I think it is very helpful to remember why Palestinians unleashed this wave of blatant attacks on Israeli civilians. I think the murders intensified when Arafat did not accept Israeli offer for a comprehensive peace deal. Instead of making counter offer, they decided to unleash a wave of murder of innocents. I believe they particularly favored murdering young Israeli women of child bearing age.
I actually gave credit to Israelis and Mr. Natanyahu for continuing to negotiate with Palestinian murderers before the current impasse.
Reading this article, I am continue wondering why the UN, American and European left are so worried about Palestinian rights and the lack of progress in negotiations. Palestinians are getting what they deserved. All they need to do is stop their campaign of murder and start accepting realistic offers.
At the same time both American and US left do not seem to care about genocides in Africa, Cypress, Tibet, Chechnya, etc.
I can only conclude that Israel is targeted because it is a Jewish state...
Sure. No word on millions of Palestinians who were driven out of their homes. No word on tens of thousands killed by Israel.
65
But...how many Palestinians were killed during that time of the first and second intifadas? Let alone since then... are they not human? Let's not start with expropriations, etc...
Whatever the name of that land, why should it pay for the unforgivable crimes of the Nazis.
The 'Jews' -- the victims -- should have been given Bavaria.
41
Eliminate US-ISRAEL dual citizenship and we'll see how fast any of this makes sense...
25
So the saying goes, "Those who displace others from their land, are bound to live in terror."
36
I was done with the Palestinians after Munich.
40
I believe a few innocent Palestinians children were killed since 2000, too - or is that fake news. 750.000 were driven from their homes in 1947-48? I hear that "Bibi" bombed Syria again today - that should get him a few votes - don`t you think?
38
The only people who have forgotten are the college professors who support the BDS movement in the USA. No one else has forgotten and this is why there will be no more land for peace or a 2 state solution. Once the Palestinians decided to target Israeli civilians in Israel proper, their hopes for independence blew up with the bombers. The Jews are very much like Sicilians - if you kill Jewish civilians, then the Jews will collectively respond in kind with far more ferocity and lethal efficiency than that of their enemies and the Jews like Sicilians and Corsicans never forget or forgive. The 2 state solution died but no one told Bernie and other kooky Democrats and J Street who have no idea what it is like to watch mass murder occur daily in the name of Jihad against the Jews.
49
In describing the fear and violence of this period Friedman has cherry picked from history and so writes only propaganda in support of continuing violence and oppression of Palestinians. It’s just sad that it passes for most at its face value.
43
We only call it “terrorism” because we fail to understand the language of the oppressed.
History will not be on Israel’s side (unless those crackpot apocalypse-fetishists in the GOP turn out to be correct *shudder*).
29
Jews have long memories. Almost as bad as the Balkan memories. And it clouds thinking. Mind you, lots of Israelis have moved to Germany, so perhaps managing memories is possible.
6
This is too silly. The Palestinians had a choice of being strangled slowly or quickly. The Europeans simply have to stop the colonialization.
20
This is right-wing propaganda, pure and simple! "The attacks, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, ended hopes for a negotiated peace and destroyed the left"??? Are you for real? It is precisely due to dwelling on terror attacks in the past that Netanyahu and his corrupt, blatantly anti-Palestinan administration have been able to stay for so long. How can the author write about "repressed memory" when Israel has been using terrorism as a pretext to quash dissent--and there is a very active Left in Israel, excuse me--and treat Palestinians as sub-human?
50
“Mr. Netanyahu declares in an election ad that ‘in the stormy Mideastern sea we’ve proven that we can keep Israel an island of stability and safety,’”
What Netanyahu doesn’t say is the the Israel Defense Forces; the security service, Shin Bet; the foreign intelligence service, the Mossad all know their jobs, and have been doing them for decades. And that they have been steadily and methodically improving their methods year after year, which is why there has not been a suicide bombing in Israel in eleven years.
What Netanyahu will not say, what h can never say is that the professionalism from, and improvements in Israel’s security system has nothing to do with who sits in the Prime Minister’s office; had Ehud Barak, or any other Labor politician been at the head of government, things would be the same. The “Iron Dome” missile defense system did not spring from Benjamin Netanyahu’s forehead, it was devised by professionals in the military and technology industries.
The only thing affecting the operation of the country’s security apparatus is political interference from the prime minister’s office, is something Netanyahu has engaged in steadily, if not relentlessly. Add that to the secret payments he has been taking from developers in exchange for his annexation of Palestinian West Bank land and you have a picture of someone who rivals Trump in his self-aggrandizement, greed and threat to the country he is charged with serving.
26
The IRA were deemed terrorists. How can you be a terrorist fighting for what was taking from you? Not one single Catholic ever took up arms because they wanted to or felt like it, they did so in response to violence enacted upon them. We are excellent at humanizing violence perpetrated against us, less so when it's perpetrated in our name.
18
Netanyahu sees himself as going down in history as Israel's great protector. In the end he will be recognized as the leader who took Israel down the path of self-destruction.
27
Even more influential in destroying the Israeli left has been the takeover of Gaza by Hamas in 2007, and their use of that land, with assistance and funding from Iran among others, as an unrelenting terror base from which thousands of missiles have been fired into Israeli civilian populations. Israel handed Gaza, which it had occupied in 1967, back to the Palestinian Authority voluntarily in 2005, without any reciprocal demands, in the hope of spurring the peace process — and received only increased violence and insecurity in return. Jewish Israelis don't feel they have the luxury of being taught lessons twice: one mistake and they lose everything. And what Gaza has taught them is what they can expect if they return the West Bank: an even bigger, nastier terror base, directly connected to Iran via Iraq and Jordan or Syria, surrounding Jerusalem and a stone's throw from Tel Aviv. So until a genuine, credible peacemaker emerges on the Arab side, and until the extremist rejectionist front is erased, there can be no peace deal, and the Israeli right will prevail.
44
This is far too tragic and serious a subject to be discussed without at least some effort to be impartial. Mr Friedman describes these attacks as if they took place in a void. In fcat the context was crucial. The bomb blast in the Sbarro pizzeria was a direct response to the killing of eight Palestinians, including two children, in the town of Nablus a week before. The Zion Square bombing in December 2001 followed the deaths of five young school children in the refugee camp of Khan Younis, killed by a booby-trap bomb which the IDF admitted (see Haaretz, 23 November 2001) it had set. The 'one thing no Israeli wants to discuss' or at least which Mr Friedman doesn't choose to discuss is that the death-toll at that point in the civil strife was about 500 Palestinians and 150 Israelis.
38
Violence is the worst negotiating strategy. Ask the Taliban. Unfortunately, movements almost always attract n'er do well crazies prone to over the top violence. Undisciplined, good-intentions are a road to nowhere.
4
Powerful stuff, and illuminating too, but Mr. Friedman does not address the question of why all those Palestinians were willing to sacrifice themselves to murder Israelis. Repressed memory works both ways.
24
The NYT featured a documentary a few months ago called Natural Born Settlers. The Tekoa settlement has been there since 1977 and the documentary interviews the, now adults, who were raised there. It was good to watch it because I learned some people living there have a positive attitude about changing the status quo.
Natural Born Settlers https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/opinion/israel-settlements.html
4
The fear campaign that rightists love to use to terrify the population into voting for them.
Be afraid of the others be they brown, yellow, red or not exactly like us. I will save you from the others whilst fleecing the treasury.
How many times are people going to fall for this? A neighbor of mine hid in her house when I knocked on her door at 1 in the afternoon. I was walking my dogs with my brother when he had a seizure. I needed help. At least she didn’t shoot me through the door, I know her husband has several guns.
I talked to her about this, she didn’t know it was me, wouldn’t even look out a window. I told her living in fear is not living. I also told her to forget getting another favor from me, I’ve done numerous things for her without her asking. No more.
7
As a Jew, I will never forget the evil deeds of our enemies past present and future. More importantly, I will never understand the mentality of those who ultimately want the Jewish people to give up the integral identity of Israel as a Jewish State.
28
How many Palestinians have died in the same time period? About an order of magnitude more than the occupiers l would guess, and an enormous portion of them children. One cannot be an Israeli and and an "innocent" victim.
18
Great article & explanation. But Vox provides a more objective (and therefore much needed) account: “The second, and far bloodier, intifada grew out of the collapse of the peace process in 2000. Negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat broke down, and the intifada began shortly afterwards. Typically, Israelis blame a conscious decision by Arafat to turn to violence for the intifada’s onset, while Palestinians point to an intentionally provocative visit to the contested Temple Mount by Israeli politician (and soon to be Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon. While both Arafat and Sharon played some part, the central cause was likely a basic mistrust between the two sides that made war inevitable after peace talks broke down.
“The spark that lit this powder keg was a series of Palestinian demonstrations that Israeli soldiers fired on. Palestinian militants subsequently escalated to broader violence, and the PA refused to rein them in.
“Unlike with the first intifada, Palestinian tactics centered on suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and sniper fire — which Israel met with even deadlier force. The conflict petered out in 2005, but not before about 1,000 Israelis and 3,200 Palestinians were killed.” See https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080066/israel-palestine-intifadas-first-second
10
So you get your political analysis from movies? Movies tell a story; reality is more complicated.
9
The European nations from which the majority of today’s Israelis emigrated from would gladly welcome them back, knowing it would make them and the world a safer place. A religious cult trying to recreate a nation that hadn’t existed for 2000 years sounds worse than one that tried to recreate a caliphate that ceased to officially exist in 1924.
6
reactions to the 2nd intifada:
The Israeli right wing nationalist and clericalist political leaders fomented anger, hatred and calls for revenge.
Palestinian civil society reined in their political leaders and began the non-violent BDS campaign.
Israel continues to repress political dissent. oppress the Palestinians, expand the settlements, destroy Palestinian homes, and make the Occupation permanent. No biased memories of the past can justify the Occupation or the devolution into a fascist state.
13
Israeli propaganda, much? What was happening to the Palestinian civilians at this time? Are bombings by an official military force any less traumatic? Both sides are responsible for carnage, civilians on both sides suffer, and the victims are all human beings regardless of whether they are Israeli or Palestinian.
9
The other thing no Israeli wants to discuss - 357 people killed on roads in 2015; European report also points to worrying spike in Israel.
1
Apart from this Likud partisan fluff (am I going to be accused of anti-Semitism for saying that here?), I often wonder what a Palestinian might say in this same space so graciously provided by NYT.
What American can ever forgive Netanyahu's snub of President Obama--addressing the GOP congress and dissembling behind our president's back?
It was cowardly, offensive and un-American. Had Hillary Clinton done the same thing in Israel when she was Sec State--addressing Israel's Liberal Coalition in a openly partisan attempt to sway the Israeli parliament--Bibi and his Likud would have literally exploded with contempt and threat.
14
The author neglects several important points beginning with the occupation and oppression of the Palestinians that began in 1967.
He neglects to discuss the brutality of that occupation that led to the creation of Hamas. He neglects the first Intifada where almost every death was that of Palestinians and where Yitzak Rabin had ordered the Israeli military to break the arms of every stone thrower. He neglects the fact that during the failed Oslo talks Israel continued to build its illegal settlements and during that time attacks on Israelis dramatically dropped as Palestinians hoped that the Oslo talks would bring the freedom that Israel had denied them and still denies them. Furthermore he neglects to write of the deliberate provocative move by Ariel Sharon who with 1000 police and military walked on the Al Aksa mosque. Sharon knew full well that his walk would provoke reaction from Palestinians who predictably threw rocks at the Israelis whose military fired at the Palestinians. Before even one Israeli was killed in a suicide bombing, the Israelis had killed 84 Palestinians.
Some context is in order.
22
The Israelis have been fending off terrorist attacks, rocket attacks, and full-fledged invasions for decades.
The price they have paid for defending themselves is to be singled out for relentless political attacks.
Most of us Americans used to see the violence on the evening news -- if we saw it at all -- as remote events in the far-off Middle East. We watched while enjoying peace and security at home, while thinking something like "better them than us."
But with all of the countless mass shootings and other acts of right-wing, white supremacist terrorism that have been plaguing us lately, along with occasional Islamic extremist attacks, we're getting a taste of the kind of awful, unpredictable violence that the Israelis have always had to endure.
Maybe it's helping us to understand them a little better. Maybe it's just making us more intolerant and insecure.
Either way, it's getting harder to pretend that we have all the answers and if they would just do what we tell them, they would be living in peace and harmony with their neighbors and the Palestinians would have a happy little state of their own.
And maybe it's getting harder to pretend that we can bribe the Palestinians into settling for less than they've always demanded, or that we can boycott the Israelis into believing that bombings, rocket attacks, and existential threats are acceptable.
Maybe Middle East peace ain't so simple after all.
Jared, are you listening? No?
534
@Ken
Your patronizing tone in things like “a happy little state of their own” makes your stance on accommodating a Palestinian state fairly clear.
Not quite sure what white domestic terrorism in our country has to do with a religious war that’s being going on for centuries, but sure.
I can agree however that clearly Israel dehumanizes the Palestinian population just as much as the Palestinians disregard Israeli lives - and that we have no right to meddle either in either direction.
19
@Ken Jared never listens he is like a dummy, although a rich one.
13
@Ken Have you ever considered that Palestinian violence occurred due to Israeli occupation? That the violence was a result of Israeli violence towards Palestinians, that have killed thousands more Palestinian civilians than Israelis?
32
A one-sided perspective of a specific time-period seeking to inflame Israelis into supporting Netanyahu. The thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians killed by the Israelis are never mentioned. Israeli raids killed thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians that never equates to Israeli casualties who somehow are more "precious" than Arab lives.
We can keep recounting the past with the killings on both sides but it only avoids looking for a just solution. Let us move forward to help avoid future deaths on all sides. More violence and wars will never lead to peace. Such articles are inciting hatred and more violence under the pretense of studying the impact previous Israeli deaths.
23
@Munir
Omar and Tlaib conveniently NEVER mention Hamas's role in Palestinian attacks on Israel.
But, yes, let's not focus on that..it's all Israel's fault.
Nonsense
15
Here we go again. Israelis are only victims. Mr. Friedman does not mention the Occupation of the West Bank since 1967. The Occupation is also a form of violence which if anything is getting worse the longer the Occupation lasts. Yes terrorism is horrible, but by the author not mentioning the wider context he is being disingenuous. Both Israelis and Palestinians play the victim card. But victims can also be perpetrators. If we are going to ever to resolve this conflict both sides need to be honest. Mr. Friedman's article is not a step in that direction.
30
@Harry Perkal, I disagree. This article is a step in the process of reconciliation. It is a statement in the direction of being honest about the fear that is driving political support for policies that are otherwise unsupportable, unjustifiable. And as he says in the article, it is the failure to speak of this time that gives it power in the national psyche of Israel. Clearly then, speaking of this time is the first step towards a change in politics.
9
@Harry Perkal.. and who had control of the West Bank prior to 1967? And why pray tell did the Israelis end up taking the West Bank in 1967? No one said the Israelis are only vicitms. You heard what you wanted to. It's an opinion piece and it is describing part of the Israeli narrative. This is important because you need to hear both sides to understand. The Palestinian narrative is basically THE narrative in Western media.
25
@Harry Perkal
Yeah...let’s talk about the ‘occupation’. Jordan illegally occupied the territory after they perpetrated war against Israel in 1948...renaming it ‘the West Bank’.
Jordan thought that they’d have another go at destroying Israel in 1967, but lost both the war and the occupied territory. So, in fact, the illegal occupation actually ended in 1967.
21
Another topic few want to discuss...1948-1949 (the “catastrophe” or Nabka, as Palestinians call it) that was the ethnic cleansing of Palestine when 400 Palestinian villages were destroyed, over 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes by Irgun and Stern gangs, and thousands murdered. Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian with access to archival material tells this story in his book, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”, that few Americans know or have read. These events begin to explain how the grandchildren of those Palestinians could possibly strap a bomb, no matter how horrific an act, on themselves and walk into a cafe or onto a bus 50 years later after so much frustrating injustice. No revenge is justified, but the full story needs telling.
26
An equal number of Jews were forced to flee from their homes in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, and Turkey. Their property was taken without reimbursement and they moved on with their lives. The Palestinians should do the same.
21
If we’re talking “full story” here, what about the two state solution the Palestinians rejected in 1948?
16
Where is the evidence? There are documented 31 massacres of Palestinians during that time: Little chance of any walking away there.
5
"That’s his strongest card, and if he wins, that will be why. The scenario we’re afraid of is clear even if it doesn’t have a name."
I learned something new about Israel. I was actually flabbergasted because Israelis keep electing a cruel as well as a criminal leader. Maybe this is the reason.
8
I have never visited Israel, although I have wanted to many times. I have many friends there and from there who encourage me to do so for the same reasons that the tour guide in "Born in Jerusalem..." does. MY question then was "What of the bombings and terror attacks"? Their answer was "No problem; WE know when they're going to happen and how to avoid them".
That always seemed illogical to me and I would answer: "If you know this, how is it that so many Israelis are slaughtered by them?" SILENCE.
The answer MUST be peace, and that will never happen while THIS United States is involved. Trump and his clan are not honest intermediaries - they have their own agenda and it is neither in the best interest of Israel nor the U.S. There is no plan, no structure, no desire to see peace (unless, of course, Trump could get a Nobel Prize for yet another fraud.
This constant war will never end or come to a peaceful conclusion without honest arbiters - and neither Trump nor Netanyahu qualify. I would suggest Emanuel Macron or the PM of New Zealand.
7
What you call terrorists and terror attacks, those of us Jews who believe in an end to the Occupation and to the racism rife in a state for 'only one peoples' call 'freedom fighters', and a desperate people seeing their land, dignity, and future stolen from them - where even non-violent protests are countered with live ammunition.
End the occupation, end the land theft and racialist policies and that will end the 'terror.'
25
@LittlebearNYC Israel does not occupy Gaza, just blockades it, and pulling out the border settlement resulted in thousands of rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel with only the occasional ceasefire, which is usually broken by the Gazans. As for the West Bank and East Jerusalem, you forgot that it was occupied by Jordan for almost 20 years, during which time Jordan expelled all the Jews. I don't recall Jordan ever being called "occupiers" and they were never punished in any way for the expulsion. In addition, nearly all the Jews living in other Middle Eastern countries were expelled and their property taken. But you don't see Jews killing civilians in retaliation. Finally, when 30,000 protesters gather at a border, try to break through fencing, send incendiary devices over the border, and occasionally shoot at Israel soldiers, I would not call such protests "non-violent."
26
Let's take this one step further. The danger of Israel-bashing for the anti-Israel crowd, apart from its inherent dishonesty and bigotry, is that it allows the political forum to be occupied by those who can point to the obvious flaws in the distorted picture the former paint, and, because objective assessments are replaced by partisan ideologies, the latter are then free to bring in more than a few flaws of their own, courtesy of the dishonesty made standard practice by the former. Political discourse is corrupted, facts are replaced by "talking points," and parties simply become mausoleums of received doctrines. The problem for those who support Israel is actually the same, because when flaws go unchecked, disaster lies in wait. In an earlier era, Netanyahu was a mediocre leader. After all, he let Hebron, City of the Patriarchs, fall into chaos. Today, he may be "king" because of his security credentials, but he is also exceedingly corrupt and, ironically (by following the logic of Israel's adversaries), has wrought inestimable damage on Israel by turning support of Israel into a partisan issue in the U.S. Has he helped Israel? By increasing internal security, Yes. By making Israel a matter of partisanship in the U.S., certainly not. The lesson bears repeating in the U.S., where the same pathologic splitting of every political discussion into us/them rather than right/wrong, helpful/harmful allows corruption to come to high office with impunity for some and danger for all.
7
Well, history didn't start in 2001. There were settlements before 2001 and settlements after 2001. There were massacres of Palestinians in '48.
So let's have some proper context. Why does Israel insist on settlements in the West Bank? it started before 2001 and continued after; so, the answer can't be something that happened in 2001.
20
@PNBlanco. In 1948, the term Palestinian referred almost always to Jews but I'm guessing you did not know that. Perhaps you also missed the recent commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the massacre and complete destruction of the Jewish community there as well.
Under your scenario, the ethnic cleansing of Jews committed by the Arab forces of Egypt and Transjordan are to be enshrined as the baselines for any peace. Why should Arab rejection of all Jewish rights (and history) in the historical homeland of the Jewish people be celebrated and supported?
Put a bit differently, the question should not be why do the Jewish people deserve a state in a part of their ancestral homeland, but why must all the region’s other indigenous people be deprived of their own state just because the Arabs want to restore 100% of their former imperial conquests in the region that were lost to the Turks hundreds of years previously and liberated by British force of arms by 1918?
13
The fact remains that the Israeli government had killed and wounded far, far more Palestinian men, women and children civilians compared to Israeli deaths at the hands of Palestinians. Terrorism is terrorism, whether from a bomb planted in a neighborhood or from a missile or jet-dropped bombing. Both are indefensible. Cessation of terror attacks in Israel is not due to Netanyahu; that's primarily the result of policy changes by Palestinian groups and better Israeli security. All that Netanyahu has done is to play on the fear and anxiety of Israeli Jews. He actually encourages the most reckless and violent elements of Palestinian resistance to once again, commit acts of terror as a depraved payback for Palestinian oppression.
21
@Paul from Oakland. You do know that a substantial majority of Palestinian Arab death are combatants while the overwhelming number of Israeli dead are civilians, so why advance a demonstrably false claim.
In fact, the IDF rules of engagement are so strict that virtually every Western military agency is concerned that they are and will be unable to match Israel's record in future asymmetric warfare where the opponent deliberately follows the Hamas and Hezbollah strategy of hiding among the civilian population and structures (mosques, hospitals and schools being the least of it).
Ignoring these realities and pretending this is a simple number game where lack of parity "proves" one side's brutality plays right into the Hamas and Hezbollah strategy, making the problem grow for all. Do you support the Taliban's tactics? Whom do you imagine they mimic?
20
It's amazing reading a piece like this that doesn't even mention that there were at least three times as many Palestinian civilians killed by Israelis as Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians. The total Israeli civilian death toll was about 700. The Palestinian civilian death toll was in the low thousands.
And hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed before the suicide bombing campaign started.
After the Second Intifada, there were two major wars in Gaza where thousands more Palestinian civilians were killed. 500 children died in 2014.
This doesn't justify terrorism, but what many Westerners don't seem to grasp is that the West is guilty of terrorism, often on a larger scale than that of our enemies. Israel wouldn't even be a majority Jewish state without dozens of massacres of Palestinian civilians back in 1948.
So, fine, I think it is good to revisit past atrocities, but what this post is really about is justification for Israeli brutality. Israel doesn't even try to hide its lack of interest in Palestinian rights, so along comes Matti Friedman to tell us that it really isn't their fault. It's trauma. Well, if trauma is an excuse for bad behavior, the Palestinians are the bigger victims here.
41
@Donald.. Palestinians massacred Jews many times prior to 1948. In fact Israel would probably have always been majority Jewish state had it not been for all the expulsions, exiles, massacres, and prevention of return perpetrated against the Jewish people for 2000 years. The Jews were treated as 3rd class citizens in the middle east by the Muslim population. Learn some history before you start barking nonsense.
24
@Donald
There were more Japanese and Germans who were killed during WW2. Does that fact absolve them of responsibility as the perpetrators?
15
@Biz Griz
> In fact Israel would probably have always been majority Jewish state had it not been for all the expulsions, exiles, massacres, and prevention of return perpetrated against the Jewish people for 2000 years.
Except for all those Jews who converted to Christianity and later to Islam. You know, the Palestinians.
1
Imagine how horrible it would be if the casualties were ten times greater or more, if hospitals were attacked, if you were locked in and supplies were constantly cut. Imagine if it wasn't the memory of your younger self, but only a few years ago or less...
And that's the Palestinian not so very repressed memory.
Casualties are against civilians on both sides, and the cold hard reality is that massively more Palestinians are hurt and killed. This is just the eternal war cry - which both sides utter:
"Remember-The-Atrocity-Committed-Against-Us-Last-Time-That-Will-Excuse-The-Atrocity-That-We're-About-To-Commit-Today! And So On!" - Terry Pratchett
21
There is one thing in common with all right wing politicians and movements: They all need problems far more than they need solutions. In fact, solutions are anathema to them.
Those who are willing to cede liberty for security will find they have neither.
Only Israelis can choose if they will have an apartheid democracy, a two state solution, or find a solution that doesn't involve a full time war footing.
Americans shouldn't have to foot any part of the bill that allows corruption like Netanyahu to remain in power.
17
This is such an important perspective. I'm a liberal American Jew who finds Netanyahu and much of what he stands for reprehensible. Fine. Good for me. But I never forget the "American" part of this description. I don't live in Israel. I'm not in the cross hairs. I don't put my life on the line every day so there can be a Jewish state. Israelis do. And so, ever mindful of this moral equation, I moderate my criticism and try to understand.
The key part of this description, easy to overlook, is that the Palestinian suicide bombing actually escalated the more intensively the Israeli left, then in power, sought peace. This escalation tracked the same dynamic the Irish suffered from with the IRA -- an IRA which tutored the Palestinians in bomb making and terrorism. Underlying this dynamic of escalation was a stark, albeit little discussed, reality: "liberation" struggles which go unrealized for many years, like the IRA and Fatah, turn over time into businesses -- with vested interests, with people making money from the conflict, with comfortable livings which would be destroyed by peace. This is why the prospect of peace -- for many years in Northern Ireland and still in Israel -- ignites terror calculated to destroy it.
7
Well yes, it's true. But what Mr. Friedman doesn't talk about is what triggered the "inexplicable" bombings. Sharon on the Temple Mount, after the collapse of the Barak/Clinton peace plan, rubbing it in to the Palestinians. The politicos of the homegrown Palestinian Intifada generation had been waiting for over a decade for the impasse between the Palestinians and Israel to end with some kind of agreement.
Sharon on the mount was the moment when it became clear to everyone—Israelis and Palestinians— that it wasn't going to happen. It would be good if Israelis could recall that repressed memory as well as the bombings. Like Joseph said to Pharaoh, the two are one.
Defeating Netanyahu is more likely to increase the chance for peace rather than a return to more terror. My hope is that both Netanyahu and Trump will soon be just bad memories.
6
I think this is an important column and correct as far as it goes. However, does Mr. Friedman or anyone else believe one nation can occupy and brutalize another without incurring a violent response? Peoples are entitled to fight for their liberation against an occupier and oppressor BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, and that includes terror if they have no alternatives. Mr. Friedman seems utterly clueless about and indifferent to the sufferings of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis, and how those sufferings led directly to the Second Intifada. He and those he speaks for need to understand that "No justice, no peace" is not just a slogan.
4
Living in the west but feeling this history deeply, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. When will the armchair generals wake up? Every terrorist has a "reason". They hate the west as much as they hate Israel, and target British, or American, or French citizens, just as indiscriminately as they target Israelis. But no, when it comes to Israel, it's for political reasons; when it comes to Israel, those reasons are legitimate; when it comes to Israel, as Cherie Blair said, people can "see where they're coming from".
Still waiting for that other shoe to drop.
6
Security has nothing to do with a mentality that possession of certain land by one people is ordained by the Almighty and thus a people that stands opposed to His will is collectively apostate and devoid of the right to full membership in the human race; a view not dissimilar from that of a religious cult that foresees the return of Jesus of Nazareth, and with that event one last chance, on pain of eternal damnation, for those who didn't accept Jesus as the Messiah two millennia ago, to correct and foreswear their alleged apostasy. That being said, looking at the history where good faith attempts at compromise were met with more rather than less violence, one wonders how the minds worked in those who recruited, indoctrinated, trained, and equipped the suicide bombers. Was conciliation and compromise seen as weakness, as cowardice, to be exploited? Or was there nothing more than a petty, vain, personal fear of becoming irrelevant should an accommodation be achieved?
1
The talking point that the Palestinians (Arabs, Muslims, etc) don’t accept Israel’s right to exist would have a lot more force if Israel accepted Palestine’s right to exist. Too many talking points here, not enough honesty and integrity.
6
If Friedman viewed Palestinian life as he does Israeli life, he would have established historical context. Israel has wantonly brutalized and denigrated Palestinian life for years prior to these bombings. Both sides are wrong to brutalize but this piece makes it seem like only Israeli life is capable of fully registering the trauma of brutality.
8
The issue of terror against inhabitants is skewed to preposterous degrees when discussing Israel and Palestine. Israeli terrorism comes in many forms: demolition of homes, confiscation of land, live ammunition on demonstrators. But where is the coverage of these atrocities? The difference is that Israeli terrorism is carried out by a government with the assistance of the United States. While Israelis can build walls and purchase weapons of mass destruction, Palestinians resort to bombings. Both are terrorism, both are wrong and both lead to further resentment and hostility that get passed down to future generations. If you can't see that both sides perpetuate this cycle of violence, then you're part of the problem.
5
The two-state solution already exists....called Jordan and Israel. Let’s not pretend that Jordan isn’t the de facto Arab Palestinian state situated upon 80% of the territory that was historic Palestine....and 100% Judenfrei.
What the Arabs want is a three-state solution....but only as a prelude to a one-state solution, with Israel destroyed. Is there any doubt that Arabs are still trying to win the war they started 70+ years ago...and lost? Israelis aren’t going to risk annihilation to satisfy your curiosity vis a vis that question.
8
"The scenario we’re afraid of is clear even if it doesn’t have a name."
While I appreciated your analysis and the clear memory of the Arabs killing us despite willing to give up substantial land, he story is much larger, and so are the memories.
Before I was drafted into the Israeli army, I worked at Richie's Pizza on King George Street in Jerusalem. Before the Internet, Richie's was the main "gateway" by which Jews traveling through the country found each other. Everyone posted messages on the Pizzeria bulletin board.
Anyway, hardly a week went by in the 1970s and 80s when the Arabs did not leave a greeting card in the form of a bomb in a trashcan, a booby trapped toy in the hope a child would pick it up, a refrigerator packed with explosives in the middle of Zion Square. The Arabs always made walking around Jerusalem exciting and reminded every Jew how fragile life could be for us only a generation after the Holocaust.
I agree that the wave of suicide bombings in the early 2000s were deadly and changed Israeli public opinion.
But the other story is how the Israeli public pursued peace despite the constant and never ending terrorism directed against every Jew during the decades before Arafat was allowed to burrow his way into Ramallah.
I am proud of a People who pursue peace despite their enemies worst intentions.
8
There were far more Palestinian deaths than Israeli during this time. So the question is why would Palestinians do this?
The answer is the 50 years from the founding of Israel to the Intifada. The Palestinian issue was not resolved for a half century. This resulted in generational hopelessness. You cannot negotiate with anyone who has no hope. Negotiation is always about trading today for a better tomorrow. I someone does not believe tomorrow can be better, negotiation is hopeless.
Israel is trapped. A two state solution is unacceptable to Israeli hardliners, and would put a very resentful neighbor on Israel's border. A single state solution would require giving rights to Palestinians, which would dilute, if not overturn, Israel's jewish focus. A single state solution without full rights would immediately be equated with apartheid, and would result in international sanctions. At this point, no obvious path forward exists.
14
@JS. During that 50 year period, every inch of what the Palestinian Arabs today claim as their territory since time immemorial was not only ruled by Egypt (Gaza) or annexed by Jordan between 1948 and 1967. At no point did they demand a state from them. In fact, acting through the PLO in Article 24 of its 1964 Charter, they formally relinquished all sovereign claims to it.
As an aside, even what the Palestinian Arabs now call "historic Palestine" is actually a reference to the leftover 22% of territory demarcated in 1922 by the League of Nations as representing the international boundaries of the historical homeland of the Jewish people. What of the other 78% of the Mandate for Palestine? Today that part of the Jewish people's historical homeland is called Jordan, and it is illegal for Jews (not just Israelis) to so much as own real estate.
15
Isn't it "funny" (not), the warriors make peace and the chicken hawks make war.
it's a temporary illusion to say Netanyahu has made Israel (the Jews) safer.
10
Why haven’t the Israeli solve the conflict once and for all? Expel all Palestinian to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and let them deal with it. The US would condemn but nothing will come of it. Russia and China wouldn’t care enough to do anything either. Europe will make a ruckus but still needs access to Israeli technology. It would be an outrage in the Arab world but Egypt and Saudi Arabia would still be friendly towards Israel and Israeli don’t care what Syria and Iran think. Turkey will make actual threats but besides a few close encounter Turkey knows it cannot take on Israel.
This would solve the problem once and for all. The Palestinian would still live in camps for a time until Arab governments shutdown the camps and absorb the population. The violence inclined residents will be deal with silently by the very effective Jordanian and Syrian anti-terror agencies.
14
Perhaps, as Simple Sam with his simple justification notes, Mr. Netanyahu has done much to make Israel safer, but at what expense? It's possible to understand the collective PTSD which accompanied Israel into its establishment in '48, through the unspeakable terrorist attacks of the 60's and 70's -- including the '72 Munich Olympics --, and on to the Intifada era of the '80's, and to still comprehend that the rightward push of this one time beacon State, does little to ensure its long term security. Some, such as myself, believe that without a two state solution, Israel will fail to exist as a Jewish State, even if my definition of that appellation differs, as did Herzl's, with that of the right wing High Rabbinate driven version. It's difficult for anyone not a stone not to empathize with the images of families suffering in the walled off Palestinian areas, regardless of the criminally shortsighted policies of which ever leaders put them in that situation. And, this is what the world sees. This is what the U.S. House Reps know as the Squad sees. This is what many students, including those of the Jewish faith, see. If there is no future but for the Israeli population at large to continue to suffer a realistic, if ultimately unhealthy collective paranoia, then I suggest a large enough couch be built to treat the whole country before it's too late.
7
Please, just remind me. When WWII was over, the British, who ruled Palestine, decided to withdraw, they turned over the area to Zionists who engineered a Jewish state. There were other people who lived there. They weren't Jews and yet to be fully enfranchised you had to be a jew. And they had lived there for hundreds of years? Were there more jews in Palestine at that time than there were others? Then there was a lot of violence. Non jews being forced out?
