione reported it in Penthouse in 1977. To this day veterans of the Liberty, who communicated to Israeli pilots that they were murdering the crew of an American ship are seeking an apology and admisión from Israel.
In the 1960s and 70s, the Mossad succeeded in purloining American thermo nuclear and rocket tech secrets. This was forgiven;
In the 1980s, Israel was given state of the art F-16 fighters. Israel reverse engineered the F-16, and subsequently attempted to market and sell these gifts as "The Lavi". This was forgiven.
In the 1990s, Israel, after decades of aid, not loans from the USA (now approaching $1 trillón dollars), unleashed the most damaging spy in American history, Jonathan Pollard. Seymour Hersch reported in the New Yorker, the damage wrought by Pollard. Aid to Israel increased, and Israel was forgiven with hardly a peep from American politicians.
For generations citizens of coward for fear of being labled "anti Semetic". This weeks massacre in Gaza is the end result.
6
Here you & many others are talking about 750,00 Palestinians refugees, but how many people are talking about the 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries?
7
It won't be lost on students of history (which Bret Stephens is not) [that] Mr Stephens begins his history lesson on Gaza thus:
"In 2007, Hamas took control of Gaza in a bloody coup against its rivals in the Fatah faction..."
Actually, that taking-control of Gaza begin in 1967 with Israel taking Gaza in its "6 Day War" with Egypt over Egypt's blockade of Israel's shipping ability- which Israel justified. Any wanting the huge blanks filled in may wish to read another more fleshed-out entry to the thin line of Bunk presented by Mr. Stephens: (www.theintercept.com by Jon Schwarz May 16, 2018)
4
Israel took Gaza in 1967 because Palestinians in Gaza were firing at Israeli villages.
3
@m1945: If you say so... But- that's not what history tells the rest of us.
Condescending and one-sided. It must be from, why yes it is.
5
Another “blame the victim” agit prop coddling Israeli terror against the Palestinians. What weapons do the Palestinians have? Rocks and sticks. What does Israel have? The sixth largest army in the world with the most sophisticated weapons. And it doesn’t hesitate to use them against a people from whom they have stolen land and corralled into bleak ghettos. The playbook of the Zionist apologists is to demonize Hamas and then construe the argument that Hamas is a violent and potent threat that represents the character of the Palestinians. This is nonsense. Hamas is but one faction vying for control in Palestine, and itself is divided into factions. Many groups play on the suffering of Palestinians for their own agenda. To their credit, Palestinians steer a course that does not monolithically embrace one of these groups entirely. The demonization of Hamas is but a smokescreen for the horrendous atrocities Israeli commits against the Palestinians with presumably Mr. Stephens applause. The rockets sent into Israel were more symbolic than potent, much like the stones Palestinian youth throw at the occupying IDF tanks. The rockets did little damage, and killed nobody. Israel’s response? The massive shelling of all Palestinians that resulted in thousands of their deaths. This is self defense? No, it is slaughter and terror. And as an American I am very upset that my tax dollars is going to subsidize it. And I am sickened at the revolting rationales for such state terror as this.
5
Marc
2,000 Israelis were killed or injured by those rockets.
4
Absolutely not true. Source?
What kind of parents and people send young children as part of a violent opposition. The Israelis aren't firing on peaceful protestors. The Palestinians want the end of Israel. They want to destroy it. And because Israel is a Jewish state, the world has expectations of it that no other nation has to fulfill. And no, this is not Apartheid folks. Of course the deaths are tragic. And of course they could have been avoided by not attacking an Army. Meanwhile, the innocents of Syria continue to be killed.
13
Gaza border riots are just more evidence that Palestinians yearn for the day when they’ll have all of Isreal to themselves. So we best loose no time advancing the “democratic peaceful State solution” to destroying Isreal. Everyone who admires Israel knows that to make Isreal “really great again” they need another terror State on their borders.
5
From the biography of Bret Stephens on the New York Times website:
"He was raised in Mexico City and holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an MSc. from the London School of Economics. He and his wife, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, a music critic for The Times, live with their three children in New York and Hamburg, Germany."
Maybe Bret would have a better understanding and perhaps even a smidgen of empathy for the prisoners of the Gaza and West Bank concentration camps if he woke up one day in either his New York City or Hamburg residences and had to pass a checkpoint on every street corner as he made his way to his favorite mens's club, custom tailor, or the hottest new restaurant.
6
Checkpoints were established because Palestinians were murdering so many innocent Israelis. Israel is trying to protect its citizens.
6
So we blame the victims once more. The Israelis who confiscated -then occupied by building illegal settlements - on the land, turned people out of their homes, manage every aspect of their life from where they can travel to what they can or can't do, when faced with people throwing rocks or - heaven forbid - flaming kites, they return with bullets and gas. Yup, fair and balance there Bret.
3
The first settlement on the West Bank after the Six Day War was Kfar Etzion. The land was bought by Jews in 1927. In 1929, Palestinians destroyed the settlement. In the 1930, Jews rebuilt the settlement, but again it was destroyed by Palestinians. It was rebuilt in 1943, but destroyed again in 1948. 157 Jews were murdered. 4 Jews survived. It was rebuilt by the survivors in 1967. Why is Kfar Etzion illegal?
7
This is a bad take.
3
How about because Israelis used terrorism to drive Palestinians from there land leading up to and following the founding of the state of Israel and have occupied Palestinian territory in violator international law since 1967. It would be like asking why are white Americans responsible for slavery or the destructin of Native American societies, weren’t African-American and American Indians also responsible?
5
This article is entirely obfuscation and misdirection.
No litany of facts change the unalterable conclusion: when a heavily armed sniper kills an unarmed child, that sniper has done something very bad.
Always.
Even if justified under rules of wartime engagement, the sniper should feel crushing remorse for the rest of their life, and we should feel revulsion and disgust towards them. That an atrocity may not qualify as a crime under particular circumstances, doesn't transmute it into a moral act.
When the sniper kills an unarmed adult civilian, something similar applies. This is the heavy burden soldiers bear: that they may killed, on the one hand, or that they may kill under unforgivable circumstances, on the other. In the first case, they're dead; in the second, their moral life is over.
To the extent heavily armed Israeli snipers killed unarmed Gazan civilians and children, we are justified in being disgusted and repulsed by them, their commanders and their government. The same was true of America in Vietnam and Iraq.
The fact the others do bad or worse things, that, for example, Bashir al Assad is despicable, Hamas is evil and, for that matter, that the Nazis were truly monstrous, is irrelevant. There's no excuse, no exculpation and no absolution. If a soldier wants to avoid such a crushing burden of guilt, they should refuse to participate. It's far better to be court-martialed than to kill an unarmed child.
5
This reminds me of the kind of commentary we saw from the Botha government in South Africa...
5
Sorry, but the only way you can label killing over fifty protesters and injuring hundreds more as "restraint" is if you view them as animals than need to be put down. Dangerous ideology, that.
6
Or view them as enemy combatants, which a vast majority were, as Hamas soldiers.
1
You make the false assumption that Hamas is a finely tuned machine with total control over the protestors, and everything went according to a masterplan worked out by an evil Hamas leader. No, it’s more chaotic than that. Mostly just ordinary people trying to make a point. But heavy handed Israel set out to make a bigger point, and a more bloody one. Sickening and disgusting.
5
At last, a journalist at the Times, Bret Stephens who tells the truth the way it needs to be told
thank you
10
I am in full support of the State of Israel, but your timeline starts at 1970…
a pox on both their houses.
Now said, there is still no reason to abandon the moral high ground on which the state of Israel was founded.The cocky arrogance of Netenyahu and other extremist remind me of nothing short of typical authporitarian rule 21st century style: "we are a democracy. Freedom to vote, of the press, of religion......" blah blah blah
Until we look at your skin color, your parents' backround, ......and anything else that WE say counts
Let's not forget that all during these tired rants that Israelis push as a public narrative, the country discriminated not just against Arabs, but since the founding of the state, against the very same people that are likely now Netenyahu's strongest backers: Sephardic Jews (from Arab lands). The thread; think working class trumpists who are blinded by the authoritarians telling then what they want to hear: simple solutions to complex problems.
No free passes anymore. No simple answers. The moral burden is on both sides. The Israelis have shown this week that they are not up to the task. For a country of tough survivors of the worst hporrors of mankind, it is snot simply too bad.
It's disgusting.
2
Bret, My Son.
It was the Palestinians who were living relatively peaceably in then Palestine in 1947, when a bunch of Europeans showed up and, in a bit of the last gasp of colonialism, said:
"Hey guys, this land is our land, not your land, despite the fact that you've been living here since almost forever, and we're gonna take it by force majeure because this newfangled international organization known as the United Nations, in a fit of outsourced guilt because of what was done to us by white Europeans, particularly from Germany, said it was ours.
"And, by the way, if that organization, the UN, ever tries to modify its grant of sovereignty to us oppressed white Europeans, with a few Sabra and Sephardic Jews thrown in for old times' sake, ignore them.
"They knew what they were doing in 1947, but that was a one off moment, and, since then, we have and will maintain(ed) our position in what we now define as Israel with our own force majeure, supported by prosperous Jews in the diaspora, particularly from the upper East Side and West Side of Manhattan, with maybe a few Jews from Miami thrown in.
"And we also have pundits such as Bret Stephens, who would never move to Israel and send his kids to school here, to support us in influential news media no matter what the historical facts are about the Great European Land Grab in Palestine has been."
Have I missed anything but the peals of obfuscation about America's Israel as America's staunch allies in the Middle East?
5
Wasn't it Golda Meir who said that peace would come when the Palestinians loved their children more than they hated Israel?
Apparently, that time has not yet arrived.
12
Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt. I was listening to NPR yesterday and was horrified to learn that these Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have to pay for their own college, no assistance provided. Just imagine their living conditions. At least in India, the government has provided plenty of land and facilities for Tibetan refugees who have been living there since the 1950s.
Back in the 1990s, traveling through Kuwait and UAE, we noticed collection bins in almost every corner store, supposedly money collected for the Palestine cause. None of it seems to have trickled down to the refugees. The Arab world is filthy rich and wealthy, they can well afford to provide for all the Arabs, instead of fueling wars and infighting. Just look at Yemen today, it is in Shambles. Ancient civilizations of Iraq and Syria are already destroyed, millions displaced, the world has not seen so many refugees from the Arab world. It is a sorry situation, apparently Allah is partial towards the wealthy Arab royalty and oil moguls.
2
Yes, this is a one sided article. Truth and facts have only one side. In 1948, the Arabs had to leave Israel. At the same time one million Jews had to leave and give up their homes in Arab lands. The Jews moved on with their lives. The Arabs in Gaza have wallowed in self pity and have made their goal, not the development of a stable government and economy, but the destruction of Israel and every Jew in it. And the world continues to make excuses for them, even 70 years later.
I don’t always agree with Bret Stevens on political issues, but he is right on with this topic.
11
The Arabs didn't have to leave Israel in 1948. They were told to leave by Arab leaders who promised them they'd squash Israel and the Arabs could return to their homes in a few weeks. Some Arabs never left; they and their descendants remain in Israel as full citizens to this day. On the other hand, some 700,000 or so Jews who lived in Arab or North African countries were forced to leave upon the creation of Israel. They moved to Israel and they and their descendants are there to this day as well.
4
Short Answer: Because the Palestinians have nothing and the Israelis have everything.
4
Please. This line of argument is patently absurd. The Palestinians are prisoners in their currently occupier-confined land. Victim blaming doesn't change the facts. It never will. Apartheid has always failed in the modem era; it, of course, will fail with Israel.
3
Hamas only account for 15% of Palestinians. Most are benevolent and decent people and a large percentage are Christians. The Presbyterian Church has a large constituency there.
While I support our Jewish friends in Israel, I cannot stand Bibi. I think he is an evil, narcissistic man. I particularly resent that he spoke to USA Congress w/o permission from our president at the time.
And why is it that this great Jewish community can't share Jerusalem with Palestinians and Christians? Spiritual Jews, rather than just political Jews, don't want to be arrogant and entitled.
6
"And why is it that this great Jewish community can't share Jerusalem with Palestinians and Christians? "
They do share it. When will the Muslims share the Temple Mount with the Jews, to whom it is also holy?
6
Bret Stephens made some good points about the responsibility of Hamas in the misery of the Palestinians, but unfortunately or conveniently, passed over the responsibility of Israël. The Gaza Strip is the biggest maximum security prison in the world. (See Ilan Pappe, The Biggest Prison on Earth, A History of Occupied Territories, Chapter Twelve)
5
It seems that nothing the Palestinians do is right. If they resist, as they have the right of an occupied people to do, its considered terrorism. If they protest peacefully, they are ignored or massacred. Israel says they have no peace partner, but countless concessions and cooperation with the Israelis bring nothing but more repression and more land grabs. It's time for the Israelis to annex the territories and give full citizenship to the Palestinians, or give them a sovereign country. All else is apartheid.
7
Israel is the strongest military power in the mideast. It has nuclear weapons. It is the recipient of uncritical US support and money. And yet Israel is always the victim? Early in the 20th Century, T. E. Lawrence predicted what would happen should a State of Israel be established. He was remarkably correct. Israel is hated by its neighbors, has never known peace and never will. If that is something to treasure, then there must be something terribly wrong with Jewish culture.
3
Israel is RARELY the ‘victim’ in the American and European media. They are constantly being blamed for ‘disproportionate responses’. I have never seen that term in connection with any other country. Israel is probably the most criticized country on the planet. What alternative planet are you living on ? Have you been reading the comments here ?
Bret Stephens is one of the cruelest creation of God who blames the victim and apologizes for the killers. The Palestinians have been living in subhuman condition under extreme oppressive rule of Apartheid state like Israel. In recent weeks, hundreds of Palestinians women and children were slaughtered by Israel army and thousands have been injured when ZERO Israeli was injured or killed. This math can not justify the moral character of this writer. This article is not fit to print in NYT. I am shocked and ashamed.
5
It’s not binary. Most of the recent coverage is sympathetic to the Palestinians. This article points out an interesting thesis and another way to look at it. Your reply addresses nothing pertinent to Stevens’ article and only blames the messenger. That’s not necessarily responsible.
5
When it comes to war, the NY Times hardly ever fails to be on the murderous side of history. Sorry, but if any of the countries we routinely demonize (read: the Islamic world) massacred dozens of innocent protestors while shooting thousands more, we'd already be bombing them. The editorial pages of the Times would be filled with pious hymns praising the war effort. But in this case, we instead see liberals indulging in a macabre kind of victim blaming, in which the person who has been killed by a sniper rifle is to blame for their own slaughter, because apparently they shouldn’t have been demanding their own human rights while also standing near a burning tire. The double-standard of American moral outrage knows no bounds.
5
"Liberals"? Stephens is far from being a liberal.
Most, if not all, the liberals here, have expressed support for the Palestinians, as has the NY Times Editorial Board.
2
heads up, Jerry Engelbach:
many of the people supporting israel on this issue are, in fact, quite liberal. myself included.
1
I cannot believe that you are criticizing a population that has been confined to refugee camps for 3 generations!! There is no infrastructure improvements, no hope, no future for the Palestinians. Every attempt at peace negotiations, etc., is met by Israel's push to further its territory by building settlements at the same time they are negotiating an "agreement". No wonder the Palestinians have had enough. Israel kills100 Palestinians for each Israeli that is killed, furthermore, Israelis destroy the homes and neighborhoods of suspected Palestinian terrorists. Israel nation started as a refuge for a Jewish peoples who have no home country, yet where is their generosity in treating others who have lost their homes? They are not taking any refugees in the current world crises, and instead is turning them back to their home countries. Netanyahu and Trump, thieves and liars!
7
"There’s a pattern here — harm yourself, blame the other . . . "
And on the Israeli side: There's a pattern here -- harm the other, blame the other . . .
2
They want to destroy Israel and the Jews within. I assume you know history. We constantly face this time and again. Does that do anything for you at all? Assuming you live in America, are you planning on leaving soon bc of how we acquired the land from Native Americans?
5
Wagging our fingers at the naughty Palestinians and Israelis won't change their behaviour or bring about peace.
One word, one word alone seems to be the magic talisman that allows all to be blamed on Israel, and that word is OCCUPATION. No where else on earth is that word used to undermine a people. It has taken on a magic level of power and description. Special mechanics are used to fit all the sins of world and subtract all positive humanity from the evil Jews of Israel. It allows the users of the word to weld it a magic wand, capable of eliminating all the users sins and bestowing those sins on their enemies. This is what ancient tribes did and what large industrial brutal governments have done, sadly often to the detriment of Jews in a historically unique way.
This is what is at hand. Sadly the Jews of Israel have a collective memory of what can happen. It informs their actions. They know that for a thousand years self defense was actually illegal to Jews in both Christian and Muslim societies. They weren't allowed to fight back under risk of death. It still shocks certain people for Jews to fight back, it rubs against their historical memory. So it goes. I pray for peace and hope that people plan for defense.
4
Mr. Katz,
Austria is a long, long, way from the Gaza Strip. Are you physically at the fence in Gaza? Are you sure you have the facts to support your comments? Perhaps you are merely expressing your frustration with the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
3
Thank you, Bret Stephens!
This should be required reading for all those—and they are many—contributing to the "torrent of morally blind, historically illiterate criticism" of Israel pouring forth like a plague every time there's an opportunity.
The comment sections are a flood of shameful hypocrisy and antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism.
But it’s not all antisemites plying their wares. There are also plenty of Jews condemning Israel now—well-meaning, humanitarian (and otherwise smart) people who are unfortunately simply serving as the "useful idiots" of Hamas.
Nor is such ignorance limited to the comments section. Columnists (looking at you, Michelle Goldberg) have contributed such drivel as "The demonstrators have been mostly but not entirely peaceful."
This may be technically true, as "only" 1300 out of around 35,000 demonstrators were engaged in violent activity on Monday, but to say such a thing requires willful ignorance of numerous facts reported in this very paper.
Unfortunately, that has never been a problem.
(And by the way, I am: a liberal; hate Trump; not a fan of Netanyahu; against expanding West Bank settlements; for a two-state solution.)
8
Amazing how this "journalist" can have the temerity to lay all the blame for the slaughter of unarmed civilians totally on the oppressed Palestinians.
That the Palestinians are disruptive should be no surprise to anyone as they have been imprisoned in Gaza for decades. But to characterize the Israelis as victims of unjustified anger is preposterous.
Bibi and his crowd have a full court press going to maintain this victim position, it is either the Arabs, Palestinians or the Iranians (whose democratically elected government the United States and Britain overthrew in 1953) who are the designated suppressors.