Help me out here.
12
@HT Over 800,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries in 1948. The Jewish communities there were ancient, some going back to biblical times. These countries were their homelands. How come nobody ever mentions this atrocity?
19
@HT
This is too big a subject to try to "brief" you on in the comments section. There are serious inaccuracies in what you state above. May I suggest you start with a 1946 book by the leftist Journalist IF Stone entitled, "Underground to Palestine." I think it gives a good, almost thoroughly unbiased (even though Stone was a cultural American Jew) report on what was at play in the formation of Israel after WWII ended. From their you could go on to "My Beautiful Old House" by Edward Said (I don't care that parts of it have been discredited: it represents a view held by many displaced Palestinians), and then possibly "My Promised Land" by Ari Shavit. I you read in Arabic I would make other recommendations. Alternatively, read the "Israel" and "Palestine" and "History of Palestine" entries in Wikipedia.
5
@HT There was a proposal to divide the British mandate into wo states: one Arab and one Jewish. The Arabs rejected this and the surrounding Arab nations initiated a war to destroy the new Jewish state. They lost and some have kept trying ever since...
12
This is a very interesting piece, useful precisely because it largely ignores politics per se and instead focuses on the psychological framework within which politics plays out and individuals make specific decisions. Friedman's observations and analysis are a welcome addition rather than just another article reading like a dog doing you-know-what on a hydrant.
What came to mind reading this were the British "troubles." Perhaps some of you across the pond of appropriate generation would comment on this. Certainly the current angst about the Irish backstop for Brexit has memory of6 the "troubles" as part of the mix.
7
And yet, none of this justifies the settlements in the West Bank. Or have I missed something.
19
@Jeff
Yes. You missed something. The Jordanians illegally occupied the territory west of the Jordan River following their attack on Israel in 1948....renaming it ‘the West Bank’. After failing another attempt at destroying Israel in 1967, Jordan relinquished claim to it.
The area....known historically as Judea and Samaria...remains disputed territory. It is NOT ‘Arab Land’.
17
@Susanna
Its not disputed. Its occupied. UN general resolutions are clear, the territory does not belong to Israel.
5
@Susanna
Ah! Now I understand. It is disputed territory, and therefore the settlements are justified?
2
Mr. Friedman's enlightening view is a long time coming and an essential consideration for any Israeli, or non-Israeli trying to understand the current state of policy in Israel and the West Bank. A people's history shapes them in ways that individuals are not always aware of, so a remembrance and examination of the past is essential on a path to understanding and clarity about the possibilities of a future for all.
10
After reading Ian Black’s book, “Enemies and Neighbors” I often reflect as I look outside my window and I see a hill here in Paris. Many of the Palestinians could see their homes from the hills they were taken too, thinking they would return home soon, only to find out they would never be able to return. Mr. Friedman talks about repressed memories, it seems everyone has repressed this memory of the Palestinians stolen land. Bombing innocent people is sad, it’s disgusting and I can’t imagine living in that horror, but I also can’t imagine taking or living in a home that wasn’t mine. I also can’t imagine being taken from my home and moved to a place where I could actually see the home that was taken from me and know that I could never return, because it was someone else’s now. I do not know the extremes I would go to in order to return home, but I do know that I would never, ever forgive or forget that act. We all seem to have a repressed memory indeed.
20
@Josue Azul Thank you, this is perhaps the most wise response to this regrettable article.
Curious how words, or lack thereof, change situations into the future. I was there in the 90s, the first Intifada, was was very puzzled when an Israeli colleague said don't walk through the park after dark; there are terrorists there. I couldn't think that actual terrorists openly hung out in Jerusalem park in the evening. It turns out that she meant criminals, purse-snatchers and the like. That inflation of run-of-the-mill criminals and terrorists stuck in my mind ever since.
4
The article by Mr. Friedman is much too simplistic.
He doesn't address at all the question, why did the Second Intifada happen? and was Benjamin Netanyahu in part responsible for the events that led to the Second Intifada?
A related important event was the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a right wing Israeli. Benjamin Netanyahu has some responsibility for incitement of anti-Rabin feelings in the months leading up to the assassination. And then when Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister after Rabin's death, his government took many steps to undermine the Oslo accords.
If we should remember the Second Intifada, let's also remember Yitzhak Rabin and his assassination, and its aftermath.
19
let us also remember that the intifada is a direct result of Arafat refusing to accept a two state solution and conclude the negotiations with Ehud Barak. At this point in time we already know that Arafat went to the summit with Israel with the goal of causing it to fail. we also know that he already set the second intifada in motion before he left. Thousands of Palestinians could be alive and a Palestinian state could be 10 years old if the Palestinians didn't set to launch the second intifada.
but yes... of course the Jews are to blame
13
@rshapley
There's a reason those questions aren't asked. The answer to the first question is obvious: because Arafat thought, wrongly as it turned out, that he could improve his bargaining position by murdering a thousand or so people. As for the second question, it's too stupid to entertain.
10
I find it strange that neither the article or any of the letters I've read acknowledge that the 'State Of Israel' was imposed on the area by those outside of the area: "A land without a people for a people without a land."
Americans got away with something like that; why shouldn't the Israli's try?
5
@Tenzin
I misleading comment, either intentionally or unintentionally. While the UN Resolution granting a 2 state solution was "imposed" from outside, for thousands of years Jews had been dreaming of "next year in Jerusalem", for almost 50 years Zionists had been planning and organizing for a Jewish state, and for decades Jews had been working within the British Mandate to create a Jewish nation.
3
Thank you Mr. Friedman for presenting this truth. However, it seems that Mr. Netanyahu is intent on exploiting this pain politically. Some leader in Israel needs to have the courage and ability to sell a different vision than one of just protecting against such terrible pain. Part of the polarization is to also suppress and deny the pain that the Palestinian population has also suffered. Israeli's are not stupid, they see the choices before them, but the question is will they be able to move past the fear that is driving elections and policy and likewise will Palestinians be able to move past theirs as well. The left in Israel has to take back the country's vision of the future. Netanyahu does provide short term stability which has been good for Israel, but I fear the "situation" is a ticking time bomb that his coalition is making it worse by denying the understandable frustration of Palestinian youth who similarly are being politically manipulated by their "leaders". All know that changes that have to come at some point for Israel to be anything but an international pariah on the one hand, and the Palestinians feeling like they are eternal victims on the other. It seems Israel needs to re-connect to the Jewish liberal tradition of humanism. Not in an idealized mythological way, but in a practical realization that both sides need to heal to make progress.
8
In the Islamic world Palestinians are pawns, expendable but not indispensable.
The Islamic community needs Palestinians as a focus point, otherwise, the members of the Islamic community will eat one another.
There will be no Israeli/Palestinian “peace”, or enlightened co-existence, until it is in the best interests of the Islamic community, Arab and non-Arab alike.
Live is hell for pawns...
11
What I took away from this piece was that it affects almost every member of a population, at a deep level that lasts for years, maybe a lifetime, to undergo a prolonged period of anxiety about your physical safety.
Having to wonder "will it be OK to go out for the evening, am I in danger", it's a huge stress with bone-deep effects on the mind. Americans signed off on an awful lot of police, and illegal police behaviour, just because of street-crime fears, fears that lasted long after the street crime had declined precipitately.
OK.
Can we all take a moment to wonder what the state of mind is in places like Iraq and Syria, where western, almost all Amercan, military actions created that feeling across a whole nation for many years?
And, yes, here it comes: if the Palestinians have suffered even greater fears of their physical safety, their ability to get to work and back, their ability to keep a home and not be pushed out of it - what would they accept from their leadership who promised "security" rather than "peace"? If the Israelis are not-so-inexplicable in their support of Netanyahu and all his corruption and open aggression, what would the Palestinians quite understandably support, by the same token?
In a sufficiently-bad situation, there are no good guys. This is a very, very bad situation. Nobody will climb out of it by supporting those who happily profit from the public's fears.
17
This is what residents of our inner city neighborhoods live with every day. In Philadelphia, there are several “small, localized” shooting incidents every weekend. Kids can’t play outside. Is it safe to go to the local store? Daycare? School?
Last week, I was in the local Walmart. As I sat waiting for my passport photos to be processed, it occurred to me that I was sitting in a direct line with the main entrance and I started to look for places I could go if a gunman started shooting. Would it matter, or would I be dead already by the time I could react? AZ is an open carry state; seeing a handgun strapped to someone’s hip in the supermarket doesn’t make me feel safe - it has the opposite effect.
But that’s our reality today
5
Just as an experiment, they just MIGHT try getting back within their LEGAL borders. I don't remember many attacks pre-1967.
14
Go and study history. The PLO was established years before 1967, and there were plenty of attacks against civilians by snipers in the Old City and from the Golan Heights down into the valley below. Oh, and not to mention the massive buildup of Arab armies around Israel readying to attack and drive the Jews into the sea that led to the overwhelming Israeli pre-emptive strike and victory.
11
You don't remember, but in fact there were repeated infiltration and attacks by fedayyin.
9
Then you should learn more history. Cross border attacks by units called the Fadayeen coming mostly from Jordan and Egypt were common and one reason that Israel launched the Sinai campian in 1956.
11
As an unabashed supporter I Israel I am saddened by one-sided oversimplifications of this horribly complex situation. The entire middle east is in a morass or historical grievances. This commentary is one very one sided grievance.
The only way out is to shift the focus to a future that is better than the past.
4
@Les
It's "one sided" when Israel details the horrors of the Palestinians horrific acts...but not so when the Palestinians talk about Israel...
Please.
4
Matti Friedman in this article sadly describes Israel as in a no-win scenario, currently endorsed by a generation that is too afraid to make peace and can only make war. The so-called "stability" and "safety" of the current state of Israel is the "stability" of a regime tied to a bloated military and the "safety" of a besieged citadel. Israel must rise above its fear and make a generous peace with its neighbors while it still can or this will end badly. History teaches us that even the greatest citadels, like the Crusader castle at Acre, did eventually fall and that was well before the age of nukes.
6
@Jay Masters
In 1947, the scholars at Al-Azhar University (The highest authority in Sunni Islam.) declared holy war to return Palestine to Islamic rule. Palestinians feel a religious obligation to destroy Israel. No matter how generous a peace offer Israel makes, the Palestinians will not accept it.
2
While the situations are not analogous, I cant get past the fact that there were once roads in Belfast that were blockaded or deserted and are now thriving. (God knows what will happen if there’s a no-deal Brexit, but let’s leave that aside.)
Negotiating with Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists was necessary to achieve the Good Friday Agreement. Contrast this with the attitude of Likud. And it’s why many Americans have reached the attitude of “ a plague on both your houses” when it comes to further attempts to bring the two sides together.
9
@Lawyermom
That doesn't explain was there was no peace before Likud came to power.
Before settlements, before occupation, before Israel, before Zionism, Palestinians were persecuting Jews.
"The Wall also drew the spite and malice of the resident Arabs, who took every opportunity to harass the hapless worshipers, scattering broken glass through the alleys leading to the Wall, dumping their garbage and sewage against it, fouling it with urine and feces."
4
So what is the plan moving forward? More jewish settlements in the west bank until a two state solution becomes impossible? There is a lot more being repressed here by the right wing political parties in Israel than memories. Israel has every right to defend itself, but allowing the two state solution to unravel out of default is naive and irresponsible.
17
@John WIlliams
Jewish settlements make a 2-state solution more possible.
Draw a border. Jewish settlements on the Palestinian side of the border will become part of Palestine & the Jewish settlers will become Palestinian citizens. Jewish settlers are generally wealthier than Palestinians, so having Jewish settlements in an independent Palestinian state make that Palestinian state economically viable.
6
It’s impossible to believe that Israel wants peace in good faith as long as they continue to build settlements on land that reasonably would be part of a Palestinian state. It is also hard to reconcile their claims to be in deadly danger without their current policies, since the settlements do not in any apparent way minimize their vulnerability to jihadist attacks.
23
The real issue no one wants to talk about, refers to your opening statement about the settlements. Israel is growing at a rapid rate, and therefore running out of space. The way the population is growing Israel at some point in the future will further encroach on Palestinian land, and other neighbors. The settlements, illegal or not, aren't going away as there is simply nowhere to put them in Israel proper.
@JMcF
The settlements you refer to occupy less than 2% of the West Bank and the territory Is disputed. The only obstacle to peace is the Palestinians. They were offered 99% of the West Bank - they said no. There is only so much patience Israelis have with a bunch of people who want to murder them because of their religion.
3
The Palestinians teach their children to murder Jews. They reward those who murder Jews with lifetime pensions. That doesn’t sound like a people who want peace.
3
This article claims to talk about a taboo topic that explains Israeli politics, but Mr. Friedman himself is guilty of obliterating another word that no Israeli wants to discuss but without which Israeli politics can't discuss: the Nakba, the Palestinian term for the wave of ethnic cleansing with which Israelis expelled Palestinians from their land, expropriated it, and banned them from returning to. You may not be able to understand Netanyahu without understanding the second intifada, but you can't understand the second intifada without understanding the Nakba. By ignoring this pivotal moment in Israeli history, Mr. Friedman dehistoricizes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reduces the second intifada to an outbreak of terrorism, rather than part of a generations-long attempt to regain the land that was stolen from Palestinians. As long as Americans fail to understand this crucial aspect of Israeli-Palestinian history, this conflict will continue to appear opaque and insensible, and we will be unable to play any productive role in bringing this enduring conflict closer to a conclusion.
46
@Doug Singsen EXACTLY.
1
@Doug Singsen
Sorry, of course Nazareth is inside Israel--I meant: "It would have been wonderful if there were MANY Nazareth-like Arab towns inside Israel..."
@Doug Singsen
There was no “Nabka” - Arabs started a war against Israel and they lost territory. It is very simple.
4
I'm sorry, but this issue can't possibly be discussed honestly and in good faith absent mention of the conditions Palestinians are forced to live under and the equally appalling violence perpetrated against them.
This article never mentions the 'why' behind those terrorist attacks. Injustice breeds injustice.
(And yes, I think such attacks are monstrous in themselves and hugely counter productive. )
33
@jscott
Palestinians, per capita, are the top recipients of foreign aid. Palestinians could use this money to build water & sewage treatment plants & electric power plants. Instead, they use this aid for weapons & attack tunnels to murder Jews. Then they complain that they don't have fresh water or 24/7 electricity.
5
It is the same reason why the communist party is still in power in China. After a century of 4-5 major civil wars, a dozen foreign invasions and occupation and resulting famine and natural disaster that killed a combined 100 million, the communist proved to be the only entity that keeps the country together and foreign powers out.
In places where this is still remembered and taught in school, people remembered the only path to peace and prosperity is strength. In places this is forgotten, young people waves foreign flags thinking foreign troops will treat them as their own people.
Israel is highly regarded in China for this reason. When facing with annihilation, Israeli chose unity and strength.
11
The problem with this is that it assumes Bibi has fixed the problem. I don't think it's fixed. It's been shoved aside for the moment. Every time those rockets fly over the border, that is clear.
And that still doesn't excuse Bibi's many, many failings. Surely, someone who isn't Bibi can provide the same measure of security without being corrupt, or arrogant.
8
Keep in mind that no one discusses the years before the suicide bombings that led up to the carnage. While I in no way support the Palestinian methods, everyone should also make an effort to learn the steps Israel took to deny the Palestinian history in the Middle East as well as removing families from their privately owned lands that they had lived on and farmed for centuries. There are two sides to every story. As is often the case, only one side is being told here.
26
@Rick Papin
In 1947, Palestinians started a genocidal holy war against the Jews. Palestinians near roads attacked trucks carrying supplies to Jews. Jews pushed those Palestinians out of their villages to prevent attacks on the trucks.
3
I lived in Israel between 1975 - 1981. There were times, by the grace of G-d, I missed being a casualty. I remember the Sbarro attack all too well, but I was by then living in the US and thinking of sending my son to Israel for his gap year (between high school and first year college). I said to him, "I can see you in that pizza store." It was a scary time and in the end, he decided to go to college and not to Israel. A month later was 9/11 and I watched the towers fall from my midtown office. I realized at that point that no place was safe. Terrorism has changed us all. I still hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but we are no longer naive. So Israel digs in, continues to build settlements and nothing moves forward for Palestine. We are further apart now than we've ever been.
14
53 Palestinians were shot at gunpoint at the Gaza border last summer simply for demonstrating against the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. Don't they deserve to live free of the fear of death?
Moreover, the Palestinians ended their second intifada and yet were rewarded with more repression and continued settlement building in the West Bank.
23
The situation is similar in the India-Pakistan conflict that has boiled over now. I would urge the NYT to provide similar perspective on why Modi's hard right government has been allowed to revoke Article 370: because Kashmir has been a hotbed of separatist and terrorists activity against India and voters are taking that fear into the ballot box.
2
Wasn’t the deposed Iraqi dictator paying the families of the “martyr” terrorists? Thereby creating an incentive. Isn’t that one of the reasons we went into Iraq?
2
i have to admire mr. friedman's adroitness. a very long piece on the israeli-palestinian discord, and never do we see the word "settlements."
in case anyone really keeps score, the death tolls during the second intifada (yes, the "nameless war" has a name) were: 1,000 israelis dead, 3,000 palestinians dead.
many agencies rightly condemn suicide bombing as a crime against humanity. i have to check on their policies about the taking land and homes with military force.
the israelis of mr. friedman's account all have mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers. the palestinians, well, they just have suicide bombers.
28
Reading these comments is like someone telling a psychotherapist an incredibly detailed and crucially important narrative trauma story for that person, and the psychologist saying, oh, that's not important, let's move on and talk about your boundaries.
15
Many of the responses here are from Palestinian sympathizers, and (yes I believe) anti-Israel individuals (I will not include the anti-semitic label as I think it is overused). One problem with the theme of how many more Palestinians that get killed as opposed to Israelis and this makes the outcomes unfair is that in its way it is proportional. Does anyone on this board believe that if 8 Israelis are killed and the Israelis kill 8 Palestinians this will move the needle towards peace talks? What are 8 Palestinians to the Hamas leaders? They have there agenda which has never changed: "Death to Israel." Never going to change. These people who are dying are only civilians or even better "martyrs" for the Palestinian cause.
Fits there agenda perfectly.
I do
16
@Rozie
There is a reason people are anti Israeli.
Friedman is making a good point. Israelis are voting with their security in mind.
What is striking is that the real reason for the insecurity is never mentioned. He speaks of suicide bombings as if they existed in a vacuum..As if these were merely bombs falling from the sky on an innocent country.
Suicide bombings are horrible terrifying crimes, yet Friedman indignantly enumerates the Israel fatalities and avoids any mention of the number of Palestinian fatalities (plus torture, imprisonments, and daily harrassment)- which might explain why there were suicide bombings in the first place.
I encourage anyone interested to read it here: https://www.btselem.org/statistics
How many pacts with the devil are Israelis willing to make in order to be 'safe' without making the deep changes that need to be made in order not to be threatened?
15
People under threat put their faith in militarists; it appears to be a general rule. And it seldom works.
Netanyahu’s security may well be just an interlude.
One biochemical attack could enormously, catastrophically damage Israel.
And then everyone will alway ask, why didn’t we do more to promote peace?
3
The longer Netanyahu stays in power, the longer Palestinians remain trapped.
As this article shows, trapped people are dangerous people.
If the French do not fear the Germans anymore, and if the Germans do not fear the French anymore, it is because they have been forced by atrocity to understand that you must respect your neighbor.
Netanyahu respects no one, especially not his fellow Israelis.
15
Mr. Freidman is wrong: it does need a name. Not talking about it means that it can’t be resolved, and we can’t talk about it if we can’t name it.
2
Why does it seem to be so difficult for Israelis to think about the Palestinians feel?
What do you call it when the suffering of some people is deemed more important than the suffering of others?
18
You can’t murder people in cafes and discos and make civilian life impossible and think it would be forgotten.
16
@Judith Groner
You can't drive people from there homes and murder thousands and think it would be forgotten.
Since the Balfour Declaration Israel has broken every Promise, every Deal, every Accord , even Internationals Laws . They have no honour. It has become so difficult to criticise Israel without becoming "so called "antisemitic. " Even in criticism they are protected .( By law ,like no other country ) How exceptional ,like the US.
Just look at the map in 1948, or 1967 and now, and what do you see ? For the US , it is normal , they did it to the American Indians, And where are those now ?
The UNITED NATIONS should have taken care of this many years ago. Now they , by a democratic majority again condemn Israel´s occupation and if necessary by force, oblige Israel to obey International Law. Or be politely asked to leave. No other way.
12
Two quick thoughts, the first a mere refinement of Mr. Friedman's thesis: the ability to repress these memories while retaining the trace of their significance is itself the source of Netanyahu's power––THAT one can repress the memory is part of the sensation of "safety" his "security state" provides; second, we Jews in the diaspora pay a very heavy price for this Israeli "safety," as its supporting structure/actions are helping to spike increasingly vicious, open anti-semitism on the left as well as the right. Thanks, Bibi.
5
Actually, there is at least one other thing no Israeli wants to discuss, Palestinian deaths. So, rather than discussion, how about a simple comparison of Israeli and Palestinian civilian deaths from the conflict, year by year beginning, perhaps, in 1948 with the source of the information cited. As that isn't coming here anytime soon, perhaps we can use the Google machine.
14
Current day,terrorism in Europe,terrorism in Israel,terrorism in USA ,terrorism in Asia,Africa and the near and far East,these are the mini wars the American history teachers of the 50's and the 60's were talking about,one teacher actually gave a number to it,he said 35 mini wars around the globe,on any given day,so we were informed,but did we always act ?or prepare,maybe there is no preventive,but a severe deterrant.
i too lost my sympathy for the Palestinians although that happened a few years earlier when arafat failed to sign the peace deal. however the upcoming election in Israel is really more about what they are doing to themselves than what the Palestinians have done to them. the netanyahu regime has become toxic to Israel's democratic character. by giving into the fanatical fundamentalist religious parties he is creating of a theocratic dictatorship more akin to iran. his failure to pursue some form of accommodation with the Palestinians that lifts the yoke of israeli oppression, and the ongoing and illegal settlement building is creating what will eventually have to be an apartheid state (we all know how well that worked out in south africa). finally much of the antisemitic sentiment sweeping europe is being driven by these same factors. a majority of non-jews may hold antisemitic sentiments, but current israeli politics is giving them free license to express those views publicly and act out on them. Israelis need to take this opportunity to save themselves from the fate of the last jewish state.
3
And how many Palestinians have died horrible deaths and how many innocent Palestinian babies have been bombed into oblivion? Because it seems you have forgotten that part. How many Palestinians die in the occupied area because of lack of life saving medicines because of Israeli's unrelenting blockade?
And how many Israelis would be fine with the U.N unilaterally deciding that their land and their property would now go to some other unfortunate people? You think they might want to fight for what they own?
You conveniently left out the part that these kinds of attacks are what happens when you severely oppress a people who you threw off their property. And you left out the part where the Israelis have gradually taken over the land they were supposedly "negotiating" over with settlements.
There are two sides to every coin, Mr Friedman. And no matter how many time YOU flip it, it seems it always ends up as heads.
Continue to oppress the Palestinians in the way Israel and Netanyahu are doing and you will never have peace. No matter how many times to dredge up excuses to validate your oppression.
15
How many Palestinian children die because their own leaders put them in harm’s way?
4
There is a deeper repression in Israeli society than the memory of suicide bombings by Palestinians.
It is the history of Israeli persecution that led to them.
10
Terror attacks have hardened young Israeli attitudes towards to Palestinians. But to say that these events broke the camels back assumes that there was a camel to begin with.
As we look at the history of the Zionist project it is clear from Israeli and non-Jewish historians that the very rationale for a Zionist state necessitated the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
Ben Gurian himself warned that Israeli's should not expect Palestinians to simply "go away." They would have to be removed, or killed or both.
Even in the first few years of the occupation Israeli planners were hard at work designing various approaches to ethnic cleansing. Some were more benign, like clearly defined ghetto's. Others were based on a variety of direct removals.
The "two state solution" has been a wonderful fiction ever since Oslo in 1996. By design, the Palestinians would never be "ready for peace." And so the gradual annexation policies always had that as a rational.
The idea of a strong border wall always made sense. But first there had to be borders. The absence of borders and the use of cheap Arab labor allowed suicide bombers to infiltrate into Jerusalem and practice their terror.
A border wall along with American peace keepers might have save many Jewish and Palestinian lives. But both these options gave way to the imperative of territorial expansion.
All occupations in history have led to resistance. This one is no different. The real question for Israeli's is what next?
10
Peace comes when both sides are willing to set aside and even forgive the terror, both civilian deaths and military deaths, inflicted by both sides in the conflict. While I sympathize with the writers memories of bombings, if he insist on tough strict and uneven actions on Netanyahu as necessary, then the violence will last another 100 years.
7
@Greg Gilliom
Yes. We need to listen more to the Israeli and Palestinian families who have both lost loved ones in violent acts, and yet have become friends and activists, united in wanting to transcend the terror. The friendship and shared activism of Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan are a shining example, even if rooted in horrific tragedy.
1
@Greg Gilliom
As long as there are Jews, there will never be peace. I am a Jew; I lost family to the holocaust; and others to pogroms in Russia.
The entirety of the planet wants to eradicate us from the earth.
My father used to say, "There are two kinds of people in the world: Jews, and anti-Semites. The worst of them are the Jewish anti-Semites. And unless you're a Jew, you'll never understand.
1
Whatever the tour guide said I would assume Israelis are well aware that there are several million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who have no country and believe that the Israelis stole their land. And that the Palestinians in the West Bank are living under Israeli occupation and the Palestinians in Gaza are living under a blockade by Israel and Egypt. And the Palestinians in the West Bank are also sharing the territory with several hundred thousand Israeli settlers in settlements regarded as illegal by the international community including the US government. The Israelis may be thinking about whether they should try to continue to live this way by brute force or work to find a solution that both sides can live with.
22
@Bob The vast majority of Israelis know all this, of course. Around half of them know and simply don't care - they perceive the conflict as being all-or-nothing, in which case the Palestinians' triumph will be the end of Israel and another Holocaust or at least expulsion at gunpoint as happened to Jews in Arab lands after 1948. The other half know and feel sympathy for Palestinians, but the majority of them realize that a Palestinian state with full control of its borders and internal security would be unable or unwilling to prevent terror against Israeli citizens, not just within that state's borders but within Israel itself or anywhere else in the world. Until someone can produce a solution that does not involve Israeli security services preventing violence and terror against Israeli civilians within Israel, the majority of Israelis will not support the kind of Palestinian state you envision.
6
@Bob
I've spent 39 years periodically in Israel and Palestine, and I know of no Israeli who is not thinking, worrying, talking, and wondering about how to find a solution that both sides can live with.
11
@Bob, the writer is describing the reason for the failing of the left and the increased power or the right in Israel. He is absolutely correct. The Palestinians not only rejected every reasonable offer of a State and the suicide bombing that followed the last rejection convinced most Israelis that there was no hope for peace.
8
Mr Friedman, I find the basis of your article disturbing. I have been to Israel twice this past 12 months. It has become an apartheid state. Though there are great people on both sides, Arab Israeli and Palestinian peoples are with great openness, treated as second class citizens.
The successful Irish peace process showed that "parity of esteem" was essential to get the warring communities to live in peace. This must be the aim among all peoples of Greater Israel, including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza together. There is no other way to peace for all who live there.
27
@Darren McConnell
Thank you for those heartfeft words of advice - i will try not to see them as too patronizing - but remember that took you about 600 years to get to - and you had two parties willing to work together and recognize the other -just a little different I'd say
The extreme parties on both sides in Northern Ireland did not wish to recognize each other from what I understand. Like Palestine, it’s was and continues to be a very complicated fragile situation.
There was a time, not long ago that people in Northern Ireland thought peace was impossible. But it exists today. Same is possible in Palestine.
4
The Koran instructs the Arabs to kill the Jews. Now, what “parity” did you have in mind, sir?
1
Well, as a Leftist Jew, I can't stand Netanyahu. But I can't deny the very real weight that this history carries.
Thank you for writing something informative, serious, and true without editorializing.
15
Perhaps the Second Intifada does not come up much in Israel, but it is all we hear about online, where it has become the excuse for routine atrocities inflicted on Palestinians in vastly greater excess of the hundreds killed in the Intifada. A quick perusal of civilian deaths in the last attack on Gaza in 2014, for instance, reveals that Israel killed 245 Palestinian civilians for every Israeli civilian killed. Meanwhile, they have shot many thousands of peaceful Palestinian demonstrators over the course of the last year and a half.
What does not come up much, and what appears far more repressed in the Israeli collective psyche, is their theft of Palestinian lands; at their founding when they cleansed 700,000 Palestinians from their new state; in 1967 when countless more were pushed into the West Bank, Jordan, and Lebanon; and ongoing through the bulldozing of homes, the uprooting of olive trees, and the building of settlements.
It is important that we not lose our humanity in working to stop these injustices, and that means reflecting on the Israeli civilians who needlessly lost their lives in the Second Intifada. But what the author of this article does instead is apologize for a decade and a half of abuses, and the shift toward fascism in Israel, without giving any context whatsoever. It is a type of article that is all too common in this publication and accounts for a decent portion of the cynicism that is sometimes directed at it.
18
What also doesn’t come up much is the two-state solution that the Arabs rejected back in 1948. They gambled they could destroy Israel militarily. They lost.
10
@Rachel, It would be worthwhile to understand that partition as passed by the General Assembly was no more than a recommendation. The only binding resolutions are those passed by the Security Council that didn’t take a vote on the matter. In addition the recommendation was patently unfair as it gave 55 percent of the land to the minority population of Jews and 45 percent to the majority population of Arabs.
It is also quite possible that if the Arabs had accepted partition, it probably would not have lasted.
In 1937 after a similar partition was proposed and rejected, David Ben Gurion wrote to his son Amos telling him that he would reluctantly accept partition but when the Jews became strong as the result of becoming a state they would expand to all of the area. He got his wish in 1967 after Israel attacked Egypt and Jordan and Syria who were bound by treaty came to the aid of Egypt. It was a gamble on the part of Israel but they got the land for which Ben Gurion and other Zionists lusted.
Anything is possible. We’ll never know what would have happened. But the Palestinians would have a bit more Kursk high ground if they’d accepted the original offer.
1
I have never been to Israel, although I think I understand
the essay, and cannot deny rational pessimism,
This wretched reality explains why Israelis
built their wall, and their fear/insecurity.
It’s easy to be an outsider demanding ugly/immoral “apartheid” not exist.
Here I’m a Democrat, but over there probably vote right wing.
9
The suicide bombings and terrorism the second Palestinian intifada inflicted on Israelis are rightly remembered as 911 is remembered here, and those memories made the two-state solution look dangerous to many Israelis and made safety require suppression of Palestinians and a form of apartheid. There were hundreds of innocent Israeli victims, including children, the last in 2008. By now there have been more Palestinians killed than Israelis were in the second intifada. Netanyahu is not a solution, he's a continuation of the un-liberal change of Israel, including intolerance for Reform Judaism and his economics damages ordinary Israeli workers. Then there is Netayahu's idea that the USA needs to help Israel by going to war against Iran along with the ongoing Iraq, ISIS and Taliban catastrophes. I hope he loses.
8
Horrible the comments from people condemning Israel comparing them to Nazis and using genocide against Palestinians....no appreciation or knowledge of history, Israel's incredible contribution to society, the fact that all sacred places are now open to all, as opposed to how it was under Arab nations, the fact that Israel already gave up a significant part of their territory, now used for warfare against them instead of agriculture. So many don't know or care that Jewish cemeteries were desecrated, with tombstones used to make roads, when Jerusalem was in Arab hands or that Jews weren't allowed to visit the Western wall at all. This is not the case now with sacred Muslim sites (and Christian) which are fully protected. And, of course, how terrorist factions, protected and supported by Arab nations, have prevented any hope of a peaceful solution. There is a history that people should please read about and learn before building on a false narrative of Israel responsibility.
23
You are right. Many despicable actions were carried out against people of Jewish faith in Palestine, but to achieve peace, we must all look beyond.
Can you imagine a world today if we held Germany and Japan in constant reproach for their war time actions?
Peace is not easy. It is the toughest road. It is easier to pull a trigger than forgive someone in your heart for the things they have done, but that is what must be done.
4
Israel HAS looked beyond, proven by its actions and evidenced by giving up the Sinai and agreeing to the accords, which would have resulted in a two state solution. But a piece of land for a piece of piece does not work, and will never work. Each time Israel put out a branch, it was rejected, followed by horrific attacks. Unfortunately, actions have proven that it is the ultimate destruction of Israel which is the real goal of its Arab neighbors, which the world must realize. All else is a smokescreen. Palestinians have surely been used as pawns in this effort, but this has not been the fault of Israel or its politics.
The Palestinians were questioning your right to exist.
3
Didn't the Zionists wage a similar bombing campaign against the British administration up to the creation of Israel in 1948?
11
@Loup No. They did not indiscriminately target innocent civilians.
5
@DJ
Yes they totally did. Look up "list of Irgun attacks" online. The overwhelming majority of victims were regular people going about their day.
1
I couldn't finish this article. As a left leaning Israeli with a long memory I find it so simplistic as to be almost silly. The state of the Israeli-Palestinian feud has many to blame. On the Israeli side it was Bibi, above all, who destroyed methodically every shred of goodwill built in the Oslo accord, helped by a weak, corrupt, coward Palestinian leadership who never had the guts to face reality. Then, at the center, were the settlements, landmines planted by all Israeli governments, but mostly by Bibi's Likud, who groveled before a tiny group of messianic, extreme right-wing zealots, for political gains.
Add a huge demographic change in Israel brought up by disproportional increase in the ratio of religious, mostly right wingers, versus secular Jews, and close to a million Russian immigrants who tend to vote for right wing, nationalistic parties.
Most Israelis are fed up, don't believe, and hardly bother, with the "peace process", this dying horse, starved to death by the miserable leaderships on both sides. The economy is booming, life is reasonably good, so why rock the boat? Bibi is a corrupt, cynical creep who will sell his own mother to keep the premiership? So what? Democracy is attacked on a daily basis by him and the sickening sycophants who surround him? Pinch your nose and shut one eye. After all, if America can live reasonably well with it's loathsome president, why not us?
Stupid article. I could add a lot more but leave it at that.
23
The Palestinians have only themselves to blame for this situation. They said "no" to strong peace proposals at least 3-4 times, then continued their cycle of violence against civilians. What do you think the USA would do if our civilians were attacked relentlessly? We went to war and are still at war.
The Palestinians don't want peace. They want all of Israel. Until they accept the reality of Israel, there will never be peace. Israel has readily given up significant land for peace (the Sinai desert and Gaza). They would be foolish to do that again at this point.
The Palestinians never cease to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. They could have had their state in 1948. Instead, they chose violence.
26
@VSIatro:
The UN commission on Palestine and Israel after exit of British in 1947: Gave 56% of the land to the Jewish residents who were 33% of the population majority of which came as illegal immigrants. They owned 7% of the land before this UN partition plan.
Begin rejected the proposal as he wanted all of the land. After all these years of war, i guess you can say Israelis practically did get it all.
Please learn more about the real history before making such comments blaming Palestinians as the cause. Jewish residents of the Jerusalem were the inventors of many of the terrorism tactics and practices. They still are. The only difference is that now they legitimize their acts as "protection". Killing innocent people is always horrible no matter which side they are on. It amazes me how every time people on the Jewish side of the border are killed it's an unforgivable atrocity (which it is don't get me wrong) but if it happens on the Westbank or Gaza strip, it's what they deserve.
9
@VS The Palestinians have recognized Israel's right to exist multiple times, most recently in 1993 when the exact language was "Israel's right to exist in peace and security." They also voided at the same time the objectionable clauses in their charter (since replaced by a Constitution guaranteeing minority rights, something Israel still does not have.)
You can read these documents, as I did, on the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. When did Israel ever recognize Palestine's right to exist? Instead, we have last year's "Jewish-only nation" law, demoting even citizen Arabs to second class status.
Hamas has said (2017) it would accept a negotiated peace along the 1967 lines. And the Arab League Peace Initiative, offering full relations with 57 Muslim nations has been on the table since 2002, renewed in 2007 and 2017. Where's Israel's plan for a comprehensive peace?
Israel has said it couldn't negotiate with a divided Palestinian leadership, but when Hamas and Fatah announced plans for a unity government, Bibi threw over the table and stomped out of the room, ending the 2014 "peace talks." There's been nothing since besides more settlements in the West Bank and sniper practice across the Gaza border.
8
@VS
The Jews have never offered the Palestinians a peace in which Palestinians can establish a truly sovereign state, where they can live, manage their own self-defense, build an international airport and in every other way live by their own rules. Netanyahu seems actually proud that he is considering a "state minus" for the Palestinians. The only strategy acceptable to the Palestinians would be for Israel to return to their 1948 borders and cease interfering in Palestinian affairs.
7
Friedman’s explanation has just opened the top of the box on America’s own “Situation”. Trump will be re-elected because he has the guts to actually be doing something about immigration, crime, and the economy. No one ever voted for him because they thought he was a nice guy.
3
The fact is that Arabs...themselves the descendants of invaders, occupiers, and economic migrants to a land not their own... cannot tolerate Jewish-majority rule and Jewish self-determination anywhere in the Middle East.
This, despite the fact that Israel is, indeed, the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people, and despite the fact that Jordan (the de facto Arab Palestinian state) is situated upon 80% of the territory that was historic Palestine.
The era of Arab supremacy and dhimmitude in what is now modern Israel is OVER, and it’s not coming back. It’s time that the Arab world and their cheerleaders come to terms with that fact.
17
@Susanna "Israel is, indeed, the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people..." Not if you believe your Bible. Abraham was an immigrant from Ur (modern day Iraq). And there was no Jewish sovereignty until Hebrews invaded from Egypt c.1200 BCE and destroyed the 2,000-yr.-old indigenous culture of the Canaanites, founders of Jerusalem.
The Hebrew/Israelite/Jewish kingdoms ended in 70 CE with defeat at the hands of the Romans. Arabs didn't come to the Levant until more than 500 years later, when Jews were a tiny remnant population and the Levant, always a crossroad of many peoples and many tribes, had long ceased to be "Jewish" land.
In any event, the Jewish and pre-Jewish kingdoms persisted for about 518 intermittent years between conquests (11) by others. Muslims have lived in that land and that region, dominating it culturally for 1500 years, the 600s to the present day. How can any claim of "exclusive" possession be justified?
6
The response to the Clinton- Ehud Barak offer of statehood, land, peace and aid by Arafat was the 2nd Intefadah.
Anyone with any knowledge of the history here would have counted that as the 4th offer of statehood and aid that was turned down.
Why offer anything anymore - there is no desire for peace among that arabs in the west bank unless it includes millions of dead jews
15
@shrinking food
The Jews have never offered the Palestinians a truly sovereign state. Peace will not come until they do.
2
After making serious offers for peace and being rewarded with death and terror why should the Israelis think about the Palestinians at all anymore? They lost multiple wars meant to destroy Israel and then doubled down on terror. Israel should draw up the borders it wants and withdraw to those borders and then defend those borders with decisive force. Had the Palestinians ever win a ear all the Jews in the middle east would be exterminated. The Hamas charter says so, no one is hiding anything.
14
Some of the comments such as those of BB rationalize an alternate view of the Matti Friedman message.
Are those comments justifying murder?
Are those comments disregarding the 100 year propaganda and all-out effort to murder all the Jews in the immediate vicinity?
Do "live and let live" and coexistence not apply to Arabs?
Are those comments based on hearsay or on prejudice or both?
Bibi is the only Israeli leader with the wisdom, experience, and international diplomatic support to help Israel plow through the present crisis with Iran and her proxies. The last few weeks have been extremely violent, and war was barely avoided last week. I tremble to contemplate how Gantz and Lapid would handle the strife.
As an example, note Bibi's address this evening re:new findings about Iran.
8
When our survival is threatened, the empathy circuits in our brains temporarily go offline (see the writings of Simon Baron-Cohen, brother of Borat). We can't afford to feel empathy towards those who are trying to kill us. What happens when such threats are chronic? Jewish life in Israel/Palestine has been under threat since the time of the British mandate (e.g., the Hebron massacre of 1929). What I see during my frequent visits to Israel is a collective numbing and deep skepticism about the prospects for peace, even among many people on the left. Psychic numbing is a common traumatic symptom. The skepticism is based on the view that Israel has no peace partner. The two intifadas left deep scars on the Israeli psyche. The hopefulness of the peace movement of the 1990s was killed by those terror attacks. Whatever the respective contribution of the various parties to the current dreadful situation, it is unrealistic to expect Israel to show empathy towards those who want to destroy it. We owe it to all of our children, Israeli and Palestinian, to see each other as human. The world can contribute by empathizing with Israelis and Palestinians, rather than demonizing one side or the other.
12
This article is refreshing for its honesty. One can disagree or agree with the author's characterization of the feelings of many Israeli voters. However, like it or not, at least the author seems to have had the courage to state a basic reason for recent voting patterns in Israel. An article like this at least allows for a honest starting point for people of different views to engage with one another. As we have seen in this country, the need to feel safe is a powerful driver of votes. GW Bush used this approach against a fake enemy (Iraq) to his great electoral advantage.
10
Not sure how to reconcile Jewish people's embrace of never forgetting the holocaust, which was unspeakably more detrimental and horrific to the Jewish people than the terrorist attacks discussed here. Only saying that I am surprised to hear the perception that Israelis are trying to forget these terrorist attacks. Just doesn't make sense to me.
4
I remember those years well. Worrying constantly that my famiIy and friends were ok? I know people personally who were injured in the Sbarro bombing. My 18 year old daughter was in school there that year one of the injured was her classmate and family. Her dorm was near Shaare Tzedek hospital, constant lock downs, the sirens in the night, the emptiness in the streets in areas that usually had hustle and bustle. The economic hardship. I went to visit. There was no one coming. I tried to go about my business and encourage the store owners. Then there was the night when I was stateside and my daughter called to let me know she was ok. I had made it my business to try and stay aware of the situation, vigilance most times only works so far. I did not even know that night that she had been very close by to bombing incident.
So yes, nothing is born in a vacuum. When a person is missing the history and the context certain things don't make sense. That is why accurate history is important.
This is an excellent piece! The "Matzav" (the situation) was the driver, the results are where we are today. I am not an Israeli but my siblings, neices,nephews, Aunt, cousins and friends live there. I appreciate the checkpoints and the separation fences and wall. I still pray for peace, but in lieu of that I will take all the measures that help security.
7
Recently, on the PBS Newshour, there was film of Gazans coaxing and urging very small boys (some of whom looked back nervously at those urging them on) to get closer and closer to the Israeli snipers. How about the New York Times displays that video? The dissidents of Gaza, meeting to riot every Friday in the weekly commemoration of the attempt to surge across the Israeli border, are trying to get children killed to supply them with more excuses for violence. I wonder how long before more Westerners admit that there is a cultural conflict with Islam and, like the Israeli left, accept that they have to defend themselves.
13
Or maybe you could try just returning their land to them along with human and civil rights
5
@Dan D
It's Jewish land, it does not belong to the Palestinians.
As I contemplate Jews in Berlin and New York getting hit over the head because they dare to wear a kippah in public, no, I don't think so. There are 50 Muslim nations on this planet, 20 Islamic only nations, and only one Jewish refuge. The Gazans, when the clean water runs out, can move. Of course, finding a Muslim nation with the civil and human rights the Israelis give their Muslims will be close on impossible.
Dan D
It is so troubling that this Opinion piece, legitimately explaining the Israeli perspective, is overrun with negative comments, and comments visualizing and detailing only the Palestinian suffering. BOTH sides are worthy of empathy for their suffering- even the Israeli's. Here's the huge difference- a majority of Israeli's consider the conflict and damage inflicted on the Palestinian public a necessary evil, while the Palestinians encourage and revel in causing suffering to their enemies. Just read their elementary school textbooks regarding Jihad.
There is no excuse for that.
14
@megachulo
Instead of reading children's books, one need only see what the Jews do to the Palestinians each and every day. Israel has created punishments for Palestinians that it can never be atoned for, or be forgotten and forgiven. Israelis will never recover from their reign of terror.
1
Ten years ago an article like this would have been cheered on by a few hundred American Jews and condemned by a handful. Note that today, that balance has shifted all the way in the other direction. Blame Netanyahu, blame the rise of right-wing despots, blame a strongman-worshipping American president, blame better news coverage; whatever.
I’m not drawing conclusions from any of it other than the fact that if my country stops supporting Israel, and Russia, say doesn’t take our place, the experiment is over.
3
If the U.S. and Europe removed their support from Israel, it would be gone within the decade, if not the year.
THAT is why those of us sitting in front of computers two thousand miles from your conflict care so much. To be the lifeline of a nation with such a complicated, brutal, messy history - while still wrestling with our own historical fiascoes - is a strange burden to have on our shoulders, yet its one we (as dutiful members of the democratic process) have to carry about due to our government's long-standing interest in your nation-state.
So with that said:
Mr. Netanyahu may be a reason the Palestine bombings have diminished over the years, but he is certainly also partially responsible for the continued civil strife caused by the Israeli expansion and right-wing rhetoric. He's not interested in peace; he's interested in Israeli power. And paradoxically with that stance, he will be the collapse of the Nation of Israel if he forces away international support.
I for one am tired of his strong-arm, corrupt politics and overblown nationalism. I don't want the U.S. to support him. I'd rather see us move away from Middle East oil anyway (and thus from Israeli - geopolitics is an ugly business, folks). So you want Netanyahu, Israel? Fine, but a polite heads up that the constant authoritarianism from his government is wearing on the public's patience of your greatest ally. We've got our own fish to fry; good luck boiling your own.
7
@htg. Admit it, it really doesn’t matter after who the actual Israeli Prime Minister happens to be. Your feelings would be exactly the same.
For what it’s worth, your premise is faulty on many levels.
2
The one thing Palestinians do not want to discuss is that the US under Trump does not see them as human beings with rights. It maybe the truth but what exactly has Trump offered to the Palestinians for them to gain their rights . Israel bombed Gaza relentlessly after stating that the Palestinians had been aggressive under Obama. Hospitals were bombed , huge amount of casualties and injuries . None mentioned in this article. Somehow the Extremist Palestinians and the extremist Israelis can never reach a peaceful agreement. Both sides have moderates but when will there be a fair peace for both sides.
3
And for every horrible moment the Israeli's remember, the Palestinians have a hundred...
Because violence begets violence.
It's never the answer. It's always perpetuation.
What about when Begin's terrorists blew up the hotel with English servicemen in it? Was it the King David? Or purged Palestinians from their ancestral homes and land? Or assassinated the Swedish negotiator sent by the UN? Or slaughtered the Palestinians in the camps in numbers equivalent to 9-11.
You can't expect reactions to this to be measured or reasonable.
Israelis keep saying "Never Forget" but they repress all these memories, too.
During the six day war I remember being unable to turn away from the news and loudly rooting for the Israelis. And then I began reading the history and books like 7 pillars of wisdom.
... so many damning facts:
(At the time of the Balfour amendment establishing the right to a "homeland", well under 10% of the people in Israel and the territories were Jewish.)
I haven't rooted for Israel since.
My Israeli and Jewish friends offer different explanations all concluding with "You have to go there to understand."
I hope to, because I don't think American media has faithfully conveyed the Palestinians, Israelis or the problem itself.
We've been brainwashed, like over Vietnam.
And that's why we rushed into Iraq with guns blazing, bombs dropping and God Bless America as our anthem.
17
Withdrawal? To where? Palestinians and leftist anti - Semites will not be satisfied with any withdrawal short of the sea.
6
@BD Withdrawal to the land Israel voluntarily and unilaterally claimed as its state on declaring independence would be a good start. It is described in great detail in UN Res. 181 Part II, which Israel cited in seeking recognition for its new state.
No army, no war, has ever been fought on Israel's self-declared territory -- and that includes the 1948 "invasion." At present, thanks to endless wars of hegemony, Israel controls at the point of a gun Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, Syrian Golan Heights and Lebanese Sheeba Farms. None lie within its legitimate borders.
1
"“in the stormy Mideastern sea we’ve proven that we can keep Israel an island of stability and safety,”
Israeli voters need to start thinking long term. Is creating enemies in the local neighbourhood and around the world good for the future of the State of Israel? Or does it build a storm surge in the Mideastern sea that will eventually flood the island?
7
@Greg. I would imagine that any fair minded observer would consider Israel's outreach on the diplomatic level (To Muslim, Arab, Central/Eastern European and Asian countries), on the humanitarian level (sending medical and rescue teams around the world to disasters as to which France shows an icy indifference) and as the Start-Up Nation benefitting the world with technological advances, would all qualify as "thinking long term."
It may not be popular to say, but it remains true, that there is no serious Palestinian Arab peace partner at the moment or on the horizon. The Palestinian Arabs cannot even speak through a unified government for Heaven's sake. As a consequence, Israel has not held its future hostage until its Arab antagonists get their act together.
Those people who feel the need to attach to suffix “-washing" to every Israeli action that has nothing to do with Palestinian Arabs betray their own obsessive, and often uninformed, narcissism and do nothing to help the supposed objects of their attention.
1
@Charlie in NY
"........there is no serious Palestinian Arab peace partner at the moment or on the horizon. The Palestinian Arabs cannot even speak through a unified government ...."
and this is Netanyahu's doing.
In early June of 2014 the new Palestinian unity government was a serious threat to the Netanyahu & Co. colonization agenda. Hamas was moving to accept all the pre-conditions of peace negotiations. Increased pressures for a peaceful solution to the age-old conflict would have led to a premature setting of borders. International acceptance of the Fatah-Hamas alliance infuriated Netanyahu & Co, particularly US acceptance. It was imperative that Hamas be demonized (again) and a destructive wedge be driven into Palestinian politics. So Netanyahu provoked Hamas and started the 2014 Gaza war.
1
Memories of these attacks have been repressed - yet, nobody has repressed the horror of the holocaust. Why is that?
It's easy to accept that the Nazi's were monstrous and there was no acceptable explanation for their heinous acts. We also know that all those victims were blameless and innocent - AND MAY WE NEVER FORGET.
But the current issue isn't so black and white. What brings one human to shoot another is not quite the same as what brings one person to strap a bomb to themselves and blow themselves up along with their perceived enemy.
I'm no psychologist - but I'd venture to guess that perhaps the current repression might in part be due to a feeling of guilt. Perhaps deep down, some Israeli's feel that though the innocents that were killed on the buses and in the restaurants are blameless, that maybe their government policy might have something to do with their deaths...
As another commentator suggested - the solutions are not easy. What I do know is that each side hating and blaming the other is simply not working. Waiting for the other side to stop hating won't work either.
6
It's the "security", stupid.
How do you vote against survival?
And dare I say it's about a little bit more than that moment in time that your column is focused upon, but point taken.
There's only 15 million of us left on this whole planet, the vast majority in two countries.
Very few of us want to think about that, either, which is why we continue to let Mr. Netanyahu do it for us.
5
Violence on either side needs to be condemned. As Mahatma Gandhi noted more than 100 years ago and a fact which continues to escape most of us - An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.
But pray tell me : Where are the graphics related to the continued repression of a Palestinian population ? Where are the photos about the grizzly murders of more than a few thousand refugees at Shatila? Where are the articles related to erection of barriers that treat the Palestinians as sub-humans in their own land? Where are the statistics related to the continued push for new settlements in occupied territory?
I don't see any progress so long as this conversation is a one sided discussion related to the goodness of Israel and the badness of Palestine.
If we want to entertain serious discussions related to a peaceful co-existence of both sides, then we need to stop treating one side as being deliberately evil.
10
An interesting read. Trump uses fear of violence from Mexican rapists and South American gangs. Israeli’s have experienced actual violence allowing Netanyahu and his far right politics and corruption to remain in power.
1
The Palestinians would feel drive to desperate acts of terrorism if they hadn't been kicked forcefully out of their homeland in 1948, and continued to experience violence perpetrated against them by Israel ever since.
8
@Gusting so then why don’t they follow the lead of Egypt and Jordan and formally accept Israel’s right to exist and formalize relations? We both know the answer, but it is something that the Palestinian apologists dare never mention.
Israel has a proven track record of exchanging vast amounts of land for peace. The Palestinians were offered 98% of the West Bank and Arafat rejected it (According to Bill Clinton) why is that?
We know the answer, so no need to respond.
9
@TimesWatch
Jordan and Egypt are dictatorships. The Jordanian and Egyptian people only accept Israels conquests because their dictators force them to.
1
@TimesWatch Jees, Louise. It's small wonder that Israel and its supporters are so bellicose when they haven't a clue about what actually has happened in recent history.
The Palestinians HAVE accepted Israel's "right to exist in peace and security" multiple times, most recently in 1993, and to no avail. They did it formally and met all diplomatic requirement, including the voiding of objectionable clauses in their charter. You can read the pertinent documents, as I did, on the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
When has Israel recognized Palestine's right to exist? Oh, right -- they claim that "Palestinians" (usually in quotes) don't themselves exist. When was there ever an encounter in which Israelis met Palestinians as equals?
1
Hard-right Israelis and the Jews worldwide that support them will never run away from the danger they put themselves in by stealing another people’s land and wealth, and denying their identity and rights.
The suicide bombers were concomitant with scorched-earth military policy in Gaza and a 1000-to-1 vengeance-drenched massacre of Palestinians for every Israeli death, not to mention razing homes in a frenzy of collective punishment that competes with the worst barbaric practices in history.
To Israelis complicit in a so-called “peace” that’s really a reverse siege: the drones are coming, and the face-recognition, and the autonomous missiles, and the weapons race Israel thinks it can ever win will never end until Palestinians recover their historical rights and receive compensation for a now close to a century of dispossession. The more time passes, the more compensation will be due, interest piling on.
Israel opted for a delayed total war, and that’s all it achieved with the current hard-right. The more it is delayed the more costly and catastrophic it will be.
4
@Yasser Taima
Egypt was a sworn enemy of Israel and committed to its destruction. Sadat took a small step (which he of course paid for with his life, having been murdered by the same radical Islamist terrorists that refuse to recognize israel’s Right to Exist) and recognized Israel’s right to exist and established normal diplomatic relations with Israel. For this small step, a treaty was entered into in which Israel exchanged land that it had won at the expense of its blood and treasure. That treaty has endured. If the Palestinian government (oh that is right, hamas, a terrorist organization which has the destruction of the state of Israel as one of its stated goals) would do as Sadat did, there would be peace. But that will never happen as the radical islamists are not interested in recognizing the state of Israel.
4
@TimesWatch This is tiresome. The Palestinians have recognized Israel's right to exist multiple times. Even Hamas has said it would accept a negotiated peace.
1
Israel will do whatever is in Israel’s best interest to do to protect its citizenry, its sovereignty, and its identity as the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people ...exercising their right to self-determination upon their own indigenous ground.
After suffering millennia of conquest, exile, inquisitions, pogroms, dhimmitude, and genocide...followed by decades of war and terrorism...the Jewish Nation is perhaps no longer willing to appease and capitulate.
In any case, neither appeasement, capitulation, nor compromise on their part has ever gained them even one day of peace.
8
Thank you for this. I tire of reminding people that the barriers and barricades didn't just randomly go up, they went up to stop the suicide mass murderers streaming in to Israel. And it worked. Until Palestinian leadership can guarantee the suicide bombings won't start again, the barriers should never come down. It would be Israeli suicide to take them down. And considering Palestinian leadership in both Gaza (Hamas) and the West Bank (Abbas, who planned the Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes, among other terrorist activities) are outright terrorists, there's no reason to believe they have any interest in not killing Israelis.
Should any group willingly allow their people to be killed to assuage international ignorance?
Absolutely not! And no group on Earth is expected to do so, except Jews.
8
If Netanyahu thinks he can protect the State of Israel by having friends like the American Donald Trump and the Saudi MBS he is way, way, WAY out on a limb.
5
I remember this very well. I also remember other, earlier terrorist/civil attacks on Israelis and their children. I believe one of the most horrific bombings was at Kiryat Shimona in 1974. Eighteen Israelis, half of them children were massacred by Hamas. One of the children killed was the young daughter of a friend of mine who now lives in Philladelphia, PA. Though this happened many years ago, my friend, who is now about 72, still cries for the only daughter she ever had and who was slaughtered by Palestinians.
There were other massacres of Jews all throughout the history of Israel long before it was a nation, some beginning in the mid 1800s. Jews were also driven from their homes in Jerusalem and forbidden to return even after the 1967 war.
This is what Israelis must deal with; Remembrance and continuing betrayal by Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinians. At every offering of peace the Israelis found that they were misled and betrayed again, and again and again.
In America today we have elected officials who strongly support the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) movement that is meant to break the back of Israel's will to survive and capitulate to the demands of the Palestinians. The Israelis see that their greatest friend now has a movement that seeks to destroy Israel and the Jewish people using a Nazi propaganda tool of the 1930s and 40s.
For this reason Mr. Netanyahu will continue to be appealing and will win the next election. Israelis want security and peace.
7
This situation just exhausts me. Israeli's have become very adept at taking things out of context, as a poster below points out. In their own way the Palestinians are not far behind, but they are indeed the occupied party. Just give us a break with this stuff until you can be a bit more intellectually honest.
9
Not a day passed in my life , and I don’t leave in Israel , that I forget the carnage Arab terrorists with a general Arab support committed against Israeli civilians . And this was perpetrated in a heights of so-called peace negotiations . The world was silent , even explaining the reasons and defending this kind of Arab perversion . Yes , these period is ingrained in me , and more so in Israeli public and they will vote with this in mind . Meanwhile the American liberal left , Jewish and non Jewish, should keep their opinions to themselves because they have no idea what Israel is experiencing on the front line .
8
Not only don’t Israelis want to talk about the terrible years of suicide bombers, neither does any journalist or advocate for Palestinians.
TV, print and On Line Media are totally devoid of context as if those bloody years never happened. The ensuing Check Points, border security to protect Israeli civilians, are a direct result of Palestinian terrorism, not some evil racial “apartheid.”
The American left and BDS can rail against Israel all they want, but Israelis do remember and the younger generation, who overwhelmingly voted for parties which support Netanyahu, will continue to take every possible measure to ensure those terrible days never come again.
Israel will not commit suicide.
9
Jerusalem under the UN resolution creating Israel was to be an international city. Shamir and Cohen murdered the UN High Commissioner, the Holocaust hero Count Folke Bernatotte, for attempting to enforce the UN resolution. So whining about suicide bombers in a city which they occupied and are ethnic cleansing is akin, ironically, to Germans complaining about the expulsion of Germans from western Poland while ignoring the Holocaust. The suicide bombers were rightly hailed for giving up their lives in resistance to a police state.
4
@terry
While I don't agree with your conclusion, I thank you for the history about Bernadotte & Shamir, of which I was unaware.
I do want to add that the terrorist campaign was clearly (at least in my memory) to undermine Peres & make sure the right came to power, which (the idiots believed) would provoke a war that Israel could not win. Any comments about that, anyone?
1
@terry. I'm not so sure Count Bernadotte deserves the moniker of "Holocaust hero" for having negotiated in late spring of 1945 with a desperate Heinrich Himmler for the release of Danish and Norwegian soldiers from the show-concentration camp of Theresienstadt that incidentally included other nationals including Jews.
He was also not enforcing any UN resolution as they were all non-binding. He was attempting to arbitrate between the two sides and his work was eventually brought to a successful conclusion by the American Ralph Bunche - who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his team's efforts.
As to Count Bernadotte's murder by Jewish terrorists, (though Shamir pulled no trigger nor was he there; he was reputed to have agreed to the assassination) Sweden's reaction was telling. It pursued this murder with exponentially more vigor and interest than it did the murder of an undisputed Swedish "Holocaust hero", Raoul Wallenberg. It wasn’t mere geopolitics at play.
1
"But you can’t talk about bombings and Israeli fear without talking about occupation and genocide"
What is your definition of genocide when the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza is one of the fastest growing in the world? Seems to be the opposite of genocide. You are careless with your words and your frivolous use of the word genocide diminishes the real meaning of genocide.
6
I assume that the violence to which you are referring would be classically called the Second Intifada. This spate of violence was instigated by Ariel Sharon, when he decided to take a little stroll on the Temple Mount with a few hundred armed Israeli commandos. If Israelis don't want to get bombed, my suggestion is that they stop having their leaders walk around town with a can of gasoline while trying to light a cigar.
Or better yet, perhaps the Israelis should just stop assassinating people like Yitzak Rabin.
5
I was a student in Jerusalem between 2000 and 2004. I read this article and felt a great deal of surprise. When I give it any thought, I am aware of how powerfully damaging that time was. My husband and I sometimes mention different experiences from those years, all insane, all surreal. This article describes our experiences and our semi-conscious choice to ignore them. We Israelis do seem to repress a myriad of horrors. Our children will continue to read their books in bed when an air raid siren goes off. It is a piercing sound, and impossible to ignore. They do this, not because they are brave. It is because they have nowhere to go. The missile will strike, or it will miss, just as those bombs exploded around us in Jerusalem. We just want to exist, to live normal lives, and we seem to need to have goldfish-like memories in order to do so. Unfortunately, that does mean that many Israelis will once again vote for Bibi. We will once again vote for a left wing party. When we are bombarded with missiles we remind ourselves that life is much worse in Gaza. This article reminded me of those years in Jerusalem. It was mild, sparing the readers any graphic images. For me, it brought back a flood of images, sounds and smells, all of them unbearable. It's okay. By tomorrow, I will forget again...
4
I enjoyed this article. It is well-written and gives cogent reasons why the Israeli electorate is rusted-on to Bibi Netanyahu. But please finish-out the Freudian case-study you have begun, Mr Friedman. Did the State of Israel experience a compulsion to repeat the repressed traumatic memories that you describe? Did it repeatedly act out the violence it suffered, bombing other civilians as they tried go about their lives in ordinary places in another city? Readers all around the world understand the familiar Freudian story you have begun to tell us. How does it end for the State of Israel?
@James
So what do you suggest Israel should do when attacked? Say thanks? Israel has every right to defend itself. Wonder what your tune would be if suicide bombers were killing your loved ones in Sydney?
3
The comments here from readers who remember those terrible times in Israel brought the magnitude of the traumatic bombings home to me, even more than this opinion piece did. I think I understand why a crook like Netanyahu can stay in power. Safety. Its something we all understand.
The random mass shotings in the United States can give us a taste of what Israel endured. Othetwise, there is no comparison. The gun problem in the US is one which we caused and which can be addressed with proven solutions. Both Israel and the Palestinians have far more complicated layers of history and identity to overcome. No simple act of legislation will fix this.
Fear is winning.
1
As someone whose formative years were in Jerusalem in those very dark years, I have some corrections for Mr. Friedman:
First, and most importantly, it was Ariel Sharon, not Netanyahu, who was wildly credited with restoring security. Him, and the security barrier/wall which was never complete due to right-wing pressure against "dividing the holy land". When Netanyahu faced an election against Sharon (or rather, his immediate successor, Olmert) Likud was soundly defeated, getting by far the lowest number of parliament seats in its history.
Second, the melodramatic claim that the Intifada has no name in Israel a blatant lie. We call it the second Intifada, the Palestinians call it the "Al Aqsa" Intifada, that's the only difference. It has a name and is mentioned when appropriate as any other historical period.
That being said, Friedman *is* correct that the second Intifada crushed the Israeli left, causing irreparable damage. the death of over a thousand civilians within a few years, and, perhaps more importantly, the impression that Palestinians chose terror over peace, and celebrated Jewish civilian deaths (including children), did enormous damage to the peace process, as did the impression that terror was finally stopped only by Israeli unilateral steps: military operation, and the introduction of checkpoints and security barrier/wall.
However, it is not the left that Netanyahu faces this time, and his primary advantages are rather favorable media and Trump/Putin
3
Interesting read. We always hear of the horrors Palestinians create, never what the Israelis have done to create such a backlash. They can never move forward if they continue to live in the past.
Netanyahu constantly perpetuates the situation by land grabbing and settlement building on Palestinian land. Many more Palestinians have died and had their homes destroyed in retaliation. Peace will never be reached in that country as long as Netanyahu is in power. He does not want peace only power and right now our President is supporting that behavior. How easy it was to get Trumps support when Netanyahu named a new settlement in large gold letters, TRUMP.
4
I've made 3 trips to Israel in the past few years, and each time spoken to a lot of Israelis of all political leanings including Israeli Arabs, Palestinian Arabs and Christians, Gazans and the Syrian Druze population. The more you speak to people, the more you realize how difficult the issues are to resolve.
What is clear to me is that Israel's biggest enemy is not Palestinians, but Iran, and that is what the leadership is focused on. Palestine now sits in a sort of status quo, as the Israelis have their boot on their necks. The Israelis took care of Iraq long before we do, and now they continually frustrate Iran.
The biggest enemy of the Palestinians is not Israel, but their own corrupt, inept and hateful leadership. The Palestinian people are victims to be sure, and their hope is gone. America has no credibility with peaceful Palestinians, and the Israelis continue to encroach the land they hoped to have.
The author's words are a valuable perspective that I overlooked. My impression is the younger generation that lived through the period was more willing to overlook this time.
2
I wonder what events have shaped the voting behavior of the several million Palestinians who have spent their entire lives living under Israeli in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem?
Oh, apparently they don't get a vote. They just get to watch Israelis steal their water and land, bulldoze their homes, flatten their olive trees, humiliate them at checkpoints, raid their homes in the middle of the night, and kill them with impunity.
I have no doubt that Israeli Jews were traumatized by the wave of suicide bombings that occurred 20 years ago or even that this has shaped contemporary Israeli electoral politics. I dispute the characterization of Israel's actions preceding this wave as "pursuing peace" when in fact they were in the process of doubling the settler population and strangling the already feeble Palestinian economy.
It is the self-absorption of pieces like this, the complete lack of interest in the far more traumatizing experiences inflicted on the Palestinians at the same that is so galling.
Still, the piece does make clear, however unintentionally, that the Israeli political class will never permit a two-state solution.
With military and diplomatic paths to Palestinian freedom effectively closed, it seems clear that the time has come to pursue the obvious political solution:
A single democratic secular state for both peoples based on one person-one vote with strong guarantees of minority rights.
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@Christopher
According to Bill Clinton, the Palestinians were offered 98% of the West Bank and turned it down?
Why is that? Were the israeli’s not really negotiating. Was Bill Clinton lying?
3
I am not an expert but didn’t the Second Intifada begin after a provocation of the Israeli right in visiting the Temple Mount or something? That was my recollection. You simply cannot discount the provocations and all the bulldozing land annexation orchard bulldozing etc. This article seems too unidimensional even if ‘true’. Hey everybody loves a strongman when things are going well. Whatever the reason.
3
I’m not Jewish and have been twice to Israel. The problem with the walls is that they weren’t built on the 1967 border. They were constructed to steal land from the Palestinians. The wall in Ramallah is build right down the middle of the city’s Main Street, dividing the Palestinians largest city in half, leaving Palestinians divided in half from their families and olive groves. Any realistic hope for a Palestinian State is surgically made impossible by the walls and settlements.
8
Jews are safer in Israel than anywhere else, including France and the UK. Netanyahu has done a more than decent job keeping Israel as safe as possible from attacks by Islamic and Palestinian terrorists. There will never be a two state solution, face it, and Israel cannot afford to give back the Golan Heights or the West Bank as they are vital military buffer zones. I don't minimize the burdens on the Palestinians but having a safe Jewish homeland is more important. I note the other Middle Eastern countries have not done much for the Palestinians. They are mostly talk and no action. Corruption on the part of Netanyahu and his wife? Show me a politician who isn't corrupt to some extent - the only question is to what degree and most politicians are far more corrupt. Were I an Israeli citizen I would vote to reelect Netanyahu without a second thought and he already has my full support.