Now Saudi Arabia, the home of 15 of the Twin Towers destruction perps, the largest exporter of Wahhabi hatred in the world, is to be their ally since Trump and the Saudi powers have decided to join forces against Iran who is the Saudi religious enemy, entangling the U.S. in their religious war.
What a can of worms. When is the last time the Israelis made any positive action toward a homeland for the Palestinians? Don't expect any soon as they are too busy making billions building in all the occupied Palestinian territory.
4
World opinion considers the actions of Israel on crowd dispersal should never include live ammunition killing people at random. As admitted on FRANCE 24 by former IDF officer: Israel at war and there will be casualties if the Palestinians push their luck. Gaza living under great hardship knowing the US has sealed their fate for eternity. Palestine a land of misery and suffering; as acknowledged by Bret Stephens in his rendition of the Holy Land today.
Thank you MR Stephens for the truth BUT Israel has always been held to a standard not demanded of anyone else Thats modern Antisemitism If The Palestinians would relinquish their goal of destroying Israel and put down their arms There would be Peace If Israel did so thered be no Israel Where else do courts judge Israeli soldiers who have abused human rights
6
When the Palestinians used armed resistance against the occupation, Israel described the resistance as terrorism.
When they used popular resistance, Israel described the peaceful movement as violent. When the Palestinians and their supporters launched the peaceful boycott movement, Israel described the movement as anti-Semitic.
When the Palestinians criticise and expose the crimes committed by Israel and the occupation and its racist nature, they are accused of incitement. When humanitarian-spirited Jews reject Israeli policies and the occupation, and declare their support for Palestinian rights, Israel condemns them as “self-haters”.. Like every repressive and racist regime, it uses every means to falsify the facts and distort the truth.
But the problem is that other countries, governments and some politicians parrot everything the Israeli government says without bothering to think about the substance.
5
I think Bashar al-Assad must be very envious of Benjamin Neranyahu's ability to suppress rebellious populations with virtually no cost to his own people.
4
The justification and treatment of Palestinians by Israel is both shameful and a sad irony. While we live in a country of free-speech, it is disappointing to read such one-biased and bigoted (this is not the first article along these lines from Mr. Stephens) in the NYT. I wonder how eloquently Mr. Stephens would have written and justified apartheid in South Africa?
3
Bravo ! Finally in the ultra liberal New York Times , a voice of reason!
6
Because the Israeli's hold all the power. That's why the onus is on them.
2
Breathtakingly racist. Oedipal-level blindness, simply mythic. This depth of arrogant one-sidedness brings eventual doom.
I grew up bingeing on news. Israel had my youthful support. Now I feel mostly revulsion, though I try to suppress it. I am so very sad about it. So very sad.
5
So, your solution is ? Give the Palestinians what they want ? Are you unaware that that would mean the end of Israel ?
Stephens makes some very good points but fails to acknowledge that, although Hamas is encouraging these demonstrations, the gripes of the people quarantined in Gaza are mostly legitimate and not directed towards the destruction of Israel. The common people living in Gaza are the victims of Hamas and Israel both. The former harboring the fanatical and futile goal of destroying Israel and the latter engaging in a gradual takeover of most Palestinian territory and the maintenance of an apartheid state. These wretched people who are acting out their legitimate frustration do not deserve to be shot be Israeli snipers.
2
The modern state of Israel was formed by driving the Palestinians from the lands they owned and lived on for centuries - very much like the United States being created by displacement and genocide against the Native Americans. Propagandists like Stephens identify with the oppressor, be it the European settlers who wiped out 500 indigenous North American cultures to form the United States of America, or the Zionists who drove the Palestinians from their native lands to create Israel.
Until there is either a right of return or meaningful reparation for the Nakba, there will be no justice and no peace in the Middle East. As for the Native Americans, I fear there will never be justice.
4
I'd say it's because Israel holds the laws, the bombs, and all the cards.
1
"torrent of morally blind, historically illiterate criticism to which Israelis are subjected every time they defend themselves against violent Palestinian attack." Does Stephens realise how morally blind he is when he equates a "torrent" of abuse with snipers killing women and children who approach the fence with evil intent? Any US troops or police who responded with deadly force to similar behavior would be prosecuted. And the Times omits to say that the snipers are firing from less than 100 yards away. They are using weapons with 1500 meter range and 900 meters per second muzzle velocity. This means that: first, many of them are obviously making no attempts to wound rather than kill; secondly, even if they do hit the Palestinians in the legs the wounds are going to be horrific with bones permanently shattered and massive wounds
4
A simple question for Mr. Stephens: if it were Jews inside Gaza, living in an open sewer, surrounded by an Arab army, would the Jews have a right to resist? Would there be any "terrorist" Jews who would say, "We prefer to die on our feet rather than live on our knees"?
6
Every square inch of "Israeli territory" is land stolen from the Palestinians, and yet, Israelis are expected to uphold higher standards than Palestinians. Israeli efforts to "assist" Palestinians only add insult to injury. It's like "massa's" wife offering used baby clothes to slave mothers picking cotton, rubbing it in, so to speak, and reflecting the inferior position of the person receiving the charity.
3
Remember the schoolyard bully who would ask their victim why they’re hitting themselves? Imagine the bully is wielding a sniper rifle, and you’ve got this indignant column. However, It’s quite refreshing to see an author who wears his bigotry so openly, who so plainly views Palestinians as subhumans who can be murdered on the sole basis of some of the marchers being “members of Hamas” (the best justification Stephens can come up with, though he clearly doesn’t feel the need to try very hard to come up with one.) Other apartheid apologists make a show of being regretful that Israel was “forced” to shoot children, but not so for Mr. Stephens. Bravo! Columns like this one will only serve to accelerate the destruction of bipartisan support for anything Israel does, no matter how heinous. When that happens, maybe there will be justice for everyone who lives in Israel and its occupied Bantustans, regardless of their religion.
4
Dear Mr. Stephens:
Please remove the Jewish log from your eye. It apparently is blinding you.
We are not expecting Israel to do much - only give others the same right of self-determination that you covet.
2
I have grown to respect Bret Stephens, and am now a regular reader of his columns. That said, viewing the border crossing into Gaza as merely a conduit for Israeli "medicine and humanitarian essentials' is a serious error. It is not unlike DC City Council member Trayon White Sr, who, at the Holocaust Museum, on viewing a photo of the Warsaw Ghetto, referred to it as 'a gated community.' Gaza is a prison. And the killing of 60 Gazans and wounding of thousands is an abomination committed by Israel. I say that as Jew and as one who has and will continue to support Israel's right to exist.
4
"Israel’s acquisition of territories following the 1967 Six Day War". Mr. Stephans, do you know anything about the rule of law?
4
Yes I assume he knows that land won in a defensive war is a legitimate acquisition, particularly when the loser won't make peace.
6
I have heard and read the same kind arguments before to justify many masacres not only in Israel; very familiar even with some 19th Century discurses on killings of indigenous people. I was not expecting this rhetoric in the NYT and in 2018. It remind me a line on the song from the musical Chicago: "He had it coming" that says: "and then, he run into my knife, he run into my knife 8 times".
3
First of all, in the Torah, in the book of Genesis, it states that Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees, current day Iraq, and the Chaldeans were Arabic, having migrated out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 8th. century BCE, and began to settle in the vicinity of Ur, and Babylon. The fact that the Jews are really Arabs, is maybe the problem, in that in the middle east, many sects of Arabs, most of which are Muslims, hate each other, than what we can really call all of this between the Palestinians, and the current day Jews, is a conflict between two different sects of Arabs, with two different ideas about religion. This nothing new in that region. The deception in both Evangelicals in America, and those who believe them same, in the Jewish community, is really at the root of the problem. Most reform Jews are not into all of the deception.
2
I’m pleased Bret Stephens asks why Israel’s critics demand so much of Israel, while never making demands of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, or Palestinians themselves. When I have questioned the moral objectivity of Israel’s critics, The New York Times staff censors any such comment. Indeed, it is amazing that stories on the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians, receives little coverage from The Times, and few readers bother to comment on such stories when they are published. Stories about the national aspirations of the Kurds or the hardships of the Rohingya are even more rare, and those get few, if any, comments. And most rare, is the coverage of near total effacement of Tibetan cultural by China, about which The Times ran one story some time ago.
Mr. Stephens is right, the Palestinians hold a unique position in the media and among liberals. One wonders why.
7
The premise of this piece shows a profound ignorance. Yes, the Palestinians lack a coherent, and effective leadership. But it's also the case that Bibi's right wing government has no interest in negotiating with the Palestinians, such that even if Palestinians had efffective leaders they couldn't accomplish anything. Avigdor Lieberman wants Israeli Arabs to swear loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state. Bibi has said that there's no such thing as Palestinians, and that giving any more land for peace would be analogous to pacifying Nazis. So with whom would Stephens say are the Palestinian people to meet with?
A one state fits all Israel is a recipe for apartheid! The iceberg is there and this right wing Israeli government is headed right for it. And it is losing the trust and respect of American Jews with it. This is madness.
3
I read no mention of the ethnic cleansing that occurred in 1947. When will the author, and the Israeli state terrorists, get around to addressing that, and how the victims should be compensated. Until that happens it's no surprise that violence continues.
2
The US gives Israel weapons. The IDF uses same weapons to shoot unarmed protesters milling at the Gaza barbed wire fence. 60 Palestinians killed by gunfire. No IDF soldiers killed, or even shot.
Then the US Ambassador to the UN; Nikki Haley blocks any censure of Israel.
Makes sense?
3
Mr. Stephens,
There is NO justification for Israeli snipers shooting unarmed protestors. Your lack of concern is shocking, really.
5
Great questions. Why have Palestinians been allowed to bulldoze Israeli homes and take their land? Why have Palestinians been allowed to shoot Israeli children for throwing rocks at tanks? Why have Palestinians been allowed to impose a decade long blockade on food and medicine getting into Israel? Troubling questions, indeed.
2
Excuses, excuses, excuses. If Israel truly feels the Palestinian people are being manipulated by their leaders, then the events of this past week have been even more depraved than they appear. Don't punish the people for the faults of their leaders. Israel uses Hamas as an excuse to terrorize the Palestinian people whom they have basically herded into a corner they cannot escape. They have become fish in an Israeli barrel.
2
Every generation’s horror necessitates its rationalization, be it the case of Nazi apologists, Armenian genocide deniers, American slave trade justifiers; the list is tragically long. And the fog of obfuscation is thick and slow to dissipate. It is only in 2018 that the unveiling of a museum memorializing Afro-American lynching victims has finally taken place. Mr. Stephens has proven to be consistently on the wrong side of history; with this latest op-ed piece he has crossed the line into a willful distortion of events and historical facts that seriously call into question his basic sense of humanity. But of course he isn’t the first, and certainly won’t be the last...“who the cap fit, let him wear it.”
3
Maybe because the Palestinians don't routinely gun down unarmed children behind a fence (sniper fire no less), then call it self-defense.
3
"In 2005, Jewish-American donors forked over $14 million dollars to pay for greenhouses that had been used by Israeli settlers until the government of Ariel Sharon withdrew from the Strip. Palestinians looted dozens of the greenhouses almost immediately upon Israel’s exit."
Credible accounts indicate that a fair number of greenhouses were either destroyed or dismantled (to take with them) by departing Israelis. The money raised was to repair or replace those greenhouses along with the ones that were, admittedly, damaged by Palestinian looters. All well and good. However, the BBC reported in March 2006 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4818478.stm) that:
"Almost all goods coming and going from Gaza must pass through the huge cargo terminal on the territory's border with Israel, at a place called Karni.
But during the past three months it has been shut for well over 40 days."
Tons of produce were destroyed and things spiraled downward from there.
Ostensibly, the crossing was closed because of an attack by Palestinian militants in which several Israelis were killed. One wonders, though, why Israel's only solution to an attack is to make the situation worse by actions that were clearly calculated to punish all Gazans for the actions of a few, which is clearly the result to be foreseen from making it almost impossible for Gazans to construct a functioning economy.
2
Its a helluva problem... But it resides in a context wherein Palestinians have been messed over and made to live hard lives by Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Listen, the trouble started when the Palestinians were kicked out of their lands.............in which they really lived since ancient times. The better part of the population of Jewish people came from Europe, never had ancestry there.
If after WWII, Jewish people had settled all over the world, there would not be this horror happening.
Zionists and Great Britain after WWI, got this idea going. And look where the middle east is now.
3
Half of the Jews in Israel are from Arab lands. They were kicked out and their money and property was stolen from them. They came from Morocco, Yemen, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, etc.
4
Half the Jews living in Israel are descendants of Jews from Arab countries that were forced to leave their countries of origin, due to violent anti semitism.
4
Wow, very suprised the NYT published this article. Nice to hear both sides of a situation. Im very aware of the Palestinians struggles.
2
Palestinians simply want their freedom. Is that so hard to understand? It doesn't matter how many glass houses their captors have left them or how many medicine s they hand in through the bars - they are in a prison-camp as the Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron.
notably put it.
Even Moshe Dayan was more honest than the writer of this dreadful piece which blames the prisoners for their sorry plight. Dayan in 1952 said, in effect, 'No wonder they hate us. They look out of their prison and see us building homes in their own ancestral land.'
Of course the Gazans do crazy things and can hardly think straight and rush at the fence that has kept them in for 70 years. But as another Jewish writer put it: 'Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad.'
3
This current incident is like a cruel joke. How many times does one have to hear that Gaza is like an open air prison? Ghetto? Concentration camp? Call it what you will, but Gazans are not permitted to leave. There is a blockade which applies to all manner of things, including medical supplies. Perhaps they set fire to the border crossing because they are not allowed to leave from that crossing?
Over 1,000 have been maimed in the last few days, because of a peaceful protest against having been driven from their land 70 years ago. ONE Israeli has been injured. At least 61 have been killed, 20 of whom were emergency medical providers. They appear to have been targeted by the Israeli military from across the wire fence that separates Gaza from Israel. They are using "butterfly" bullets that pulverize bone. Israeli snipers appear to be shooting to maim.
It's not clear how long this charade of victimization can continue for the Israelis, but it seems there may be some cracks in their veneer. The world is waking up to the level of atrocity that is occurring while some celebrate in Jerusalem and walk out of the UN.
I am tired of being blamed for having compassion, because of being a so-called liberal. This is not a conservative or a liberal issue. This is a humanitarian issue. What is the plan? To use every single Palestinian in Gaza for target practice?
3
It used to infuriate me when Trump would say “fake news”. But seeing the appalling one-sided, no context anti-Israel coverage in this paper and others makes me question everything else I read.
3
The main author of the misery of the captive population of Gaza is the Israeli government.
1
Brett Stephens, what I expect of Israel is that at a minimum it does not wantonly murder Palestinians. That is not a big ask. Yet mass murder is exactly what the IDF committed when its heroic snipers massacred 60 Palestinian protestors. I am not being one-eyed. Palestinians in and outside Israel deserve to live peace, freedom and dignity. Those are the very conditions Israel’s Jews expect for themselves yet the Netanyahu government denies them to Gaza’s residents. Israel holds all the cards. A decent prosperous future for the Palestinians is in its gift.
4
One problem with liberals (and I'm a card-carrying liberal) is that they too often believe their own liberal feelings and intentions are somehow basic to the world, and are what anyone would intend and believe if not thrust into some dire situation.That's why they are so astonished by the miscarriages of the Trump administration -- who could believe that he would actually try to do what he said he would try to do, and that all those people in flyover country would support him and continue to support him? You'd have to be nuts to do that. Yet here we are. The same is true in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hamas has made its feelings and intentions quite clear: given their way, they would massacre the Israelis. That they can't, because they are not yet well-enoughed armed, doesn't alter feeling or intent -- read the Hamas charter. Millions of Jews who were once liberal and patriotic members of a state that suddenly fell under the control of vicious anti-Semites, never believed the Nazis would do what they said they would...until they did. The surviving Jews learned that simple lesson well: listen to what your enemy is saying. And believe it. Liberals have a hard time with that...but if you have been to Gaza, or Lebanon, or Syria, or Afghanistan, or Chechna (or southern Ohio, for that matter), you may have learned to pay attention.
4
Et Tu Brutus? We Jews have been killed, assaulted and ostracized all through history, what have we learned? I am ashamed of the Israeli Government? How do these pictures differ from the ones of the Nazis burning down the ghetto and the Jews fighting back?
4
Why don't the Europeans just return to Europe and the problem will be solved. So USA, United Nations, Balfour and the then mighty British empire failed in their conspiracy to foist their theft of Arab oil and their European project to solve Germany's treatment of their religious minority. Remember these emigrant Europeans are not Semites despite what is said in certain quarters. Know the truth and it will set you free.
1
Thank you Bret Stephens. Finally, a voice of reason in the din of ill informed (at best) or anti-Semitic (at worst) reactions that have played out like a script straight from the pages of Hamas propaganda. The Palestinian deaths and the sympathies from the West that inevitably followed, were the exact response that Hamas wanted.
It is stunning that many comments here, and much of the media (including the NYT) fail to acknowledge that this was not some peaceful protest, but rather an effort to breach a country's border orchestrated by Hamas -- a terrorist organization sworn to Israel's destruction.
I wonder if those same sympathies would be extended to our neighbors to the North if Canada were run by a terrorist organization sworn to our destruction. If Canadian schools taught that Americans drink their blood, if they spent all their money on digging tunnels to attack us instead of on education, social services and infrastructure, if they embed terrorists in civilian populations and use them as human shields, and if they direct thousands of rockets annually at, say, Buffalo, would we sympathize if thousands, some armed, attempted to cross our border? Would we just let them in (you know, the whole bring us your tired, your poor thing)? Would we ask them nicely to turn back? Or would we defend our border and our people with force?
Golda Meir said it best: "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."
6
I wonder if Mr. Stephen would make the same arguments if 700,000 Israeli Jews were put indefinitely behind a heavily guarded fence, isolated from the rest of the world and slaughtered every once in awhile when they expressed their anger violently. Try it Mr. Stephen!
4
You need only read Benny Morris’ “1948” to recognize that a claimed “right of return” applies to many descendants of entire Palestinian villages that wanted nothing to do with the Arab nations’ bid to extinguish the nascent Israel, hung white flags and fired no shots, but were shoved out of their land anyway based upon Israeli opportunism and that ancient moral principle: “Might makes right!” So it’s just a factual misunderstanding to pose ALL right-of-return claimants as bidding to erase Israel.