4
Has it escaped Mr. Friedman's notice that the million and a half Palestinians who are citizens of Israel do not engage in violent protest? Could that be because they have civil and human rights and the dignity that goes with them? Once those 5 million other Palestinians who are denied those freedoms are regarded as equals and not depraved terrorists, the Jews of Israel will have enduring security. As long as Mr. Friedman's defamation of the Palestinians furnishes the pretext for
decades more of the Occupation, the Palestinians will lack a partner for peace.
3
Clearly we see a preference for strongmen being selected as leaders from Israel to India to Russia to China. These are long-term demographic trends that explain it. As the world has turned more middle class, these middle class majorities yearn for security and economic stability. In addition the older Israelis have the trauma of the Holocaust and the Palestinians of the Nakba. In addition the fertility rates of Palestinians and Israelis differed as larger Palestinian families could overtake the smaller Israeli families. Demographics is key to understanding the appeal of zionist leadership.
As long as there are those such as Hamas to continue such attacks and are bent on killing people especially the Jews, there will never be peace. The only real way to free Palestine is to free it from Hamas and Fatah who are the real oppressors of them especially since they rule both the West Bank and Gaza Strip with iron fists. Showing this film to the world can show the true nature of Hamas and perhaps showing a different perspective not to mention show what really happened. However, I feel that anti-Israel fanatics will prevent that from showing, because they will claim that it vilifies the Palestinians as being evil as if Five Broken Cameras or Jenin, Jenin doesn't do that to the Israelis despite showing that in their films. I wouldn't be surprised if those same anti-Israel fanatics refused to see The Forgotten Refugees because it shows that the Jews were really forced to leave the rest of the region and that there were more of them compared to the Arabs that left Israel of their own accord or even were told to do so from neighboring countries. Also, they wouldn't allow for Lebanon at Sunrise because it shows the IDF doing their job during a war such as the civil war that went on in Lebanon at the time. BTW, my brother almost did get killed when he was taking classes over at Hebrew University but was fortunate he left just a few days before it happened, which was really dodging a bullet there. Still, the world really does need to know the real nature of Hamas.
4
If only human kind could give up, forget organized reglion. I'm not asking for people to become atheists but simply to carry their own belief system in their hearts and cease to preach to any one person or group. The Bible is folklore, nothing more. The God in the old testament is a vicious God. One could say he's mentally ill and should be locked up. The God in the new testament isn't much better. Consider Revelations. Ye gads. I do honor what Christ taught but that is all and i keep it to myself.
3
To the Editor:
As a psychoanalyst who has recently spoken at an academic meeting in Israel, I appreciate Matti Friedman's opinion piece on the political effects of what he calls the "repressed" memories of the violent trauma of past suicide bombings. But the past, remembered or not, is only part of the psychological picture. Present realities influence a sense of danger with which many Israelis of all political stripes continuously live.
Ongoing, periodic violence from Hamas, Hezbollah and the sworn intent by Iran and jihadi Islamists to completely annihilate the Jewish State are not the “repressed” past. They are a terrifying present reality that is often endured through a “dissociation”—an odd, traumatically induced, split, sense of something, past and/or present, that is, somehow, "there and not there."
Effectively evaluating what will truly make us secure is not, of course, simply a challenge for the Israeli psyche. It is a challenge that often leads all of us to ignore complexity. It permits many well meaning Americans, British and others to condemn Israel by focusing on the many real faults of the Netanyahu government while minimizing and rationalizing the avowed intent of Israel's neighbors to utterly eradicate the Jewish state.
2
The author of this column never explores in depth the reasons why the Palestinians turned to bombing Jewish people and places. The Israeli terrorists (e.g., The Stern Gang, Irgun, the Lehi, the Haganah and the Palmach) killed many Muslim Palestinians, and drove hundreds of thousands of them from their homes and farms. Later, Israelis put vast numbers of Palestinians in prisons, including those like Gaza, where every decision important to the Palestinians are made exclusively by Jews. What is the appropriate response to being forced from your land and watching your family and kin being killed? For a people without planes, tanks, and other modern weapons, there are only a few methods of self defense, none of them pleasant. The conflict between Jews and Muslims is at an intermediate point: roughly the same number of Jews and Arabs now live between the River and the Sea. The conflict is far from resolution.
6
When you create a new religious state by importing large numbers of people, there is bound to be violence between the immigrants and the natives, who don't share the new comer's state sponsored religion. It's as if Mexican immigrants to the US established a new religious state in New York and made laws to encourage other Mexicans to immigrate.
7
Matti, thank you for trying to explain the unexplainable. I, too, lived in Israel. Twenty five years in total. From the bombings of Fatah during the '73 war, through the bombing in Kikar Zion in 1975, thru every war, every bomb, every stabbing, every brutal moment. Living in bomb shelters, putting gas masks on my children's sweet faces. Going to funerals where only a a few limbs were buried. You and I worked together at the Report, we lived with this in our homes and in our offices day in and day out. I live in America now and the recent shootings and a racist, xenophobic Presidency have uncovered my PTSD. I rarely leave my home. I am petrified of crowds, movie theaters, and restaurants. I get my food delivered. Israelis, like you and I, are the casualties of continual war and brutality.
What we once hoped, that Israel would be a shining light unto all nations is just another human tragedy cloaked in tribalism, nationalism and the illusion of a peaceful solution to this madness. Now, in America, my grandson goes to a school with lockdown drills, shootings are commonplace everywhere. Madness knows no boundaries and repressed memories of collective terror are nearly impossible to erase. My the memories of those we lost be blessed, what about the memories of the living?
3
@Nina, there are many studies on the possible genetic implication of war trauma genocide and the holocaust. Perhaps a lot of Jews today in present day America carry intergenerational genes of trauma. Perhaps we will see it unfold in other areas of genocides ethnic cleansing like Sudan Darfur Rwanda Rohingya...Perhaps it causes the descendants to be hypervigilant hyperalert distrustful and even paranoid.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/trauma-inherited-generations/573055/
2
@petey tonei No doubt about it. No generation is spared suffering. My great grandparents thru pogroms and famine, my grandparents and my mother escaping from the Nazis, slogging it out through a Russian winter till she could get from Vienna to Riga. Their stories are mine, mine are my children's. Of course, they lived and still live in Israel. They have stories of their own to share.
The Second Intifada started when Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Temple Mount, the second holiest location for Muslims. Palestinians protested with stones while the Israeli army dispersed them with tear gas and rubber bullets. The Palestinian uprising during the Second Intifada was met with gunfire, airstrikes, and targeted killings. About 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israeli died during the uprising, so there's some red herring in the premise Israelis were dealt a bad hand. Peace will arrive in Israel and Palestine when Israelis reject the belief God gave them the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River and Palestinians accept their "right to return" won't happen in homes long buried under Israeli cities.
2
@Keith
You refer to the Temple Mount as ‘the second holiest location for Muslims’.
It’s the Temple Mount...which existed as the ‘holiest’ site for the Jewish people centuries before Islam and centuries before the Arab Conquest of Jerusalem. What’s provocative (and sinister) is that Muslims built a mosque on top of it.
6
@Susanna
You know there was a temple there before Jews even existed right? So that means Jews destroyed someone elses temple to create theirs. Pretty provocative and sinister.
1
@Joe Yep. The Canaanites founded Jerusalem and named it for Shalem, their god of dusk. The first (legendary) Hebrew temple was built on the ruins of the Canaanite site of worship. That's according to the Institute for Jerusalem Studies in Israel.
Violence begets violence. It is time for peace. Both sides should admit the use of violence in their history and begin the journey for coextensive. Suicide bombers are NOT a an inducement for peace. Perpetual occupation and daily insults of Palestinians in the occupied territories is neither. And electing extremists like Netanyahu is not the solution. One can only hope.
2
An amazingly unconscious defence of religious fanaticism. Israelis haves killed many Palestinians over the years based on their belief that a deity gave them all of Canaan/Palestine/Israel to colonize and rule, and anyone who resists that can be liquidated. Killing civilians is wrong, no matter who is doing it. Also, what is the body count? I believe Israel has killed far more civilians than the other side.
6
It's truly awful that Israel is just there minding it's own business, never doing anything wrong to anyone ever, suffering these attacks without any provocation whatsoever. That's certainly what one would think based on this opinion piece. Terrorism is always wrong, but it is committed just as well by dropping bombs and shooting missiles as it is with IED's. In 2002, July 22 Israel fires a missile at an apartment building, killing 14 (8 children); on Nov. 21, a suicide bomber kills 11 on a bus - What is the difference between these two terrorist attacks? Nothing. The list of these murders goes on and on, Israel is just better at it.
Aside from the nearly 10-1 difference in killings between 2000 and present (9560 Palestinian deaths vs. 1248 according to B'Tselem), there is also the moral terrorism of stealing the Palestinian homeland bit by bit. There is also the daily humiliation of having to offer up your person to be searched (after standing in line for hours) in your own country because it's occupied by a foreign power.
So yes, it's true that murdering innocent people by blowing up buses is a horrible crime, but when you fail to acknowledge that there are even greater and more horrible crimes being committed on a daily basis by the Israeli government, you do nothing to advance the cause of peace. In fact, you work against it because in the absence of justice there cannot be a lasting peace, and justice cannot be sought when the crimes of only one side are condemned.
6
I've sometimes wondered why the suicide bombings on buses and elsewhere - which were so common at that time in Israel as to be unsurprising even as they were unbearably shocking - never became a fact of life here in the U.S., which many violent people hate. It seems unlikely that the answer is that the U.S. knows some things about counterterrorism that the Israeli authorities don't.
It's easy for progressive people here to lump in "Israel is a vicious apartheid state!" together with the other positions in their portfolio of political opinions. But doing so ignores the central question for Israelis: If we ease up, will the buses start exploding again? It's not a question to be dismissed with glib assurance and psychoanalysis. Buses full of innocent people did explode there, pretty much regularly.
You're in a movie theater, or a bus stop, or a pizzaria and some guy, a few seats away, with a bomb blows himself up and you come out only maimed while others are killed, and incidents like this are becoming more and more common, and then along comes a politician who puts a stop to this? It goes without saying that the politician, regardless of his tactics or demeanor, is going to garner support.
I don't think that Bibi has gone far enough. Israel needs to tell West Bank Palestinians that they can forget about an independent state on the West Bank. They had their chance. They didn't take it. That ship has sailed. The region's demographics have changed.
The West Bank needs to be incorporated into Israel-proper. West Bankers should get full Israeli citizenship and rights. Palestinians who lost land, money or businesses should get Just Compensation as under the legal Doctrine of Eminant Domain. Forget about "right of return". People get cash instead.
West Bank Palestinians can get some autonomy as French Canadians do in Quebec. And that's it. Case closed.
With the huge influx of Jews since 1948 the region alloted to Jews at that time is too small to support a viable nation-state for Jews much less two states.
At the same time, the UN should declare Gaza an independent state whether Gaza wants it or not. Israel vacated Gaza years ago. Egypt doesn't want Gaza back. Independence is the only viable outcome.
There's your Palestinian State. Gaza!
2
@MIKEinNYC, in present day America, one is not safe in a school or campus or theater or concert hall or place of worship. Gun toting individuals like to do mass murders in America because the lawmakers think it is ok.
1
I have such mixed feeling about the Israeli trauma. My grandma is a Sephardi Jew. Her brother in law died to a bus bombing in Israel. Ironically it may not have been Palestinian terrorists, but Israeli military accidentally hitting the wrong bus. Her sister got was recompensed for the error, but the stain and fear still lingers. Terrorism begets terrorism. One attack deserves a reprisal. Each reprisal demands revenge and thus another attack. Year after year, decade after decade and eventually we get to the early 2000s.
After years of bitter violence one side the Israelis decided no more and began to occupy, divide and purge entire regions of Palestine. For every Israeli death there was a dozen Palestinians. It was ugly, but many insisted it was necessary to break the terrorists in the West Bank. Destroy their hopes and dreams lest they vie for revenge. Eventually they partially succeeded thanks to Bibi's government.
Now in the aftermath, a cancer grows in the body politic of Israel and in the hearts of Israelis - Can we live with what we do? Is this justice? Do we care? It's funny, but another saying comes to mind, "An eye for an eye makes all men blind... When all men are blind will we then know peace?" I don't know, but it breaks my heart because no side is fully innocent or guilty, but by life and association we are at this crossroads where two roads lead to impasses and strife... May Israel and Palestine both find the will for peace and forgiveness.
1
What I don't understand is how the writer and most of commenters fail to recognize that the terror attacks did not happen in a vacumn:
A desperate people pushed to the brink, having their lands continually stolen by Israeli settlers and sanctioned by the govt, repressive polices by said govt., stealing water, and forcing people to live like animals in cages. What do you think is going to happen? Many more Palestinians died than Israelis but that's not the point. Violence must be examined in context. Failure to do so is a failure of memory also.
The comparison that rings similar to me is the situation of American Blacks in the 60's.
Oppressed for ages, the ghettos finally erupted. Unfortunately, they reaped destruction mostly only on their own communities, not the oppressors.
But a people can only be pushed so far, without a response.
4
Israel created its own problems. It’s a colony nation that only exists through violence and apartheid. America had its own apartheid and still does. Maybe that’s why it’s friends with Israel. I farmed in the Hula Valley in Israel for Kibbutz Sasa. We knew exactly whose land we were farming, we knew the names of the Palestinian families whose land we were occupying and using. This was 1994.
8
The trauma is real. However, Bibi's policies will not make Israel safer in the long term. Encouraging West Bank Jewish settlements and fighting against a 2 state solution will just lead to intensified conflict. Can Israel prevent the non-Israeli people in the West Bank from reproducing? One can either have a 2-state solution, a 1-state solution without a Jewish majority, or this present situation without a state for the people in the West Bank/Palestinians where they have reduced rights and occupying forces. That is not a long term policy that is tenable.
3
Let's be honest: Israeli voters have no one to blame for this but themselves. The real "repressed memory" is that they are living high and rich on lands belonging to others. Stolen land. They are occupiers, not only in Gaza and West Bank but all of it. They are entitled to this land because the Bible says so? Because they are the chosen people? Give me a break.
When you invade peoples' lands, take their homes and fields, when you treat them like dogs and shoot them in the streets, when the whole world except for another big, corrupt bully nation condemns your actions and you sneer at the criticism and cry Anti-Semitism, when every critic of your theft and cruelty is conveniently labeled a Nazi Jew-hater, this is what you get. And when you keep electing the same cynical, masochistic PM over and over - in a land of free elections,where a peace candidate could stand a chance - then you deserve the violence.
The freedom fighters in Ireland took the battle to London, and kept at it until a temporary peace was established. I say temporary because I don't believe it will really end until the British occupiers (who enabled the taking of Palestinian lands in 1948) are driven from Northern Ireland. The call of stolen land is strong.
Yes, repressed memory is a big problem for Israeli voters. They support a brutal occupation and wonder why there's resistance. I pray in this election the Israeli electorate chooses the difficult path to peace. If BN wins - just watch.
16
@Ed
Ah...the ‘stolen land’ myth.
Jews have resided on that ground for millennia. They are indigenous to that land. The Arabs, not so much.
5
@Susanna
The Arabs not indigenous?
Your answer to the "stolen land" myth is concise & correct--and you immediately proceed to undermine it by subscribing to an alternative myth.
2
@Fred
DNA tests establish that Ashkenazi Jews were indigenous to the land that is now Israel. DNA tests establish that the "Palestinians" are descendants from immigrant Greeks, the leftovers from the destroyed Mycenaean empire. Of course the other 70% of the Israeli population are either Palestinians (20%) or Israeli Jews (50%) who were expelled from Arab countries.
1
It’s not at all hard to understand the Israelis’ reaction to the bombings of that period. I well remember the horror and disbelief that circulated here after the bombings of 9/11. Unfortunately that reaction enabled a horribly irrational response—the Iraq war. Israelis might do well to think about this.
6
Undoubtedly true - but also true are the same feelings by Palestinians about their civilians killers by the Israeli. The more killings, the more hate - and the more extremists on both sides can stay in power.
11
Well, the United States and our earlier colonial empires got away with genocide, confinement, exile and cultural erasure all against the native populations. Probably generally justified by selections from a bible.
Something tells me that Israel has a much more difficult, but very similar job to do. They are not guaranteed lasting success.
3
@Marat1784
"genocide," genocide did you say?
Encyclopedia Brittanica:
"Genocide, the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race."
It does not include killing for self-defense.
"Fatah Central Committee member Sultan Abu al-Einein" said (June 2018),
“If you ask me my blunt position, I would say — every place you find an Israeli, slit his throat.”
The wise adage states, "When someone comes to kill you, kill them first."
It's called self-preservation.
1
Matti Friedman writes an important article. What happened in Israel in those years was a 9/11 in slow motion, which lasted for several years.
12
If modern Israelis truly wish for peace (and then I read myopic opinion pieces like this one, I sadly begin to doubt that they do) they must shed their fear of what peace means.
Namely, that they will have to allow their Palestinian neighbors to also live in peace.
7
@itsmecraig
"Namely, that they will have to allow their Palestinian neighbors to also live in peace."
That's exactly what the Palestinians don't want Israel to do—ever!
The Hamas-Fatah charters call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of all its Jewish inhabitants.
No, my friend the Jews will not commit suicide.
1
Should the context of American leadership be 9/11––or can we move on from that after reckoning with its causes?
1
Netanyahu would most likely not have been elected if not for the two bombings of Bus 18 and the other terror attacks during his campaign against Peres.
That was intentional. The purpose of the Hamas attacks was to elect Netanyahu. Hamas did not want an Israeli PM who is interested in peace. Hamas wanted a right wing PM who is interested in war, and that is exactly what they got.
You can thank Hamas for Netanyahu.
7
@We the Pimples of the United Face
Honestly?
You're a Republican, right? Tell me your a Republican...
Because this is exactly how they squirm out from under Trump.
No matter how, or by whom, Netanyahu was elected he was. And re-elected, and re-elected.
Either Israelis are easy-to-manipulated boneheads of the first order, or this is how they want to roll, lead by this particular gangster/buffoon.
I suppose Palestinians hypnotized some Jewish dupe to off Rabin, too9. Right when things seemed to be going rather well. Which, as I recall, was the problem.
Republicans gave us Trump and have subsequently endorsed his every hateful, un-American impulse.
Israel gives us Netanyahu, and the violence, greed, intransigence, third-grade-bully arrogance that now defines their nation.
Do not even think of spreading the blame. And don't pretend its some mysterious spate of international antisemitism that appeared out of nowhere now spreading panic through the ranks,. They earned this, every bit, this time around. Its a shame.
Between Trump and The Beeb, this is going to get ugly for Israel. It didn't ever have to go this way.
1
Many of the people in the middle east have been traumatized in similar ways - if not in wars or terror attacks, by their own thuggish rulers.
1
These comments are amazing for how many believe Friedman was supporting Netanyahu in this article and how they generally talk past each other. Both supports Friedman's thesis, even if his choice of analogy "repressed" is less than perfect imo. People do have to talk about the terrible things that happened that day in order to come to terms with them and decide how they should affect the future.
4
Netanyahu's attitude is that the Palestinian Arabs can be driven off if Israel persists in efforts to defeat it's supporters like Iran, and that would resolve the problem. It's magical thinking.
4
My recollection of the events at the turn of the century--and I think it's easy to verify this--starts with Ariel Sharon taking 1,000 armed men up to the Dome on the Rock in a move widely understood to be a provocation. Why? He was battling against Ehud Barak to be prime minister, and the violence he sparked did in fact succeed in getting him elected as prime minister. Those are the facts, often overlooked. He wanted the second Intifada because it would put him in power.
4
Widely overlooked is that 2nd intifada had been planned long before Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount.
3
"Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.
No. Unhappy is the land that needs a hero."
- Bertolt Brecht, 'Galileo'
Really...
And how many thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military before, during and after that time.
The article may well explain the durability of Netanyahu's political career, but says nothing of the immorality of the state of Israel. A country's people who once said 'never again'.
11
The essence of all bigotry and racism (including anti-semitism) is the application of negative stereotypes and collective guilt and collective punishment of an ethnic, racial or religious group for the actions of a few?
So the horrendous bombing stopped all of a sudden. Does anyone know exactly why?
Does anyone remember the Iraq invasion?
Does anyone know that Saddam Hussein used to send $50k for the bombers’ family to “rebuild” their destroyed houses?
Once that stopped the bombing stopped.
Thank you US soldiers, thank you America.
The price however was very high. Extremely high.
I wonder if it could’ve been less so.
3
No doubt the fear and pain as described on the Israeli side is real. But you are clearly ignoring the other side, and the massive harm to the Palestinian from the decades long Occupation. A deeply partisan perspective that cannot help solve the critical problem of forging peace.
10
@PT
Who occupies whom?
Palestinians occupy Jewish land.
Palestinians are an "invented" people... their origin stamped into their family names:
al-Masri (the Egyptian),
al-Djazair (the Algerian),
el-Mughrabi (the Moroccan),
al-Yamani (the Yemenite)
and even al-Afghani
are so common among those claiming to be "Palestinians."
Yasir Arafat himself was Egyptian.
Mohammad Abbas is Jordanian.
"Today's Palestinians are immigrants from many nations.."
(DeHass, History, p. 258. Reinhold Rohricht edition).
"There are villages populated wholly by settlers from other portions of the Turkish Empire in the 19th century; Bosnians, Circassians, and Egyptians."
(James William Parkes, "History of the Peoples of Palestine," 1970)
1
A strong piece this. Yet all it really means is that in every age fear wins. I always thought the Israelis were a bit different. Once I even thought that about Americans. Now I just go about my business knowing no one is brave enough to do what needs to be done. The bleating of the terrified has drowned out all hope.
3
What a horrifying chapter in the history of a nation. I appreciate the opportunity to learn about it; I intend to read more on the subject soon. That being said, I'm taken aback when the NYT runs a piece like this, because no other topic is covered in quite the same way.
My takeaway is that Palestine is a terrorist organization to most Israelis, earning that title through a protracted campaign of bombings that took many civilian lives. Thus, Israelis support whichever political leader might best keep them safe from further attacks — and their willingness to overlook corruption should not be criticized, because it's perfectly reasonable to support such candidates when they will reliably stave off the terrorists.
Is that a fair assessment of the situation? I have no idea. I've certainly never seen a column like this written by a Palestinian, nor have I seen any other scenario in print media where a writer confidently attributes lethal guerilla war attacks to an entire population. Common sense would suggest Palestinians did not put suicide bombing to a vote, and also that any such acts of aggression are met with some form of dissent. The United States has waged more violent attacks in civilian communities than Palestine, with the most robust military in the world. But many Americans oppose it, protest it, etc.
2
There is a significant event coming soon that will unsettle the West Bank tremendously and be accompanied by some level of violence; The passing ( natural) of Mahmoud Abbas, the current PA president.
This is the event no one is talking about and should prepare for. The combatants won't involve the Israelis as a main player. The Palestinians will be facing off against each other.
6
I’ve learned everything there is to know about the Middle East from an 1997 NPR interview of a Palestinian father. It was the time of great expectations, after the Oslo agreements and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.
The reporter asked the father of a seven year old Palestinian boy what he hopes his child will achieve in life, now that peace is at hand. Of course, I was thinking he’ll say that he wants the boy to get a good education, good job, happy life, etc.
The father thought a while, than said: “I hope that he will bring honor to our family by killing as many of our enemies as possible”.
Maybe naive Americans whose life experience is limited to cozy suburban life might learn something from this.
11
@Gimme A. Break do you still listen to NPR? It is doubtful that someone like me who has listened to NPR for 25 years would see any side in any conflict as solely to blame for that conflict. I suspect your views on Muslims have led you to abandon outlets like NPR.
1
@Gimme A. Break
Have you ever heard of Masada? Its where heroic Jews killed their wives and daughters rather than surrender to attacking Romans. Its an Israeli national monument.
1
Mr. Friedman can learn some lessons from Ireland, where history is not forgotten, but peace has been achieved, even as difficulties persist. It's one-sided to speak of Jewish pain without speaking to Palestinian pain. It's one sided to speak of Palestinian pain without speaking of Jewish pain. As long as Palestinians are denied a state of their own, the cycle of violence will continue.
7
This was a thoughtful and well presented depiction of the terror. When I do simple ratio comparisons, the equivalent casualties for other populations would be US: 50k, France: 11k, UK: 11k. Maybe 1-2x more wounded.
Anywhere, anytime.
Crazy.
**The ratio assumes 1011 casualties and the approx. Jewish population (the targeted population) of approx. 5.5 mln.
2
@AW
The 1-2x is an estimate of seriously wounded. Many more were wounded.
1
From the article, it appears that as long as Israeli survivors of that period are around with their memories of "the situation" little will change. The suppressed horror will continue to guide the invisible hand at the ballot box.
It may take another generation of Israelis who weren't alive at that time to find a fair settlement with the Palestinians. Further settlements on occupied land surely won't win their hearts and minds.
Do the Japanese or Germans alive today continue to harbor grievances against WWII America? After all, we leveled many of their cities, killing 100s of thousands of civilians.
Sadly, Israelis and Palestinians must live with dreadful memories of the not-so-distant past. Well, the Israelis do. The Palestinians only have to remember what happened yesterday and fear for what will happen today.
3
Every time I watch on television the advertisement that invites people to visit Israel ("two cities, one break"), I always think: "it would be a beautiful journey". But then I think, "is it safe?". Very sad. This is because I always have in mind the violence of the Israelis against the Palestinians and the violence of the Palestinians against the Israelis. I don't want to make a historical analysis. And of course I'm not able to say who's wrong and who's right. I just want to ask a simple question: aren't you, Palestinians and Israelis, tired of all this hate and violence? Perhaps it is difficult for older people to forget. But now times have changed: don't you think that generations of young Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in peace? Please, Israeli and Palestinian politicians, do not think about your tomorrow, but about the day after tomorrow for your children and grandchildren. One day I hope to see on television a new advertisement: "two states, one break".
1
It's the same strategy and causal relationship in many countries for rise of Right wing hardline politics and politicians.|
Most Indian "intellectuals", their selective love for secularism and human rights are just like that as well- repression of all those since India became an independent country. Reason for popularity of India's Modi is not much different than Israel's Netanyahu. Both religious fundamentalism and desire for security play its role there.
As an American supporter of Israel who disagrees with a great deal of its governmental decisions (the same way I feel about the US, by the way), I question the implication that Netanyahu will win because of the repressed memory of terror and the belief that only he can keep Israel safe. The 2nd intifada began and ended under Ariel Sharon, and the last suicide bombing occurred during Ehud Olmert's term of office. If Gantz (former head of IDF) and Lapid, who are Netanyahu's main opponents in the Blue and White party, thought that preventing terror is really the #1 and #2 issues in the election then why (to my outsider's view at least) aren't they hammering home their strength in that area? Maybe it's unrealistic optimism, but I hope the Israeli electorate can recognize that the positives of Netanyahu are now outweighed by the negatives.
3
Interesting that the people supporting repression don’t seem to be concerned about what to do about the illegal occupation or suppression of the rights of a class of human beings. You’ll see if brutality is really a solution.
1
This is why those who want to maintain control over Palestine and the Palestinians are so hysterical about decent relations between Russia and the United States and about Trump. If there are a substantial number of American and Russian troops, along with those of other great powers, on the West Bank, there will be peace, then Israeli and Palestinians will live in peace and prosper.
We have had too many decades of colonial control by Israel. The Left was never honest in being willing to decide, but like Tom Friedman, had a de facto Likud policy. That was why there was the terrorism. Let us end this nonsense,
2
Yes, and we used to justify our oppression of the American Indians by pointing to their occasional and brutal attacks against settlers while conveniently failing to ask ourselves the hard question: just what led up to and initiated those attacks?
4
So where does peace come from for Israel and its neighbors?
Must peace wait until all who have been killed or injured and those who mourn have died? Can those with harsh memories ever forget or forgive enough for peace to grow? Or will the memories always be a barrier to working together for peace and prosperity in the lands where the living still try?
The one thing missing here is some recognition of what the Israelis have done and are doing to provoke that kind of response from the Palestinians.
What can you do when you have no other recourse?
Would you care to be a Palestinian?
3
I recall meeting a woman from Iran who suggested that judging the people in a country based on their politicians was a very dicey concept. I have friends and acquaintances who are Jews, Israeli and otherwise, I also have a number of Arab Canadian and Palestinian friends. It amazes me how alike they are. They are incredibly knowledgeable about politics and history and none of them, Arab or Jew, trusts politicians. They all view the political class as opportunists who thrive on conflict.
As one person, all I can do is think about how much I like these friends, all of them.
Just a simple thought I wanted to share.
7
And how many innocent Palestinian children, mothers, and fathers have been murdered so far? I believe its more than 84. Just saying....
6
@Marketingguy
The Israelis did not seek to murder these bystanders who were often used as "human shields" by Palestinian fighters.
Palestinians stored 10,000 rockets and purposefully launched from schools, hospitals, playgrounds, mosques, etc. for publicity purposes when civilians were inadvertently killed by Israeli planes.
1
Crime is down in NY and in the nation. Is that a reason to reelect Trump. Post hoc, Propter hoc.
4
In late 2000 and early 2001, Bill Clinton nearly brokered a two state deal between Israeli PM Barak and Arafat. Barak accepted the deal, Arafat first accepted it, and then walked away - in what Clinton called, in his memoir My Life, “a mistake of historic proportion.”
And then came the Second Intifada, restaurants and buses blowing up once or twice a week, by suicide bombers with explosives packed with ball bearings to maim those the blast didn’t kill. And thousands were injured, in addition to those killed; all civilians - Jew and Arab - the bombs didn’t didn’t discriminate.
Today many see the so called “Apartheid wall” and settlements, but in truth the wall was built for security reasons, and many settlements were built in reaction to the attacks. In fact, many settlements are named for people killed in the attacks.
The memories of these events fade, but the wall and settlements remain. Yet, they are still in the consciousness of many Israelis and Americans who knew people killed or just remember the horror of it all.
8
@Steven Roth
If Americans—or Palestinians—want to really understand apartheid watch Ari Lesser "Apartheid" on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsOH2Y_CZE0
Be enlightened.
1
I submitted a reply to Jonathan Friedman's comment 2 hours ago in which I suggested the root cause of the spate of terrorist bombings may actually be traced back to the historical expulsion of Jews from Arab countries and the conflicts which have escalated since then.
3
@Steve Tillinghast Some Jews were expelled from Arab countries AFTER - in reaction to -- 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in 1947-48. More came as a result of Zionist campaigns to build a Jewish majority in the new state.
There were "operations" Magic Carpet, Yachin and Ezra and Nehemiah. But the most ambitious was Ben Gurion's One Million Plan, official Zionist policy, fully funded by 1944, FOUR YEARS before Israel was even created.
Ben Gurion on the One Million Plan: "Our Zionist policy must now pay special attention to the Jewish population groups in the Arab countries.... Doubling and tripling the number of immigrants gives us more and more strength....This is the most important thing above all else. Settlement – that is the real conquest."
I support Israel and Bibi because he keeps Israel a safe refuge for the Jewish people. I don't recall the details of the Intifada but I know all about the Holocaust. Never Again. Viva Iisrael. Viva Bibi.
4
This article has not even one superfluous word in it.
Thank you Mr. Friedman.
6
This article should be retitled "The One Thing no American Democrat Wants to Discuss."
4
Basically you mean that as long as it’s the others getting blown up you can live with it. Yeah, sad. Not exactly safe. And the irony of Israel now cozying up to SA?
Humans are strange, alright.
3
Netanyahu is corrupt, egomaniacal, and despotic. The Israelis don't care as long as he manages to keep their enemies at bay. It's the old survival of the fittest, and they view the Palestinians as the epitome of UNfit. As long as Bibi keeps the wolf at bay, they'll re-elect him no matter his flaws.
1
Thank you for reminding the world why the situation in Israel exists today. For those who keep engaging in the anti-Semitic “apartheid” libel let me remind you of something: “apartheid” is discrimination and separation by race (see S. Africa) not enforced separation between populations to protect innocent civilians from terrorist attacks (Israel).
8
@XLER
Its always amusing when the defense is "its not technically apartheid!" It may not technically be apartheid, but its a system of forced segregation based for the most part on ethnic identity. Any Jew in Palestine can immediately move to Israel and gain residency and the ability to vote and drive on Israeli roads. Laws specifically forbid Palestinian non Jews from doing the same. Pretty obvious discrimination.
2
The repressed memory that Israel refuses to acknowledge is the forced deportation of Arabs in ‘48 and the seizure of their homes and villages.
10
@David
"forced deportation" ?????
What Mahmoud Abbas (now the Palestinian West Bank president) wrote when he was known as Abu Mazen from his article titled: "What We Have Learned and What We Should Do, “ published in Falastin el Thawra, the official journal of the PLO, of Beirut, March 1976 )
"The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland.
"They imposed upon them a political and ideological blockade and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live in Eastern Europe, as if we were condemmed to change places with them; they moved out of their ghettos and we occupied similar ones.
"The Arab States succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people and in destroying their unity. They did not recognize them as a unified people until the states of the world did so, and this is regrettable"
This is the real story how Palestinians got "expelled" from Israel in 1948. It was Arab nations who did it—not Jews.
1
I, an American with no direct ties to Israel, do not like Mr. Netanyahu. I thank the author for offering insight into why Israelis vote for him.
12
NYT readers who are enjoying (though that's hardly the right word) the Showtime limited series "The Spy" will also want to read this opinion writer's "Spies of No Country" which will give even those with knowledge of and experience in Israel more insights into the country today.
3
@James haynes
Oops, it's on Netflix, not Showtime.
When I saw the headline for this article and the sub-headline mentioning “repressed memory” I thought it was going to be about the switch of the oppressed Israelis (Jewish) becoming the oppressor of powerless Palestinians. The dehumanization of the Palestinians in favor of the growing self-righteousness of the Israelis and their sense of entitlement over Palestinian lands. I thought it was going to be a return to a memory of the times the Jewish people were driven out and persecuted and a call for compassion for Palestinians. Instead it is a hollow apologia for unjust occupation and dehumanization of Palestinian civilians. As described, the terrorism against civilians in Israel may now be quelled, but the global insecurity unleashed by US and Israeli aggression has spread like a virus, across artificial geographic and tribal barriers. But for the author of this piece to pin terrorism and fear down to one decade in Israel and to blame it on the Peace Process is the worst sort of reductionism of self-deception. I landed in Israel and was at Lod Airport during the massacre in 1972 and I, therefore, understand the need for wide compassion. We all become victims when any group or individual is dehumanized and denied a voice and basic rights. Sadly, there is no freedom of expression when the topic is criticism of Israeli apartheid practices or unjust occupation of territory, not to mention the environmental destruction and impact of water shortages.
14
@chichimax
I can only imagine the level of bias required to call Israeli self-protection “aggression.”
3
@XLER
"dehumanization of Palestinian civilians"
Hamas-Fatah takes good care of that.
Hamas forced Fatah out of Gaza with at least 118 people dead (as reported by the International Committee for the Red Cross).
Then Hamas captured then killed blindfolded Fatah members by throwing them off building roofs when they warred with them.
Hamas also chained Fatah members to the back of cars and trucks dragging them through the streets until they turned into bloody carcasses.
Hamas admitted that in 2012 alone in the construction of Gaza tunnels it cost the lives of 160 Palestinian children who ended up buried alive.
During the Gaza rockets (2014) they summarily tried in kangaroo courts then shot dead the supposed Israeli collaborators. Many Palestinians reported those who they had a feud with or personal vendetta.
1
Friedman paints the Palestinians as "terrorists" but forgets that the State of Israel was born with the help of Jewish terrorists and ignores the fact that Israel conducts more acts of terrorism today than the Palestinians did over decades.
Israel intentionally employs the “Dahiyya Doctrine” as reported by Haaretz in October 2008. The doctrine is the comprehensive destruction of areas in their entirety and the use of disproportionate force as punitive actions whenever there is violent resistance. According to the former chief of the Israeli army’s general staff the idea of maximum civilian death and destruction is to brand in the Palestinian consciousness the fearsome might of the Israeli Army (ie. terrorism).
11
Oh joy, another fact-free, doctrinaire conservative contributor from the hinterlands. Good on ya, NYT.
But c'mon, Matti.
At least pretend to accuracy.
First the headline "The One Thing No Israeli Wants to Discuss".
Are you kidding? No Israeli of political note, not to mention our White House Israeli-at-heart, wants to discuss anything else. It is the Mother of All Reasons for everything Netanyahu desires.
Its also a fair example of the innovative Israeli concept of history. Its rolling reality: time begins at different times depending on what you're talking about.
So, for you, "violence" passively ramped up in mid nineties. We don't know why, apparently, it just did because, you know, Palestinians.
Never mind you guys had actually made progress toward making progress toward some kind peace, or at least a cease fire. Then what do you do? You peace loving "please leave us alone to live quiet lives of contemplation and industrial development" pioneers?
You blast the life out of Yitzhak Rabin in old Kings of Israel Square. A sure sign to your opposite number of the abiding Israeli commitment to peace and congenial relations.
So, what, you see people heading to the deli across the street, grab them by the hair, and shout "Don't eat there! Its where Israel finally exposed its determination to rule, to dominate, to take what it wants and never mind the consequences! There's a Wendy's...two blocks that way."
Good man. Accurate chronicler. Thanks, NYT.
6
This whole article suggests that the Israelis were victims of evil Palestinians. Exactly the opposite is the case: the Palestinians are victims of murderous Israelis.
13
Great article. The American Left is like this around crime. The liberalization of punishment in the 60s and 70s, contributed to a sharp increase in crime in many cities. Then in the 90s and 00s mayors that forcibly dealt with the crime surge were elected . These mayors were often center right in terms of fighting crime and crime did go down.
Today now that crime is down, Democrats and the Left are advocating for policies that go soft on enforcement and punishment.
4
I have been living in Jerusalem for the last 52 years, including the terrorist campaign described. I remember riding buses to and from my place of work, that was just a block or two away from some of these explosions, never knowing how (or if) I would be able to come home at the end of that day.
Now that I am retired, the memory remains like a bad dream, and next week we have a national election with the hope of putting that period behind us. Our present Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) contributed to — and abetted — that catastrophic period when he stood on the balcony of a building on Jaffa Road and watched Jewish zealots call for the removal of our Prime Minister (Itzhak Rabin) as they displayed caricatures of him as a Nazi wearing an Arab kaffiya.
I don't think I have to tell you who I will be voting for next week. but I would be glad to talk to anyone who wants to contact me.
[email protected]
Tel. in Israel: 972-2-5340434
14
Wonders never cease! The New York Times actually published this article (although only on-line).
11
Maybe if the NRA would just send $30 million to Netanyahu, Israeli conservatives could understand, like their American counterparts, that the random slaughter of innocent civilians is actually quite acceptable.
This one-sided story does nothing to explain the tension between Palestine and Israel. Recounting the violence against Israel without any reference to the terrible violence against Palestine, which continues to this day, is ahistorical and dangerous. The lack of regard for Palestinians in this piece is astonishing.
14
Israelis also do not want to discuss why people who have lived on the lands for generations as long as the lives of the olives tress planted by ancestors would become so mad that they felt suicide bombings were an answer. Have the Israelis looked at their own behavior?
13
Yes, that period is so completely suppressed both in memory and discussion that the policies that followed have reduced Israel in world opinion to oppressors who grotesquely mirror the horrors that drove the creation of the Jewish state.
Walled-in ethnic ghettos. A policy of lebensraum (living space) under a different name. Snipers using fragmentation bullets to literally take the legs out from under protesters. All criticism dismissed as anti-Semitic. And no plan other than a continuation of existing policy.
It doesn't matter if Israelis feel sympathy for Palestinians or not. Did the British develop sympathy for Jews because of the bombing of the King David hotel?
There's a pertinent line from a David Mamet screenplay. "I have become what I have beheld, and I am content that I have done right."
As long as that remains at the core of Israeli, a later day Spartan-Helot model for a modern state, broader understanding in the world is impossible.
5
My crucial traumatic memory, unrepressed, is of watching with my two very young children as our Prime Minister, Yitzchak Rabin, was assassinated on live television, after singing “A Song for Peace”.
Who was behind the incitement that led to the assassination? None other than Netanyahu. The same Netanyahu who threatens any hope of peace or stability today, 24 years later.
8
What does BDS have to say about suicide bombers?
How do they feel about the suicide bombers' families receiving 'pensions' from the Palestinian authority/Hamas?
Where else in the world are victims of these bombings encouraged to surrender and gift to the perpetrators?
Double standards?
8
Actually, the most relevant "moment" that explains Netanyahu's nationalist passions is the moment that his brother, Yonatan, was killed by Palestinian guerrillas at Entebbe. His need to avenge that murder, along with his loyalty to his father, Benzion, a follower of Jabotinsky, a militant, nationalist figure in Israeli history, explains his personal and political behavior. Netanyahu's intransigence and dishonesty has prevented a peaceful resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians and that, along with the corrupt, incompetent Palestinian leadership leadership, has extended this period of terrorist acts like the bombing at Cafe Moment. When an Israeli majority realizes that Israel cannot be successful in it's current apartheid policies in the West Bank, it's evictions in East Jerusalem, and discriminatory restrictions on Arab building permits, we will achieve peace and end terrorist attacks. And I say this with our son, his wife and their 3 sons living in Jerusalem; 4 veterans of the IDF and one 15 year old. He is the founder of "Seek Peace Jerusalem" - see it on Facebook..
3
A wall ended the bombings. Fact.
5
"The One Thing Matti Friedman Doesn’t Want to Discuss" is the respective death tolls.
According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, in the decade of which he is speaking (2000-2009), which includes the Second Intifada and Operation Cast Lead, 6257 Palestinians (4859 and 1398, respectively) were killed by the IDF or Israeli civilians.
By comparison during that time 734 Israeli civilians (731 and 3, respectively) were killed by Palestinians. https://www.btselem.org/statistics/fatalities/before-cast-lead/by-date-of-event and https://www.btselem.org/statistics/fatalities/during-cast-lead/by-date-of-event
That’s a 9:1 ratio. And don’t even begin to tell me that it’s okay because all the Palestinians were terrorists.
Finally the statement that “The attacks picked up in the mid-1990s, as Israel pursued a peace deal and ceded land” is actually false. First of all, whatever land was “ceded,” the number of settlers in the West Bank doubled between Oslo and the onset of the second intifada. Secondly, B’Tselem reported 94 Israeli deaths in the fourteen years 12/9/87- 9/28/2000 versus 1491 Palestinian deaths, which is an even greater discrepancy than in the later period.
8
Concerning ratios of people killed you clearly are only interested in numbers and prefer to leave all context out of it.
2
@jezzamy As to context, I assume that you'll argue that Israeli deaths were caused by terrorists whereas the Palestinians who died were either terrorists or died because Israel had a right to respond to terrorism.
For counter-context, there's the fact that, under the Fourth Geneva convention (signed in 1947 BTW, at a time when world opinion and international law was supportive of Israel), the occupation, settling, and annexation of territory acquired in war violates international law, as does collective punishment of a people living under such occupation. Certainly the deaths of Gazans during Operation Cast Lead and Operation Protective Edge are no less illegal or worthy of condemnation than Israelis killed in terrorist attacks.
And that brings us back to numbers, doesn't it?
3
@jezzamy Worse, it implies he'd be happier if 9 times as many Israelis had died.
1
Yes, the attacks were horrible. And Israel responded with generations of apartheid repression.
3
Would the Times ever publish a comparable opinion about Palestinian support for the PA or Hamas? One that doesn't treat those bodies as infallible evils, but instead as what they are, which are the last visible islands of resistance and autonomy? Hamas, like Netanyahu, is a blight. They, morally, deserve no place in any position of power, deserve nothing more than condemnation. But yet, the Times will read, accept, and publish this rallying to the flag and strongman in a time of peace, using a memory of violence. I can't even picture a similarly sympathetic piece rallying to any Palestinian flag, even in a time of occupation using the present reality of violence.
3
Netanyahu has lost the support of the majority of Jews in the US. And he has the nerve to call us "disloyal." On the issue of fair play alone, he is far, far from the norm of accepted Jewish values.
1
Since 1980, Palestinians have been killed in this conflict at a rate of 12-to-1, (Palestinians to Israelis)...
Where is the article describing the horror of living through having your entire community blown up by helicopter missiles?
If we're going to go tit-for-tat with the death numbers, at least bring up both sides...
9
The other repressed memory is of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, to which Netanyahu owes his career.
3
When a Palestinian is killed in her own home in an Israeli military operation, they are not given the status of victim. They must have deserved it somehow, no matter what their actions. When an Israeli gets killed in a market, she is always the victim of a senseless act of terror.
5
By way of perspective, there were roughly 1,000 Israelis killed during the Second Intifada. That doesn't sound like a lot...until you consider that the current population of Israel is only 9 million. If the September 11th attacks had been followed by a series of terrorist attacks that killed 36,000 Americans (36x the population of Israel) over the next 4-5 years, imagine what that would have done to politics in the United States...
4
The author doesn't seem to consider why the intifada occurred, as though it just came out of nowhere and was not caused by anything, particularly not by anything related to the Israeli government.
3
@Caroline
You are avoiding historical events. This bloody intifada came on the heels of the failed Camp David peace accords, the one Arafat stormed out of, refusing to sign. Not even a counteroffer/proposals.
That wasn't Israel's fault. At the time, Ehud Barak was offering 97% of the West bank/Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem. What failed was the Palestinian dream of taking over all of pre-67 Israel. That is why they refuse any more negotiations. Negotiations/compromise/living alongside a functioning and thriving Jewish state is not part of their vision, or vocabulary.
2
The issue is not peace but occupation. What Israelis have repressed is not the memory of Palestinian violence but an awareness of their own complicity in systematically denying the freedoms of another people. One can be so consumed with one's own dead that one forgets all the others one has killed. Netanyahu is only a symptom of Israelis' resolve not to confront their own guilt in creating the current conditions of colonial apartheid.
7
The implication is that only Netanyahu can stop bombings. That his “nationality law” officially elevating Jews over others is the only way to not have bombings. That’s difficult to accept.
2
There is a time in the memories of people who are still living today when Israel and the Jewish people had very few friends.
Even today, they still don’t have many.
Given the great number of anti-Semites in the world and the relative paucity of Jews, is it really any wonder that Mr. Netanyahu looks to make friends for Israel and for the Jewish people wherever he can find them, whether that be in Europe, in the Middle East, in Africa, in Asia or here in the White House?
6
While the political left in Israel and the USA mouth support for security, most voters know that the left does not have enough courage to recognize the threat and act. Benjamin Netanyahu knows full well that Israel has enemies on its borders, especially Gaza and the West Bank, who would immediately kill any Jew they can get their hands on. Those enemies would slaughter the entire Jewish population of Israel if they got a chance. Netanyahu will never give them that chance.
6
Israel owes its security not to Netanyahu but to its military and security services whose leaders stated, and not once, that Israel would not be secure without two-state solution, something that Netanyahu and his ultra-right partners will never deliver.
2
The German's remember both Dresden and Auschwitz. Selective memory is the basis for most genocidal acts.
3
Thank you for the important reminder of why the security barrier was built. It was to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from targeting and killing Israeli civilians.
During the intifada, 273 Israeli civilians were targeted by terrorists/suicide bombers in cafes, restaurants, busses, and more, and over 1,000 injured. Since construction of the fence began, this number has dropped by 90%.
255
@Lorit how many Palestinians have been murdered in the years since their lands were stolen in 1948? How many snatched from their homes in the night, never to return? How many forced to watch their homes being bulldozed by Netanyahu thugs? You bemoan the killing of "Israeli civilians" as if no Palestinian civilians have been sacrificed. American voters (the people, not the posturing politicians) in both parties are seeing the light. The entire world condemns Israeli brutality, and US vetoes and endorsement won't last forever. That wall won't last forever, either. It is time for real peace talks (the US hasn't helped), real reparations, and some form of coexistence that acknowledges the true owners of ancient lands (the Bible is not a deed).
Not sure where you got your 90% decrease stat but it's not accurate.
21
@Lori
How many Palestinian civilians were killed by the IDF during this same period? Looking that figure up should be instructive.
14
@Lori
Yeah. And since those days 5512 Palestinians have been killed and 108845 injured by Israelis. While in the same period 236 Israelis has been killed and 5591 wounded.
16
I have visited Israel only twice, for about a week each time. I certainly do not claim any special insight into the Israeli psyche. But I do have actual personal experience of the phenomenon about which the author writes. And I do know from personal experience that the bombings about which the author writes were already occurring long before the time period he describes. The bombings were just more frequent and more deadly during the time period described.
My first visit to Israel was with my father in 1976 when I was 28 years old. One evening, we had a pleasant early dinner in a restaurant located just outside the ancient wall around old Jerusalem. The restaurant occupied about 20 feet wide street frontage but was very deep. The front was mostly glass. We sat at a table in the front in order to have a view. We finished and left the restaurant early in the evening.
The next morning, we learned that shortly after we had left, a bomb had been set off at the front of that restaurant and several deaths of patrons resulted. We had been sitting within 10 feet of where that bomb exploded just after we left.
There are no amount of Times' articles against Israel that will ever dissuade me from my support for Israelis against their enemies.
218
@Errol
That's it?
That is justification for the deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinians whose lives - unlike those in Jerusalem who have rebuilt those pizzerias and apparently enjoy nightlife and normal living today - are all but destroyed by the Israeli occupation?
Who is the enemy of peace today?
12
@Errol Doesn't it occur to you that all Palestinians are not terrorists? Are all white men in America terrorists just because some white men commit mass murder? How does terrorism by some people justify Israel's imposing terrible conditions on all Palestinians?
7
@Errol
Try thinking about the evils foisted on the Palestinian peoples whose land was stolen from them by the Israelis.
7
Yes, it turns out people really don't like terrorism, like suicide bombers. And it turns out that in general the left is not anti-terrorism enough. The left is more worried about offending Muslims than they are worried about stopping terrorism. That will always be a hard sell to those who have come to appreciate the free world.
9
Let’s dig a bit deeper:
I remember getting off a train in 1979 in a place of flowers, sun and young children playing -Dachau, beyond the camp gates.
So: too much memory and we remain incapable of moving forward; too little and we forget any lessons we might have learned. Israel has many partners in peace now, including former enemies such as Nazi Germany and Egypt. No such partnership exists with the Palestinian « leadership, » and until security is guaranteed, it behooves all Israel (kol yisroel) to be very mindful of the past.
4
Palestinians are evil terrorists who attack Israel for no reason. They are angry for no reason. They reject any overtures by the very nice and kind Israelis for no reason. Everything about the entire situation is their fault and it is why it is totally ok for Israel to continually elect a corrupt human rights abusing despot, expand settlements, trap in a people like caged animals, continuously take US taxpayer money and meddle in US politics.
Israelis = good. Palestinians = bad.
We get it.
8
@JB
Palestinians are the sole indigenous people and Israeli Jews are colonial occupiers equivalent to white South Africans. Israeli colonists are angry for no reason. Palestinians bear no blame for the rejection of Camp David, Madrid and Oslo. They have no responsibility for the four wars of Arabs attacking Israel's sovereignty since its inception.
Palestinians=good. Israelis=bad.
We get it.
5
@JB, now shake hands both of you, JB and Michael.
@petey tonei
I'm more than willing--I'm eager to shake with JB. In fact, I believe that only by transcending the narrative of who is the ultimate victim, who has legitimate claims to the land and who does not, who has incited more dehumanizing violence than whom, can any hope for peace be achieved. More pertinently to JB's point, perhaps: this is the only hope for a meaningful life filled with opportunity for Palestinians, even more than Israelis.
3
Just more flawed Times propaganda leaving out half the story. I do not condone violence nor do I except dishonesty. The Times has, and does treat the subject in a clearly biased way. As if the Palestinians had nothing to be upset about in the face of massive Israeli aggression.
How about a report on the refugee camps. How about a report on Israeli Jews taking Palestinian homes leaving the owners and their possessions in the street or the unannounced bulldozing of homes in Palestinian hands for generations. The social terror and more goes on and on, and is almost never reported here in the US.
If we are going to discuss this, there is no place for Israel right or wrong.
11
@The Iconoclast
Surprise! Jews defend themselves now.
Perhaps the Arabs...themselves the descendants of invaders, occupiers, and economic migrants to a land not their own... should have considered the prospect of losing before waging more than 70 years of terror wars in an effort to re-impose Arab-Islamic supremacy upon their former dhimmis...or drive the Jews into the sea’.
4
@Susanna
> Perhaps the Arabs...themselves the descendants of invaders, occupiers, and economic migrants to a land not their own
Have you read the bible? All those labels apply literally to the Israelites who committed genocide against the people of Canaan.
2
Wonderful, clear-eyed description of the Israeli psyche
Really, this is an honest assessment, no moralizing or judgement, just the facts as they are
How ironic that the Times has its best news piece in the Opinion section...
2
If five million Israelites were trapped in an ever shrinking ghetto with no basic rights or hope of emancipation some of them would be indiscriminately attacking their captors too.
7
So in return for THREAT of suicide bombers:
- Israel destroys palestinian family homes
- prevents arab israeli citizens from voting
- bombs 3 foreign nations it suspects of imminent threat
- refuses to allow international nunclear inspectors see its
nuclear bomb making facilities
- takes $3.9 billion per year from America while at the same
time having netenyahu come to America to vilify our
sitting president
- elects a criminal and his criminally indicted wife.
Stop whining.
11
Goebbels wrote propaganda for aryan racist consumption. The French Resistance were labelled "terrorists".
3
@Greg. And the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw uprising, and non-Jews in Israel, same general idea. We have uniforms and superior weapons, and are a real country, said the Nazis, and they do not, and are not. So many American Jews will say that there isn’t such a country as Palestine, and never was, and therefore non-Jews are terrorists, and deserving of overwhelming, disproportionate retaliation. That’ll show them...
News flash: it didn’t then, and it won’t now.
1
Suppressing memory also includes suppressing memories of the Nakba. If you want to compare Palestinian and Zionist terror, read The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Israeli historian Prof. Illan Pappé. He and other Israeli historians such as Avi Shlaim make clear that the Zionists used mass terror as an integral part of creating Israel.
If you compare the two, you'll see that the Palestinians have a long way to go before they match the scale of the Zionists.
The victims of the heinous Sbarra bombings deserve as much sympathy as the victims of Deir Yassin.
11
I meant to say Friedlander instead of Friedman.
The real suppression of memory is that of Israelis suppressing memory of the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
As Israeli historians such as Illan Pappe and Avi Shlaim have documented, the Zionists launched a wave of mass terror in 1947-48 to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its indigenous inhabitants. Zionist militias--the forerunners of today's IDF--destroyed numerous Palestinian villages such as Deir Yassin, killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homelands.
Illan Pappe's book, the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, is a good starting point for understanding the conflict. Too bad Israel has made Pappe and his fellow Israeli historians voices in the wilderness, rarely to be heard in the West.
Let's face it. Israel is a state founded upon mass terror. It has no right to complain when its own playbook is turned against it. Just as the SS had no right to complain when Jewish freedom fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto turned against them.
11
I agree with the article but with my formerly liberal relatives in Israel, there was something additional that made them more conservative and that was Israel pulling out of Gaza in the hopes that that would stop the bomb attacks. It didn't work and Israelis concluded that attacking them was too attractive for the Palestinians, at least in Gaza, to give up.
6
Israelis have their "situation". The Irish have their "troubles". Euphemisms take a long time to heal.
1
Netanyahu's main goal is to continue the slow motion annexation of the West Bank. Period. Any story like this, no matter how heartfelt, that leaves this salient fact out is doing a disservice to the reader's understanding what's going on. Israel's giving up their illegal occupation of the West Bank is their safest path to peace and security.
(Btw. this year marks the 25th anniversary of the brutal massacre of 29 unarmed worshippers at the the Cave of the Patriarchs mosque.)
2
How about the Palestinians and their memories, not just the repressed ones from distant times, but the new ones being freshened every day?
I feel sorry for the poor Israelis, but more so when they start to acknowledge and act on the suffering of the Palestinians. Until then, please spare us this role of victim. Enough already!
8
"The One Thing No Israeli Wants to Discuss " is the Occupation
of Land Belonging to Someone Else .
13
This article sounds like an ad in support of Netanyahu in the coming election. Where’s all the indignation about influence peddling when it came to Russia’s supposed support of Trump, how is this any different, just more obvious and continually in our face. The first step to peaceful in the Middle East is to get rid of Bibi and his American counterparts like Kushner, the world is watching and they aren’t idiots, there can never be a fair settlement as long as we or the right wing extremists in Israel are at the table.
2
Yitzhak Rabin anniversary of his death was several days ago. He had reach a peace agreement with the palistinien
people to end bloodshed and form two state solution.
This was unacceptable to the zealots in Israel. They had him asasinated and then they went back to the politic of hate. Steal the palistinien lands. It continues today.
3
We are NOT entitled to live karma. Enough! Kindly present and forward
Both sides have to just stop please.
We demonize the Palestinian People. Why?
What caused two cultures; who lived harmoniously until 1948 ,when the Brits and US and Egypt stood down ,to allow radical Jews to terrorize the natural residents ?????
Peace is possible but not under the current conditions.
I blame politics and corruption.
The people on both sides are good.
Victims are all in the crosshairs of US policy encouraged by Israeli right wingers and major religiosity .
1
@nursejacki To say that Jews and Arabs lived peacefully before 1948 is unbelievably ignorant. Read about the 1929 pogroms.
1
The mafia offered protection. Criminals have no role to play in the protection of the civilian population. If Israelis want peace and security, they must not elect criminals.
1
Hamas and the PLO bombed the Palestinian cause into purgatory. They should have taken the deal that Bill Clinton and Rabin gave them, because whatever they get now, won't be as good.
1
This shows why this situation is so difficult. There are many victims and perpetrators and sometimes they are one and the same.
But Netanyahu and his policy of apartheid is the wrong way. Just as Hamas and their policy of hatred and violence is the wrong way.
If George Mitchell and Bill Clinton could craft the Goof Friday accords in Northern Ireland, we can elect a leader in America that could move a peace process at least forward.
Beautifully written, and a moving reminder of why acts of terror perpetrated on innocents is never justified. The fact that the Palestinians can recite an equally long and tragic list of their own grievances, including the murder of their own innocents, does nothing to elevate these atrocities in purpose or outcome.
Today, Americans are beginning to figure out that these competing narratives, as compelling as they are to supporters of one side or the other, never result in real peace. They're used by both sides to explain why vengeance is appropriate and justified, but they offer no way out of the cycle of violence. That is why our once near-absolute support of Israel is dramatically eroding today. My guess is that it will take a new generation of leaders and citizens to break through the impotent paradigm of competing grievances and carve out a new path to peace.
1
The tide rises outside the sea walls and will top over them eventually. What then?
Despite the resentments and mistrust, peace is the only long term resolution that is likely to work. That is terrifying because is would mean a real independent state cheek by jowl with Israel for the Palestinian Arabs, and that state would not be non-militarized anymore than would be Israel. The Roman solution to Carthage's challenge is not something available to Israel.
It is much simpler
Colonial Israel is doing a replay of colonial US . The more Indian land a leader grabbed, the higher his esteem .
4
And Israel, as usual, was just innocently minding its own business. After all, it’s not as if israel was the result of massive land and home theft.
6
The Palestinian Authority of today is the new face of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, or PLO, which was created by Yasir Arafat in 1964, to "liberate" Palestine.
1964.
There was no "occupation" in 1964. The West Bank/East Jerusalem and Gaza were parts of Jordan and Egypt, respectively. The Golan heights were part of Syria. So what was the PLO seeking to "liberate"? Every inch of Israel, of course, and drive the Jews out. No two-state solution was desired -- after all, if the PLO wanted a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, why all they had to do was go talk to their beloved brothers and sisters in Amman and Cairo.
Even more than the horrors of the "intifadas," this is what eats away at the Israeli mind, heart and soul. They look at the eternal damnation of generations of horror in refugees camps of the Palestinians by their own people. At the truly nauseating hate taught every day to young children in schools run by the PA. At the Hamas charter. And over the course of the now 71 years of continuous conflict, war and terror attacks, they find it hard, maybe impossible, to believe that the Palestinians, and even the greater Arab and Islamic world, want a two-state solution. That Israel's enemies have learned to play sympathetic USA and Europeans like fiddles, and want only to get the proverbial camel's nose into the Israeli tent in order to execute their original, and never abandoned plans, the destruction of Israel and the Jews.
8
Netanyahu, despite his personal and political flaws, gets it. The Israeli's (Jews) are the good guys. The leaders of the so called Palestinians are really bad guys.
He has said it before in this question he poses that nobody in the global mainstream media critical of Israel and him dares to answer: "How can we negotiate with anybody that denies our very right to exist?"
Any Jew that votes needs to remember not only this documentary film of suicide bombings, but more important two words Netanyahu thankfully personifies: "Never Again".
3
@alan segal
This Jew could care less about Netanyahu or your trite generalizations. I have nothing to do with Israel for a variety of simple reasons. They are nasty oppressors.
1
I hate to say this, but with all due respect: If I had my home taken from me and I, my children and my children’s children were condemned to live in what has basically become the worlds largest open air concentration camp for seventy years, I too would be a militant. This article is no more than an advance political commercial in support of Benjamin Netanyahu in the coming election.
14
The Palestinians count for nothing now, and deservedly so.
@Bob Acker
The Palestinians count for nothing now, and deservedly so.
There you have it -- the heart of the problem in a nutshell.
3
And what, pray tell, caused that wave of suicide bombings?
3
Not coincidentally, at exactly that moment America also changed on September 11, 2001 when 19 Islamists declared Allahu Achbar and crashed 4 hijacked jetliners into the World Trade towers, into the Pentagon and into a field, murdering 2,996 Americans and visitors.
We have not felt secure since and we likely never will. We rightly have concluded that Muslims are our enemies. A foundational doctrine in Islam is Jihad, the conversion of of all non-believers by the sword. This Jihad drive makes no distinction between combatants and civilian, between warriors and children. And there are many varieties of Islam each regarding the others as infidels. Death to the Infidels, Death to America, Death to Israel, are not slogans; they are oaths.
We might make trade deals, defense deals, cultural deals. We might defeat some groups of Jihadists, some militias, some armies and even governments. But the cancer of Jihad will relapse until, if ever, it is purged from the Muslim religion.
Mohammad ordered his followers to conquer the world by the sword, and that effort continues unabated. There are many good Muslims, but their place in America is tarred by the actions of their brethren 18 years ago. They are and should be suspects by association. This is not racism; it is probable cause.
9/11 is the day after tomorrow. Never forget.
4
I'd suggest everyone read this book to find out the truth of events.
The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine Paperback – April 1, 2016
by Miko Peled (Author), Alice Walker (Foreword)
1
“Along Jaffa Road, the hardest-hit street (and the setting for “Born in Jerusalem”), the traces have become nearly invisible. The Sbarro pizzeria where in 2001 a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 15 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, is now a bakery with a different name. It’s a few paces from where I’m writing these lines, and it’s full of customers, many of whom probably don’t know what happened there.”
Would that be East Jerusalem or West Jerusalem?
Submitted 10:59 AM eastern
Israel--where the Left goes to put on their MIGA hats within the comfort of a labyrinth of MIGA walls--from thence to return to their lifelong occupation of outrage without limits over US unwillingness to become a UN vassal state.
Excellent article and so necessary in the current political environment in which it is "on-trend" to characterize Israel as an aggressive apartheid state bent on destroying helpless Palestinians. The truth is much more complex. In the current 24 hour news cycle, it's far too easy to forget the "cause" and focus on the "effect". People today see Palestinian suffering as entirely the fault of Israel and conveniently forget that the fracture of the peace process and the Palestinian's best chance for an independent homeland was destroyed by their own hands.
The crux of the problem is rooted in thousands of years of conflict between Jews and Muslims in which the Arab states believe that Israel and Jews should be wiped out. Ironically, we regard the white Germans who took a similar stance as Nazi anti-semites who deserve nothing but loathing in our collective world history. Yet, Palestinians and other Arab nations feel the same way, have attacked Jews with the same intent, and would see the same end to Jews and yet are characterized as "victims".
I see two reasons for this. 1 - Israel is stronger and better at defending itself, so it is easy to see them as the aggressor rather than the victim. 2 - Israelis are seen as "white" and Palestinians are seen as "POC" at a time when such characterizations carry significant stigmatization of the "oppressors" and the "oppressed".
3
Those who support occupation and Israeli-style apartheid are not “moderate.” Authoritarianism, whether cloaked in rugged election, is no different in Israel or Russia...or the U.S.
2
The Israeli Right has the answer despite its disreputable reputation. Israel so far cannot trust the Palestinians; perhaps in time, but in the meantime Salus Populi Suprema Lex.
3
What they are not discussing is the theft of Palestine and the hopelessness that people feel that blowing themselves up is the only solution.
Israel created this mess by establishing itself. It seems the answer is deportation of remaining Arab citizens, and an erasing of previous history. Was that an Arab village or field, No it is a new Israel homesite built with donations from America. Problem solved! Israeli have chosen the Fascist Fist of BIBI. That will never create a lasting peace , but guess who is going to pay for that every year? The US Treasury.
5
What is certainly not on Israeli minds as they approach their election are their murderous actions in Gaza:
2,000 people killed in 2008-9
2,200 people killed in 2014
150 people killed in 254
Butg of course by their criteria none of that was 'terrorism'.
2
A tragically myopic opinion!
4
The boycott Israel people never bring this up either.
That Israelis themselves have "forgot" it certainly explains the utter absence of this fact in every discussion I've ever had with my fellow American liberal Jews. I would vote for the left myself if I were Israeli, but I can't bring myself to speak with the complacent loathing I hearing about Israelis who've turned to the right. I hear otherwise intelligent, decent people refer to Israel as going "fascist" for backing an admittedly hateful leader like Netanyahu, but what's the make us Americans for choosing Trump--Hitlerian? And we can't even come up with a coherent explanation for it--though we've spent the last three years trying to figure it out.
Interesting article but it sounds to me like any other security state that’s obsessed with security in lieu of democracy and equal rights for all. Also, their usual explanation is usually Islam or communism. The reason Israel is an outlier, in terms of gay fights and certain freedoms, unlike its other unfortunate quasi-security counterparts, is due to the liberal, wealthy, educated American Jewry.
1
It might be more effective next time to contextualize the violence. Why were young Palestinians blowing themselves up in the restaurants and coffee shops of Tel Aviv? Is it because they are born with a violence gene? Or is it because they have been pushed into a corner, subject to the daily humiliations of IDF checkpoints and searches? Had their homes destroyed and their farms confiscated by "settlers" from Brooklyn? Victims of 100 small cuts, every day of their lives? Living in an apartheid state? Why are they blowing themselves up? Hmmm, I wonder?
1
Good article.
1
Repression from trauma is what we all do to survive, people and nations. Never really forgetting is equally important for survival. Tough to forget those years for Israeli’s...as it should be. It's the METHODS the Palestinians used to “free themselves from oppression and call attention to their plight” that has always been the main point for me. They were heartless, without conscious and went to the essence of antisemitism, treating Jews as if they weren't human - “let's just blow them up where they live...the world won't care”. This psychotic mentality led to 9/11, and on and on. It was their insane actions that always spoke louder then their words demanding their own State...at all costs. Which is why Palestinians are still where they are...no real forward movement after all these years and deaths. Btw...this is also why Trump's so called attempt to make "peace" with the Taliban is so ludicrous and dangerous.