The morality has clouded in 70 years. Wars have consequences, Israelis have a basic human right to defend their existence, and legitimate grievances of some dispossesed Palestinians don’t excuse the mass murders that led Sharon to wall off Gaza and the West Bank, and continue today where and when possible. Now Hamas lies to “its people” to prompt suicidal behavior that creates media montages adverse to Israel. If so many media consumers were not ignorant and/or anti-Jewish, such a reversal of aggressors and intended victims wouldn’t work, and fewer Palestinians would die for nothing. You would have to be a pretty dumb Israeli to suppose that your nation will survive a failure to defend its borders. Israel’s opponents don’t think it’s dumb. They are just working the media using other people’s blood.
1
"Why is nothing expected of Palestinians . . . ?"
Because nothing can be expected from those who have nothing, Bret.
4
Anyone here who still refuses to face up to the truth that Brett Stephens courageously points out in this column, just check out this recording of senior Hama leader Mahmoud Zahhar interviewed on al Jazeera the other day.
https://www.memri.org/tv/senior-hamas-official-mahmoud-zahhar-on-gaza-pr...
If after watching this, you still can see no one to blame but Israel, you don't have an understanding problem; you have a Jewish problem. I'm sorry.
6
We need to look at the big picture, not isolated comments. It's not helpful and neither is Mr. Stephen's article. Right now, there are no winners in this conflict. That is what we have to keep telling ourselves.
How brilliant! You must blame the prisoner who tries to secure freedom. Demonize the people to justify killing them. Drip feed them through passage of only "essential" items. As one Gazan said, "we are dying a slow death, we have nothing to lose." The columnist should go to Gaza, just for 2 days. Drink a glass of water or two. Then write his column.
3
The nerve of those Palestinians, daring to approach their border...clearly a capital offense.
Once again, Bret has cemented his reputation as Sheldon Adelson's favorite columnist.
2
Einstein letter (see link below) was a warning to today's Israel.
https://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.Decemb...
1
Many Jewish families related to the first WWII Israeli settler refugees have pressed legal claims awarding them the return of Jewish real estate, valuable paintings and business property confiscated by the WWII German government all across formerly Nazi occupied Europe. And now relatives of Palestinian Arabs are pressing similar family property claims for their property confiscated by Israelis.
Few of course expect the present Israeli government to return the Palestinian Arabs' property. And some decades ago the Palestinian claims seemed ridiculous in the West. But one now senses a shift in the political winds in the U.S. towards Israel, as the logical irony of Christian evangelical support for Israel ---- from a Protestant group that has a history of anti-Semitism ---has become clear. The brilliance of the support is that it revives Anti-Semitism and weakens sympathy for Israel. And how do the evangelicals do that? They turn Israel into an international pariah, a ghetto with a flag, military and government. yet a ghetto generating Anti-Semitism far from the Middle East.
Israel is becoming the largest ever ghetto today, shunned and condemned worldwide for its human rights violations. Sure, militarily, it is able to defend itself from Anti-Semites. But the future first victims are always secular Jews living outside ghettos who do not have the same local protections, as in pre-WWII Germany.
1
Thank you so so so much for this!
It's insane, the way people ignore the entire context of this situation in order to hate Israel and unilaterally support Palestinians. It's really dangerous and really familiar
2
Put a dog in a cage and starve him. He bites you as you feed him scraps. The dog is ungrateful and its his fault he is hungry. That is the logic of this argument.
3
Thank you Bret for finally writing an article without a tribute or 'tip of the hat' to Paul Ryan. You always refer to him as a, "Policy Wonk." I have news for you.. Paul Ryan is as smart as a 10 pound bag of fertilizer.
You seem to be developing as a writer and I'm proud of you! Yes- Palestinians are blowing through millions to construct underground tunnels. Guess how much Israel is spending to ward off these border breaches? ZERO! Because the United States gives Israel $5 billion dollars a year while Flint, MI water is still dirty!
Keep up the good work Bret. I doubt you'll ever see the big picture- but there is always hope.
You can take the writer out of FOX NEWS- But never take the FOX NEWS out of the writer. I wish you integration.
2
Wasn't Israel essentially created out of land stolen from the Palestinians near the end of WWII based on something in a Bible?
Maybe that still rankles.
1
This is from Judi, not Steve: Finally, The Times has an opinion writer who looks at facts, not at propaganda. I wish there were more writers like Brett Stephens.
4
"Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?"
Thus, the hard-line Palestinians.
"Why is nothing expected of Israelis, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Palestinians, and nothing forgiven?"
Thus, the hard-line Israelis.
The hard-line Palestinians have, so far, controlled the Palestinian response to their situation.
Now hard-line Israelis are taking over the Israeli response.
If ending well is judged by a future of peace, justice, and human welfare, this will not end well.
Inappropriate force Mr Stephens. There are women and children there. Whats wrong with using water,rubber bullits,smoke or whatever that doesn't kill.And so according to your argument when someone threatens borders nations should start shooting ? Greece allowed a million people into their country through their islands and didn't take arms against anyone. They were illegal. Shame on you, Nikki Haley and the Israeli people.
63
Mr. Tamvakeras, you are misinformed, and you apparently lack experience of such situations. Israel tried using tear gas and other non-lethal methods, but they are of limited effectiveness, especially at long range. And if you wait until it becomes a short-range mix of protestors and terrorists who want to kill Israelis (as they explicitly said), then it would be a bloodbath. And that's why your analogy to Greece is completely off - the people crossing the border in that case were simply looking to build new lives, not to massacre the Greeks!
30
They are not in misery in Gaza because vandals broke some greenhouses years ago, but because of 30 years of restrictions, 11 years of siege and massacre after massacre. Brett Stephens, can you show even one bit of pity for a single one of the people the soldiers killed or maimed? What about the 8 month old baby buried yesterday? Was she a terrorist charging the fence? How about the fellow in the wheelchair with no legs, Fadi Hasan Abu Silme. Or the Canadian doctor who was shot and the rescue worker who saved him before he was killed, etc. etc. You are dead wrong when you say Hamas did this and this and that. Read Amira Hass in Haaretz. All kinds of groups in Gaza joined in this #GreatMarchOfReturn and the 100,000 who turned out Monday. You want an alternative to shooting people down in Gaza, tear down the wall, let the Palestinian families return to their homes. In the 21st century race superiority regimes like the Israeli state are an outrage.
16
Dismantle Israel's illegal settlements. Then maybe the Palestinians might talk about peace.
9
This has been offered by Israel, and rejected by Palestinian leaders, at least three times... not to mention Israel's complete departure from Gaza, leading to the PA and Hamas' destruction of the facilities in the area.
3
There were no ‘illegal settlements ‘ before 1967 and ,yet, the Arabs initiated a war by closing the Straits of Tiran to Israel and removing the UN security forces from the Suez Canal. They have rejected every offer made to them. When will it occur to you that their desire for their own country is nowhere near as great as their desire to destroy another country?
How would Stephens feel if he grew up in a squalid refugee camp because foreigners, thanks to American help, used military force to evict his forebears from their homes and land and resettle them in squalid, primitive refugee camps? And then justified doing so with a claim to the land based on their religion, one the Palestinians don't share, from over 3000 years ago? Would he still be blaming the victims?
The refusal of so many Israeli apologists and supporters to admit the reality of Israel's responsibility for the decades of misery and suffering of the Palestinians is appalling.
12
I know that Bret is the token non-Liberal, but he writes more sense than the entire rest of the NYT (unless it's Fashion or Real Estate).
4
The bride is beautiful but she is taken by another man. From the beginning and with the backing of the Balfour declaration,Zionism never had any intention of cooperation with the indigenous population of Palestine. So we have this mess on our hands.
You ask Why ?
Lets start with the fact that the Palestinians are not responsible for the Holocaust, as many assume. They are actually the occupied land. The oppressors and occupiers are the Israelis.who are always wanting more. Be careful Egypt, after all Moses and the jews came out of Egypt and it might be included in the ambition of Greater israel.
2
Why don’t we stop pretending that Israel has any intention of allowing the Palestinians to have an their own state. Israel is making life so unlivable for Gaza and the West Bank with settlements, hoping in time they can absorb it as part of Israel. If they wind up killing most of the Palestinians living there, well that’s what genocide and colonization looks like folks. How do you think it all went down here in the USA when white European settlers encroached on Native lands pushing them further and further west and gradually killing them off? This is what we are witnessing. And though many of us will not be around in 100 or 200 years I can guarantee you Gaza and the West Bank will eventually be part of Israel.
5
This is a good column and a balance to this website's biased coverage, which even neglects to mention Hamas terrorists wearing vests marked "Press" to try to deceive the Israelis and do them harm.
5
The only people who think the embassy relocation is good are right wing Israelis, right wing Jews, and make-way-for-the-second-coming American Christians. The rest of the world thinks it's a stupid move. If that isn't the tail wagging the dog, what is?
6
Sorry but the IDF was pulling the trigger. All of the intellectual messaging won’t change who the real murders are
This should be mandatory reading. Palestinians could lay down guns tomorrow and have peace. If they dont, too bad.
4
Fantastic! No one in Gaza was protesting with guns. Manufacturing the facts to push
alternate truth. Welcome to Trumpland
where credibility is at premium.
Yet another column that seeks to portray Israel as the victim of a crime in which 50+ Palestinians were killed and thousands more wounded. There is a severe lack of diversity on the NYT opinion page when it comes to coverage of Israel. It should not be controversial to address the disparity in Jewish and Arab voices when it comes to providing coverage. Bari Weiss, Bret Stephens, Thomas Friedman, David Brooks, Shmuel Rosner, Jonathan Weisman -- to name a few. A true discussion of this issue requires a multitude of voices and backgrounds. Here's a free tip for NYT: Let's see a regular column from a Palestinian writer to provide their take on the situation. Israel enjoys the full financial and military backing of the most powerful country in the world, along with a regular multitude of voices lending their full and undying support in the US media on a nightly basis. Lets get some diversity shall we?
6
I believe Abba Eban once said “You cannot claim to be the descendents of kings and prophets and then complain because the world treats you differently than Syria.”
2
Nothing justifies the killings of the unarmed, by the way, George W Bush, insisting on democracy, put Hamas in power. It is a bad day when people try to defend the opressor, and blame the oppressed. I heard that before, against the jews. What are you going to believe? Mr Stevens or your own eyes? And, there is the tiny problem of settlements growing...explain that!
5
Yes, US President George W. Bush and his neocons created Hamas via our invasion of Iraq. Also, Ariel Sharon created Hezbbulh with his invasion of Lebanon to chase Arafat's PLO to Tunisia. He doubled down by turning loose Christian Phalangists to massacre Lebanon's Palestinian refugees. Afterall they were Muslims. That is not a very good way to create love, right or wrong. Now I find myself suffering wariness of Abrahamic religions, their bloodied warmongers, and pious soothsayers.
NYT is a great news organization with a blind spot when it comes to Israeli accountability. I’m not sure how the NYT became so biased on this subject. I have difficulty even reading this article because it’s simply blames the Palestinian people in Gaza and while Israelis may think it’s ok, a news organization should do better.
4
David Cameron, former Prime Minister, of England called Gaza "the largest open air prison in the world".
Stop and think about that. How would you react if you were born, raised and now incarcerated in a prison? If you want accurate, documented, truthful information about Palestine and Israel, read Norman Finkelstein.
Finkelstein's latest book is entitled "Gaza: An Inquest to its Martyrdom". Israel banned Finkelstein from Gaza and Israel in 2008 for a period of ten years. Effective means of controlling the propaganda machine; deny access, on the ground, to factual reporting.
The Israeli-American propaganda machine is so well oiled it was able to force Judge Goldstone to retract his report on the atrocities perpetrated by the Israelis in 2011 The other three authors of the report held firm.
Operation Cast Lead aka the Gaza Massacre in 2008-2009 (a three week period) led to 1,400 Palestinian deaths according to the UN and human rights groups. Women and children; dead. 85% of the deaths were 'non-combatants'.
Israel casualtes? 3 civilians and 6 soldiers.
This opinion is nothing but the age old "blame the victim" spin on the facts.
5
In the end, you have no decency.
8
Yeah it's all the Palestinians fault: that the Israelis steal their land and imprison them in tiny Gaza by the sea. The Palestinians know no gratitude, for heaven's sake.
If you are imprisoned by bullies and can't travel beyond your own refugee camp, and if your sling shot stone is met by bombers that obliterate entire villages, you should just shut up and be humble and take it year after year after year.
If a Palestinian protester/terrorist acts, Israel will wipe out his family. That seems fair.
While Israel, supported exorbitantly by the US, smirks at the idea of peace, won't ever concede a two-state or any state for the Palestinians, and builds its godawful settlements, the Palestinians should just know their place and stay in it.
And that's no place.
6
In the movie "Schindler's List" a Nazi officer with a rifle shoots people confined to a detention camp for sport from his balcony. It's not a perfect analogy with unarmed Palistinians being shot at the border at wil;l but it's good enough. The state of Israel is beginning to act the same way toward a disposed minority as the oppressors who tried to exterminate them. A slippery slope to say the least.
5
Stephens states that "a question to which one can easily guess the answer" is "Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?"
We don't have to guess: The world doesn't like Jews. Never did, and never will.
3
Such a disappointing column Mr Stephens. The most recent answer to your bias is the 50 Palestinians who were shot dead for throwing rocks at the Israeli military.
5
62 unarmed Palestinian protesters (including 8 children) are killed by Israeli soldiers and at least 2,400 are wounded. There are no casualties on Israeli side. And this author finds no fault with Israel and blames the Palestinians?! Unbelievable!
7
I' sorry, but the real mystery of Middle East politics is not why Palestinians have so long been exempted from ordinary moral judgments, but why the Israelis have been. Ever since the Zionists started to occupy the "vacant" land of Palestine, they have been persecuting the indigenous inhabitants. Read Ilan Pappe's book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" for some background information. Mr. Stephens' opinion piece is the most cliche-filled that I have ever read on this topic. Furthermore, there is no independent evidence for most of his claims--he just cites Israeli anti-Arab propaganda.
6
When oh when will the "Palestinians" stop spending billions on hatred, destruction and martyrdom and start living for the future ... and when will the media and so-called "Friends of Palestine" stop enabling them to continue on their chosen path of self-destruction?
Maybe if the media stopped whitewashing Palestinian actions they might actually change things for the better? Ordinary people living under the horrendous yolk of Hamas unable to speak up, and the world SUPPORTS Hamas and strengthens their hold!
Israeli children are huddled in bomb shelters - maybe not physically scarred but mentally is another matter. Palestinian children are dragged to the front of the battle field, used as human shields.
Why isn't the media reporting on this child abuse?
And by the way, why are all the pro-Palestinian supporters silent about the ethnic cleansing / massacres going on in Syria against the Palestinians?
Why aren't Hamas in Gaza speaking up either?
And why has President Abbas time for ranting hate-filled tirades against the Jewish people but no time to talk about his own people being slaughtered in Syria. (not 60 terrorists but thousands of innocent civilians)
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/106628/220-airstrikes-on-palestinians...
7
Palestinian territories: Horrible, dishonest, deceitful leaders and unnecessary violence and attacks on Israel.
Israel: Horrible, dishonest, deceitful leaders and unnecessary attacks and land theft from the Palestinians.
I am struggling to see any good guys in this situation.
1
Per ISO 9000 the root cause is Israel despise democracies and allies itself with dictators and repressive regimes. Hamas has been targeted ever since it won a fair election, the same way Israel targeted the Muslim Brotherhood when it won a fair election in Egypt and welcomed the coup and the dictatorship which followed. No Hezbollah in Lebanon until Israel for no reason invaded Lebanon and murdered what appears to be thousands of innocent unarmed Palestinian old men, women, and children (there were no military men in the refugee camp), but now that Hezbollah wins fair elections Israel targets them even though they are the only force preventing Israel from again invading Lebanon (note Hezbollah has not invaded Israel). Why Israel still pulls the Holocaust gimmick is unclear, after all Israel did not exist during the time of the Holocaust, but Israel supports the right wing dictator in Hungary and blasts George Soros, a Holocaust survivor who has donated millions of dollars to support democracies. Similar to WWII, the problem was not European Jews, but the Nazis. Blaming Hamas is similar to blaming European Jews for their destruction rather than the Nazis. America is at fault since there was an historical solution regarding slave laborers in Nazi Germany. In 1993 those Palestinians who were in Palestine in 1948 would return and retake the property stolen by the Israelis, but their descendants would not be permitted to return to Palestine, but receive compensation .
What gets lost in the discussion is that "nahnu ihwan" (Arabic: "we are brethren") is cognate to "anahnu ahim" (Hebrew: "we are brethren"). "Bismi li-Lah arRahman arRahim Maliki Yauma Din"("In the name of Allah the All-merciful King of the Day of Judgment") has a 100% Hebraic equivalent! Gott in Himmel! The Muslim and the Judaic cultures are sibling! The Pillars of Islam--Shahadah (Testimony), Sadaqat (Charity), Hajj (Pilgrimage), and others sound more Jewish than Judaism. I love Hebrew, and I love Arabic just as much. Many Israeli Jewish hearts care as much for kidnapped Yazidi Christian women and Syrian civil-war victims as for their own.
Blaming the victims for the operators of apartheid? Really?
2
Lack of opportunity for young German men especially, enabled right wing forces to come to power, leading to the Holocaust.
Cyclical economic trends seem to bring out the ugly in people, as we witness today in America today.
Can one expect young angry Palestinian's to behave any differently? They appear to be fighting more for justice. Articles like this turn their cause into one of extremism.
Thank You!
2
When six former heads of Israeli Security Shin Bet, demand that the Palenstianians be negotiated with as soon as possible for an equitable two state solution, I find so much more to the point than this hack conservative piece by Mr. Stephens. Blaming the victim again. How lovely!!!!
3
one word: (illegal) SETTLEMENTS
2
There are no settlements in Gaza but why quibble.
4
Nothing forgiven of Israelis? Really? What about their (openly) secret nuclear weapons program? It’s been in place for decades, and yet somehow they can still cry wolf at the Iranians, and the US media faithfully transcribes the complaint.
Uncritical and unconditional backing of Israel has become a litmus test in domestic US politics, with the help of the so-called ‘Jewish lobby’ (cf Mearsheimer and Walt) and delusional Evangelicals who have made common cause with the Zionists, presumably in anticipation of The Rapture.
Meanwhile, the open-air prison of Gaza breeds a new generation of resentment, mistrust and hatred on both sides. When the US unleashes another insult, say like rashly moving its embassy to Jerusalem, and the prisoners protest, unarmed, Israel gets to shoot dozens of them dead, knowing full well the US government and media will have their back.