We will not survive as a species unless we can learn to outgrow our pathetic need for a Cosmic Daddy, to love and punish us severely while promising us we will not really die.
But we will. We will all return to nothingness, and we have to accept it. Killing each other over Absolute Good is neither rational nor life-affirming.
This article is all about the carnage and fear experienced by Israelis, with nary a mention of the suffering on the other side. I am sure this is not how most people in the world see it.
3
The author neglects the most important thing about the wave of suicide bombings from 2001 to 2004. Before 2001, there were suicide bombings (28 between 1989 and 2000), but these were 'isolated' incidents carried out by fringe terrorist groups who did not have the overwhelming support of the Palestinian Authority and population. It is only after Ariel Sharon forced his way to the Temple Mount that the attacks picked up and became a terrorist wave (127 attacks between 2001 and 2004).
Why? Because after the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993, that vast majority of Palestinians (as indicated then by opinion polls) were eager to give peace a chance. So they waited for 7 years for the Israelis to fulfill the conditions of the Accords. Instead, they saw more expropriations, more settlements, and very limited fulfillment of the self-government provisions of the Accords. Their frustration grew during those 7 years as they continued to witness injustice and to live difficult living conditions imposed by Israel. When Sharon 'visited' the Mount, that was not only the last straw, it was also a clear signal that the Israeli government had no intention to honor its signature and to recognize the rights of Palestinians to even their most sacred land.
Israel played a role in all of this. Israelis were not passive victims in this tragedy. They supported Sharon. And Palestinians are not murderous animals who kill without rhyme or reason. Israel' amnesia is deeper that discussed here.
1
It is illegal to build a wall on other people's land.
5
It is wrong to look at this period of time in a bubble. It needs to be added to all the years of violence that preceded it. The multiple times that Israel was invaded. The many other acts of terrorism since the earliest days of Israel. In 1972 I spent time on a kibbutz near Nahariya, a coastal city near Lebanon. We had air raid shelters and were taught where to go. The kibbutz was patrolled every night by armed members. And there were times when we went to the beach at night soldiers would tell us to leave. It was not safe. Why? Because in the years preceding my time there and in the years after towns and villages were attacked. By terrorists and by rockets. On buses, in train stations and in their homes. Those decades long attacks along with the time you are referring to is why there is a wall and why they vote for Netanyahu. I'm not a fan but I certainly understand it.
8
Having been in Israel many times since 1970 i can tell you bombings of civilians by palestinians has been happening since the mid 1970's. I distinctly remember seeing in the train stations descriptions and pictures of what bombs can be hidden in and to report suspicious objects. I remember once a day before going to jerusalem of a bomb going off that was hidden in a refrigerator. The only thing that changed was the intensity and the amt of time between occurrence
7
This article really aided my understanding. I appreciate it.
7
How very strange. Israeli politics is apparently dominated by mass murders committed over 10 years ago. In the United States mass murders occurring on a regular basis seem to have no effect on politics. I wonder why the difference?
4
Matti Friedman, google "The Nakba". I agree that violence never solves anything, I just think you are forgetting a huge part of the history of Israel in order to justify the election of a right wing zealot like Netanyahu. If you really want peace then you need to go back to 1948 and start there.
9
“Born in Jerusalem and Still Alive”, a Netanyahu & Co. production, playing now at your local theatre. Ticket discounts available prior to the election.
4
The right-wing politicians who baited a foolish Palestinian leadership into the Second Intifada (after the assassination of the courageous Yitzakh Rabin) certainly got everything they could have hoped for in the past two decades.
4
An interesting observation. But a cogent Israeli voter should ask him/herself, what has Netayahu done to alleviate that state of siege mentality? Nothing! Because a permanent state of war and a siege mentality helps him get re-elected over and over. It is as if he is the drug dealer who keeps up his customers' addiction to enrich himself.
As long as he is the PM nothing will ever get resolved. He will sacrifice the long-term interests of Israel for his own short-term ones. Very cynical indeed!
3
Can anyone imagine what the reaction in America would be if these terrorist bombings occurred in NYC.
There have always been different rules towards Israel.
Thankfully Israel has finally started playing by the right rules— not the rules of world opinion.
No society can tolerate terrorism.
8
We don’t have to imagine how we would react to terror bombings in NY. Maybe you don’t remember the Iraq war. More Americans killed than in 9/11 and Iraqi casualties almost beyond counting. With no beneficial result, in fact worse conditions in the Middle East.
1
We on the left often forget the overwhelming power of the collective survival instinct. Since their nation's creation, and long before that, Israelis and other Jews have lived with the daily awareness that hostile forces are genocidally dedicated to their ultimate termination.
We can secure ourselves in our indignant ideological certainties, but these mean nothing in the face terrorists who want nothing more than to annihilate your entire community.
8
The excuse for that intifada was Ariel Sharon walking on the Temple Mount, though Arafat was looking for an opportunity to vent Palestinian rage on ordinary Israelis, after he walked off the Camp David peace accords, baffling President Clinton and even some of his own Palestinian negotiators.
The Oslo Accord was never accepted by the majority of Palestinians, nor by the late Arafat, who knew he was signing his own death warrant if he agreed to any peace deal, regardless how generous. Nobody ever preached peace on the Palestinian side, nobody ever hinted, let alone acknowledged, that a final deal/peace would mean Palestinians could say goodbye to the illusive dream of driving Israelis out, reconquering all of pre-67 Israel for themselves.
That dream still animates many Palestinians in the West bank, and is an absolute to Hamas. Then come along the firebrand, newer leftist groups who have no solution, but insist Israel pull out of the West ban, stop the blockade on weaponized Gaza, without any peace deal/final borders.
Israel isn't going to consider national suicide, be it by Labor or Likud.
7
Thank you, Mr. Friedman, for saying what few dare to say.
Mr. Netanyahu has done more for the sake of peace than perhaps any other politician in the western world since World War Two.
The left-wing media has chosen to demonize he who should be lionized.
When you are sitting in your armchair in New York or Chicago it's easy to criticize.
However, when your friend's pregnant wife- who was the only child of Holocaust survivors and an American citizen on an educational enrichment summer program- planning to be a teacher of American children in New Jersey- is blown up while eating pizza, you begin to understand the necessity of re-electing Mr. Netanyahu.
When your life is at stake, you look to who will be another Winston Churchill, not to who will be another Neville Chamberlain.
290
@Simple Sam
Cant he be honored and then can we move on.....perhaps there are others who can also keep the peace and maybe even more successfully.
21
@Simple Sam I remember that time well; and my more-naive younger self kept asking, "Why doesn't Israel stop allowing/encouraging Jews to illegally settle on Palestinian lands in the West Bank? Those lands were legally given to the Palestinians with to same UN legislation that gave Israel her state?"
Of course I now realize that, in the beginning of her modern-state existence, Israel's security forces weren't as powerful as they are now and Israelis were justifiably concerned that the Arab world thought they could destroy her.
But that vulnerability no longer exists, and the majority (not all, of course) of Palestinians would recognize Israel in exchange for total withdrawal of illegal settlers from the West Bank and the recognition of Palestine's right to East Jerusalem. Steps toward peaceful co-habitation could have been achieved if Israel had not forcefully and illegally continued to occupy the West Bank. But with Israel's constant hard line, it seems impossible now. I shudder to think of that cursed region's future.
And now I await the deluge of charges by Jews of anti-semitism against me. Ironically, the Palestinians are ALSO a semitic race. But the Jewish people have co-opted the word "anti-semitism" to refer only to their tribe.
This tragedy isn't about race...it's about behaving ethically toward our neighbors, both as nations and individuals. Sometimes we have to compromise even with the words of beloved scriptures to live in peace with our neighbors.
132
@Simple Sam
What exactly this Mr. Netanyahu do for the sake of peace? All he ever did was sow hatred, division, and fear.
It is exactly in order to prevent violence that peace is needed, and unfortunately no one other than the late PM Rabin has offered anything other than the knee-jerk 'we'll beat them harder'.
Being blown up by a suicide bomber is unjust, unfair, painful. So it is when Palestinians civilians are being killed as collateral damage when Israel goes after terrorists. The cycle continues. Your personal pain does not make you morally right. Most of the casualties are still on the Palestinian side, by an order of magnitude.
And I'm sure they would have preferred to fight also with US funded F-16s, but all they have is balloons and home-made bombs.
105
There is no doubt that any person would prefer to be a perpetrator rather than a victim but it saddens me deeply to know that there is no way that Israel can exist as it is without violence. Dominance over an entire group of people doesn't exist without some form of violence. There is a reason that the rest of the world has largely moved beyond the old colonial framework. I think Israel will eventually do the same but I don't expect it will happen in my lifetime.
8
@Carla There is no 'colonial framework' at play. But there is a complex system of land administration to ensure security until the Palestinian are serious about a peaceful settlement that recognises Israel.
3
@jezzamy
I guess I don't see the distinction between the Jewish Israelis that colonized the land (and continue to do so) at the expense of the inhabitants and other colonization attempts -the USA, for example.
1
All true. I have been living in Israel at that time, almost 20yr.
One addition though. Bibi will and should they in power because he understands, and so begins the public, that Palestinians would not be contented with anything less that annihilating State of Israel, even if takes a thousand years. All compromises are just tactic means for achieving this goal.
Bitter, and hard to swallow - but so is real life.
I laugh reading comments comparing shootings to suicide bombings - people are clueless to the scales and motives. A 1000 killed in 2nd intifada equals to 50000 Americans.
10
But times change and situations change. Netanyahu has used this fear as a Get Out of Jail card, as a way to steal and act corruptly and force cruelties on the Palestinians. He's more corrupt than Trump, and that's saying something. If Netanyahu really made the country safer then it's safer with or without him. The rest is just giving him (and his family) a chance to steal more. And let's be frank. The occupied territories do not make Israel more secure, but less. He's created a giant mess that makes peace less likely than ever, with his good, corrupt pal Trump along with Kushner -- just as inept and corrupt.
12
I recall reading of one of the bombings. The victim was inside a building when the suicide bomber ignited on the sidewalk. He was seriously injured when hit by the bomber's head.
3
As memory of an atrocity fades risk of another like it increases. This is a fallibility of the human psyche.
Thanks to Mr. Friedman and the NYT.
Now read the comments here rationalizing the atrocity in question.
4
The Palestinians want a home. In the 40s it was the Irgun who bombed the British in Palestine. I believe they bombed and killed many people in the process. They wanted a home and they got it. Now the Palestinians want a home. Israel should do everything in its power to help the Palestinians find that home.
13
I campaigned for John Kerry for President in the 2004 election, in a Democratic suburb in Milwaukee. I knocked on many doors. At home after home, fearful, timid, and embarrassed Democrats told me they would be voting for George Bush, because they were "afraid"!! They knew Kerry was honorable, smart, and could keep us safe in a terrifying time. But these Democrats were voting for the Bush war-machine because they felt the power-corrupted military-complex addled Republicans might keep us safer after 9/11.
People don't think clearly when they are in fear for their lives. Only a single message seeps through.... survival. It wil be a long time before there is a smart, agile, politically liberal majority in Israel. Enough time has to pass since the events of the aughts written by this author in everyday Israel. And unless the Palestinians can vanquish their own form of corruption, Hamas, it will be truly a very long time before the urge to murder innocents, as a form of political expression, is the structural power of choice. Rational, thinking, and peace-loving people on both sides will need to sit down again together and it will take a lot more than Jared Kushner to make that happen.
2
Thanks for the explanation.
4
The lives of our children ultimately Trumps all.
No one likes to hear the words, "you just don't understand". But that is Israel in a nutshell, as seen from the perspective of our comfy armchairs in the USA.
8
Jewish Israelis also do not want to remember what the lives of ordinary civilian Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza have been like under the Israeli occupation. The crimes of Palestinian terrorists are imputed somehow to all Palestinians. Sadly, fear makes people act in primitive, tribal ways, and Israelis, no matter how educated, do the same.
11
"The two countries we have peace treaties with -- Jordan and Egypt -- were and are military dictatorships, whose rulers understood that "if you can't lick'em, sign a peace treaty till you can"." WELL SAID.
1
Israeli, Rami Elhanan, father of Smadar, only 13 years old, was killed in a suicide bombing but he stated, “our daughter was killed because of the Israeli occupation. every innocent victim on both sides is a victim of the occupation. the occupation is the cancer feeding Palestinian terror.”
We must remember history, the Breaking the bones” policy, the closure of Palestinian schools, the bombings of Gaza apartment blocks. Not an excuse for the horror of bus bombings but an understanding of the time.
10
Yep, the Palestinians just went all suicide-bombing, which was indeed a mistake on many levels from the moral to the political, just all out of the blue. They, of course, have no comparable set of repressed memories.
In fact, that's true: it's not just memories of Israeli domination; it's every single day for as long as almost any Palestinian resident in Palestine has been alive. It doesn't just erupt out, briefly and violently, into daily Palestinian life twenty-odd years ago, either. It's constant, oscillating only between the awful-chronic and the worse-acute "grass-mowings," as the periodic stampedes through Gaza are referred to.
And the only repression going on in the occupied territories is by Israel and its minion, the PA, though Hamas is happy to join in on it's side of the tacit, three-way agreement to just freeze things as is.
But it takes real skill to miss seeing that, as usual, in this op-ed, Palestinians are the perps whereas the Israelis are mere victims, struggling with repression of past atrocities. Which is what they are: atrocities. But a little balance might be nice, if near-unique.
11
Lest we forget, the assassination of Rabin in 1995 by a right wing Jewish citizen bound and determined to destroy potential peace with the Palestinians perpetuated this endless cycle of violence and Netanyahu’s rise to power. Nothing is one sided—arguably Rabin’s assassination destroyed the best chance for peace.
6
You mean to say that Israelis didn’t build walls and checkpoints because they had nothing better to do? That will be a revelation to most Times readers. Maybe we can start discussing the issue like adults instead of the usual context-free feel-good demonizing of Israel.
8
Well...one step further back in causation would be: Why did the Palestinians take part in this campaign?
5
The only comparison I can summon is having been few blocks from the WTC on 9/11. I can only imagine the impact of something like happening again, and again, and again.
5
The article fails to mention that civilian casualties are a product of war throughout the world, whether intentional or accidental. Until you address the causes of such horrific crimes against humanity, innocent civilians will be targeted as part of a grand strategy to force a settlement between two or more opposing forces. For example, we are seeing civilians dying in Libya, South Sudan, Afganistan, Syria, and Iraq.
Israelis and Palestinians will continue to encounter civilian casualties as long as both sides refuse to address the key issues that will bring about the independence and self-determination of both nations. Sadly, the Trump administration and its implemented policies towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have only lessened the possibility of a peaceful solution to the conflict.
2
@Yusuke Naritomi Perhaps, some measure of "collateral damage" is inevitable and unavoidable in every war, but the difference here is that while the Israelis attempt to minimize civilian casualties when they strike terrorist targets, the Palestinians deliberately seek to maximize civilian casualties by targeting Israeli civilians, despite the fact that doing so is defined as a "War Crime" under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The best evidence of that pernicious criminal conduct is the 2000-2005 "Second Intifada."
5
I lived in a small German town one summer in the 70s. A local farmer showed me a small bridge that he said the Allies had repeatedly tried to bomb, but always failed. But there was considerable civilian collateral damage.
It was really wrong of them to do that, he said to me.
Maybe it was, I said. But who is responsible for starting the conflict?
5
While there is no question, Israel is our most steadfast ally in the region, we have to understand that Israeli politics, foreign policy and, of course, its conflict with the Palestinians, is based on religiosity, one of the most dangerous dynamics in the region, actually in the entire community of nations.
The other problem is, every country in the Middle East is ruled by religious leaders. Even prime ministers and monarchs bend to religious force. And with Israel and its neighbors quibbling over "God's choice" on who inherits ancient lands, can the only democracy in the Middle East live up to America's goals for peace in the area?
The Palestinians were forced from their homes and remain angry over the United Nations' endorsement of their displacement. And both Israel and the Palestinians insist God bequeathed the land to them.
Thus, until all parties in the region, along with the Israelis and Palestinians, decide on a constitutional "separation of religion and state", there will never be peace in the Middle East.
1
@David Ohman While some Palestinians were displaced, many voluntarily and others involuntarily, during Israel's 1948-49 "War of Independence," a similar number of Jews were intentionally expelled from Algiers, Aleppo, Baghdad, Benghazi, Cairo, Damascus and other Arab cities where they and their ancestors had lived for centuries. Israel took in those Jewish refugees and afforded them citizenship, without any UN subsidies.
But the Arab brethren of the displaced Palestinians refuse to accept them as citizens, denying them employment in certain professions, making them second-class citizens and confining them to squalid refugee camps subsidized by the UN. These refugees, as well as Israelis, are the victims of Arab "rejectionists."
5
@David Ohman
This conflict, stirred by religion is not about religion it is about land and its confiscation by Israel. Palestinians do not claim religious ownership, they claim actual farming and inhabitation for hundreds of years. Great grandfathers planting olive trees and building homes.
2
Security and safety of members of a society from existential threats are probably the most important components of the pact that the governed expect from their leaders. So I understand why citizens of Israel feel the need to place a large premium on changing their attitudes towards their neighbors who wish them serious harm.
However, I should remind Mr Friedman and Israelis that it took only 9 years after WWII for the State of Israel to make peace with and take advantage of interactions with the government that represented West Germany and its citizens. Why must the current situation prevent a similar rapproachment from happening now after a similar period has elapsed after the wall separating the two societies is in place?
3
@Sam That is an excellent question to ask the Palestinians! As other Arab nations, particularly members fo the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, among others) consider "normalization" of relations with Israel, the Palestinians prefer to remain isolated and impoverished as th rest of the world passes them by.
4
@ Sam
Why? Because the citizens of West Germany were not bombing Jerusalem. Many of the actions of the current Israeli government toward the Palestinians may be regrettable but they are certainly not incomprehensible.
4
@Realist
My point was that the State of Israel reached a normalized level of understanding with an existential enemy 10 years after WWII - Nazis were killing on average 3000 Jews a day for 5 years and 8 months (this number becomes exceeding larger for those who need to normalize for how much killing is perpetrated per total population of a particular group). The democratic State of Israel can certainly reach a civilized level of understanding 10 years after the mass killing of Israeli Jews by Palestinian suicide killers. Security concerns are not mutually exclusive of treating your captive population with some level of respect.
1
This is a great article and necessary in order to understand ALL sides. I cannot add much more than other commenters here, especially those who have suffered through and have been actual witnesses to suicide bombings and attacks, or not that far from them. The only thing that I will say is that the current approach of supporters of the Palestinians towards Israel, which demands concession boycott, and threatens Israel with boycotts, shaming, ostracizing, and more existential threats of war, terror and destruction is just not going to work. It in fact ensures that the right-wing in Israel will continue to remain in power. The most powerful factor influencing Israeli elections nowadays is the intransigence of the Palestinian side, and their unwillingness to recognize their part as well as their obligation to sincerely make peace. That's it. There is a reason why liberal and left-wing though is so weak in Israel. Israeli listens to unjustified condemnation on the part of the left, the Palestinians, and sees in its own region how their Arab enemies bomb and kill each other (!!) Does anyone really think this type of treatment, this type of behavior by the Arabs will encourage Israelis to withdraw, to give up?? I really think not.
11
My only criticism of Mr. Netanyahu is that he isn’t decisive enough in response to the ongoing terror wars perpetrated against Israel and her citizens.
There’s not a nation on earth that would tolerate for even one week what Israelis have had to endure every single day for over 70 years. Americans certainly wouldn’t...and didn’t!
9
There are many times when a complex issue is resolved badly. We saw that in Liberia when the elite (descendants of US slaves) were overthrown but the result is a mess.
With Israel they were absolutely right to do what they had to do following the terror. Sadly, this does not mean that they can resolve the situation re the Palestinians. The Palestinians largely hate Israel. Yet there is no place but Israel for them.
It is a mess. And there is no solution so the surrounding non Jewish neighbors and segments in America will (quite reasonably) despise and even hate Israel.
All this sadly reminds me of the lines from W.H. Auden's poem "September 1st, 1939":
"I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return."
1
At least 9,935 Palestinians and 1,270 Israelis have been killed by someone from the other side since 2000. How many Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians, how many Israelis are imprisoned by Palestinians, how many Israelis are prevented from traveling around their own land, how many Israelis continue to lose their land to Palestinians? The answer is none. One can go on showing the gross imbalance of power and the lack of justice for Palestinians. This article was also one sided. I would hope that Israelis having gone through that unsettling period almost twenty years ago would empathize a little with the horrors of Israeli attacks on Gaza two or three times since that killed and wounded thousands of civilians. But no, a majority support getting rid of Paestinians and seizing their land.
7
@JMulholland
'I would hope that Israelis having gone through that unsettling period almost twenty years ago ...'
Yes, it's very unsettling to have your children blown to smithereens by a suicide bomber who's feted as a martyr for his murders.
Really. Quite unsettling. Even disturbing.
4
@JMulholland That situation is likely due to innovative and robust Israeli defense measures. Had the Palestinians accepted the two-state solution, as originally enacted by the UN in 1947, rather than engage in a series of failed "wars of aggression," they would have had an independent state 70 years ago. After the defeats of 1949, 1967 and 1973, the Arabs could have engaged in direct negotiations to resolve borders, refugee and other issues, but in taking an "all, or nothing" perspective, they have isolated themselves.
Having rejected that UN Resolution, which would have provided them a state, there is no Palestine;" it is only a fictional entity given observer status in the UN. They had their opportunities in the 2000 and 2008 offers made by Israel, but rejected by Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, respectively. Palestinians have yet to learn that actions have consequences!
4
I have spent a considerable amount of time right there on Jaffa Street. While I appreciate the expression of deep distrust, the other side of the coin, that Israeli's universal is a strong distaste for the American style gangster Netanyahu and his nativist tendencies. As I have told more than one, the greatest Israeli failure is hasbara ("information", as in media relations). This article is one example--framing wrong that all Israelis operate out of fear and revenge. The real truth is most Israelis are very moderate, weary of war and more weary of the con man Netanyahu. What westerners may not grasp is how strong and exceptional Benny Gantz is and how in Israel the generals almost always come out as balanced politicians.
2
@canoe While Mr. Netanyahu is allegedly involvement in corruption, he has been particularly effective in promoting Israel's national defense. That is the primary reason why, up to now, the electorate has retained him. Corruption is endemic to all Middle East governments, particularly the Palestinian Authority, whose leaders Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, have stuffed their pockets at the expense of their populace.
In Illinois, corruption is also endemic with over 35 members of the Chicago City Council, four of the last five Governors and numerous elected and appointed 'self-serving' public servants convicted of corruption over the past 50 years. Given. that reality, Israel is no more corrupt, than the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois.
3
@Mike 71 Netanyahu has not delivered much of anything beyond promoting a Nativist agenda, and far worse. I doubt you have been there.... Spend some time on the ground and get acquainted with Israelis. It is immaterial that (YES!) the Palestinians are so corrupt even the World Bank will not back any PA financial institution, and not one single EU manufacturer has set up shop in GAZA and one only in the WB. We are not promoting our favorite sports teams here, Mike (and that on of the problems with dealing with Americans who think via comparisons and rah-rah let's yell louder). If you would care to familiarize yourself with Benny Gantz, you will discover where the mindsets of most Israelis really are. Believe me, most Israelis are not picking up a free copy of Adelson's propaganda rag, but instead, read Haaretz. Reality brought to you by Israel, not filtered through US evangelical media.
We cancelled our family trip to Israel at that time. Our Israeli cousins told us it was too dangerous to visit. What is never mentioned, certainly in the NYTimes, is that this so called 2nd Intifada was waged in response to a peace proposal by the Israelis. Ehud Barak made a peace proposal, and instead of a counter proposal, Arafat green lighted suicide bombers. Arafat's widow told the press that Arafat had planned the war all along, he went to Camp David with the intention of turning down any peace proposal and coming home to start killing Israeli children.
This is why the conflict continues; the Palestinians have no interest in peace. It would be nice if the Israelis could trade the vast majority of the west bank for peace and an end to the conflict, but there are no Palestinians interested in peace. None.
10
This article beautifully illustrates the problem. This articulate, earnest and I assume typical Israeli utterly neglects the Palestinian side of this story. A previous comment points out that during the Second Intifada (yes this terrible period has a time) while 1000 Israelis died, 3000 Palestinians also perished. The disproportionate casualties suffered by the Palestinians seem to be of no interest to Mr. Friedman. This fact is not repressed, but simply ignored. Again according to Wikipedia, in 2014, in Gaza, for example, between 2,100 and 2,300 Gazans were killed and between 10,600 and 10,895 were wounded (including 3,374 children, of whom over 1,000 were left permanently disabled)...while on the Israeli side,
67 Israeli soldiers, 5 Israeli civilians were killed and 469 IDF soldiers and 261 Israeli civilians were injured. Unless and until Israelis can include Palestinians in the death counts, no one will be secure or safe.
The US Civil War statistics count both Union and Confederate soldiers. Though we have recently updated the old numbers by 20%, to 750,000 total, even at the old number of 618,222 deaths, 360,222 from the North and 258,000 from the South, we have never reported only one side of the war. How can Israel continue to do the same?
6
@What WouldOmarDO
'What is never mentioned, certainly in the NYTimes, is that this so called 2nd Intifada was waged in response to a peace proposal by the Israelis. Ehud Barak made a peace proposal, and instead of a counter proposal, Arafat green lighted suicide bombers.'
4
I was a tourist in Israel in March 1996. As my plane was about to take off, I learned that the bank I visited the day before had been bombed, killing many people. It's understandable how the second Intifada led to the walls and security protocols that make Palestinians virtual prisoners. What is the answer for the future? Demographics will have the final say, and the answer will not be in Israel's favor.
1
Whose land is it? With power changes at the end of WWII, the British with their imperial sensibilities gave Israel a piece of the land known as Palestine. The Balfour Agreement began the situation known to us today as the never-ending Israel/Palestine problem. Palestine now has a small sliver of land continually encroached upon by the spread of Israel settlements Bibi ignores. Buttressed by the USA wealth and now its evangelical community, led by a US president whom they support with a Jewish son-in-law doesn't leave much room for a maligned and poverty-stricken Palestine. Similar to the plight of Indians in the USA, there's simply nowhere to go, no bargaining chips outside the casinos that now dot many Indian reservations. Israel thrives. Palestine suffers. To the victor always go the spoils.
4
@Katalina Wow, you have a very limited read on the history.
Balfour Agreement/League of Nations Mandate for Palestine described what is now Israel/"Palestinian Territories"/Jordan. Jordan was split off first; it included the majority of the territory. Various attempts were made to accomodate a division of the remainder; each such attempt was rejected on the principle that the Arab side would take it all later. No one, repeat, no one ever "recognized" the West Bank (a Jordanian term) aka Judea/Samaria (what the League of Nations used) a the homeland of the Palestinians--until the Israelis took control. (Read the 1964 PLO declaration...they had no interest in "the West Bank" then).
The problem remains--when do the Palestinian Arabs decide that improving that portion of the land which they can realistically aspire to overcome their preference for a dream of lands that will not come to pass?
1
@DrD Lots of misconceptions there, doctor. For starters, Jordan, then Transjordan, was promised to the Hashemites in 1915, pre-Balfour. It was excluded from the later "Jewish homeland" scheme in two separate treaties.
It was autonomous, never administered by the British although it fell within the British sphere. Jordan had its own government by 1924 and was a fully independent nation by 1946, two years before there was an Israel.
This idea that Jews were "cheated " out of Jordan -- or that "Jordan is Palestine" -- is a fiction, born of the wish to make Palestinians disappear to...some place, any place.
Zionists were not a party at the table when the major powers carved up the MidEast after WWI. No document of the British, the League of Nations or the UN "gave" Zionists one inch of land, defined as theirs, in Palestine. The West Bank was ceded by Jordan in 1988 -- to the Palestinians.
First off, I totally agree with one major takeaway from this editorial: it's the psychologists whose study and analysis need to be seriously deepened and considered in order to reach a better place. Northern Ireland, Armenia, and even Alabama are places where long-standing cultural separation affects possible paths forward as much as legal details and agreements.
Second, I believe that a role for the US (ridiculously unavailable with the current administration) should be a) establishing the truth and b) working towards accountability. Everyone who commits an egregious act of violence should be accountable; this is not to say (as 'live by the sword, die by the sword' implies) that every perpetrator should experience the same consequence as they caused. Rather, my point is that the Western world seems to view individuals who commit barbarous acts are terrorists to be roundly condemned, while those who wear a uniform are held to a different standard.
But as tragic and compelling as this editorial was, it is totally one sided, which is never commendable. See the numbers from the wiki article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_the_Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict about child fatalities in the area under the heading "Summary of B'Tselem tables of child fatalities in Israel, West Bank & Gaza, 1987–2012"
2
I understand Israeli feelings, nobody wants to be killed and terrorized, but what about Palestinians who saw their land being occupied, their people being expelled from their land and being killed for protesting injustice. Palestinians lost the sympathy of Israelis, but why would Israelis expect sympathy from Palestinians whom they treat so badly. What methods do Palestinians have to fight for their fully independent state?
6
While no Israelis may have been killed in bombings since 2008 there have been other types of violent attacks by Palestinians in Israel and there have been missile attacks from Gaza. I would not say Netanyahu has exactly brought peace to his country. But the Second Intifada certainly has resulted in demise of the left as a significant political power and has resulted in Israel going much further to the right and Netanyahu embracing autocratic leaders and even the white nationalist Donald Trump who represents a potential great threat to American Jews. Things have spun downhill from the days of peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians and the challenge is to somehow return to those negotiations to find a two-state solution of the awful conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
1
This is a great piece. I was in Israel both before, during, and after those attacks. This was Arafat's answer to a peace plan, fully supported by the Palestinian leadership. Between this terror campaign and the miserable state of Gaza, it is why Israel believes there is nobody to negotiate with.
Somebody described the conflict as asymmetrical. It took me a minute to realize he believed the Jews of Israel are stronger than the Muslim's of the world, who outnumber them >100:1. This was literally mind-boggling.
Americans, including many American Jews, simply do not understand how lopsided the security situation is against Israel. They're blind to the rampant antisemitism that permeates "anti-Zionism" and do not realize how their own beliefs are classic antisemitic tropes. They apply a double-standard, one for Jews and another to literally everybody else, without thinking twice about it. And so it's Netanyahu, or somebody similar, for the foreseeable future.
5
Let's say that the UN. voted to give Arizona back to Mexico the Mexicans treated the folks in Arizona the way Israelis treat Palestinians. Would you ever expect the non-Mexicans in Arizona and all the people in the USA to stop trying to get Arizona back? Why, then, do we somehow expect the pressures on Israel to stop?
The tactics might change, but the Palestinians will never give up trying. And with the Iranians, Iraqis, Russians, etc. supporting the Palestinians, isn't it just a question of time until Israel loses out?
Today, to be a good friend of the Israeli, one must encourage them to negotiate returning to the Palestinians a great part, if not all, of what was taken from them in exchange for lasting peace.
6
And Israel responded by building walls, ensuring inconvenience for all, economic devastation for Palestinians who couldn’t get to work, and ecological damage—and importantly an act of psychological terror, a giant and hostile symbol of man’s inhumanity to man.
Remember when the Berlin Wall went DOWN?—people were happy.
Can’t help seeing my own desert region in this.
Medieval walls.
Domestic terrorists determined to commit mass slaughter regardless of their own survival.
Religion? Culture? Ethnicity? Hatred that’s hard to understand for one raised without walls.
1
Israel is the only country in the world that is facing a large, powerful enemy, Iran, that wants to "wipe it off the map."
Iran has fueled its proxy militia, Hezbollah and Hamas, to this end.
It is all too simple for people, mostly liberals, who do not face destruction to say don't be so afraid and don't take the measures to ensure your survival.
Most Arabs and Iran want no peace with Israel, and thus, no peace is possible.
Isn't this obvious after all this time and demonstration?
6
@R. R. --Speaking of the obvious -- and contrary to your assertion -- the Arab League Peace Initiative has been on the table sine 202, renewed in 2007 and again in 2017. It offers Israel full diplomatic and trade relations with 57 Muslim nations in exchange for a just peace with the Palestinians.
Israel has refused to discuss it. Netanyahu claims to not even have read it. Does Israel want peace -- or just more land and license to bomb across its borders with impunity? More than 200 bombing sorties in Syria over the past two years. Military incursions into Lebanon, Iran and the Sinai. Assassinations of foreign nationals. "Mowing the lawn" in Gaza. A rejection of diplomacy.
1
@R. R.
Yes only Israel is facing a large powerful enemy. Never heard of Taiwan? Never heard of Ukraine? Those countries are going to wiped off the map by China and Russia. Israel is not unique in its challenges.
2
Hard as it would be I support a dual nation that would include our guarantee of Israel's safety.
What hypocrites we are!
The West is awfully happy right now to chide Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, but how many civil liberties have we traded—how many people have we oppressed—for our own sense of security? Or identity?
It's not that it's right. It's just that it's not right to scapegoat Israel, and we should be . . . somewhat suspicious of the enthusiasm with which certain people have jumped on that bandwagon.
3
All of the Palestinian supporters on here will simply read this as evidence of Palestinian oppression thereby bypassing the Palestinian well documented goal to push Israel into the sea. Bibi has taken the right approach to protect Israeli citizens by whatever means necessary. Civilized people do not blow up their opposition in buses, markets and discos. Long live Bibi!
2
Actually there is another thing that Israeli's don't like to discuss. That is that Israel's formation was contingent on the dispossession of Palestinian land and was further exacerbated by its occupation of land that no one considered theirs. Put simply, it does not take a mental giant to figure out why Palestinians are mightily aggrieved at what has happened since 1948. And it does not take a mental giant to understand that this conflict will have no end whilst people like Bibi are in power.
3
As long as the Palestinians are denied their human rights, there is little likelihood for peace. If you were a Palestinian, would you accept what the Israelis do to you?
3
This might might be exactly right. Even further the Palestinians could have had a deal with Ehud Barak with Bill Clinton shepherding it but Arafat had to get infront of Hamas. But unless a deal is reached Americans, including American Jews will become more and more alienated from Israel. As 9/11/2001 showed even a country surrounded by oceans can be attacked.
2
If past Israeli trauma can explain present Israeli politics, then let's imagine how much bigger the phenomenon must be for the people they rule over. Palestinians, unlike Israelis, have lived under 50+ years of violent military occupation with still no end in sight. This too needs to be added to the picture, for without it the conflict makes no sense.
Friedman is a thoughtful, gifted writer, but sadly his vision is as limited as his empathy. As long as he is unable to contemplate Palestinian suffering *alongside* Israeli suffering, his thoughts remain mere apologetics. Israelis deserve more than that.
8
Can we please stop and consider the constant castigations of Israel for “colonizing” and “occupying” Palestinian lands. What other nation in the history of the world has won multiple wars that they did NOT start against a people that refuse to accept their existence, and then were unable to achieve peace with the instigators despite multiple generous offers (think of Versailles Treaty and Potsdam Agreement)? What should Israel do?
Please, when you judge Israel, imagine what it would be like if your enemies lived amongst you and promised to kill your mother on the bus and bomb your children at their schools. How would peace look in your world?
4
Mr. Friedman,
I read your article about Palestinians terror and the repressed memories, however, it seems you are repressing the causes for such terror! I have question:
- Do Palestinians have the right to resist being dispossessed and thrown out?
- is resisting with terror or with terror.. is a legitimate resistance against those who terrorized me out of my homes, farms, and businesses so persecuted Europeans Jewish citizens can have a save home?
- why throwing me out and giving my home & farm to persecuted European Jewish citizens.. isn't terror?
- Could it be that you repress the memory that it was Europeans who persecuted their Jewish citizens and handed them to Germans, and you project your anger on Palestinians?
8
Excellent article and insight, and kudos to Mr Atia for the film. This type of exploratory and revelatory article is why I read the NY Times.
As "BB" points out in their comment, focusing on one part of history inevitably leaves out important context. However the article does not make excessive claims -- it is not an explanation of the conflict, but a reason for their voting attitudes.
The timing of the bombings is odd -- why did they come during the period of highest hopes for a peaceful 2-state solution?
3
This article makes a good point and I too remember that time. But how do we move forward? By oppressing the Palestinians so much that they disappear? I don't think so. There seems to be no effort to find a solution, just blame on both sides. The USA was bombed on 9/11 and 3,000 people died. The show of strength against that followed against Iraq served no good purpose and unleashed new monsters. I agree that the atrocities that occurred in Israel during that period should not be forgotten and must be prevented from happening again, but they must also be moved past. Netanyahu never mentions solutions and just allows the building of more Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. How's that helping to solve the situation? It suggests only one possible future, the replacement of a whole people. It's one thing to protect yourself, it's quite another to exact a continuous and painful revenge. We have new generations coming of age and they might be open to peace if given a chance. When are we going to hear some constructive solutions to this problem instead of blame? Some sacrifices on the part of Israel, not human ones of course, but some effort, some give and take is necessary to bring about something better for both sides.
6
In these comments, some have pointed out that a compassionate understanding of others is the way forward from the present situation. And that the Dalai Lama has said that compassion is the new radicalism. He has also stated, when addressing politics, all Religions tend to address basic human needs, and that they have that in common, and that there should be a place where all the great religions through their leaders come together to express their concerns and find a way to work more compassionately together. One might consider Jerusalem to be that place, or alternately, anywhere the Dalai Lama should choose.
Overcoming the fear and hatred of past murderous acts is a difficult thing to do. On a macro scale, living in a civil society that respects the rights of others with opportunities for personal betterment is a way to do this.
In Israel and Palestine, we already have two States; one side pursues murder as part of a religious doctrine, making martyrs out of those who kill civilians. And as a negotiating stance, denying the right of existence is a non-starter. Someone from our side, who might be able to find a way around this, however slim the hope, might be Representative Omar. Too bad our present government doesn't believe in diplomacy.
Recall also the suicide attacks in Israel extended to the attacks in New York and D.C. Many also remember that the Palestinians and Iraqis celebrated this at the time, and that even now for them, the Muslim ban is not displaced.
Few things did more damage to Middle East peace than the suicide bombings. Knowing many Palestinian refugees living in the U.S., I had come to understand their version of Israeli injustices done to them and their families. But when the suicide bombings began, they had no explanations. Random murder -- terrorism -- is never a path to peace or justice.
But is the dictator-like Bibi Netanyahu the only Israeli leader who can bring stability even as his corruption trial begins? I would hope not.
422
@cjg
Your description of Bibi as "dictator-like" is way off base.
The Israeli media is free to criticize him, and does so on a daily/hourly basis.
He (arguably) won the last election but was not able to form a government, forcing new elections, so he is not all-powerful.
No one disputes that his political enemies and rivals are free to criticize him and try to win the next election, including Arab-Israeli politicians and citizens.
You may not like Bibi, but clearly at least a very substantial minority of Israelis do, and maybe more than that.
20
@cjg you ask if Bibi is the only who can bring stability? Maybe not the only one who can. But he is the only leader who has
8
@cjg. How does being elected in regular elections make one "dictator-like"? Like ir dislike Bibi all you want. He's just a politician.
If you want to meet a dictator go to Ramallah and talk to Abu Mazen, currently serving the 14th year of his four year term.
28
I am an Israeli, now an American too. I left Israel shortly before the violence described by Mr. Friedman. I remember well when Netanyahu was unexpectedly elected to power. It was in the immediate aftermath of the assassination by and Israeli Jew of Israel's peace-brokering Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin. This was the height of the Israeli-Palestinian detente; later Palestinian violence had nothing to do with it.
This is about storytelling. When does your story start and who is included in it?
Mr. Friedman's memory of the Israeli term "hamatsav"/ "the situation" does not match my own. From the time I was growing up in Israel, long before the Second Intifada, "the situation" was the catch all for the intractable conflict with the Palestinians. Israel's woes did not begin with the Second intifada.
If the New York Times can give space to a retelling of what a harrowing period for Jewish Israelis years ago, what of the story of the constant, ongoing and disastrous comprehensive violence of Israel on the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Retelling the Israelis story of fear to an American audience without referencing the broader and massively more deadly Israeli violence on Palestinians, serves to re-traumatize Israelis and American Jews. It inflames without offering compassion.
912
@BB The Palestinian response to a left-leaning government willing to compromise was to escalate the violence rather than embrace the future. That was the point of the article and why that memory burns through today and the choices the electorate make.
118
@BB
The end of the peace process was not due to the assassination of Rabin. That is a false narrative. Ehud Barak was subsequently elected and offered even greater concessions to the Palestinians. In the wake of that failure and ongoing terror, even after the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, Netanyahu gained and held onto power. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have been giving him all the excuse he needs to avoid difficult and risky compromise. Still, I hope the Israelis make a different choice this time.
65
@BB
The point - inarguable, it seems to me - is that the Second Intifada destroyed the Israeli peace camp.
FYI, I believe the NYT does a decent job of covering Israel and the Palestinians, including settler violence, etc.
As for "inflaming without offering compassion" - give me a break. People need to know the facts.
57
I'm an American and visited Israel in 2006 and 2008. As my companion (also from the US) and I went around Jerusalem, we would be in locations where bombings had taken place. The locations were crowded and thriving but only a few years earlier had been scenes of death and destruction. The contrast between the recent past and the present was jarring even though we were grateful that the violence had subsided.
But we did not live in Israel through the Intifada/situation. If we had we might feel like what the author is saying: feeling safe is paramount. Other issues, e.g., alleged corruption, are irrelevant.
5
as long as the killing is memorialized in stone with a call to "avenge their blood," this gruesome cycle will endure.
Peace is elusive, the hatreds bred in this cycle are visceral and entrenched.
Maybe its time that the international fraternity of religious competition and warfare be abandoned. We should all turn to the worship of Gaia and Reborn Athena.
Tribalism, ancient religious identities... those should be buried right now across the globe & traded for an embrace of 21st C. enlightenment.
6
This piece is right on.
And just a reminder of why there is a "separation wall", for all of you critics who criticize it without taking the context into account.
9
I think this thoughtful commentary relates to a crucial aspect of the American anti-Israel faction. There is a tremendous amount of history from the 1940s up through the 2000s between the Israelis and the surrounding Arab (Islamic) population. The Anti-Israel faction don't know or don't recognize that history didn't begin with Palestinians in refugee camps for 50 years or begin with a fence separating Israel from the Palestinian territories. Without at least a basic understanding of why the situation is the way it is, how the parties got to the situation that now exists, there can never be peace.
203
@Craig G
What palestinians seem not to comprehend, is that every act of anti-Israel or anti-Jewish terrorism only bolsters the political status of Netanyahu and of the constituency that support repression of the palestinians.
17
@Craig G Also, without opportunity and political participation by the Palestinians there will never be peace. The Zionist government has made Israel increasingly isolated in the world. This will also end badly for Israelis.
18
@AltaGeek I don't necessarily disagree with you. I do disagree as to political participation in the State of Israel for Palestinians. That is like saying people living near the border of Mexico should participate in U.S. Elections. Palestinians do have a government, it just isn't democratic. But that isn't a point I was trying to make. My larger point is that it isn't only within Israel's power to grant peace. There has to be a peace partner. I can't think of a moment in the last 40 years when Israel had that partner for peace. When they did, they made peace--i.e. Egypt and Jordan. History of how we got to where we are is important here. Also, why wasn't there a Palestine in 1950 or 1956 or 1965. Why was only when Israel came along or when Israel had Jerusalem was it important for there to be a Palestinian State?
12
There is no question that violence of any sort -- especially suicide bombing -- is an absolutely terrible effect of human discord. And as the opinion piece shows, Israelis have that terror embedded in their modern politics.
What is always missing however is the discussion of the origins of Palestinian terrorism. You know what it is though: Arabs are never going to forget being driven from their own homeland by Europeans wanting a new homeland. But how does that rise to the situation where someone will detonate themselves in order to detonate dozens of random strangers?
I think any Israeli could answer that, and find in that answer the reality of consequence almost no one seems to want to apply. The desire to extend the UN-sanctioned Israel into ever more Arab homeland, by whatever process is possible. The 'proof' is right there in the article: The Six Day "war" had relatively minor Israeli casualties. Israel never had its existence threatened. Only its further expansion into someone else's homeland.
11
@Feldman, it’s an honest, factual and most importantly a very courageous comment. Thank you. What is indeed ignored and forgotten is non Jews were expelled, murdered and cleansed out of their homeland to alleviate the collective guilt of Europeans for evil committed by the nazis.
We traveled in Israel this past spring. No one there uses terms occupied territories or Palestinian homeland. It’s Judea and Samaria. Palestinians should just pack up and go!
4
@Herodotus Judea and Samaria are also the terms used by the League of Nations.
The only reason "West Bank" was used was to indicate the connection to Jordan--which was TransJordan, or on the East Bank of the Jordan River, until it occupied Judea and Samaria.
Israelis often refer to it as the "territories". Whether it is "occupied" or "disputed" is not actually clear.....
1
@Feldman *Only its further expansion into what is left of someone else's homeland.*
1
Violence is always wrong. Start there. If you are scared of violence, violence as a response will only make things worse.
I am not a Christian or believer of any kind. But the answer to violence, the only approach that works, is found in the Gospels in the sixth chapter of Luke. It is a challenging chapter, but Jesus has the answer, and it is profound: love your enemies. When they strike your cheek, turn the other cheek.
2
Another rpressed memory is also the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967. I noticed that detail was not included in the article. The military occupation and the entrenchment of it with the closures after Oslo in 1993 caused the second intifada. That needs to be remembered too. It is easier for Israelis to forget the occupation now that they no longer have to see it due to settler-only roads and less interaction with Palestinians than they had before Oslo.
11
I was there. A few hundred meters from Café Moment when the attack took place. Mr Friedman is spot on.
2
Remember this?
“In July 2006, the Menachem Begin Heritage Center organized a conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the (1946 King David Hotel) bombing. The conference was attended by past and future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former members of Irgun. A plaque commemorating the bombing was unveiled, stating "For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated." The British Ambassador in Tel Aviv and the Consul-General in Jerusalem protested, saying "We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated", and wrote to the Mayor of Jerusalem that such an act of terror could not be honoured, even if it was preceded by a warning. The British government also demanded the removal of the plaque, pointing out that the statement accusing the British of failing to evacuate the hotel was untrue and "did not absolve those who planted the bomb."
9
Thank you for this. I'd strongly advocated for peace during the period described. In retrospect I feel like a fool for several reasons.
The first is laid out in brutal detail by the Friedman. One can easily imagine even liberal Americans being so traumatized as to consider peace impossible if over 1,000 Americans were blown to bits (and over 10,000 more maimed) in constant terrorist bombings, and then Palestinians treating each mass murder of civilians as a wedding celebration.
What the author doesn't mention is the Camp David 2000 Summit, which gave Palestinians everything they claimed to want.
Arafat's "negotiation" was that he'd accept no less than 98 percent of his demands, including a fully recognized Palestinian state and return of virtually every piece of land from the 1967 war. It was deliberately meant to be totally unacceptable. It was 98 percent because Arafat was sure Ehud Barak could never agree.
However, Barak did agree. Palestinian leaders said: NO.
Like the suicide bombers, they never wanted a peace of any sort, or a free Palestine, unless all Israelis were killed, so they rejected their own proposal. This and the bombings caused the fall of the Israeli left as Israelis understood Palestinians were serious about nothing but murdering them and destroying Israel.
There could have been, should have been, a free independent Palestine which would celebrate its 20th Anniversary next year. Sadly, Palestinians never wanted peace, just death and destruction.
15
@Robert B
It might be fairer to say that Arafat and other Palestinian leaders did not want peace. The average Palestinian does. Arafat was the greatest enemy of the Palestinian and Israeli people. Without him, we could, as you say, be celebrating a 20th anniversary. Instead, his hatred made Bill Clinton's and Barak's efforts a waste of time.
3
You state that Israel is stuck in a very bad moment in time and therefore will never be able to trust or move forward. How exactly does this scenario play out, is it that the Israelis move further into Palestinian territory and the Palestinians living in Israel continue to be second-class citizens? The reality of this premise is that the Palestinians will outnumber the Israelis, then how could Israel remain a Jewish State?
4
What's more, is how the situation spotlighted the isolation and abandonment Israelis felt from the entire world, from the lack of tourists, lack of validation in the world press, lack of outrage, etc. So now when other Americans criticize Israeli policies, I realize they know they have to chart their own path and do what they think is necessary. There is no press about the suicide bombings that don't occur because of the security barrier. There is no press about rockets from the territories because there aren't any unlike Gaza and, still, Lebanon (where Israel long ago withdrew.)
4
Nothing in this article justifies the continual shooting of Palestinian children now common in the current culture of the Israeli army under Bibi, nor the tearing down of legal Palestinian homes and farms to provide illegal settlements. Continuing the violence simply perpetuates the violence! In any civil war (and it is always a civil war when neighbors fight) memory must be preserved but then genuine respect, civility and compassion are the vitally necessary response. Bibi is simply a vicious tyrant.
13
@Annie Smart Palestinian "children" are not routinely shot by the Israeli army. Violent rioters may well be shot, as would likely happen anywhere.
Legal Palestinian homes are not torn down. Legal Palestinian homes are, in fact, defended by the Israeli legal system. Unfortunately building a home without regard to legal structures, such as zoning regulations and the like, does not render the home legal.
You may not like Bibi. I certainly don't like Bibi. That's not the point of this editorial...which is to explain why, despite your dislike from your comfortable abode in Berkeley, you (surprise surprise!) don't actually speak for Israelis.
1
If the writer's opinion is correct, repressed fear is persuading Israeli voters to enable, inadvertently, Netanyahu to create even more danger for them by systematically allowing settlers to take over more land in the West Bank and Israeli businesses to produce goods there on property the Palestinians see is theirs. I don't think that most Israelis think that such absorption is good for them. I guess fear can lead to blindness.
4
I have been in Israel several times. Both before and after one of those intense but contained explosions of violence that the Israelis, Palestinians as well as the rest of the world have become so used to. Once I was visiting in the south and was surprised seeing a multitude of children hiking in the desert at a time they would normally be in class. I was simply told that this was a "war day". So, going on a day trip was safer while jet planes roared toward Gaza for some retaliatory strike. This was all so eerily "normal." And in fact, even in one of these tense days, walking around Israel did not seem more dangerous than walking on any street in Chicago. The weather was good. Life was great. For most Israelis at least. The sense is that there is no urgency to change the status quo on the Israeli side. Things are likely different on the Palestinian side. People in Gaza are prisoners under an open sky. They die at each IDF strike. They would be the ultimate beneficiaries of peace. But they are in the hands of a small group that thrives out of their suffering. It is like the power of the mafia gangs in southern Italy. In Israel it is called Hamas. Clearly, the powerful on both sides are fine with the status quo. The powerless are just that, powerless. And the rest of the world knows that they can't do anything without some sign from those that live his perpetual war in that beautiful land. I don't know why but crazy as it sounds I still hope that things will change.
1
The apparent safety in Israel is because its leaders take the safety of each individual seriously and take steps to protect them. Unlike their Arab enemies who purposely launch missiles from hospitals, schools and residential areas to put the poor residents in danger to shield the terrorists.
1
@Sydney Kaye. That is part of the explanation. But one should also consider other factors, such as the imbalance in armaments and the extent of territory. The children of Gaza could not be taken to a safe war day hike when violence erupts.
Now imagine 52 years of this, sometimes significantly less brutal, sometimes brutally close.
2
I remember as if it were yesterday when my young niece was going to get on a bus, but then forgot something and returned home. The bus she didn't get on was the first bus suicide bombing in Israel. We were all shattered, yet grateful that she didn't get on that bus. However, it haunts us until this day that if she had she would not be the beautiful adult she is today with three adorable children.
228
@Anais
We should all mourn innocent Palestinian children who never had a chance to grow up either, as a result of being slaughtered in their homes and schools in Gaza and West Bank too.
16
@Anais Your story must resonate with the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans who were spared in such circumstances by not attending school on a certain day, or not being at a concert, a restaurant, a nightclub, or going to Walmart on a quiet weekend... Terrorism takes many forms, and we're not always attacked by "enemies" with bombs - sometimes, it's the kid next door with an AK-47 who mows down dozens of people in a single moment. Where is our "savior"?
7
@PAN. “Slaughtered”? Perhaps the Arabs should have agreed to the UN's suggested partition plan in 1947.
After all, the Arabs already controlled 99.8% of the lands of the former Ottoman Empire and had successfully prevented every other indigenous group from exercising their rights to self-determination - safely maintaining them in their "historical" second class status.
But as the Arabs wanted 100% of their former imperial conquests in the region returned to them, they wound up overreaching with the consequences we see now.
21
A very powerful opinion piece which opened my eyes. Thank you for this.
4
Lived in Ramallah from 2000 through 2003 while working on human rights issues. While I was living in Ramallah, I was in Jerusalem frequently. I witnessed a suicide bombing, was close to a car bomb, and was around multiple scares. I also witnessed the killing of two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah in 2000.
However, because I was in the West Bank I witnessed the other half of the story which isn’t told in this piece. I witnessed Palestinians shot in the street. I witnessed F-16s and Apache Helicopters bombing near my home. I witnessed tanks in front of my house. I witnessed assassinations. I was marched through my house by Israeli soldiers with a gun against my head. I was kept under curfew for 9 months of 2000 and for over a month that curfew was enforced by snipers who would shoot you if you left your home. I was in Jenin refugee camp just after the military pulled out. I witnessed the institution of strict movement restrictions. I witnessed systematic human rights abuses.
Perhaps a key reason Israelis don’t talk about this period is that it can’t be discussed in a way that segments violences. Recalling violence in Jerusalem requires recalling the overall situation and that in turn requires looking at reality in the West Bank and Gaza today. That is a reality completely missing from this retelling.
18
If we’re talking about the “overall situation”, let’s keep in mind that those suicide bombings were truly suicidal for the entire Palestinian people. There is no other choice that would have harmed their life and hopes more than this terrorist campaign. Have any of the evils you mentioned been fixed by murdering Israeli civilians ?
2
Correction, curfew was 2002
1
@Gimme A. Break. Before there were bombings, Palestinians’ rights were denied. Over a decade after the last bombing, Palestinians’ rights are systematically abused. The rash of bombing them was horrific, but they are not the story.
2
Friedman should reminisce from the Palestinians view point too, that precipitated the mess everyone is in now. Neither side can claim any moral superiority over the other nor be surprised by the reaction and counter-reaction as the inhumanity on both sides escalate.
"Israel pursued a peace deal and ceded land." Land it originally took, by force, while simultaneously continuing to take land elsewhere for settlements. What kind of deal is that? No different than what we did to Native Americans who valiantly fought back as best they could. Israelis seem to "pretend" to forget how their nation came into being - by violently displacing an entire population that they continue to actively and violently displace to this day and for the foreseeable future. And they are surprised by the reaction? Should Palestinians simply allow themselves to be run over without a fight?
Unfortunately the Palestinians lost moral support by shedding innocent blood. Ditto for the Israelis.
“May God avenge their blood” As they say about never-ending vengeance and digging two graves - Israel and Palestine are opting for a two grave solution. Sad.
13
@PAN
Maybe. But that's another topic. This piece is an attempt to frame the mindset of the Israeli electorate in the run up to an election. In Matti Friedman's view, that mindset is largely driven by a fear that developed in reaction to a certain series of events during a certain period of time. To "reminisce from the Palestinians view point" is a valuable exercise but it will tell us less about what Israelis may be thinking as they go to the polls.
(Note, Matti Friedman has other works where he goes to great lengths in order to evaluate other points of view. I recommend reading his other work)
1
@SJG
Agreed. But it is a mistake to not consider the other side's point of view - indeed the causes of their motivations for the tragic and atrocious reactions that merely cause equal and worse reactions form the other side. Not that Gandhi's example would have done the Palestinians any good either. Indeed, the majority of Israelis and Palestinians are caught between and victimized by the extremists in their midst.
I'll seek out Friedman's other works as you suggest.
@PAN
'Pumking Flowers.' Short. Short chapters. Beautifully but painfully written. An attempt to make sense of senseless war.
1
Neither walls nor checkpoints nor campaign ads are able to stop incoming missiles.
2
A UN resolution established the nation of Israel. Under the UN resolution, Israel was given a certain amount of land with precise borders. Since Israel is a legally created state and derives its right to exist from this resolution it is also legally obliged to follow the law with respect to its boundaries. Whether it was attacked and whether it conquered more land because of war is immaterial. No other country in the world has been allowed to enlarge its borders by war since WWII (with the exception of the recent annexation of Crimea by Russian, even though for 100's of years Crimea was part of Russia).
Israel through its settlements has absorbed a large amount of land that the UN resolution gave to the Palestinians and it otherwise occupies the rest of that land as a conquering power. The response to that occupation is what the occupied have done frequently in human history, that is, fight back by killing the occupiers by any available means. It is the price of occupation.
Peace will only come when Israel makes an arrangement with the Palestinians which equitably returns land for land, and otherwise stops occupying the land the UN resolution set aside for a Palestinian state. Peace would be easy to achieve if the Israelis did what the UN resolution requires them to do, but they do not want to that because they would have to give up their desire to include all the land from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean as part of their nation.
11
@HipOath
Thats not how the UN resolutions worked. The partition plan was voted on but never implemented. Essentially the partition plan has no bearing on current events.
4
You seem to have missed entirely the Arab attacks on Israel that led to that expansion. What other nation has prevailed since '45 against the kind of existential threat Israel has experienced?
2
@HipOath The UN didn't "create" Israel, but when Israel unilaterally declared independence it cited the partition plan of UN Res. 181 Part II in voluntarily naming those parameters as its borders. This gave the Jewish immigrant minority a majority of the land - an injustice in pretty much anyone's eyes.
The borders of the new state did not (and do not) include Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, Syrian Golan Heights or Sheba Farms -- all land that a perpetually warring Israel has seized and still controls at the point of a gun. Peace will never come as long as Israel considers land more important than a just peace.
Meanwhile, in a very peculiar situation for a Western-style nation, the State of Israel owns 96% of the land within the Green Line. It is entirely responsible for the shape of development -- 80% of Israelis live on just 20% of Israel's land while untold millions of shekels are spent on settlements on West Bank land they do not own.
Some of that land is desert, you say? Too bad. Develop innovative housing, infrastructure and cities there and Israel would not only have someplace to relocate settlers out of the West Bank but a lucrative industry in selling the new tech to other desert nations. Win-win.
2
As a retired psychoanalytically oriented therapist I wouldn't call this repressed memory except when someone actually experienced a horrific trauma or loss. Repression is a psychological defense mechanism that keeps certain memories, thoughts, feelings, or urges out of conscious awareness in order to prevent or minimize feelings of sometimes overwhelming anxiety.
It is generally true that the deeper something is repressed, denied, or avoided psychologically the more power it exerts.
What I think is happening in Israel among many people is more like denial or avoidance as defense mechanisms. This is still it is a good way to look at the subject.
4
@Hal Brown, MSW
I think your well-intended comment misses the point: Israel is a small country. Almost everyone has experienced a horrific trauma or loss directly. I felt this myself on one of my many visits and I happened to walk by a remote home before sunrise where a 13 year old Israeli girl was knifed in her bed, and murdered, a few hours later. As if that proximity to violence was not traumatic enough, turned out the victim l was my sister’s best friend’s daughter’s best friend.
4
@Hal Brown, MSW
I know nothing about psychoanalysis but wonder if perhaps this still may qualify as "repressed memory." Remember the size of Israel in terms of population and geography. The experiences in Israel 10-20 years ago were not like the school shootings we've seen in the US where most of us are highly unlikely to know a victim and many of us never heard of the towns prior to the news coverage. The attacks in Israel occurred in places that were known to everyone and about 1 in 5 Israelis know a terror victim. This intimacy might bring the typical Israeli closer to having "experienced a horrific trauma or loss."
1
I remember the time, too. I was living in Israel (as I do now), but at that time only my daughter was in Jerusalem, studying. It certainly was a scary time, and I think there is always fear. But it doesn’t justify increasing Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Being occupiers does a lot of damage of another sort - to the moral fiber of the people of Israel. It is clear that there are no easy solutions. But pretending that you can maintain the status quo indefinitely is not the solution, for sure.
14
This well-presented article does much to explain the Israeli mentality toward security. It also explains why Israeli politics have been apparently so one-sided in the last decade. While Israel has been shoring up its security on its borders and within its cities, it has continued to develop economically technically and culturally...it has continued to help out around the world when there are disasters...it has continued to innovate in healthcare, etc. It has reached out in the recent past to help the former residents of Jordan and Eqypt who desired statehood only to be rebuffed and become targets for hatred. Much of the world community continues to vilify the country.
It is perhaps unfortunate that the so-called "left" in Israel has become so weak and that their does not seem to be much of a so-called "center." Where are the Israeli leaders who have solutions that will appeal to the Israeli public so as to provide an alternative to Netanyahu? Perhaps circumstances surrounding Israel must change so that Israel exists in a neighborhood and world that is more conducive to a change in their politics that will help bring about a change in their leadership.
5
@Norm Budman Norm with all due respect Israel is the reason Egypt was denied a chance at democracy after duly electing their first president. We staged a coup, murdered or imprisoned the newly elected officials and inserted the new Mubarak, our and Israels puppet El Sisi.
2
@Ted I was referring to the former Egyptian citizens currently in Gaza who, at one time, apparently wished to be part of a Palestinian State. When they had a chance, they decided to "elect" Hamas and we know how that is turning out.
1
@Norm Budman @Norm Budman Seems like you want to deny that Palestinian Arabs were inhabitants of Palestine for centuries -- and not "former residents of Jordan and Egypt."
The 1878 Ottoman census in Jerusalem, Nablus, and Acre districts (largest population centers) registered 403,789 Muslim Arabs, and 43,659 Christian Arabs, for a total of 447,448 Palestinian Arabs, and 15,011 Jews.
The British Mandate 1922 census listed 569,177 Palestinian Arabs, 83,790 Jews; Jews owned 3% of the land. By 1947, Jewish population had increased, but they still owned just 6% of the land. The vast majority of factories, banks, import-export businesses, orchards, etc. were in Palestinian hands. Independence was one of the biggest land bonanzas in history as Arab Palestinians were driven out and their land and businesses seized.
It's sad that a decade without suicide bombings has not altered the political situation for Palestinians, who also have worked to suppress them. When we talk about terror and bombings, I think we have to include unleashing the military might of Israel against civilians in Gaza, regularly "mowing the lawn" with thousands killed, thousands more injured and 10,000 homes demolished at a clip.
3
A well written piece, without defending Netanyahu or the policies themselves, it explains well why people who otherwise might be repelled by what is going on to support Netanyahu. It brings up a historical truth, that those who perpetuate violence figuring it is going to get them what they want because the other side will become afraid simply doesn't work, if anything that kind of violence tends to harden people in their fear, not paralyze them. The Blitz in WWII was supposed to paralyze the British, it did the opposite. 9/11 was supposed to somehow scare the US into doing whatever the people who did it wanted, it did the opposite. Like with Israel today, post 9/11 people in the US supported the Iraq war and supported policies they otherwise wouldn't of, because of fear. And fear doesn't just affect one group of people, there were a lot of people who should have known better who blindly supported the Iraq war because of that same fear. Fear is a strong emotion and one that influences things without even being aware of the real cause. The Israeli's who support Netanyahu, will vote for him, will rationalize it on other grounds the way many Trump supporters rationalize their support for him; the Israelis will say they don't like Netanyahu's behavior and corruption but vote for him for other reasons without mentioning fear; Trump supporters will say they voted based on economics while expressing distaste for his behavior, but won't acknowledge his anger and hate motivate them
8
The memories of war don’t last forever, and in the end people recognize that things have changed. In 1940 and 1941, the German bombing of England killed tens of thousands of people. Yet by 1975, Basil Fawlty’s attitude towards his German hotel guests at Fawlty Towers was seen as ridiculously funny (though not entirely wrong).
Of course, it helps to have been on the winning side, and for Israel this has yet to be assured. Cozying up to Donald the Clueless and his “fine people” might not be a winning strategy. Doubling down on Netanyahu might not be either. A government that recklessly throws away its allegiances is seldom the winner in a long war.
But who can say? People forget, or gain perspective, and this can heal as well as hurt.
2
So what is the message here? That there is no real alternative to some form of Benjamin Netanyahu? But what does that mean for an American who vaguely accepts but doesn't comprehend the enormous complexity of the notion that Israel comes first--always ahead of the Palestinians, of course. What does it mean for the same American who doesn't also comprehend that this enormously expensive "alliance" massively forecloses our country's diplomatic and historical freedom to conduct our history with other nations besides Israel in the Middle East and Southwest Asia?
Beyond that, nobody with a shred of humanity wants anybody--Israeli or otherwise--to live in terror, but the Israelis aren't the only human beings involved in this conflict, and the Second Intifada isn't the only decisive episode in this maddening and ramified conflict. No American who wishes to comprehend the whole truth as it bears on our country's own needs can forget that. Naturally, of course, partisan columnists and cowardly U.S. politicians are perfectly happy with our ignorance and oblivion, but nobody can be forever oblivious of vital things. Whatever else anybody thinks about this Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is, in fact, a vital demand on this nation's policies--and the humanity of all the people involved.
4
After all you did to them, they fought back. That explains why you must now do so much more to them.
You see your own pain, and no other pain before, and so excuse others' pain after.
That path leads to only one place, and it is a disaster. This isn't peace. This isn't security. It is only a pause.
23
@Mark Thomason
Yes. And within this pause, my belief and activism is centered on opening increasing space for those Israeli and those Palestinians who deeply and sincerely desire to embrace each other’s humanity and transcend imminent disaster. There are thousands. Maybe even millions. There is very little space for this in Palestinian Territories—and none of course in Gaza. This is difficult.
3
@Michael -- That is the only hope. Sooner or later, before or after far worse suffering, it will have to be done.
2
How many wars has Israel been a part of since Netanyahu Has held power in Israel? What, are we up to 4 now? Why Israel still continues to call him the “security“ pm And how he can actually run on that slogan is mind-boggling to me. Their eyes are closed to reality. Israel is not safe at all. And we don’t know if it’s safe to say that it is safer regardless.
7
It is amazing how many times both sides can actually reach peace. Wait till all the secret signed documents are finally revealed. Most Israelis are not extremists. Netanyahu is an extremist. Usually before an election a fake attack is launched to sway the election. Fear is brought to an extreme. It would be great if a two state solution highlighted by President Carter was discussed . Now It is hard to believe that Israel trusts Trump. If there is not a two state solution will Palestinians ever have the right to vote in a one state solution. 2017 has passed and the fifty year hidden agreement has ended.it is time for peace with both sides respecting each other.
1
Unfortunately, a persuasive--and disturbing-- take on current politics in Israel. But go back a little further than 2001: to 1970. Israel was in the midst of searching its soul regarding "the territories," the land captured during the '67 war. Many Israelis decried attempts to annex the West Bank, or to develop any policy other than to seek a real peace treaty whereby land would be exchanged for peace. We can debate all we like about whether Palestinians were ever serious about peace. But we can also debate about whether Israel was, too. (Re-read Benny Morris, for the umpteenth time.) 2001 is an outgrowth of the Original Sin in this region: Is Zionism about genuine democracy or about creating an ethno-religious Jewish State capable of doing whatever it needed to do to survive, and, will the Arab and Islamic worlds create a secular, open version of their societies or remain captive to authoritarian regimes intent on exploiting Arabs and abusing Islamic religion and culture? 2001 may mark a turning point away from thinking about peace, and toward accepting force as the only way forward. But it was not the first such point, or even the most important.