Nothing forgiven, you say? Yeah, right.
1
In the words of Golda Meir - "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us".
6
thank you for a breath of intellectual honesty
5
THANK YOU!!
2
Whew, what a relief to know that, as usual, the Palestinians have no-one to blame but themselves and anyone who disagrees with that is anti semitic.
Nobody expects anything from Israel and hasn't for a long time. Their actions speak a lot louder than their ever so predictable words. An occupying force that confines a certain group of people to open air prisons and ghettos with no hope of anything even resembling a normal life. Life without parole from the day you are born without even so much as a trial.
How many Israelis died yesterday? Was it Hamas shooting those children? Where is the Palestinian view of these events?
This column is nothing but self-serving manure. Thought we were through blaming victims but evidently not when it comes to Israel. Go bomb some more civilians, there's still time and God knows they've asked for it.
Odd how the Times and it’s readers are four square against authoritarian, discriminatory states that use guns against unarmed civilians. Until it comes to Israel. Those of us who are neither Jewish nor evangelicals trying to hasten an apocalypse wonder why.
1
Why is nothing expected of the Palestinians, asks Mr. Stephens. Because they have nothing except Israeli brutality and a 50-year occupation. No state, no freedom, no justice, no economy. What does he expect of them living under a regime with little humanity, racist attitudes, determined to get rid of them in the long run? Having all the power it is up to Israel to make the concessions to achieve peace. Unfortunately the current Israeli government is uninterested in peace and has abandoned the two-state solution in favor of an apartheid system. I say this to Mr. Stephens, It's the occupation, stupid.
1
Israel is the only country that won a defensive war and is now expected to give back the land it won. As soon as the British return Northern Ireland or the US returns land to the Native Americans, then Israel should return land to the Palestinians. Otherwise, the world needs to shut up.
7
I am beginning to believe that a lot of these "blame the other guys "comments are generated from AIPAC push-back individuals." Not exactly bots, but a definite,concerted "immediate reaction" crew,that turns the NYTimes comments section into a ridiculous chorus of deaf individuals using big megaphones. AstroTurf.
2
Yes, Gaza is poorly run and yes, Gazans mostly have themselves to blame. But that doesn't mean that Israel and the U.S. can or should make Gaza worse. Thousands of Gazans were shot and dozens killed, and all Stephens can say is that it's the Gazans' fault? Really? So it was the Gazans' fault that Israeli troops shot and killed a reporter from Gaza who was covering the demonstration? Would Stephens have the same reaction if the dead reporter had worked for the New York Times?
The IDF-to-be drove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians off their land at gunpoint. This has been admitted by veterans and much of the Israeli intelligentsia.
The Israeli myth that the Palestinians left voluntarily, on radio orders by the "five Arab armies" who attacked the Jewish settlers is a fabrication. There were no such broadcasts. No evidence of them whatsoever.
They were driven out by a raping, firing army.
Ben Gurion's policy was straight-forward ethnic cleansing. This was admitted by Israeli participants in the planning of the attack.
BTW, relative to the Palestinians, the Israelis were armed to the teeth, with weapons financed by sympathetic and well-off American Jews, plus decisive flights of arms from Czechoslovakia to the proto-IDF, under Stalin's orders (yes, that Stalin).
What about the horrendous attack of the Five Arab Armies? Well, the strongest one, the (Jordanian) Arab Legion, by secret agreement with Ben Gurion, attacked Palestinian land, what is now the West Bank, and annexed it to Jordan.
The four other Arab armies carried out enough ineffective fighting to look good, and then went home. Leaving the unarmed Palestinians, whose lands were now split between the Jews and Jordan.
Let it be added that Israelis are much better informed than are Americans about the dark side of their country's history. Stephens would do well to learn from them and work to enlighten his readers, rather than repeat the old, old, debunked myths.
1
Israel currently has 261 illegal settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land, while Palestinians do not have any settlements on Israeli land. Who is shooting whom?
2
Everything the author says is true, the Palestinians are completely to blame. However, the Israelis have the huge and historic support of the US taxpayer and they blow their moral high ground when they shoot and kill/wound protestors on the other side of a fence! The ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed in this conflict should be troubling to Nikki Haley when she walks out of the UN and to US evangelists. A human life is a human life, everyone is equal in the eyes of the Lord. Some leader needs to come forth to help the Palestinians accept their reality, Israel is not going to go away. World history is full of groups of people like the Palestinians who get the short end of the stick and are forgotten. However, Israel needs to avoid becoming a pariah apartheid State and the US should engage in tough love to help them avoid it.
28
Jamie,
If you don't mind I am going to replace your name on the deed to your house with my name.
You can still live there and pay the mortgage but every time you come or go you ha e to check in with me first.
Deal?
Oh...you have some reservations.
Now you know what's going on over there and knowing is half the battle.
5
Usually about I Israeli for 50 Palestinians. With prisoner swaps it's much greater.thats the way it is. Unspoken rules both sides understand. Palestinians can go Jew hunting if willing to pay a much high price. Now with Trump and his team the price will be much higher. Burn down Israeli fields with kites and rush the border many will die. Haley is doing a great job.
5
There are so many comments below that this quote from Ben Gurion, cited in an earlier comment, may get lost so I will type it again: "Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country."
Yet Mr. Stephens says nothing about taking their country. He starts his timeline at 1970 and cites a few examples of Israel promoting economic cooperation. He says nothing of the evictions from homes and farms, the reduction to second-class citizenship, the occupied territories, the settlements--the loss of country--that precipitated the long-term crisis. I can't imagine a more shallow handling of this complex history. If you want to support the right of Israel to exist, fine. But to pretend the Palestinians have no cause to protest is absurd.
5
To blame the killing on Hamas is like blaming the weather on the weatherman. He brings you the news, but does not cause the rain. Until we come up with a better way to analyze this conflict, the storytellers can always pick their facts and make a plausible argument. Plausible is not the same as right. We do need historical literacy, and moral vision, but Mr. Stephens offers neither.
1
“That’s a question to which one might easily have the answer”. No! Not all liberals who were horrified by the shootings are Anti-Semitic which seems to be what you’re implying.
My own fifty year journey from viewing Israel as a bright light in the world to my present extreme disappointment provides another answer to why we might hold Israel to a different standard. It’s simply because we have higher expectations. An analogy: Israel is a former A student now getting Cs and Ds. Hamas is Hamas. I have sympathy for the overall plight of the Palestinians, but in my mind Hamas has always gotten an F.
1
Why? The Jewish people suffered, now they have power and they are sticking it to the next guy.
3
Incisive and compact. It's called "transfer of oppression". A great heart has the capacity to absorb injustice without passing it on. A small one does not. Thanks, neighbor!
I didn’t think intellectual honesty from The NY Times was possible when it comes to Israel. Congratilulations, Bret Stephens, for having the courage. I hope you don’t lose your job over it.
14
Bret Stephens is a propagandist masquerading as a journalist. A journalist seeks the truth no matter what the consequences whereas a propagandist vigorously promotes an agenda irrespective of the truth.
Either the NYTimes doesn't know the difference or it doesn't care.
5
This a typical Israeli biased opinion.
The incontrovertible fact is that 2 million people are imprisoned in Gaza. Even if Hamas did not exist, even if Uncle Tom Abbas did not exist, there would be despair, and eventually violence in Gaza.
The case for Israel's behaviour towards Gaza, and its theft of land in the West Bank is not supportable in international law, nor within the bounds of human decency.
5
This article resembles the writing of Julius Streicher. Despite everything Germans did to feed, house, and provide work for the Jews of Warsaw, they still resorted to the self-harm of resistance, too.
4
Would you Mr. Stephens give up your land and home so that a Jewish refugee can have a place to live.
The Palestinians lost everything in 1948; their homes their land their culture and their ability to survive. They deserve to go back to their homes that were seized by Jews from Europe.
They will never give up until there is justice for them.
5
Harlie, the Palestinians started the violence against the Jews in the 1920's, when all the land Jews lived on was bought legally from Arabs who sold it to them voluntarily. That violence eventually led to self defense, which led to a 1947 UN resolution recommending partition of the land between the two communities. The Palestinians refused, and chose to resolve the matter by force. They lost their land in 1948 because they launched a war against the Jews and lost. Returning was contingent on their willingness to live in peace, and they weren't willing. They are entitled to compensation for their lost land. Read some history.
3
best op-ed i've read yet, thank you for your insights, I wasn't aware of just how equally responsible the Palestinians are for their situation. It's hypocrisy of the hard left's obsession with condemning Israel, ignoring atrocities committed here at home against our own minorities. We have economic apartheid here in the US and yet condemn Israel for theres, with what moral authority?
7
Good question Bret. Could it be that Israel is occupying stolen land and shooting unarmed protesters? Give it a rest. Israel not only lost the moral high ground, assuming they ever had it, but they're wallowing in the sewers of depravity that trump and his troglodyte supporters live in. Certainly, like in America where most of us don't agree with trump and the party of hate, not all Israelis support the government's atrocities. But that doesn't change anything for those killed by this evil government.
Someone burns a tire in your front yard and then hurls a rock at your head when you open your front door. How will you respond to this unarmed protester? And they’re Native American no less! Here to claim the land you so erroneously have stolen and called your own.
1
What a disgusting article, I dont understand how anyone can twist there morality in such a way so that soldiers firing live bullets on unarmed civilians is justified. They killed 50 people including children and injured literally hundreds all for the crime of peacfully saying they dont want to live under israeli rule. Its horrific no matter what twisted logic you attempt.
3
You are completely wrong in how you characterize the situation. The people of Gaza are not citizens of Israel. There were 40,000 people storming the border with rocks, fire, bombs and knives. Read the quotes, the purpose was to break through and kill Israelis. Now the facts are coming out: This was a Hamas operation financed by Iran and most of the dead were Hamas soldiers.
4
Gaza is a cage that was created by the European colonial project we know as Zionism to imprison Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their land in ‘48. There was perhaps a time that the colonists could have held on to much of their prize by reaching an accommodation with their victims. That time has passed. A single unitary Palestinian State is now inevitable. Hopefully the model will be more South Africa than Zimbabwe.
2
Between 1917 and May 13, 1948, the Jewish Homeland was whittled down from present day Israel (including Samaria and Judea) and Jordan. Then, to create an Arab country, TrnasJordan was created out of 80% of the Jewish Homeland, at a time when very, very few people lived in that area. In 1947, the Jewish Homeland was whittled down to a little bit of the coast (Tel Aviv) and the Negev with Jerusalem being an international city, even though Jews had bought much of the land in the Judea, Samaria, and present day Israel. The Jews accepted this, the Arabs did not, and invaded Israel 70 years ago this past Sunday. The Jordanians took over Jerusalem, and destroyed every Jewish holy site except the Western Wall, supporting the two mosques, and they banned Jews for the Next 19 years. In the interim over 800,000 Jews were kicked out of 22 Arab countries, and they and their descendants today make up the majority of Israel's Jewish population. 350,000 Arabs fled Israel, but 160,000 stayed.
The Arabs kept attacking an Israel culminating in the 1956 war where all of the Sinai and Gaza were occupied by Israel, which was returned upon a promise of UN troops along the Israeli Border.
In 1967, Gulf of Aquaba was closed by Egypt, as Egypt kicked out the UN Troops, and amassed tens of thousands of soldiers on Israel's border, promising to wipe out Israel. Syria was firing mortars from the Golan Heights, and Jordan was shooting mortars into Israel.
12
I see you're quoting Declan Walsh now. Have you two made up? How lovely. Correct if I'm wrong, but didn't he kind of accuse you of racism, or maybe just Arabophobia? Anyway, the persistent "why?" questions are rhetorical; you know as well as I do the way leftists think. And if you don't, it's explained for you, albeit incompletely, in Joshua Muravchik's "Making David into Goliath."
Leftists always discuss this conflict as if their point of view is objectively correct. They seem to think that if we merely knew the facts, we'd agree with them. But even most leftist historians who are honest would admit that the person who knows more about this than anyone alive is Benny Morris. And yet I'd bet Morris agrees with nearly every word Stephens has written here.
I honestly believe that at a certain level -- if I'm permitted to employ this nebulous phrase -- leftists can't help it. Being against the mighty "colonialists" who are running an "apartheid" state seems only natural. This is a nonsensical description, but they don't see that. All you can do is keep writing and hope that at least a few minds are changed. Israel is hardly blameless in this conflict, but the Palestinians are the main authors of their misery. But know that this conflict doesn't HAVE to end, not anytime soon, not ever. For it to do so, there must be accountable (non-corrupt) institutions built and an elimination of this Reconquista mentality. Netanyahu has a long, gloomy view of history, likely from his father.
1
The blame game is on after the nth massacre of innocent Palestinians. Blaming Hamas gets the greater coverage, of course. Why can't Stephens and other Israeli apologists simply consider that the legitimate right of the Palestinian people and the legitimate right of the Israeli people is set by the United Nations declaration that created the state of Israel? Period. Live by the Law, international law. not the law of the stronger. The Jews were victims of the lawless stronger much as the Palestinians are today victims of the lawless stronger. There are in place international agencies of justice, let them act and define once and for all what belongs to whom. Period!
1
Here's a bargain: The Jews of Israel will grant the "right of return" when Muslims grant the same right to the Jews and Christians in Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, North Africa, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and all the other places taken by war from Jews and Christians starting in the 7nth Century A.D.
6
Bret Stephens is so outrageously one-sided. Yes, there are some Palestinian authors but none of that justifies what Israel under Netanyahu is doing to them. Killing children, women, old people. Netanyahu is committing genocide with the help of the ignorant fiend Donald Trump for whom there is a personal pay-off in this somewhere and maybe lots of them. This is horrendous.
2
Israel's original sin is Judaism. If Israel had no Jews, all would be forgiven.
2
When a civilized country massacres 60 people claiming it's "self defense" against "barbarians at their gate," is it the fault of those protesting that they be gunned because they have bad leaders? When a civilized country occupies an other's land for 50 years fencing them in and blockading them at sea, is it the fault of their leaders for them to protest and be mercilessly gunned down? When a civilized country creates the modern equivalent of a concentration camp with 70 percent unemployment and desperate conditions, is it the fault of their leaders when they protest and are murdered? When a civilized country accepts a golden calf (aka U.S. embassy) blessed by those who claim the worshipers are illegitimate owners or really exiles in their own land in some twisted armageddon scenario, is it the fault of their leaders to protest and become the sacrifices offered? Of course not! As all Jews should know if they're old enough to remember (and I am at 77 and a member of a Holocaust family), these are simply "crimes against humanity." Oh how I lament as the Jews have been led astray by their leaders and engage in the same murderous "victim blame" that they experienced 80 years ago. But, my perished ancestors demand that I bear witness to the pain of our suffering and that we continue to inflict upon others. So, "No!" Mr. Stephens there is absolutely no justification for this massacre not "miseries" as there was none before it in Sabra and Shatila.
2
What is your solution? I think you should read "Peace not Apartheid". As to the recent massacres, Read Mr. Goetsch's post.
Gaza is a prison. Israel is the Teflon country of the world. Nothing sticks to it. Why is Israel above criticism. As a Jew I can tell you, living in Israel the government sees the Palestinians are so much garbage. I live in horror to see the way my government treats these innocent people. One percent is responsible for the chaos in Gaza. And collective punishment does not work.
You can kill Palestinians but you can't kill the human need for freedom and dignity.
A blockade is moral?
3
Typical Israel supporter! Gaza's miseries are their own. Blame the victim while Israel commits genocide on them, pushes them into the world's largest open ghettoto, drives them towards the sea, build a huge wall that disrupts commerce, steal Palestinian land irrespective world condemnation (except US ), pile nuclear capability nonchalantly and now sniper attacks on men, women and children protesting peacefully 700 yards away from the Israeli border. Create absolute chaos and when Palestinians react as all humans would - flee, frightened, fight with aimless bombs going nowhere, Israel moves into Gaza with snipers, tanks and artillery. Israel has dehumanized Gazans. Their desperate actions are considered acts of terrorism. Israel keeps harping about Hamas and tunnels as justification for their crimes on humanity. Israel's safety? Really? It was relevant at Israel's birth but now? Israel can blow up the entire Middle East. Bombing North Syria is probably the prelude. And Bret Stephens, an Opinion Columnist for the New York Times must be totally aware of that. But you insist that Israel is the poor, unsafe victim of Palestinian cruelty. Just like our country declaring Jerusalem as Israel's capital and celebrating the US embassy being shifted there. And alongside we have Palestinians dying and fleeing away from Israeli sniper attack. Where is honesty, integrity, humanity, morality and above all justice? Please explain, Mr. Bret - not the smoke and mirrors.
1
Agree with every word. Now Mr. Stephens should ask himself why does he write in a newspaper that leads the anti Israel movement and act as an apologist for the Palestinians
8
Kick 'em like a dog , kick 'em like a dog, kick 'em like a dog; dog snaps: "Oh look, typical dog". Or put another way: The beatings will continue until morale improves.
This oped is brilliantly constructed to allow the author and his acolytes moral sanctimony, sweet slumber and clean hands. The fact that Palestinian society has become a disfuntional shipwreck is indisputable --- the idea that it somehow happened in a vacuum as the author implies --- is disingenuous at best and quite possibly moral bankruptcy.
But let's solve this dilemma once and for all Mr. Stephens --- please tell the world in explicit detail what exactly the Palestinians will get should every last one of them be transformed tomorrow into reincarnated Gandhis. Levitating little Budhas. Groovy little flower-childs. Impossible but none the less indulge us. In detail. Show the world the map of their new homeland. Their rights to water resources. Air. Movement. In detail. Please do.
1
Every word you write is fact. I consider myself progressive, but am astounded when "my side" acts about Israel exactly as the Fox News crowd does about Hillary and Obama. Facts simply don't matter__it's all self-righteous emotion and a fierce double standard.
Israel is far from perfect, but does empower women, supports gay rights, believes more in human rights than any nation in the Middle East, and just wants to be left alone. Meanwhile, when Hamas spews hate, oppresses women and throws gays off rooftops? Crickets from the left.
Hamas leaders pull this same disgusting "martyr" act (as they hide behind women and children) every few years, and the same knee jerks always fall for it.
You spoke the truth, Bret. Now prepare for the onslaught.
www.newyorkgritty.net
9
We expect much from Israel but as usual they not only fail to deliver but retaliate with incredible intensity. What does Israel deliver on besides revenge and frustration. Israel is guilty on intense passive and constant petty aggression against the Palestinians.
1
Neither Hammas nor the hopeless Palestinians it has duped will ever destroy Israel; nor have they a hope of such a thing. Israel, like many proud and arrogant nations, may end up destroying itself.
Unfortunately, the narrative Bret offers is the same that caused a non-native creation of a religious state in the midst of a polyglot community. This aberration of state making is purely might makes right. Then in a policy reminiscent of the theft of the native American homeland by whites, legal maneuvering, alien to the indigenous culture, preyed upon the weak and ignorant and greedy present in every culture to deprive Palestinians of their homes.
Now, with scores upon scores dead from targeted sharpshooters, he has the blinkered temerity to blame Palestinians for their forced diaspora. Israel apologist is a simple right-wing tag. Bret's convenient bias is a zealot-like as his country's racism.
Tired of people on top telling the subjugated that colonisation and occupation is a breeze.
This reads like: “Why don’t the Palestinians just accept the life that their overlords have seen fit for them??”
3
One question, Mr. Stephens. If it were Jews inside of the Gaza ghetto, surrounded by an Arab army, would the Jews have a right to resist? Could we fault them if some were to say, "Give me liberty, or give me death"?
Amy doubts on the answer? Look up the word "Masada."
10
Wow Brett you have stepped onto the third rail, don’t touch anything grounded because cause at the very least you will suffer burns.
I love you pick a point in time, decide that at that point all was fair, and then spread the blame. I guess that’s your story.
2
The third rail is opposing Israel. Look at the trained seals...also known as Members of Congress.
2
Palestinian land became the homeland of the Jews only because they lived in the place Jews were driven out of by the Romans. Jews were persecuted for centuries in Europe and the worst crime of the 20th century, the Holocaust, was committed by Germany. Returning Judea to Jews was a form of redemption. The new rulers drove a substantial percentage of Palestinians out. The rest became second class citizens. Arabs made a Cause of it and fought and lost wars against Israel. When the Palestinians started Jihad against their Israeli occupiers they took on a huge share of blame by suicide attacks and terrorism and gave Israel the right to defend itself. Israel sees their colony as the fulfillment of a promise to the Chosen People from God. Israel and the Palestinians flirted with peace but the right of return means Jews will be outnumbered. The Israeli solution is relentless settlement in all Palestinian areas and hugely asymmetric punishment for Palestinian resistance. Ethnic cleansing, in other words.
Stephens should read about Massada. Zealots were proud Jews who couldn't tolerate Roman rule and revolted. They assassinated the High Priest for collaborating with Rome. Then Rome destroyed the Temple and the Jews were driven out. Zealots committed mass suicide in Massada rather than be captured and became heroes. Think of Hamas as Palestinian Zealots and Netanyahu as Roman, suppressing Conservative and Reform Jews with their liberal ideas along with Palestinians. Ironic.
2
Why do people locked up in a concentration camp try to break down the fence that pens them in?
Why do people trapped in the ghetto try to liberate themselves, even if it means they might die?
Why do opinion writers blame victims rather than perpetrators?
So many mysteries to consider here.
1
Spot on Mr. Stephens, this critique of Hamas and the Palestinians is long overdue. I'm surprised that the editors of the NYT's allowed it to be published.
4
They were squatters that were despised by the Arab world before Israel's creation.
The only thing the Palestinians ever had was the Arabs hated the Jews more.
Guess what, after 70 years of continuously doing nothing it seems like their old feelings are returning, and Israel is not as bad as they thought.
1
There are two sides to this conflict:
One has the principles of international law and human rights on its side.
The other side has vast sums of money, sophisticated weaponry, and Mr.Stephens.
4
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have respect of human rights on their side? I don’t think even Palestinian leader Abbas would agree with that outrageous assertion.
1
The 40,000 protesters were there at the behest of Hamas, to pursue the goals of Hamas. To all the Times readers noticing my comment, if you support the protesters you are supporting Hamas and the goals of Hamas.
Do you know what are Hamas' goals?
Please read their 2017 Charter. It is vital reading for anyone who wishes to be at least basically informed on this subject.
The Charter:
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-charter-1637794876
3
Mr. Stephens: Your clear and accurate analysis of who is responsible for the deaths that have occurred as a result of the violent Gaza protests along the border with Israel is a Bret of fresh air in the smog of malicious propaganda and media manipulation created and orchestrated by Hamas.
4
Here's a thought experiment.
Lets say following the loss of the South in the US civil war, the North decided to occupy the South, restrict the movement of people living there to their various counties or states, build fences around these states, and then shoot anyone who tries to get past the fence, prevent free flow of goods and services in and out of this occupied territory, and ignore issues like 40% unemployment rate in the occupied territory. I wonder if some of my more conservative southern friends might be able to see how this might affect their attitude towards the rest of America, why they might be compelled to do things like throw stones at their jailers (the 2nd amendment would of course not be followed in this occupied territory), and set bombs sometimes in defiance of their jailers' laws.
Now imagine every time you try to escape this situation, some opinion person in their ivory tower writes how you did this to yourself by not rolling over and playing by your occupiers' rules, and afterall your ancestors started the civil war so your descendents will now have to pay for that mistake in perpetuity by suffering the indignities described above.
Try seeing things from that perspective every once in awhile and the actions of the Palestinians
5
You surely don't live down here, sir. Or in any red state of the union. Israel is considered God's own favored nation (for now anyway) and Palestinians are not regarded as mattering one bit. That's so for millions of Americans, many of them evangelicals, although a fair number have reasons of hating Muslims and racist reasons. So I am not sure where you get the idea that no one is on Israel's side. They have the US, with its military dominance and power, they have nuclear weapons that everyone is supposed to pretend they don't. And though they are currently killing unarmed people, they have opinion leaders like you insisting that they are the victims. So they don't seem very mistreated at all, I'd say. How many Palestinians would have to be killed for you to mind that?
2
Thank you for being a singular voice of clarity, sanity, and moral reason at the New York Times, Mr. Stephens. Your paper’s so-called “coverage” of this week’s cynical and deadly Hamas border agitprop has been shameful. The framing—even the headlines—reveal your paper’s naked anti-Israel bias and forgive-all Palestinian sympathies.
A lead Times story from this week: “Israel Kills Dozens at Gaza Border as U.S. Embassy Opens in Jerusalem.” Why doesn’t this headline read: “Hamas Instigates Fiery Gaza Violence and Attempted Armed Incursions; Scores Die as Israeli Defends Borders”?
Or, as Mr. Stephens says, “Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?”
1
Because future of a Jewish Democracy is responsibility of Israel not Palestinians.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza in a ‘land for peace’ test case that the Palestinians have failed...miserably. Instead of peace, what Israel got was 15,000+ rockets and a terrorist base camp on their border led by Jihadists sworn to Israel’s destruction. Consequently, the Gazans got exactly what they signed up for.
4
Because Israel is no more than a U.S. Military Base forcefully placed in Palestinian land...that's why, and everyone knows it but Americans.
4
Classic case, of Israel, blaming its victim. Geeze Louise - the awful immorality of the Gaza occupation.
2
Mr Stephens,
After writing this article how will you be able to look in the mirror? The Palestinians are poor devils and their leadership are hardly to be blamed more than the leadership of the Warshaw Ghetto uprising in terms of following protocol! Give me a break. As a direct descendent of Holocaust survivors and related to people destroyed in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, I find your article repulsive. Be a mensch, if you even know what that means. These people are desperate. We made them so for the most part. The probability of this comment being published is virtually zero but so were so many other things!
4
Bravo Bret, and welcome back, at least for now, to sober conservatism. One can only hope your more starry eyed and delusional colleagues, most especially Michelle Goldberg, read your post carefully. More likely they will decry you as a fascist Trumpite, but one can hope.
1
The Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is a war crime. It is a disgrace. How can you defend them? They are a bunch of self-satisfied self-righteous entitled abusers. I don't know why you can't see this.
4
Overpopulation and polygamy has created a massive excess of testosterone fueled young men with no prospects for the future and no prospects for a sexual life. The birth rate there is huge. Arafat put it well....the wombs of the Arab women were the best weapon. Israel`s only option is to remove the Palestinians and resettle them far away in Germany or the US. The US would be a better choice since the US is an ideal country for immigration since everyone is an immigrant or child of one. Additionally our police and legal system is far more accustomed to dealing with immigrants.
Um, no, not “everyone” in the US is an immigrant or child of one.
Bret Stephens is suggesting that the Gazans were demonstrating simply because Hamas encouraged them to do so. In other words, they were willing to put themselves into harm's way for no good reason. Therefore, Stephens is telling us do not pay attention to the conditions under which Gazans. Forget about the blockade, water and food shortage, disease, unemployment, bombed out schools and hospitals. Forget about the fact that average age of a Gazan is 18 and that almost none of them have been allowed to leave that God-forsaken tiny piece of population-dense land. And one more thing, Israel was celebrating the 70th anniversary of a time when their descendents were systemically removed and murdered to make way for Zionist settlers. Martin Luther King, Jr. was criticized for promoting demonstrations that put his people in harm's way. But they did. They knew the danger and their sacrifice. So did those Gazans.
3
Get used to it. Israel will need to escalate the intensity and frequency of these lethal activities, and you'll be hearing more outrage from the international community. It's a predictable consequence of the apartheid system Israel is sinking into at an accelerated rate. Blame whomever you'd like. If Israeli leadership refuses to deal with this reality in an enlightened way, they should bone up on South African history for a glimpse of their future.
1
Bret, your argument is grotesque. "Ghetto" crime rates in this country have always been blamed on the people trapped in the ghettos. See how badly they behave when kept apart from "us"! Never mind the lack of education, health care, fresh food, secure housing, and safe streets. They should just try to be more like us, eh? Is that it? Shame on you.
3
Bret, as a privileged white American male writing from the luxury of a journalistic penthouse, it must be nice to have a pat answer of defense for Israeli military picking off protesters.
Your points seem to indicate tbat you'd most likely offer a wry smile to the answer by an Israeli sniper when asked how he can shoot a protester..."I aim at the chest, so that if I'm off a bit I will at least get the shot into the head or the belly."
Why not write a series of articles offering a well researched proposal how the Palestinians could work their way toward a better life? That wpuld be a much better use of your talent than defending the indefensible.
2
Absolutely reprehensible that the NYT would choose this moment, after an unequivocal war crime by Israel against innocent protesters, to run this provocation. What's happened to your editorial integrity?
Were the Las Vegas shooting victims similarly the 'authors of their own miseries'? Innocent people gunned down by snipers, in both cases. Except in Israel it happened on command, with the full blessing of the army and state, which makes it so much more chilling.
3
If The Times plans to keep making space available to the White House –whether or not in the guise of Brett Stephens "columns" – the paper should require payment of an advertising fee in order to moderate its continuing increases in subscription rates.
1
Bret Stephens is so willingly blind to truth, which is typical for most supporters of Israeli atrocity.
Palestinians are a poor, less educated, disorganized bunch vs. the Israel's Jewish citizens. This is why they have been trampled on by the Israelis.
But, the fact that they are poor, less educated, disorganized and militarily weak, DOES NOT give anybody the right to bully them, to take their lands, and to kill them at will.
3
IDF snipers murdered unarmed prisoners of occupation. Sad.
1
The Israelis and Palestinians deserve each other. A pox on both their houses.
Read here where the NY Times Nicholas Kristof describes the brutal conditions the residents of Gaza have to endure with the ongoing Israeli economic blockade. This was published soon after the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza .
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-winds...?
1
I can totally relate to Israel!
I broke into this guy's house and chained him up in the basement by his thumbs. I give him the bare minimum amount of food and medical care he needs, all for free. He's totally ungrateful! One time I gave him some delicious steak and he spat it in my face! Also, it seems like no matter how many times I beat him senseless, he still tries to fight back. Doesn't he understand he's bringing up upon himself? He's always making noise down there, which really makes it hard for me to live in peace. Doesn't he understand that I captured him, fair and square? Does he even recognize my right to exist!?
But seriously—this is the most intellectually and morally bankrupt piece of writing I've ever seen in a major publication.
3
Yes, let's blame the victims - while we're at it, why not condemn those murdered for interfering with the path of a freedom-loving American-made bullet fired from another freedom-loving Israeli weapon whose trigger was pulled by a brave Israeli soldier defending freedom and liberty. Hooray for freedom!
2
I think I'll always side with the unarmed folks being shot and killed if they are being shot with high powered rifles from across a fence. Doesn't matter what factor to me if one side has drones, tanks, fighter jets, nuclear weapons vs kids with sling shots and bottles. Just like I will detest the numbers killed by Palestinian terrorist bombers. But the numbers really are skewed in terms of death by hands of the IDF.
2
Mr Stephens, take off your blinders and look using both eyes. There are no saints in this story.
It is because Palestinians were displaced by the creation of Israel and not the other way round
Another piece of history to consider: there is a reason nations have avoided recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Trump started yet another dumpster fire.
Hamas loves Israel, the more violent Israel is, the more immoral Israel behaves and the more blood thirsty Israel gets, the more enriched Hamas gets.
The worst thing in the world for Hamas would be an Israel that treated Palestinians as human beings, an Israel that recognises their struggle and an Israel that was truly.
As it is, Hamas could not be happier.
1
I'm not sure of my facts, but i believe I'm pretty close. in 1948, in Palestine, the Israeli forces, the Irgun, bombed British hotels and killed British soldiers. They did this to get there own land, their new country. Today the Palestinians are doing the same thing to get their land back. Don't blame them. They believe they are doing what they have to. They deserve a home of their own.
1
Why is it that so many blame the Jews for the state of Israel and the removal of the Palestinians in 1948, when it was the BRITISH, with the approval of the world, in the form of the United Nations, that created the modern state of Israel? The people who were the first Israeli settlers were themselves displaced people who lost everything they had in Germany, Poland and other countries, who may have survived concentration camps, or who were forcibly removed from Jordan and other Muslim lands, simply because they were Jews - and they also have no right of return. That bears repeating: the original Jewish people who settled in Israel early in its modern existence lost everything they had and have no right of return. They have more in common with the people of Gaza than the Gazans admit. All of them, the Israelites and the Palestinians, are victims of tragic circumstances, with so much in common with each other.
But only one group, the Israelis, decided to take what they had and build a prosperous and productive nation. The other set of tragic victims, the Palestinians, has set it sights on reversing the course of history, of negating the decision by the world body to create the modern state of Israel, and has made it its prime goal to attack both literally and figuratively their fellow victims in this sad affair.
They have the power to create a wonderful country for themselves, where they are and despite their heartbreaking loss, just as the Israelis have done.
4
Palestinians attacked a border. In response 60 were killed and many many more injured. No Israelis were hurt. Bret sees this and says - blame the Palestinians. In fact he didn't even bother to mention how many people were killed. It could have been 6,000 dead and he would have written the same thing. I hope Bret teaches the same morality to his children - if someone at school punches you in the face you should murder them and their entire family and then write an op ed saying it was their fault.
1
Quoting a tweet by Frank Fleming: "I think you are always going to have tension in the Middle East when there's people who want to kill Jews and Jews don't want to be killed and neither side is willing to compromise".
5
Why is nothing expected of Palestinians the writer asks. Um, nothing is expected of them except to live under lock and key, fenced in without freedom of movement and gunned down for protesting.
They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness.
Breitbart or Fox would make a better right wing argument about Palestine-Israel then this piece.
To sum it up, this is no better than holding a gun to someones head and a third-party walking up to the victim and saying "Hey stop shouting for help, you can do better than this. Man up and allow yourself to prosper instead of constantly blaming this guy who has the gun to your head." Oh and for good measure with the gun to your head, he has also claimed your house and valuables. "You should be grateful and here, he is even willing to give you a pain killer all out of good democratic will.
2
What Bret's column fails to recognize, perhaps willfully, is that is Israel (which controls Gaza's airspace, access to the sea, and most of the land border crossings) is at least the co-author of Gaza's miseries, and the one who deserves top billing at that.
1
MR. STEPHENS WATCHES TOO MUCH FOX NEWS.... I find him the most polarizing columnist at the NYT, and I don't think thats a good think, even if you say hearing both sides is important. When both sides are grounded in some sort of factual reality it is important. But now that the Republican tether to reality has been cut, I find the poison that they spew as unacceptable. I do hope he disappears soon.....
"Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?"
The Little Prince would say: "you have responsibility on what you conquer". Israel conquered Palestine. Thus, it is responsible for what happens there in the same way South Africa was responsible for the apartheid. Israel is the one that has the power to change this situation. It should take its responsibility and solve this mess. Changing from oppressed to oppressors should not be an option. Grow up! Be a nation!
1
Lets get it clear: Hamas and all the other groups would not have come into existence if Israel had not been carved out of Palestine. Palestinians will keep on trying until they get back what the Europeans had the UN give to Jewish DP's, displaced persons, to get them off their back. Until there is one Jewish-Palestinian state with both sides respecting each other there will be no peace for the Jewish community.
1
The Israelis and Palestinians both have equal claims to lands within the current borders of Israel. And arguably these parties do too: the British, Ottomans, Romans, Greeks, Canaanites, Hivites, Neanderthals, Natufians, Assyrians, Philistines, Babylonians, Hasmoneans, Byzantines, Mongols No? (I've probably missed a few too.)
Ok, why did the Jews 70 years ago go to what is now
called Israel and kick the people who had been living
there for centuries out of their homes? I certainly have
all the sympathy in the world for what the Jewish people
have gone through, but how is stealing land from the people who were already there a good thing. It has always seemed really cruel. It was plain wrong.
And do not give me some ancient religious reason please.
Would you in the US like the American Indians to do the
same and they actually would have a more of a right to do so.
"Get out of your home, leave your car and car keys
and take only 10 days supply of food and a change
of clothing and get out, this is our land by heredity"
I know I am being simplistic and there are two darn
sides to every story, but to take some one's land and
force them to leave. How is this not like the SS troops
taking over Jewish homes and their money and art?
Not a good start.
2
The original premise of founding Israel is perhaps the point to ask about. Was it guilt about the Holocaust? If so, then appeasement by stealing territory is not a good start, is it? To then continue on the road of taking more land just does not help.
Was there Israel before Palestine? When was this? My history is not clear on this issue.
It took the Tea Tax for the US to wake up to wanting independence and war. I would like to know what the citizens of say, California would do, if a similar thing happened and the land was given to Mexico
Regards
1
Reading this comment thread makes me heave a sigh of despair. The depth of the misrepresentation of Israel, the mischaracterization of historical events, the outright distortions of reality - the unadulterated hatred of Israel on display sickens me. We Jews want only to be left alone - yet the world insists on tormenting us. Gaza... meh... Gaza is nothing, we have overcome so much worse, so much more. Israel will endure and the world will have to live with that - they can kvetch all they want.
3
Ever since Yasser Arafat declared (in 1970) that "the Palestinian revolution's basic concern is the uprooting of the Zionist entity from our land and liberating it," this struggle has become a Godzilla vs Kong to the death fight, driven by the memory of the Shoah memory of Nakba. The two enemies have become miore like each other, in aim and methods to achieve. Remember how horrified the West was by German "terror" bombing, from Guernica to London, and then the RAF burnt 40.000 citizens of Hamburg in two nights. Humanity has been on this march of folly and destruction since Auden wrote in his great poem ("September 1,1939") :L "Those to whom evil sis done/Do evil in return." And here we are,and nobody can impose a "reasonable" or "just" way out both sides will accept.
2
Wow! Israel kills and maims many Palestinians (with tanks and guns that we pay for) and we're not supposed to blame them because we haven't been blaming the Palestinians enough. Has Mr. Stephens actually been in the Palestinian's areas, and seen what their lives are like, regardless of Hamas influence in Gaza.
As someone who has been reading about the Middle East for more than 45 years I can tell you that press reporting is finally starting to be more balanced because there are reporters for the NYT that are actually in Gaza or the West Bank, and don’t get all their information directly from Israeli sources, like Mr Stephens and Ms. Kershner appear to.
Anyone who thinks differently should just look through the archives of the NYT, Washington Post, and other major newspapers. Look for the writings of people like Abe Rosenthal (Sr), and Charles Krauthamer, and many others, who have rarely if ever had a kind word for the Palestinians while they heap praise on the Israelis. You’ll find that Palestinians have been blamed significantly more than the Israelis by American journalists.
It would nice if the Palestinians had a Ghandi, but I wonder how he was treated by the British press when he was sowing the seeds of revolution in India. The fact is that, in the long term, the truth will prevail, like it did in India, South Africa and other countries.
1
This is when I lose interest in Bret’s writing. Ardent pro Israel. Just be pro humanity
You will clearly see the good and the bad on both sides. Both sides Bret..
3
A professional writer wishes to be taken seriously- yet starts a writing project with:
"Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?"
High School freshmen are taught to avoid absolutes like "Everything", "Always" and "Never". And....you really expect your opinion to be taken seriously Mr.Stephens; Really?
2
"Harm yourself and blame others." Think about that for a second. How hopeless of a situation do you have to be in to harm yourself as protest? The Gazans have lived in an open air prison since 2005 with few jobs, little electricity, and virtually no clean water. But hey, let's go ahead and blame the victim!
Don’t blame them but definitely blame their leaders. They spent $90 million on building tunnels into Israel. How many hospitals and schools could that money have built ?
If it was self defense, how many Israeli casualties were there?
2
Couldn't say it any better!
Israel soldiers killed dozens of protestors yesterday in a situation which presented them no mortal threat; this is overtly immoral. Israel denies basic human rights to Gazans in a reprehensible (and illegal) act of group punishment, and then engages in shameless victim-blaming. This editorial is a classic example of the oppressor blaming the oppressed, while sitting in a position of absolute priviledge.
2
I didn't see one gun in the hands of those men, women and children who were killed or wounded in the massacre. Did you? The Israelis also didn't see any guns in the hands of the Palestinians, but they were told to shoot anyway. Who are the ones who will have to answer to their gods? And the Donald? He was ecstatic that he had orchestrated it all. A fine show, he thought.
Like the quote attributed to Gold Meir said, "there will be peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us".
2
Why? For starters, because Israel exists on land stolen from the Palestinians and others in 1948, with the complicity of England and other nations that submitted to pressure from Jewish groups. How about I get a few hundred thousand people together, with support from some big hitters in the UN, and create Anglica, a new nation on the shores of Texas, a permanent home for put-upon Anglicans who want their own religion-based country?
Israel was formed where it is because the Bible says so. And that makes it right?
I am thoroughly, wholeheartedly against the violent destruction of the Jewish state and/or its people, just as I am absolutely sure that it is wrong for it to exist on stolen lands.
Note that you've never seen a real survey on how Americans feel about Israel...
1
What "entitled" the nation of Israel to that portion of planet earth the citizens of Israel now inhabit to the exclusion of others? Violence ? Or something else? What "entitles" them to this now ?
1
Is Bret Stephens interest in this biased? Does he know that the Jews and Palestinians share the same DNA? Does he know that the Palestinians were banished from their ancestral home, also the Jews ancestral home, by the Israelis? Does he know that in 2016 the U.S. agreed to give Israel $38 billion over the course of a decade, an increase of roughly 27 percent on the money pledged in the last agreement, which was signed in 2007? Does he know that the Palestinians live in the Gaza "strip" and have nothing. The Israeli's and Netanyahu get a pass from Trump to bomb these wrongly dispossessed people. Netanyahu and Trump care not for people they view less than themselves.
1
Frankly, if there are any peace talks it needs to be without men. The talks need to include the grandmothers and mothers from Palestine and from Israel who have lost loved ones in this stupid battle among men with power, men who want power and men who want more power. No good can come from men with blood in their eyes.
2
In Stephen's logic Native Americans should have been happy getting indoor plumbing on the reservation? African Americans in bondage really should have appreciated the sack of flour and side of fatback master gave them for Christmas.People living in the most densely populated place on earth really are at fault for their plight. Sure is easy to blame the powerless for being powerless.Your opinion is really over the top Mr. Stephens
2
I wonder how the people of Israel would behave if they were constantly having their land taken by the Palestinians while becoming prisoners in their own country. https://tinyurl.com/y7kob92q
If 60 unarmed Israelis were killed by Palestinians, it would have been announced as a horrible terrorist attack.
1
Imagine if you wrote the same thing about Watts or Newark rioters, when they were fighting for their rights. Kent State. How about Wounded Knee and the Occupation of Alcatraz? Keystone Pipeline protests and Occupy Wall Street. And metoo would have a field day with you. "They asked for it, by daring to fight back."
1
Here's an easy solution to the whole mess of things.
Palestinians - give up the fight. Lay down your arms. Accept the world's financial aid to build yourselves a better world. Infrastructure, schools, hospitals, etc. Become self sufficient!
Palestine could be much, much more than it is today. Picture a land filled with agriculture, industry, and social benefits for all. Tourism could become a HUGE force, driving the area's commerce as well.
Hard to imagine? Well. Israel did it quite successfully. If the Jews could do it, why can't you?
3
Might it occur to you to mention the apartied that exist. There is no reason to deny schools a permit right? Yet countless villages are denied permits, and even if they have full rights to be there they are asked to leave or face bulldozers for a new settlement. Israel wants to make Terror while the kids choose to build schools. The IDF are goliath, Palestine is David. 1948 Jewish extremists forced out non Jews. Those Non Jews want to go to their houses. And like the Berlin wall The apartied regime will be no more. Ramadan Mubarak.
Gaza’s miseries certainly have Palestinian authors, but Israeli too. Hamas is certainly the worst thing that ever happened to Gaza. It has ruthlessly exploited the miseries of the Gazans for its own violent ends. But when 60 people are dead and more than 2000 injured, the hurt is just way too much, Bret Stephens. At such a time, most people with even a shred of sympathy for human suffering usually tend to blame the people with the automatic weapons rather than the ones with slingshots and burning kites.
1
What is with these types like Stephens? The Israelis massacred scores of unarmed people. The Israelis escalated the situation. But in Stephens' view the Palestinians are to blame. This Hamas is at fault pushing people in front of Israelis bullets argument is outrageous and stupid. Stephens probably would side with Tsar Nicholas' massacre in St Petersburg in 1905. Those ungrateful peasants and workers petitioning the tsar for their grievances. At the same time as the Israelis were unleashing their massacre Netanyahu and his fat cat buddies were toasting their greedy grab of Jerusalem.
3
The world, and most of the U.S. — other than the nutty evangelicals and some conservative Jews — has made up its mind about Israeli oppression, and who's on the wrong side of history. Blaming the oppressed is an old trick, but it can only work for so long.
10
What is the function of blaming, whatever its validity, about a dynamic, multidimensional Issue, with a multitude of stakeholders, individuals and systems,visible and hidden, each with agendas and principles of faith underpinnings?Some, even being faithless, as their descriptions are transmitted as explanations. Their mantras meander. Facts, fictions and fantasies are “goulashed?” In a world and culture in which taking personal responsibility for words and/or deeds is a myth? What is the usefulness of blaming, and for whom, when complacency is a way of life for many? In which willfull blindness “cataracts” the Seeing? Willfull deafness corrupts the heating? The choice of being ignorant about what IS reigns? And a lifestyle of silence pervades; infecting civility.Menschlichkeit! Blame?
1
This is heinous stuff. A flat out apologia for excessive violence from a biased source.
10
Out of curiosity, what do you do when your neighbors attempt to burn down your front door and take over your house?
I am not generally a fan of the author, but he succinctly defines the real issue here. Thank you.
8
NOTHING is expected of the Israelis. They have been given a free hand to violate not only international law but their own law in oppressing the Palestinian people.
The settlements are ALL illegal under international law and they could not exist without being heavily subsidized by the Israeli government. Those subsidies would not be possible if we weren't heavily subsidizing the Israeli military every year.
Meanwhile, Palestinians are denied basic rights and settlers abuse them with impunity on land that international law recognizes as Palestinian. And Gaza has been turned into an open air prison.
If Americans and Israelis want to place blame for the lack of peace in the Middle East, they should take a hard look in the mirror.
8
I find this headline ridiculous. Hasn't Israel in effect been forgiven for the deaths of thousands of Palestinians both during these protests and the last few wars? Are they not forgiven by having the USA move its embassy to Jerusalem? Are they not forgiven with 10billion in USA aid every year? Are they not forgiven with more and more West Bank land? This is more false victimhood, and a nauseatingly biased article.
10
I am shocked a opinion published In NYT that actually tells the story of self -induced suicided. The "leadership" of the residents of Gaza produces only death and misery, some leadership.
4
I work in an engineering field, that for better or worse, insists on hiring lots an lots and lots of H1Bs, requiring waiver upon waiver upon waiver from the quota limits. In the process, this means I work with lots of moslem oriented "furinners" from places all over Dar Islam. The co-workers from Gaza, always behave courtesly and respectful of everyone, while uncompromising in following the dictates of their religion.....not a single one of them has ever shouted "death to America" or even spoken out against Israel.....they accept that no one is on their side and that all they have is faith to protect them. NOW, my co-workers from places like Pakistan were the first ones I checked to make sure none of them was flying a plane into a skyscraper somewhere.....they are all Extremists, quite willing to die for some cowardly mullah that impresses them with doing "Allah's work" for him. Most of the "ay-rab furinners" from places like Lebanon/Syria/Jordan turn out to be christian or in some way related to christian neighbors...and are largely disengaged from the religious nonsense back home.
2
No Palestinians are not perfect and there is blood on everyone's hands, but just look at the numbers. In the last uprising thousands of Palestinians were killed compared to a relative handful of Israelis. Look at Amnesty Intl's report on shelling of residential areas and one see where the numbers come from. That is a war crime along with collective punishment. Israel reacts with total violence to anyone trying to fight their way out of the open air concentration camp that is Gaza. We can continue to condone this or we can withdraw our UN vetoes and let justice be dealt to war criminals. Most recent AI report is at https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel...
7
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.
We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”
― Golda Meir
'Nuff said.
7
I only scanned because reading stuff like this make me nauseous, but it appears that you went back to 1970 for your one reference to actual Israelis being killed. That says a lot. "Every time Israel acts to protect itself", there's another pile of Palestinian dead, asymmetrically. What's the cumulative Israeli death toll (and feel free to include non-trivial injuries) from the "10,000 rockets"? No one who's bothered to learn the real history of conflict in this region -- including but not limited to the body counts .-- can take this seriously. Israel is dealing with the pent-up anger of the people who they've ethnically cleansed, remorselessly and with little mercy, for three quarters of a century. There are more humane ways of doing things, even under apartheid.
You either value the lives of Arab kids the same as all others, or you don't.
7
This reads exactly like white apologist statements during South Africa’s apartheid, and white apologists in the defacto apartheid in the south
Israeli’s have zero interest in having a successful Palestinian state, nor a successful people. They would see that as more threatening than a few people with rocks standing up to the strongest, nuclear armed military in the Middle East
Israel was created by acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide. True no matter the spin. It operates a brutal police state. It is totally true that it would not exist today without these tactics. There is no reason to believe this will change. It is unrealistic to believe Palestinians will ever accept abject servitude. Those are facts. No need to offer excuses
7
Any article describing the fifty-one year old Israeli occupation of the West Bank as an "acquisition" (except that in the article it is "occupation", not acquisition, that appears in quotation marks) should rank as a classic of our Trumpian times. Together with Nikki Haley's reference to the "restraint" shown by the Israeli military (as of this writing, over 60 people died of this "restraint"), it should be studied in both literature classes dealing with Orwell's 1984 and history classes dealing with Goebbels' use of the word "enlightenment" (such as in the title of his "Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda").
5
“No decent Palestinian society can emerge from the culture of victimhood, violence and fatalism symbolized by these protests.”
Supporters of Israel continue to invoke the Holocaust, eighty years after the fact, at every opportunity, so can the talk about a “culture of victim hood”.
6
Classic Stephens hasbarist column. Israel has done no wrong, Israel can do no wrong. Why does the Times give him a voice, but none to Palestinians?
9
It did, yesterday ... look it up.
1
When will Americans accept that their nation was stolen from Indigenous people who suffer on small impoverished reservations, which is the exact thing Israel has done to the Indigenous people of Palestine?
We are seeing children mowed down by teenaged Israelis armed as snipers. Wholesale murder without a two-state solution and crackpots like this author are wholly misinformed due to youth and lack of critical education on this issue.
6
Is what the author talking about happened in Gaza similar to what happened in Iraq when we overthrew Saddam? I know the problem in Iraq was that we didn't provide for security in the aftermath of the Baath government. What did Israel do in Gaza other than to move out and make sure nobody followed them? We have the excuse that we're a bunch of drooling idiots when it comes to the Middle East; why didn't Israel plan for day 2?
2
Remember too that we are approaching the centennial of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem's first call, in modern times, for the destruction of the Jews, decades before the formation of Israel.
4
And one of his grandchildren told me, to my face, that if he thought it would mean Arab Muslim rule of all of Jerusalem, he would have no problem killing Jewish civilians living in the region.
This really happened. It left me speechless, which he also said was a good thing because, and I quote, “Women should be seen but not heard.”
1
as an 'opinion writer' your flaming allegiance is not a Phoenix like apparition it is rather an a priori state of blind subservience to falsehood of one inebriated by his righteousness to a cause celebre touted in universality when all the true state's of being is draped with an apartheid regime's acts of incivility, downright acts against god's provenance for calling out those who sin against him, and he sent his son to acquiesce the crowd with death, well imagine him living today and seeing your utter depravity in defining such a criminal state as the one residing in a border arbitrarily imposed. . . personally using god's name in vain as in unheard makes me feel no larger but far smaller as the world turns.
3
The dark shadow of apostasy has now fallen over Israel and not just Gaza as you join them in the victim-blaming that is always the first defense against Israeli atrocities and Palestinian opponents. Israel has accepted Trump's golden calf (aka U.S. embassy) that represents the abandonment of faith for the politics of greed. Greed by Trump to play to his domestic evangelical base in the forthcoming mid-terms; and greed by Netanyahu and his right-wing settler, ultra-orthodox base who keep on getting more and more Palestinian land in a modern version of "lebensraum." And the Palestinian sacrifices they offered to their new pagan god were, as all Jews should know if they're old enough to remember (and I am at 77 and a member of a Holocaust family), simply "crimes against humanity" in what amounts to a concentration camp sealed off by fence and naval blockade, and now death camp, called Gaza. Oh how I lament as the Jews have become exiles in their own land and by their own hand. But, my perished ancestors demand that I bear witness to the pain of our suffering and that we continue to inflict upon others. No Mr. Stephens there is absolutely no justification for this massacre as there was none before it in Sabra and Shatila.
9
What a grotesque apology for Israeli brutality and oppression. I am amazed that the NYT still pedals in the cynical and vile strategy of "blaming the victim" (a technique Israel has used over and over). After 50 years of land confiscation, massacres, murder, mass incarceration, disproportionate use of force, walls, checkpoints, economic terrorism, border closings, collective punishment and daily human rights violations, how can Mr. Stephans claim with a straight face that this Israeli Apartheid system is the fault of the Palestinians themselves? The right of return is a totally legitimate claim in negotiating a peace settlement. Palestinians still have every right to protest for and demand that right. The contested status of Jerusalem also is still a legitimate issue of protest. Capturing a city by wartime conquest does not in any way legitimize its ownership by Israel, as International Law and many UN resolutions have so clearly stated. Israel, by every measure, is an apartheid state. Palestinians dispossessed and/or oppressed by this system have every right to protest against their oppressor (just as Nelson Mandella and black Africans in South Africa did against their racist oppressors). Just as Apartheid ended in South Africa, so will it end someday in Israel/Palestine, and Bret Stephens’ odious and immoral writing will land on the wrong side of history.
9
Here is all you need to know about Bret Stephens: he is more outraged that some poor Gazans looted some greenhouses in 2005 than he is over the Israeli military's murder of 58 unarmed protestors and wounding of literally tens of thousands of people just this week.
If this had happened to anyone but Palestinians -- say, Catholics in Northern Ireland, or Basques in Spain, or Kurds in Turkey -- I can't imagine that Stephens would have been such a craven apologist for the perpetrators of state violence, or that he would have spoken with such cruelty and contempt about people shot to death in an act of unarmed protest. Some of the poorest people in the world have just been gunned down in their thousands for challenging their impoverishment, and Stephens applauds those who fired the guns.
As usual, Stephens would make all Palestinians--he seems not to take too much care in differentiating among them--responsible both for what their leaders do and for what the Israeli military military does. That anyone who respects themselves could call this "reasonable" or "fair," or anything but frankly racist, is just shocking.
This shameless article is unworthy of the New York Times or of any other serious publication.
3
I mean i had to write smthing about this nonsense.
1 - Israel has a right to exist & defend itself. ( Not open to discussion, agree on it 100% )
2 - Hamas is created by Israel. That's for sure.
3- Why don't you stay in your house for a week without power and enough food ? Let's see what would you do ?
4- Protesting is a right for everyone, shooting protesters with live bullets called "murdering innocent people".
What is your solution for a peace ? Nothing!
If this happens anywhere else in the world, Netanyahu/ Thief / Butcher would be considered a war criminal. However, you can consider this as defending his country. Palestinians have rocks and tires against bullets. What you are saying is, they deserved to die ? You should start writing for Maccabi Times at Israel.
3
A sad and disgraceful article written by the misinformed Mr. Stephens. Such a one sided and biased account of the status quo, Stephens already had his conclusion written before he hand picked half-truths and innuendo in a failed attempt to support that conclusion. All we end up with is an Israeli apologist propaganda piece that adds no insight or value to the real issues in the conflict. The sad part is that there are many readers who have been kept ignorant on Israeli-Palestinian issues by soft and biased coverage by American media outlets that some folks many actually fall victim to Stephens' lightweight analysis. NYT can and should strive to be better.
7
One of the benefits of the social media era is that people's eyes are becoming opened to the injustice the Palestinians face. as recently as a decade ago, the only exposure people had to the Israeli Palestinian conflict was through pro Israel legacy media outlets like NYT and CNN. Now we can see videos n social media of Palestinian civilians being shot at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers.
2
Israël set up an industrial zone in 1970, forked greenhouses in 2005,....according to Bret Stephens. He forgot to add that those Palestinians in the Gaza strip are very ungrateful people. They should had thanks their occupiers every day from 1967 to 2005 and now they should be asking the Israelis to maintain the blocus.
Strange world we live in. The victims are now the tormentors with their own prison for a couple of million people called Gaza and stripping people of their freedom and humanity.
2
Yes. This is what Hamas is doing to their people.
The Israelis did a pretty good job of building a country on victimhood. They also blew up the King David Hotel. Aren't the Palestinians following the example of their neighbor next door.
1
If they really wanted to follow THAT example they would have had to drop leaflets to warn of the oncoming bombing...a little detail you forgot to mention.
You seem to be completely ignoring Isreal's role in creating misery for Gazan's and Palestinians in general. It started way back in 1948 with the ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 Palestinians after the destruction of more than 500 villages by Zionist paramilitaries in order to create the state of Isreal. Since then, the Palestinians that remained are treated as second class citizens, similar to the way blacks/african americans were treated during Jim Crow. And Isreal is being disingenuos when they state that peace can't be acheived becauseithe Palestinian Authority won't recognize Isreal as a state. Isreal is actually demanding that it be recognized as a "Jewish" state. Imagine if Saudia Arabia or Indonesia demanded that be recognized as a "muslim" states, or Italy demanded that it be recognized as a "catholic" state?
1
There was no ethnic cleansing with the creation of Israel. Those Arabs who stayed became citizens. They now comprise 20% of Israel’s population. The ethnic cleansing that DID take place was in the West Bank and East Jerusalem where Jews who had been there for centuries were either killed or displaced by Jordan. The Jewish population of THAT area before 1967 was ZERO. THAT is ethnic cleansing.
Those pesky Palestinians. They get thrown out of their homeland and parked on a piece of land from which they can not escape. Basically, this is another South Africa. Park people you do not want as neighbors and let them eat cake.
1
This piece is, plain and simple, a justification for the Israeli 'Defense' Force gunning down 61 young, unarmed Palestinians protesters. Vile stuff.
1
55 were Hamas soldiers
Even for this newspaper, which has of late given up any pretense at journalistic objectivity and metamorphosed into an organ devoted to downplaying Israel's crimes, this article is egregious. The oldest tactic of oppressors who feel the sting of criticism for their misdeeds is to chide their victims for misbehaving. "If only you would behave, cease your protests and do what you are told, everything would be just dandy," say the prison guards of history.
2
Israel is not a democracy. It is a neoliberal ethnic state. It exercises apartheid openly. It brutally punishes dissent. Israeli apologists like Bret Stephens seem puzzled as to why Israel has lost the support of many US and EU citizens: It's not due to antisemitism; it's due to Israel's militarism and myopia. And yes, Gaza is miserable and Israel has made it an open air prison.
"No decent Palestinian society can emerge from the culture of victimhood…"
Well, if one is victimized that's often a pretext for action. Any action that can be had at the time in this case.
Israel comes out of the Zionist movement of the late 19th century. Based on trying to counter victimhood and a desire not to be victims, but rather the architects of Jewish self determination.
It was a reaction to being victims in Europe and other places. And, the mass influx of European Jewish refugees an area that became Israel was accepted as a natural reaction to the mass victimization of Jews in the Holocaust. That victimization awakened the world's conscience and support for the Zionist cause - a homeland for the historically victimized Jewish people.
Palestinians want to leverage their victimization. They see the example of the state next door.
They go about their lives the best they can under very oppressive conditions. Their West Bank economy is good. They are like Israelis - smart, industrious, proud.
The situation is solvable based on well known two state plans that already exist.
"If Palestinians want to build a worthy, proud and prosperous nation, they could do worse than try to learn from the one next door. That begins by forswearing forever their attempts to destroy it."
At least accept, as many honest Israelis do, that their prosperous Jewish nation has its roots in something destroyed - namely a culture that was mostly Arab before the great influx of Jews.
1
Perhaps because scores of Palestinians died yesterday but not a single Israeli was injured?
1
A quick answer to the title of you op-ed...
Because the Israelis have the guns and tanks and the Palestinians do not.
2
Your article reads the way southern racists talked about blacks years back who they blamed for their own poverty, hopelessness, and futility. Like them you mention nothing at all of the living conditions enforced by the Israeli's , nothing about the inability to move freely or even to vote. Yours is a depressing read but follows the script made popular by the current narcissistic leaders of both this country and Israel.
1
Shame on you New York Times, for publishing this opinion piece and succumbing to the overwhelming pro-israel sentiments and falsehoods that have continued to dominate western media and mindshare. This week, of all weeks since 2014, with the killing of innocent Palestinians and the blatant denial of their human rights, you could have finally found the strength and conviction to stand up against the Jewish lobby and call out Israel's atrocities and the United States' hypocrisies. Instead, at this critical juncture, you decide to feature a pro-israel opinion column. You don't have to be Muslim to stand up for Gaza, you just need to be human. Do the right thing.
1
Gaza's miseries have Palestinian authors -- and Israeli publishers.
We can forgive [them] for killing our children. We cannot forgive them from forcing us to kill their children. Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.
-Golda Meir
Bret Stevens is a pro-Israel apologist. Israel has, over the years built many illegal jewish settlements within Palestine. Israel has blockaded Gaza for several decades. Israel attacked Gaza a a couple of years ago to prevent the Palestinians from unifying into one effective government. During that attack, ostensibly to end rocked attacks, 2 Israelis were killed by Palestinian rocket attacks and Israel killed over 2000 palestinian men, women and children non-combatants in retribution. But Bret Stevens blame the Palestinians for the Israeli brutalities. That is the height of dishonesty and immorality.
1
Settlers incursions and wars have quadrupled the Jewish hold on land since 1948. Dominant zionists with their US backed military might are winning and those “inferior “ Palestinians have apparently no one to blame but themselves for their misery. That narrative sounds a lot like Canadians blaming our First Nations for their plight, ignoring decades of disrespect and cruelty, or Americans blaming African Americans for their plight, ignoring the legacy of Jim Crow. I am more and more disgusted by Israel, and the people like Adelman in the states.
Finally someone stating real facts. t would be amazing if Israel had a good PR team that would be able to present simple fact like you did .
1
Actually, Mr. Stephens, the mystery of the Middle East is why Israelis feel they can kill, maim and destroy anyone at any time without repercussions and then blame it on, of course, Hamas. But then, it really is not a mystery as they have the full throated backing of the USA and conservative, Israeli apologists like you. Over two hundred nuclear weapons, one of the world’s most advanced armies and 4 billion dollars a year in US funds to give to the American arms manufacturers of their choice so that they can use their toys on these ungrateful primitive Palestinians who threaten the very existence of Israel with their slingshots and burning kites. Yeah, it is really is unfathomable that the rest of the world doesn’t see things your way.
1
Stephens: "Palestinians looted dozens of the greenhouses almost immediately upon Israel’s exit."
In fact, half the greenhouses were dismantled before the pullout by their *Israeli* owners, because they "[gave] up waiting to see if the government was going to come up with extra payment as an inducement to leave them behind".
Stephens should explain why the Israeli owners expected to get paid and why "the Palestinians [] objected to the settlers being paid extra compensation for leaving Gaza."
Israeli Settlers Demolish Greenhouses and Gaza Jobs
By STEVEN ERLANGER
JULY 15, 2005
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/world/middleeast/israeli-settlers-dem...
At last, the NYT finally comes out with an unequivocal analysis of the current situation putting the blame where it belongs. What took so long?
6
This is merely a typical neocon "analysis".
Why, do you think, is Bret Stephens only starting the history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict in the 1970s rather than two decades earlier?
Because as soon as take the ENTIRE history of the conflict into account, rather than cherry-picking facts, you obtain a totally different picture.
It's not Trump who invented "alternative fact" worlds. It's the neocon Fox News. Stephens simply continuous that tradition of distorting the truth here.
This is simply preposterous. Israel's whole policy with the Palestinians is that they must believe and accept that "they are a defeated people" in a significant Zionist expression. And if they won't accept that verdict, they must be suppressed, subjugated, humiliated, and, if necessary, killed. Who conversant with the truth denies this fact?
6
This is a voice of reason among NY Times' columnists and editorial writers. Violence beget violence. If Palestinians had used non-violent model of protest that was followed by Gandhi and Dr. King to obtain freedom and to oppose injustice, they would have gotten their state long time ago. Unfortunately that is not happening.
5
Many people are unaware that, in fact, Israel helped create Hamas as a counterweight to the secular PLO, led by Yasir Arafat, Israel's mortal enemy for years in the 1970s and 80s.
At this point, Hamas, from its Muslim Brotherhood roots, which Israel once funded, has become the mortal enemy.
In this latest round of violence, what most Americans do not see are the kites that Gazans have been sending into Israel, replete with tails that they lite on fire. These kites land in Israel and cause farmers all sorts of trouble as their crops burn. Then of course there are the many protesters who come to the border fence with wire cutters. The soldiers first warn them to stay back, but many are paid money for their work, so they march on, and of course they get shot. What is the logic to this madness? That Israel will be shamed into ceasing to exist? Many complain about the disproportionate use of force, but how come many don't mention that Hamas is encouraging people, children and women, to risk their lives, in part, because they'd like to give Israel a Pubic Relations black eye.
3
The Palestinians lived on their land with olive groves until Israeli bulldozers mowed down their homes and took over their land. What did Israel expect? And the Israelis are still doing it with their settlements. Watch some documentaries folks.
3
We have to rewind to the UN Partition Resolution in November, 1949. This established a two-state solution, with Arabs getting over half of the remaining Palestine (Britain had given 75% of Palestine (Trans-Jordan, later Jordan) to the Hashemites fleeing the family of Saud from Arabia). and the rest to the Jews. Jerusalem was designated an international city with the UN guaranteeing access for all. The Jews accepted the Partition. The Arab League gave Palestinian Arabs another alternative - if the Jews declared their state under the Resolution, the AL would invade and kill or exile all of the Jews and the Arabs could have the entire state. The Palestinian Arabs declined their 2-state solution and put their faith in their allies pledge to murder all of the Jews. The Jews offered anybody who stayed in Palestine when they declared their state would have citizenship. The AL promised at most a 3-day war & called on all Arabs to evacuate the battlefield until the Jews were dead. They set up "temporary" refugee camps just across the borders. The Palestinians made a tragic mistake, choosing bloody war instead of peaceful co-existence. Half the Arab population fled. Some villages used as bases by Arab terrorists were forced by their neighbors to flee involuntarily. The AL invaded, but the Jews held them off, only Jordan captured the West Bank, Syria the Golan Heights, and Egypt the Gaza Strip & the Sinai.
The refugee camps still exist 70 years later, a testament to a tragic choice.
5
This would be funny if it were not so pathetic. One side has nuclear weapons, drones, power from the strongest country on earth, the other has nothing. God help all of us that think it is all right to kill and blame the victims. I was nauseated seeing Ivanka and hubby celebrating while Israeli soldiers were killing and getting praises for it. And Donald Trump who does not know our history let alone the history of this part of the world clapping and cheering like a mindless puppet. Quite a scene for the ages.
7
Palestinian situation, is an unfortunate secondary result of the WWII Holocaust. Even the Israelis understand the reasons and level of Palestinian resistance.
However, the main culprits are the other Arab nations for not allowing displaced Palestinians to settle in their countries as citizens. Until this happens the pressure cooker in Gaza will continue to boil.
As Bret mentions, Gaza is being blockaded by Egypt, every bit as much as Israel. It is much more reasonable for Egypt to lift it than Israel.
3
When mobilization efforts to enhance an existing opposition front, discourage the enemy from further aggression his allies that contrary to their will and expections the Palestine issue is alive and making considerable progress .....when that is creating a miserable life then the national slogan of the USA should become succumb, bend, accept alien domination, make your enemies efforts more effective than “in God we trust” and pundits of questionable, mostnegative anti human principles, are allowed space in what has Ben the major American mind forming medium ....then it is not only a new American perversion but a conscious effort to uphold anti patriotism and a contentious defeatist attitude is triumphant and will soon deal it the poison it has been advocating. reach America itself and
Deal,it the medicine it has Ben prompting others to,take !
This is an disgraceful opinion piece of absurd bias. These are occupied people subjected to war crimes as they try to fight back - as is their sovereign right.
5
An intelligent, common sense analysis of the current crisis. I'm shocked to see it published in the NYTimes.
Israel needs to be far more ruthless in the defense of their borders. Playing nice with Hamas has won them nothing from the international community.
I have zero sympathy for the Palestinians. Seal the border and forget about them. Stop the "humanitarian aid," it only prolongs the misery.
4
Stephens writes: "Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?" This is nonsense. But more important, it's the language of victimhood - seeing Jewish Israelis as victims, perhaps Jewish Israelis seeing themselves as victims. Right wingers in the U.S., including many Trump voters, also see themselves as victims. Israel is unfortunately in bad company here. Stephens ties it up with a bow.
5
If the Palestinians really want a peaceful solution and their own state, then why has Palestinian leader not yet to come along who will rally his people to use the most powerful weapon available.
The Palestinians need their own Mahatma Gandhi. The road to a lasting peace is non-violent non-cooperation. Only through that means will they gain international respect and sympathy, including that of just-minded Israelis.
Can the Palestinians produce a Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.? Can they renounce hatred and violence? When they can grow beyond an eye-for-an-eye, that is when they will achieve peace and justice.
2
The Palestinians marchers are unarmed protesters marching up to armed soldiers who are shooting them down. If you read Gandhi you will learn that is what he called for when fight back against injustice. He went on to say that it would require great courage. There are now thousands of Gandhis in Gaza.
It is worth noting that the reports in the Times are of about 2000 people shot in the leg. This is not because Israeli
snipers have bad aim, rather the opposite.
3
But you don't shoot unarmed people. Arrest those who cross.
4
Yes, Hamas is a vile manipulative organization. Got it. But, anyone who supports Israel's right to exist (as I do) has to see that this is an unsustainable situation. Israel has choices, however painful. The Palestinians...not so much. It sounds as is Stephens is arguing that Palestinians are inherently incapable of managing the Strip. I'm sure he's confused by African-American anger as well (Gee, why are those black folks rioting and destroying their own neighborhoods? Why can't they act with civility and restraint the way we do in our gated communities?). I believe it is conservatives who keep telling us that a responsible citizenry has to have a personal stake in their own future (how many time have I heard, "No one ever washes a rented car"), that's why The Nanny State is so repugnant to them. Mr. Stephens, The Palestinians have no say, let alone stake, in their future. And, that gives birth to nihilism. As sad and unacceptable as their self-destructive actions are, at least I understand them: they have nothing to lose. What I don't understand is why is Israel bent on its own eventual destruction.
5
The Palestinians have a choice of who represents then. They choose a terrorist organization.
1
This would appear to be a situation that calls for the building of a wall, such as Trump wants on the southern border. Perhaps he can offer his expertise and win another Nobel.
2
Hamas believes in digging tunnels rather than building bridges.
2
A former student who did some project research in Israel about ten years ago came back with this 'joke' making the rounds: A young person was trying to get into an elite military unit. The recruit is told, "OK, first thing is that you have to kill three Arabs and a cat." The recruit says, "Why the cat?" The officer responds, "You're in."
5
Was Mr. Stephens one of Israel's veteran journalists in the past? It would give helpful insight to readers in evaluating his opinion piece to know he held high editorial posts at the Jerusalem Post for several years. In cases of strong advocacy such as his it seems only fair to give the backgrounds of your contributors whether taking the Palestinian or Israeli side.
5
If the world would realize the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, etc Empires are over and there's no such thing as a Palestinian anymore that would be the biggest step towards solving the problem.
2
The Israelis took land away from the Arabs, not the other way around, and continue to do it. Oh, they can explain that? "Because, because, because" --- spare me. In they end the "becauses" are just excuses and rationalizations to justify barbarous behavior by the Israelis.
4
‘Becauses’ are sometimes important. Apparently, you’d rather not want to address the fact that 5 Arab armies invaded Israel with the stated goal of its destruction back in 1948. But they failed, and instead created a refugee problem. They tried again in 1967, failed again, and made the refugee problem even worse AND lost land. That’s what happens in wars. People like you want to make believe that these events never happened.
There's the old Bret!
Now he has two pet peeves anyhow.
2
Wow, I am surprised by the author. I would think you understood or at least know the history prior to writing. Palestine was a named place by the Ottomans. It was on the maps. It existed. There were governors appointed to administrated the region. The Palestinian citizens held and owned property. The Palestinians considered themselves an occupied people by the Ottomans. They considered Palestine their homeland. All this was going on while the European Jewry in the Pale, a region that spanned Poland and Russia were being brutalized by the Russian Empire. The Russians began brutal pograms against their Jewish citizens with the purpose of pushing their Jewish citizens off their land inRussia and Poland. The Russian Jewish citizens then began emigrating to Palestine, it was called Palestine, they called it Palestine. When the Founders of our country (USA) signed the Declaration of Independence they put their lives and fortunes in peril. If the word had existed then, the British would have called them (our revered Revolutionaries) a terrorist organization. If you want to solve a problem dear author you have to actually understand how it came into being. Sometimes you can find the solution in the beginnings.
3
In 1948 Israeli's evicted Palestinians from their homes, homes that had been in their family for at least 14 generations. Even Moshe Dayan recognized that the formation of a Jewish would come as a two edged sword; that the foundation of Israel depended upon the creation of Palestinian refugees. Your colleague, Tom Friedman is right. Israel must choose either a two state solution and thus honor the dignity and integrity of the Palestinians, and vice versa; or be a one state apartheid nation and limit the civil rights of the majority Palestinians in order to keep the façade up as a Jewish state. This unhealthy tension has history going back to the ancient Hebrews entering the Promised Land. One tradition promoted genocide, ethnic cleansing. Another tradition opted for honoring the "sojourner". Ruth, a Moabite, according to one tradition, should not have married Boaz, an Israelite, and should have been killed or at least shunned. Another tradition has Ruth living well in Israel and becoming the great grandmother of King David. All this is to say, there is in the Abrahamic traditions models for peaceful coexistence.
4
Dear Mr. Stephens,
it's not that we don't appreciate the red herring you're throwing at us here. We do. But too bad for us we are capable of critical thinking, have read history, and have been cursed by a propensity to look beyond USraeli news outlets. Nope; we blame the slaughter of civilians by IDF on USraeli policies including the charade known as the Sheldon-Funded-Embassy-Move.
4
Great article. Thank you!
1
When Israel was a nascent, besieged, impoverished state the NY Times supported it. Now that it is wealthy, powerful and a world leader the NY Times decries most of its efforts simply to defend itself as any nation would. This column is a rare exception to that rule. What is the rule? First rule of journalism: "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." But is that rule a program for realistic reporting or just a way to sell papers?
2
There is 1 reality underway humanity had ignored and a proof that the World Com has to fee guilty and embarrassed about : The situation in Yemen.Yesterday's CNN's superb reporting by Nick Walsh will bring a tear to any one with a trace of humanity in him or her.The emaciation of the girl being cradled in her Mom's hand is so extreme compared to it the emaciated child from 74 or 84 famine here looks almost normal sized.Mainly due to Saudi's blockade some 22 Mill Yemenis are severely malnutritioned.The young Gazians attending funerals look well fed with shiny face.While They squander so many Mills and destroy G.Houses that are one of the tools for ensuring Food security Yemenis continue to starve and millions are afflicted with Cholera.How a given people manage the Aid and investment commitment at hand is an indicator of the Gps potential for a stewardship of an additional domain.When Mugabe came to power he unleashed a mob of young crowd on farms, he didn' t bother to be patient until Zimbabweans learn the craft of Modern or mechanized farming, the result is an inflation level beyond the capability of the best Economic Theorists power of abstraction.When a Gp of people r committed to the destruction of their rival only but not the improvement of life to their tribe they end up ruining their life condition.The rush to breach the border is artificially injected reality.Those who rushed to declare Palestinians as victims just have to look at the Yemeni's predicament.TMD.
1
To Defenders of Palestinian Right of Return and Associated Folly:
First, let's give all that land back to Native Americans.
What, in the scheme of things, is the difference between 70 and 200 years?
2
Dr. Tarak Loubani, a Canadian physician, was shot in both legs while standing in plain sight in his hospital greens. Another one of his colleagues was shot dead. Dr. Loubani says it's hard to believe that the Israeli army did not know he was a doctor. There are not enough surgical gloves to treat all the victims, so he has to choose which patients to treat wearing gloves. Not to mention the lack of drugs, all caused by the blockade. His story was on Democracy Now this morning. Although I know it won't change Mr. Stephens's opinion, perhaps he should take a look at it.
1
I suggest that Mr Stephen's Opinion piece should be headed.
Gaza' Miseries Have MANY Authors..!!
(Only SOME of whom are Palestinians).
Now first, we should remember the best advice from Watergate...
"FOLLOW THE MONEY..!!"
I have had the benefit of spending a social time, back in about 1999, with members of the Australian-Israel Chamber of Commerce.
A prominent member was, a certain Mr Joseph Gutnick, who made multi-millions in the 1990's in the early stages of Australian mining boom. He was a strong (early) supporter (financial) of the extreme (!!) right wing & settler groups in Israel. Which have grown to become the political base of the current Prime Minister of Israel.
If anybody wants to understand to goals of the extreme right wing of Israeli politics (currently in power) you should know.....
1. Acrually they see this as a "one hundred year war".
Or longer..!!
2. They will not rest until the state of Israel spreads from "sea to shining sea" ... (Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of Galilee).
3. And the MAIN reason why the Palestinians will NEVER be allowed to have their own state is the off-shore gas fields which run near the shores of Gaza, all the way up to Cyprus.
If the Palestinians in Gaza were given statehood then, like Qater, they could go from being one of the poorest countries on Earth, to one of the richest countries on Earth.
The 1%'ers & billionaires in Israeli society / economy can be relied upon to make SURE that will NEVER happen..!!
1
To paraphrase Golda Meir
“there will be peace when Hamas shows more love for their children than hatred for Jews and Israelis’..
Funny thing about hatred is that it is so viscerally satisfying – it cuts off feelings of pain, desire, longing, fear as compared with love which comes with all the baggage of responsibility, guilt, ambition and a thousand conflicting demands upon the individual
And hatred offers such a satisfying reward if successful in its ends; the destruction of the hated object (Israel, Jews) – its’ so total, so releasing, so clear cut and so immediate
Loves benefits are not so neatly bundled – it can be in the touch of hands, the sight of a babies first steps, the feeling of warmth on ones back from the sun on a chilly day – it gives inspiration but demands effort;
but hate ultimately consumes itself whereas love holds out hope
it would be nice to hear some words of love coming from Hamas leaders for a change with a prescription for sacrifice and forgiveness – then to see how that plays out
4
11 Israelis killed in 34 years in the industrial zone?Likely everyone of them had the same ridiculous disproportionate response.
Those people were throwing stone at the border fence. Over 60 people gunned down for throwing rocks.
Remember the disgusting leg breaking campaign the Israeli Army has been of for decades against rock throwing teens.
One of he most modern technologist militaries in the world stockpiled with American hardware is afraid of rock throwing kids who have lived through decades of 70% youth unemployment. To quote Bob Dylan; "when you got nothing you got nothing to lose."
This is sickeningly apologist. What's happening was the first thing that went through my mind when Netanyahu and his puppet Donald Trump announced moving the embassy. This was a TOTALLY predicable outcome. Netanyahu has ZERO interest in a 2 state solution and keeps handing out poison pills.
5
Many people faulted the SCLC for using high school students in the Birmingham March, in not sticking to the courts, and in turn, exposing children to horrendous brutality, but Bull Connor also could have have decided not to loose the dogs and the water hoses. Would you today argue Martin Luther King and the SCLC brought the violence upon themselves? No more hasbara.
I want to agree, yet there is this interview with Israel's deputy foreign minister and something isn't on the up and up. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswj3v
I'd like to know why the NYT, which up to this point has been rightly critical of the insane and directionless foreign policies (I use the plural advisedly) of Donald Trump, has decided to publish so many unconditionally pro-Israel op-eds.
And I ask a question which I have put out there many, many times before without receiving an answer : What, exactly, are we getting out of our blind support of Israel? What is the trade-off, now that Nasser is so far in the past that most people under 50 or even 60 don't even know who he was, for the amount of support that we give to this country which has been in constant violation of Geneva Conventions for decades now? The only possible justification for it that I can see is to satisfy extreme Christian fundamentalists in this country who believe that the Bible requires the existence of Israel for some sort of divine transaction which is supposed to occur sometime in the future. A lot of us are not extreme Christian fundamentalists and our tax dollars (LOTS of them) are being poured into this country. It is in our national interest for this to stop.
1
Mr. Stephens article is uninformed historically and littered with non-sequitors: to take one, would the right of return, or fair compensation for stolen land, really lead to the destruction of the Jewish State? And is such a state, an increasingly apartheid state, really desirable or morally defensible? Is the maintenance of this state at any cost, no matter how malevolent it may be - and malevolent disregard for human life is what the current massacres demonstrate - some kind of Euclidean axiom?
Mr. Stephen's lack of intelligent reflection in this article, as in his interventions on Iran, may be forgiven him, but the complete lack of moral decency witnessed in this article is a stain upon him.
2
The author of this opinion piece is completely ignorant of the situation if he needs to ask this question. Israel has a powerful military, with full U.S. support and economic and military aid to the tune of billions of dollars every year, and it has occupied Palestinian lands for 70 years while subjecting them to a brutal apartheid-like regime of suppression and control. Palestinians are starving, powerless, hopeless, and completely demonized by the mainstream media while Israel is given every excuse and allowance in it's crimes against the Palestinian people. Bret Stephens is being facetious at best.
Please tell me Israelis do not feel Palestinian miseries. It is humanly impossible not to feel other's pains. The Palestinian misery was non existent 70 years ago. When Jewish people misery was at its peak. The Jewish people then swore they will not allow or participate in the kind of misery they suffered or wish it upon others. Riddled with amnesia, Israelis behave the Palestinian misery is self inflicted. One could say that about Jewish suffering paranoia neurosis etc etc. Children born today among Jewish families carry the trauma in their DNA, that their ancestors suffered. Informally take a count of Jewish descendants currently enrolled in psychotherapy or how many Jews have become psychotherapists themselves or how many have become Buddhists (Jewish teachers are fore runners amongst Western Buddhist teachers). It is most baffling that of all the people in the world the Israelis not just fail to understand human pain, but they also continually contribute to it. Both sides are equally stubborn, it is like 2 brothers fighting without understanding they have the same father.
2
1948: When "outsiders" define your "rights", what else to expect by papering-over centuries of hatred?
Context! It is difficult for any one or any group to claim full purity when engaged in conflict -- but this piece does not see the situation with eyes of justice or mercy. If you starve me for weeks and then hand my weakened bony self a crust of bread, will you call me out for throwing so meaningless a gift back at you?
I'm glad that the NY Times finally has a columnist that tells it like it is. When it turns out the 50 of the 62 deaths were Hamas operatives and others were Islamic Jihad, where are the innocents? No one also mentions that perpetrators are mostly shot in the legs. American law enforcement should do as well.
Keep it up, Bret!
3
Hamas admitted that its cadres were trying to breach the fence to take over land in Israel proper. They threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and burning kites, which have set fields a fire. What are people expecting as a response? Surrender? Let them them come and murder civilians? Like they've done countless times?
3
"Elsewhere in the world, this sort of behavior would be called reckless endangerment. It would be condemned as self-destructive, cowardly and almost bottomlessly cynical."
Elsewhere in the world killing unarmed protestors would be called murder.
Columns like this do nothing but exacerbate the pointless back and forth of blame. It's Israel's fault... no it's Palestine's fault... no, Israel's... no, Palestine's... Israel's... Palestine's... on and on for generations.
The author includes many examples to prove his point, but there are also many examples to "prove" the paletinian's point. The Hatfield's and McCoy's also had examples.
There is likely some truth to the columnist's assertion that some in Gaza promulgate their own misery for a political purpose, and the actions of some Palestinian's was indeed horrible. But taken as a whole this column a pejorative on an entire people.
By taking the actions of a few Palestinians and pinning them to all Palestinians, the author places all Palestinian's and by comparison, all Israeli's in alternating baskets of wholly good or wholly evil. And when it comes to entire groups, races, cultures or religions there is no such thing.
This strikes me as no different than what happened in the Jim Crow south between whites and blacks.
The conflict in Gaza between Palestine and Israel is as old as it is complex. So many lives lost and ruined. So much effort and so many words stilted towards "proving" how one side is perpetually wronged and one side perpetually the wrongdoer.
What a horrible waste of human potential.
Bret asks "Why is nothing expected of Palestinians, and everything forgiven, while everything is expected of Israelis, and nothing forgiven?"
Answer: Because, Palestinians are occupied and Israelis are occupiers. As long as occupation exists, protests and resistance to occupation will exist.
1
The Palestinians are where they are at due to the choices they make. Chosing the terrorist organization Hamas as their representative for example. A terrorist organization that places no value on life. If they want change they need to make different choices.
3
Meanwhile Israel just keeps taking more Palestinian land and building more settlements. The Gaza uprising is just a distraction to keep attention away from the illegal land grab. This has been the Zionist plan since before the Balfour Declaration was made. All the talk of peace is also a distraction. Israel will eventually have every inch of the 'holy' land. They don't care what the world or the Palestinians think of them - they have never paid attention to Geneva Conventions, United Nations resolutions or the World Court. And as long as the United States continues to defend Israel and back them unconditionally nothing will change.
Bad decisions have consequences. Had the Palestinian leadership accepted ANY of the offers made by Israel, they’d have had their own country many years ago. Unfortunately, they’ve made it clear that having their own country is not as important as destroying another.
The author's interpretation of Abu Artema's words is uncharitable at best, and misleading at worst. Abu Artema writes: “We are intent on continuing our struggle until Israel recognizes our right to return to our homes and land from which we were expelled.” The author comments: "His objection isn’t to the “occupation”...It’s to the existence of Israel itself." But this doesn't follow, since it would be possible in theory for Israel to extend full citizenship (and freedom of movement) to all inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank. What might follow is that Israel would cease to be a majority-Jewish state, which Israeli citizens might not want (and perhaps for good reason). But even if this were what Abu Artema is advocating, it is very different from objecting to "the existence of Israel itself".
So what have the recent Israeli governments done to change the cycle?
Mostly nothing. In fact, they have enabled its continuation.
They have undermined Palestinian moderates; they maintain and tightly control an open-air prison for a million+ people. Do they devise empathetic and outreach programs that give sustenance and hope to the people they are displacing?
There are plenty of peace-oriented folks in Israel and many American Jews who are distraught by the lack of imagination this (and our) government has.
I see an apartheid regime and a society without introspection gleefully in support. I see a simplistic old-testament morality that avoids centuries of social and ethical enlightenment.
I see a future of menace and pain.
1
The Israelis gave the Sinai back to Egypt in return for a peace treaty. They more recently gave Gaza back to the Arabs, forceably evicting any Jewish residents who refused to evacuate. The Arabs of Gaza promptly elected the terrorist group Hamas, who ran out the moderate Arab leaders of the Palestinian Administration & set up a dictatorship. Since then, Gaza has been a platform for missile attacks into Israel & daily incursions by terrorist bombers. Hence, the wall between the two countries. Much aid (including from the US) has been sent to Gaza ever since, but Hamas does not use it for their people, but only to buy more weapons. Israel does not totally wall off Gaza. The southern Gaza border along the Sinai is controlled by Egypt, which blockades Gaza just as the Jewish borders are blockaded. Hamas ensures that Gazans live a hopeless existence with no alternative but to invade & destroy their neighbor & claim Israel for themselves. And Israel is condemned after 70 years of a propaganda campaign to blame Israel (but not Egypt...hmmm) for the conditions in Gaza, even as Hamas buys new missiles & shoots them into Israel.
In 1948, the Arab League declared that no Muslim country could give citizenship to Palestinian refugees, leaving them no hope of integration & no hope of a homeland except to destroy Israel.
5
Can someone clarify please, is the site of the massacre an actual international border? Or is it a partition wall, marking out the limit of a completely illegal (in terms of international law) occupation?
Until I read this editorial, I didn’t know the victims could be the authors of their own slaughter. I suppose the Israeli forces on the other side of the barricade were in fact unreal, mere projections of their own existential demons, their urge to self-annihilate, to disappear. I guess, you learn something new every day. Thanks NYT.
To portray Israel as the true victim here is to do a disservice to the thousands of Palestinians whose lives were uprooted when the state of Israel was formed. Is the world to accept that they should live in camps the rest of their lives as well as their children and grandchildren too?
What reason for optimism and happiness do these people have knowing that this is the fate they must accept? If they have no right to self-determination (which is off the table as far as Bibi is concerned) then what name should be applied to this condition other than apartheid? The United States and Israel expects Palestinians to accept, without reservation, second-class citizenship.
Bibi's grand offer has always been "take it or leave it" to the Palestinians. Is it therefore any surprise that they revolt? When the British offered the American colonists the same deal, we all know the answer we delivered. Why should we expect the Palestinians to do any less than we did?
And, Bunker Hill had American Authors.
What a grotesque apology for Israeli brutality and oppression. I am always still amazed at the cynical and vile strategy of "blaming the victim" (a technique Israel has used over and over). After 50 years of land confiscation, massacres, murder, mass incarceration, disproportionate use of force, walls, checkpoints, economic terrorism, border closings, collective punishment and daily human rights violations, how can Mr. Stephans claim with a straight face that this Israeli Apartheid system is the fault of the Palestinians themselves? The right of return is a totally legitimate claim in negotiating a peace settlement. Palestinians still have every right to protest for and demand that right. The contested status of Jerusalem also is still a legitimate issue of protest. Capturing a city by wartime conquest does not in any way legitimize its ownership, as International Law and many UN resolutions have so clearly stated. Israel, by every measure, is an apartheid state. Palestinians dispossessed and/or oppressed by this system have every right to protest against their oppressor (just as Nelson Mandella and black Africans in South Africa did against their racist oppressors). Just as Apartheid ended in South Africa, so will it end someday in Israel/Palestine, and Bret Stephens’ odious and immoral writing will land on the wrong side of history.
1
Yes, as Israel keeps saying, as well as every abuser to their victim: "You see what you made me do?"
There are many factual and logical errors in this article.
First, Gaza was never free. It was never in control of its borders and had its airport destroyed.
“In 2007, Hamas took control of Gaza in a bloody coup … .”
This is the single biggest lie that everyone is repeating. There was an election in 2006 which Hamas won with 58% of the seats. Bush & Israel refused to accept the results and forced Abbas to dissolve the parliament and rule by emergency decree, which he did.
This continues till date.
Bush worked with a Fatah strongman, Dahlan, to seize power in the strip via a coup. Arms were supplied to Dahlan but he lost the coup attempt. All the US arms were confiscated by Hamas and the coup leaders were made to “walk the plank”. The coup was initiated by Bush & Fatah and they lost not other way around.
“Want to understand why Gaza is so poor? See above.”
No. It is the lack of a functioning economy, destruction of its airport and lack of trading capabilities.
“We are intent on continuing our struggle until Israel recognizes our right to return to our homes..”.
What happened in 1948 was, in part, ethnic cleansing and, in part, fear of war. Whatever it may be, the property is not lost. Israel should either give compensation of allow them to come and resettle.
“The world … without offering a single practical alternative ....”
The world wants either a one state or two state solution.
Your comments on Hamas can apply to any independence struggle including our own.
1
What kind of person could take a sniper rifle loaded with fragmenting bullets and deliberately shoot a child in the leg?
2
Israel is held to a higher standard because they claim to represent a higher standard.
And they have a complete monopoly on power and force in regards to the Palestinians.