5
I'm writing to quarrel with Mr. Friedman's phrase, "The attacks picked up in the mid-1990s, as Israel pursued a peace deal and ceded land ..." Whatever Palestinian terrorist bombers did in the period of what he calls "the situation" -- and they did a lot, and it certainly raised the hackles of most Israelis and contributed greatly to the endless peace-stalemate and Occupation -- it's simply misleading to characterize the mid-'90s as a period in which "Israel pursued a peace deal and ceded land."
After the Oslo accords there were attempts to craft further deals, and some land did get ceded to Arafat's "Palestinian Authority." But the underlying reality of that time was that the settlements (and the Jewish population of the West Bank) continued to grow, thereby making a realistic, unifiable Palestinian state all but impossible. And the Palestinians, who are not stupid, understood all too well that these quiet Israeli actions spoke louder than ongoing "peace talks" and rather minor land cessions to the PA which mainly served to put Palestinian rather than Israeli police in charge of controlling Palestinian hotheads.
12
@LarryHastings
You forgot about the Camp David peace talks, that Arafat attended, and in the end refused to sign, would not come up with some counteroffers to consider, but stormed off, angry. That brought on the 2nd intifada. Just like the Taliban cannot give up on ruling Afghanistan solely, the Palestinian leadership, long unelected and largely detested by the people, still wants to replace the Jewish state, and mostly rid themselves of the millions of Jews. In the meantime, many of the people settle for Jews killed or maimed, and this isn't repressed.
1
As an American and a Jew I fully support Israel's right to security. What I find objectionable is the Israeli adversarial approach to diplomacy as well as the burgeoning racism and anti-democratic actions of the Netanyahu administration which suppress most efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict.
14
@Howard
I think what Matti Friedman is trying to teach us here is that Israelis who lived through a certain period of time live a real fear that was the result of a clear and present danger in the early 2000s. That danger has largely been eliminated. It may have been replaced with other dangers. It may have come along with other policies that have many find objectionable. But fear is a powerful motivator and Netanyahu is largely been associated with a reduction in that fear.
It is hard to fully empathize with someone else's fear when it is different from your own. But we should stop for a minute and look at the survey data of how many Americans feel "unsafe" today and note that the dangers in Israel were (and to some degree still are) much greater.
1
As a black New Yorker and non-Jewish person, I appreciate this nuanced insight into Israeli politics and consciousness. It has been hard for me to witness the ongoing tension from afar without being preoccupied by a now long-standing and global theme: the oppression of poor brown people by those with more money and power. But I saw the towers fall on 9/11 from a taxi stuck on a bridge over the Harlem River, I witnessed the national suffering transform into rage, and I benefited from the subsequent decades-long wars so far as they prevented other terrorist attacks on the US by foreign nationals. But, still, I can’t not see the poor brown people who continue to pay the price for America’s trauma. The people of Afghanistan are not the Taliban, but we make them suffer as if they are. Is there space in Israeli consciousness to recognize that the people of Palestine are not Hezbollah? Can we—not just as Americans or Israelis, but as human beings sharing the same global home—find space both to grieve our trauma, defend our citizens, and also have compassion for those innocents who suffer from our fire and brimstone?
10
Who would ever guess, reading this column, that the country described as the victim here has engaged in a brutal fifty year military occupation, responsible for untold violent civilian deaths?
Or that the likes of Menachem Begin began life as a terrorist, and never regretted it?
11
The only time I was in Israel was July, 1964.
Obviously before the 1967 War.
While I was on a tourist boat sailing under the Golan Height
Syrian soldiers would fire over the boat just for fun.
Therefore: If I was PM I would never give up the Golan Heights. You always want the high ground. Just ask RE Lee and Pickett.
Jerusalem was divided. I stayed at the King David Hotel.
We would see Jordanian soldiers from our window. Occasionally he would aim his rifle at the the hotel.
I would keep Jerusalem as one city if I was PM.
After Arafat turned down the deal in 199? it became obvious that The Arabs really don't want a peace deal. Both intifadas were just a reflection of this.
There are plenty of faults on the Israeli side. I imagine that a new PM would be just as adamant at not allowing the violence of the past.
2
The terrorists who responded to entreaties of peace with terror got exactly what they wanted. The possible advance towards peaceful coexistence was completely halted.
They have a fundamental belief that democracy and rapprochement cannot withstand the fear created by the threat of terror. Perhaps the truth depends on the character of both Israelis and Palestinians.
Mr Netanyahu needs Palestinian extremists to stay in power and Palestinian extremists need Mr Netanyahu to stay in power. It is a morbid dance of passions.
1
This article is utterly depressing. It highlights the tit for tat nature of the Arab - Israeli conflict, and the fact that in a search for security Israel is destroying its own democracy. History has proven that repressing a people's legitimate rights cannot succeed for ever, especially in a society which wants to remain democratic. The longer Israel tries to contain legitimate Palestinian aspirations by adopting harsher and harsher repressive measures the more dangerous it will be for itself, the Palestinian people, and the region as a whole.
5
Nobody is innocent in this 'mutualicide', except for those fighting for true mutual peace. Irony that “May God avenge their blood” attitude, God is powerless - or more likely is on neither side. One side prevails merely because it has unlimited unaccountable source of wealth and weapons from distant ignorant tax payers and the others don't.
Mr. Friedman seems to imply that the dastardly suicide bombings against innocent Israelis emerged in a vacuum, that history started at that point for no reason at all.
He should take the same tour and reminisce through Palestinian eyes, who where forcefully displaced from those same places - with generations of memories from homes terrifyingly lost to a peoples of a different faith claiming supremacy over them.
The flip-side has 1000s of dead Palestinians, demolished homes, land and human rights lost. "No single episode has shaped" Palestine's population and politics like the loss of their entire nation to mostly outsiders, military subjugation and humiliation for the foreseeable future until they're wiped from existence. Before the bombings "any sympathy that the [Palestinian] majority had toward [Israelis] evaporated" after being forcefully displaced from their land of generations.
What did Israelis expect? Native populations being displaced by outside settlers tend to push-back! Like Native Americans did. That's an aspect insiders in Israel "sometimes struggle to understand." Indeed it is something no Israeli wants to discuss either
11
Suicide Bombings to me are the modern equivalent of "making your children walk through fire." It is wrong on so many levels. First, those who glorify it by celebrating it. And worst of all, the leaders who financially reward the parents who encouraged their children to slaughter themselves and as many innocent souls as possible. I am a Christian, and a progressive Democrat. And I understand to the depths of my soul there can be no peace, and certainly not peaceful coexistence, with people who see this practice as any way justified. And to this makes me sad.
3
Two points that are being conflated here:Palestinians would destroy Israel if they could.
Walls to keep threats out are not the same as walls to keep citizens from leaving.
3
@Lane It's a simple step to reverse the hinges on the gates. cf East Germany.
1
So, what's the answer except perpetual war? Is that what Israelis want? Is that what Palestinians want?
I certainly don't know the answer. But what I do know is that Netanyahu put his foot in the door of our 2016 elections with clear support for Trump and Republicans.
Elections have consequences, and one consequence is that I can no longer trust the Israeli government or people. Right-wing hate is detestable regardless if it is from Palestinians or Israelis or the Republican Party.
14
Israel desperately needs an about face. It is on a dark path of self-destruction when it conducts actions condemned by international law and blatantly ignores basic human rights.
6
Interesting perspective. The Israelis lob missiles into Gaza and the Palestinians respond by becoming walking bombs. It's an old plot. Who will rewrite it?
6
In the 1970’s at a pro-Israel summer camp we used to sing a beautiful song by the great writer Debbie Friedman, though the title and theme I’m guessing came from liturgy: “Not by Might, and Not by Power—but through spirit alone, shall we all live in peace.”
Almost 50 years later and Israeli’s and Palestinians are farther from that dream, perhaps, than they ever have been.
On the other hand, and it is the hand of hope and optimism, there are millions of Palestinians, Israelis, Jews and Arabs, and people of cultures all over the world who deeply yearn to step beyond the reality of mutually asssured violence, of the cycle of fear and repression, of the narrative of “who is the real victim here? Who is the real oppressor here?”
It is difficult to see—given the neighorhood, the Sunni/Shia centuries old holy war, the oil wars, the geopolitical struggles being played out in Syria and Iran, the constant threat of political assassination....—how such stepping beyond can come about....
But then: Pete Seeger’s “It’s always darkest before the dawn”. While I don’t exactly feel hope, I feel the hope of hope. Sorta like when you plant a seed in the ground and until it sprouts you don’t even know if there is any reason at all to have hope.
We need to listen more to the Israeli and Palestinian families who have both lost loved ones in political terror, and yet have become friends and activists in planting those seeds amidst darkness, and hoping for hope, against all odds.
6
OUR DAUGHTER WAS LIVING IN JERUSALEM During the time of the terror attacks. Twice she called us to reassure us that she was fine, but that two buses were blown up on the Jaffa Road, about 1/4 mile from her apartment. Terrified, we told her to come home immediately. She said, How can I leave my friends? Soon after, she came home for another reason, which is another story. What I find incomprehensible is why Israel refuses to defend itself by using the media to show scenes of the slaughter. Why does Israel not defend itself against the massive criticism and attacks? I don't buy the excuse that people don't want to talk about it. So let the minister of defense or the spokesperson for the government defend itself. That said, it is a terrible dilemma, the question being whether showing evidence of the bombings and terror will trigger copycat attacks? It's a valid question, as we here in the US have seen the spread of domestic terror based on copycat crimes. Some of the murderers quote Trump, while some quote the manifestos posted by mass murderers. So our society is not immune from mass murders nor from copycat mass murders. Except here in the US, the enemy is the NRA and those politicians that enable the NRA. But that is changing, since the NRA faces allegations of accepting political donations from foreigners, which is prohibited in the US. Also the NRA faces probes of its finances which are believed to be illegal as well. Meanwhile, Israel needs to seek peace NOW!
From VOX "the overwhelming majority of the deaths are Palestinian, and have been for the almost 14 years since B'Tselem began tracking. Overall, the group has recorded 8,166 conflict-related deaths, of which 7,065 are Palestinian and 1,101 Israeli. That means 87 percent of deaths have been Palestinian and only 13 percent Israeli. Put another way, for every 15 people killed in the conflict, 13 are Palestinian and two are Israeli." You seem to only acknowledge 13% of the pain caused in this never ending conflict.
7
In December 1982 UN General Assemby resolution 37/43 was adopted which confirmed "the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”.
6
Thank you for writing this. It is good to remember this part of the story.
The terrible thing about chaos, violence and the absence of rule of law, is how difficult it is to regain a civil society.
Denial of the problem of millions of Palestinians isn't going to just go away, unless Israel is willing to commit "ethnic cleansing". For the obtuse, I am not suggesting they are, or that they should, commit genocide.
Simply pushing them into smaller, more and more marginalized spaces without viable work or good prospects for the future, is only compressing the problem, ultimately making it more volatile.
They have awful leadership. Is Israel doing anything to help them establish strong civic leaders, or are Israeli leaders happy to have corrupt, ineffective, easily manipulated Palestinian leaders?
Israel can't be a full real democracy with millions of people marginalized and living in conditions similar to the poorest people on earth.
The Palestinian people won't just go away, no matter how much Israel wants them to. That is the elephant in the room.
1
@Sharon Is Israel doing anything to help the Palestinians establish good leaders? Huh? This is a job for the Israelis? Huh?
1
After all this time, I have little sympathy for the Palestinians or the Israelis. They have a self made mess that only they can resolve. Fine, so be it. Both parties can wallow in their quicksand until they decide "enough". My belief is that won't happen for another generation at the earliest.
1
Justice for all may be the ultimate revenge.
2
Israel had the right to build its wall at or within the Green Line. It had no right to build the wall on land in the occupied territories. The "defensive" wall was in fact a land grab.
It the wall was so great for the peace and security of Israeli citizens, why are Isreal citizens building thousands of houses outside the wall?
Clearly Israelis have chosen land over peace.
8
My father once asked, when speaking of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "What do you do when both sides are right?"
2
Had Israel ended the humanitarian disaster that is the Occupation and colonization of Palestine, none of this would have happened.
8
@H. A. How dare they occupy their own land.
I'm over 80 and the continued hatred taught by Pal's leaders does not auger well for a true peace. Nothing has changed since 1948. Who can blame the Israel people for continued awareness of Hamas and PLO goals.?
3
I started rabbinical school in Jerusalem in June 2002, the month after the Moment Cafe bombing and a month after the class preceding mine was sent home early because of parental pressure on the school's administration. Was it a scary time to be in Israel? Yes. Yet it was also scary for the Israeli public to see Americans fleeing. I felt it to be my obligation to arrive by mid-June to let the faculty and staff of my seminary to know that we would never abandon the people.
During the year I would walk to school and when I moved out of walking distance, the school would reimburse my taxi fare. The day before Purim the No. 6 bus, I bus I had dared take only a week before, was blown up at the stop only 100 meters from where I had been sleeping.
And yet the Israeli public continues--to live, to have children, to go forward in life.
145
@David: more than move me, which your essay most assuredly did, you racked focus on your MemoryCam and allowed me to recapture one of my own: my sister was walking past an ice cream stand in Zion Square many years ago. A few minutes earlier she had demolished a baklava and was seriously considering a cone....then thought better of it. This self-restraint likely saved her young life.
The PLO bomb was concealed in the stand's trash can. It went off moments after she'd turned away and started to move on. I shall NEVER FORGET looking and wincing at the sight -- an ugly one -- of the shrapnel peppering my beloved sister's back to this day. It haunts me still. Not so much, but still.
Than k you for this letter, David.
Shalom
jan michael sherman
9207 truman road,
halfmoon bay, b.c.
[email protected]
13
@David
How about Palestinian life?
4
@David if you are still a rabbi. . .what do you tell your congregation about the conflict?
Matti Freidman should be required reading for anyone forming opinions about Israel and its neighbors. So many have developed their opinions or policies within the framework of US or European history and that is proving to be an improper starting point. The lived experience within Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and neighboring countries is foreign to us. We can study it but we can't fully understand it.
Fear is a challenging emotion to understand, particularly when we live in relative security and/or have fears of our own. Don't think so, look at the reaction Americans have to a school shooting for example and realize that most of us will never know a victim and often hadn't even heard of the town prior to the tragedy. Most Israelis are inimitably familiar with the victims or at least the locations of the attacks from the earlier part of the century. Of course this fear will dominate their worldview.
1
In my memory, there was a promise in the Oslo accords for an independemt Palestine by 2000. I have always assumed that the inability or unwillingness to deliver on that promise fueled the desperation and carnage of the second intifada.
I deeply appreciate this author's and the film maker's portrait of the effects of the terror on their lives. It was horrible.
I struggle to reconcile these two experiences. On the one hand, the despair of ongoing occupation and the brutality that must be endured to enforce that occupation. On the other, the horrorific violence, written here, endured by those whose only crime is living their lives among these forces grinding in different directions.
What is to be done? Killing is wrong, in all the diections it is aimed. How can it not be needed?
3
It's quite a background these attacks took place in: a cosmopolitan capital city with wide boulevards, bus terminals, restaurants, coffee houses, apparently very bad pizza, and a population apparently with an insatiable appetite for enjoying these pleasures. I get the impression that living standards and such enjoyments are not as high or attractive in the occupied territory, in fact quite the reverse. How could two neighboring regions differ so much in standard of living? I suppose one possibility would be that the Palestinian people put all their energy into making bombs and carrying out suicide attacks, and that if they put that time and energy into their infrastructure they could enjoy all the amenities that Jerusalem offers its citizens and visitors. Hmm, this might sound foolish, but maybe there's a deeper history? One involving maybe forced exile from a homeland? Maybe evictions from homes? Maybe bulldozed homes? Maybe brutal treatment of a civilian population by state security forces? No, it can't be that! Truth be told, methinks the Israeli people might be repressing more (historical) memories than this piece admits of.
22
If you have lived and travelled in the Middle East, it is obvious Trump is now institutionalizing Hate and Blood revenge in the United States.
People, including Kushner, Miller and Trump do not realize we are slowly crossing that thin line that gave us just enough innocence to lead the world as we gradually solve our own Civil Rights issues as Elijah Cummings and others fought for.
Isn’t there something in Jewish tradition that says there must be a group of people in the society that do not be allowed or forced gaze upon the dead, so they remain emotionally innocent enough hold their spirit steady and positive to lead others? I could be wrong about this, but if not, with Trump having unlimited dictatorial power backed by the DOJ and Mitch McConnell, it makes sense. We are destroying our innocence that allowed us to lead and help heal others, as Samantha Powers wished us to do as an idealist.
2
@Ray "Isn’t there something in Jewish tradition that says there must be a group of people in the society that do not be allowed or forced gaze upon the dead, so they remain emotionally innocent enough hold their spirit steady and positive to lead others?"
Your sentence is a grammatical mess. I have no idea what you're asking.
1
As the author noted, this period was really a civil war, with terrible casualties for Israelis numbering over 1,000, according to one reader. My recollection is that there were over 3,000 casualties on the Palestinian side, and I recall the great hope that the Oslo Accord would actually bring some improvements to that horrible Middle Eastern period.
Anyone can watch the Frontline report on the failings of the Oslo Accord that led to its failure, and there is blame to go around. It's safe to say that there were real opportunities lost with it's demise and as bad as things may seem right now, there is plenty more life to be sacrificed on the road to a lasting peace because the roots of the conflict remain, and I suspect this is why the collective memory is sporting such a serious blindspot.
5
I'm sincerely pleased to see so many non binary, nuanced comments. It may be illusory, but it is cause to hope.
2
Israel and Palestine have had nearly 70 years to work out the anger, their grievances and come to a peaceful resolution even it ot only results in each country going its separate ways and ignoring each other. I concluded long ago that their tribal war would go on forever. My hope is that the one we are waging here in the US has a short shelf life. Tribal wars are no win scenarios.
11
@Steve the problem is that they aren't two separate countries. How does a state of Palestine help the Muslims who live in Israel, or the Jews who live in the West Bank?
As long as "peace" means the virtual violence of borders, walls, and apartheid for minority citizens, it will be opposed.
Peace has to mean peace. It has to mean that no ethnicity is special, no religion official, and no people more important than others.
Anything else is not peace. It is oppression.
1
This is important, but it leaves out at least half of the story. Those Palestinians weren't intrinsically evil outsiders appearing out of nowhere, they were part of an ongoing war, essentially, in which the Palestinians could (and still can) also point to a lot of deaths, and ongoing dispossession and injustice (in spite of Oslo). To fully remember those times requires remembering a whole history.
32
@John Bergstrom
No one would have been killed, displaced or lost any land if racist Palestinians had not tried to exterminate the Jews.
The day after the UN Partition Resolution in November 1947, racist Palestinians started a genocidal war to exterminate the Jews. Haj Amin el-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – “I declare a holy war, my Muslim brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!”
The war started with Palestinians attacking a Jewish bus driving on the Coastal Plain near Kfar Sirkin killing five and wounding others. Half an hour later they ambushed a second bus from Hadera, killing two more. Arab snipers attacked Jewish buses in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Wars create refugees!
1
@John Bergstrom
Your comment is full of truth, but the op/ed was about why Netanyahu enjoys support, and how a chapter of intense national trauma affects the Israeli psychi and politics. Full stop.
4
@m1945
No wars would have been fought if European Jews hadnt flooded Palestine en masse in order to create a Jewish state where the majority of people were non Jews. Theres a logical sequence to follow.
2
How many Palestinians died during this period? Why does Mr. Friedman not mention that? And how many Palestinians have died since? How many thousands in the various Israeli attacks on Gaza alone? It is easy to understand how Israelis fear during this period turned into a hardcore animosity towards Palestinians. But that is always how it works; if people can see themselves as victims and their victims as aggressors, then it doesn't have to ask the hard questions of why any of this is happening? It does not have to do the self-examination that would be necessary. It's easy to dehumanize people in this conflict - on both sides - but its worth noting that only Israel had the option of walling itself off from the Palestinians by walling them in and accelerating its theft of Palestinian land. Then and now, the Palestinians can only suffer massively disproportionate losses of life and land and hope that holding on to existence is enough of a victory to keep them going.
44
@Shaun Narine
I don't necessarily think you are wrong about the need for Israeli self examination, however, I think the Palestinians also need to come to terms with their part in the long sad history of the middle east. 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. To a large extent, in my humble opinion, the Palestinians have been used as pawns by their Arab brethren in a larger geopolitical struggle that at it's core, has never conceded the right of Israel to exist. There used to be a time when Jews and Arabs peacefully coexisted. All the prior Jewish communities in the Arab world have disappeared and their people have been assimilated in Israel. How many Palestinians have been assimilated and given citizenship in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt?
Israelis have not been given many good options when surrounded by hostile powers bent on the compete annihilation of the state and presumably people.
8
@steven Correct. There is a lot of historical amnesia or lack of knowledge in many of these postings.
2
@Shaun Narine You miss the point of the article. The point is to explain how the Israeli public see things and how it reflects the upcoming vote. This wasn't a piece on the rights and wrongs of the conflict. As an answer to your questions, why is it so hard for the Palestinians to talk and discuss peace. Why aren't they running ot the peace table. Why must the table always be perfectly set for them before they are willing to show up. Then when they do show up, they refuse anythingless than 100% of their demands. I'm sorry, but so much of the Palestinaian suffering today is a result of 50 years of bad, anti-jewish policy by their leaders. First their leaders in in Jordan, Egypt and Syria, then Arafat and now Hamas and Fatah. The blame doesn't fall all on Israel. There will never be peace until the Palestinians look within themselves and have the freedom to say what they see.
4
Some implications of this, both for itself and as representative of many other conflicts: Yes, it's important to know the psychological undercurrents. It doesn't go away even if it's not talked about. As shown, it can continue to exert a huge force. The biggie: But how do you break the pattern, especially as rare attempts to do so are so fragile? And more generally, in this and many other issues: how "Success" is defined should consider the strength and prevalence of backlashes from contemplated actions towards a cause. We see over and over that these can be powerful, painful, and not difficult to foresee. A "defeated" enemy doesn't necessary stay that away. They can continue to tell their (equally partial) narrative, plot, and strike back, leading to predictable cycles or more of the same. Some modest suggestions: While security will always be important, as Samuel Goldman writes in another article today (about whether the U.S. colonists took lessons from the biblical Israelites), don't forget Righteousness. The Prophets didn't. Seek to practice empathy towards the "enemy," Not a naive form of it, but one that tries to look for the "universality" Goldman also mentions. "Leadership" must be re-defined to include these. Given the fragility of peace-seeding, it must be practiced by both sides. It also must be shown both by governments, and, as, discussed in another article a few days ago I believe about a Toni Morrison speech, even by communities most effected by tragedy.
5
The article seems to forget the initiating event of the intifada: Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in September, 2000. To any one watching, it was clear he was looking for trouble, thereby looking for an excuse to abandon the peace process. Many terrorist bombings took place in Jerusalem prior to the early 2000's but they did not stop Yitzak Rabin from seeking his dream of peace. And when he was shot and killed many Israelis were as devastated as those who had experienced the horror of suicide bombings.
28
@Maia Brumberg-Kraus Oh, right. Visiting a place "looking for trouble" is plenty of reason to start killing people.
That said, it is true that there is no trap so simple that the other side in this constant crisis will not fall or walk into it. Set up an orange crate with any old lure and the other guy will go for it.
@Maia Brumberg-Kraus I get it, a place historically connected to Jews for thousands of years that was captured by Muslims, than again recaptured by Jews who pray every year "Next Year in Jerusalem" who's Temple Mount is governed by Jordan,should not be shared by the 2 religions? While people like to blame the intifada on Arik Sharon's visit and not on the perpetrators is as bad as saying a woman wearing revealing clothes asked for her rape.Wondering,I’m still waiting for the Palestinians to unearth a 2,000 year-old coin bearing the inscription of Palestinian forefathers, alongside a yearning to fight for the freedom of “Al Quds.”
1
Every time I read an article on the frightening and miserable situation extant in Israel, the comments come down in dug-in, hardened, binary perspective.
Over here each side rails theoretically against the other.
Over there each side has to live day upon day with harsh and unkind realities, and their activities are anything but abstract.
Here, from the safety of my home, all I can do is feel bad for both sides and hope that someday a concrete form of love and understanding will enter the equation.
11
@Bert Floryanzia
There are millions of Palestinians and Israelis, Arabs and Jews, all over the world who share your hope and a desire for transcendence beyond mutually assured violence.
2
I was in college at this time in the US and was friends with several Israeli exchange students. I remember their constant fear for friends and family at home.
On September 11th, I met up with some of these same friends on the completely full, completely silent campus quad. One of my Israeli friends said quietly, "now you know how it feels." The insensitivity of that remark still rankles, but I also think that this comparison is the best way to explain it to Americans.
5
Add to this the unhealed trauma from Europe, and every war since, include Munich, Entebbe, and less known crises, and you begin to understand the complex psychology of repressed fear and pain. Like all traumas, they trigger and reinforce each other and cannot be parsed and separated.
7
The hated wall and the hated checkpoints and travel restrictions are what has stopped the attacks. At the time of the attacks even "liberal" Israelis demanded the wall be built "so high that birds cannot fly over it". The wall and security measures kept the peace. Netanyahu takes credit for continuing security but he is not the cause of it, and there is no planning going on for a better future.
9
" It’s too awful. Because the carnage wasn’t on a distant battlefield or limited to soldiers, the experience encompassed the whole society, and you don’t forget images or fear like that ..."
It would have been helpful for our understanding of human nature if the op-ed had considered how the Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere have seared into their memories the greater carnage that has been visited upon them by Israel. I am not bringing this up to stir up the debate as to which side is at greater fault, but rather to better understand how awful events are processed by the victim side.
11
@wd40 I think an evenhanded approach is good, too. But we often hear the Palestinian side, both from the left and from the media. This point of view is rarely represented. Perhaps the difference is that the violence against residents of what is now Israel occurred generations ago, when Israel was founded. There has been Israeli leadership since that tried to negotiate for peace. Has there been sincere negotiation from the other side? I hope that one day, there will be sincere interest and actual planning for it from both.
8
@wd40
You contradict yourself when you state that the Palestinians experience greater carnage by Israel then you ingenuously suggest you’re not looking to debate fault but understand victimhood.
You might also want to “process” what sort of religion endorses glorious benefits for suicidal murder.
1
@wd40
This could all have been over 18 years ago but the so-called Palestinians preferred the status quo. Now let them enjoy it.
1
I wonder also about the long term effects of the assassination of Yitzak Rabin. From my outsider perspective, it seemed that Israel never elevated a leader after that who was genuinely interested in peace and reconciliation.
13
@Theo Baker
Ehud Barak was going to make many concessions. Ehud Olmert was ready to give everything away. The Palestinians' leaders always want everything. Arafat and Abbas (the president elected to a 4 yr term 14 years ago) turned these offers down. There are 2 leaders for you that were also interested in peace and reconciliation.
10
@Theo Baker
When the Bush lead US coalitions invaded the Mideast without a plan or leadership the resulting failure, chaos and destabilizations encouraged resistance at every level.
Thus undermined any possible reconciliation or peace plan for generations. Your hopeful leader has not been born yet.
This is an essential and insightful point of view. And an interesting read after reading other news today about a middle class Palestinian who just died after fleeing his middle class home and business in Gaza because of the oppression of Hamas. If someone is Pro-Palestinian - as I consider myself - but only limits their interest in Palestinian lives when they are snuffed out by Israel, they are NOT pro-Palestinian. But let's be clear that Netanyahu has zero interest in any long-term plan for Israel's security. As with the Palestinian leadership, the status quo of fear, heartbreak and diplomatic stasis is maintained because it is ideal for maintaining an iron grip. I am pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian and remain hopeful that one day, true leadership on both sides will come to the table and create a plan not only for two states, but for real peace. Again, thank you for this important and heartbreaking reminder that the situation for Palestinians is based on a far more complicated and terrible history.
17
There is no such thing as a safe place today. Just looking around, there is always a trouble spot, everywhere.
Politicians come up with their own Agenda that often runs counter to what the people wish for. That makes it harder to understand what Peace stands for.
I am no fan of Netanyahu and less so of his alliances with those further to the right that Israel's electoral process unfortunately encourages. It has always been obvious to me though that Netanyahu's initial and continued victories could not have happened without Israel's moderates (and some former leftists) voting security in the wake of the 2nd Intifada. I welcome the on target perspectives in this article but have to wonder why stating the obvious should be necessary for so many long time commenters on Israel who regularly decry Netanyahu's policies without acknowledging the tragic violence of the 2nd Intifada that brought and kept him in power. This is a complex situation so I appreciate why casual observers might have flawed perspectives. There is no excuse for those whose job it is to know better but who write out of bias, ignorance or just wanting to jump on the anti-Netanyahu bandwagon without putting in the time to ask the hard questions. There's a dangerous superficiality to so many anti-Israel sentiments in a deadly serious conflict. I suspect the failure of critics around the globe to acknowledge Israel's deep and legitimate security concerns actually pushes Israelis to the right as they feel the world will do nothing when their lives are at stake. Are they wrong? Meanwhile I hope a more moderate but security competent alternative emerges to Netanyahu's right wing coalition. More recognition of the perspectives of this article will support that outcome.
6
I live in Israel and have attended lectures given by the author. Lest someone believe he is endorsing Bibi that would be far from the truth for he is just trying to explain his strength in the electorate. There have been other events that pulled the carpet out from under left wing arguments, and I am view myself as center left, which have been used effectively by the right. Most prominent among these was the Gaza withdrawal for although done by a right wing government it was a left wing cause. On the left we believed that relinquishing land to the Palestinians would manifest in a more peaceful relationship and the build up of economic stability rather than militancy thereby serving the Palestinian community. Instead, Hamas tragically, and more so for the Palestinians, embarked on militant confrontation that eventuates in not only Israeli military attacks but various measures that made living in Gaza even tougher. Bibi’s resilience as Matti points out is the result of policies of an unwise Palestinian leadership that held out hope of an eventual military conquest rather than learning from its neighbors that you can get more from Israel from negotiations. Presently as we prepare fir elections Bibi may be slipping in popularity nit because the peace camp has gained strength but because corruption, and his recent attacks on the courts and even election integrity, a pure Trumpian move, have upset even some who prefer his security credentials. His undoing may be his behavior.
19
I understand where Mr. Friedman is coming from. As a Jew, I am committed to Israel's survival. As a New Yorker, I know what it's like to walk past a thriving urban gathering place and flash back to when it was the scene of an unspeakable atrocity.
But as an American, I also know what happens when citizens surrender to fear and blindly follow politicians who promise 'security' above all - never mind the messy details. I sincerely hope that the people of Israel will choose a different path.
40
And this argument reduces to this: A wrong justifies a greater wrong- more repression and more violence. Never mind the cause and never mind the future consequence. And if more repression fails to end the crisis (but worsens it-as almost every General, Statesmen, Intelligence officer and diplomat knows)- then still more- until the nation loses its soul.
24
I just missed out on being a victim of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem when I purchased a chocolate bar at the last moment. Thankfully, in this case there were no deaths.
Chairman Arafat turned down the Camp David agreement brokered by Bill Clinton with Israeli PM (Labor -- left) Ehud Barak. Instead of giving Palestinians the state that they would have had in 1948 had they not attacked Israel instead, Arafat decided to resort to the terrorism mentioned in this article.
There is hope by leveraging the Iran's desire to create nuclear weapons. The Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia are allied with Israel regarding Shia Iran. If the Saudis and Egyptians insisted that Palestinians hold new elections, this might be a first step towards a peace agreement.
As long as Hamas is running Gaza, peace is highly unlikely otherwise.
7
As an American observer, I can understand, even commiserate, the writer's explanation of the success of the Israeli right, even the changes in reactions as expressed in the memorials to the victims of terrorist bombings.
But what I cannot understand is how these terror bombings could act as an impetus for expanding the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. I cannot speak for all Americans, but it appears to me that if there is anything that gives pause in offering unqualified support for them, is the Israeli policy regarding settlements.
44
@Bob Sometimes expanding settlements is due to population growth within them at other times it is in frustration at the lack of peace negotiations. Occasionally it is a reaction to terrorism.
1
This article nails it. I remember watching in horror the almost weekly attacks Israel had to endure and the way Arafat and the entire “mainstream” Palestinian leadership condoned and justified it. In that same period, terror hit home 9/11 (I don’t even like to think about that day)
So yes, I can say (politically correct or not), that the “occupation” should continue until the Kamakaze element of Palestinian society is no more, or at least if there is a political partner that can be trusted to seriously fight it. On the other hand, Israel as a democracy, has a responsibility to the Palestinians as well to let them maintain a viable, contiguous piece of land. That is where I strongly disagree with Israel allowing settlers to build houses deep within land that should really be set aside. Whatever security benefit Israel gets by dividing up the West Bank is not worth it in the long run.
14
As an American citizen I never had a problem with supporting and defending the interests of Israel with the feeling they are part of a larger American / Israeli family in many ways. However, when a 'family' member decides to morph into a theocracy after being a secular state, I sometimes ask myself what it is that I'm supporting. I also would not feel the same loyalty to my own country if it decides to become more theocratic under the guise of religious liberty.
It's truly disturbing to see the members of one's family become more intolerant, insular, and tribal. I keep hoping sanity and open-mindedness will return to the peoples of the world, but maybe that's just an exercise in wishful thinking.
17
Sounds like an interesting film, and the essay makes a number of good points, and is an indictment of the terror-based "war of liberation" concept pioneered by the PLO, and emulated by so many others (Sendero Luminoso, Tamil Tigers, Al Qaeda, ISIS, to name a few of the more prominent ones). This approach has obviously led to dead ends, accomplishing the opposite of what it intended. Nonetheless, this does not exonerate the aims of the main Israeli political parties to continually push more and more settlements into the West Bank. Now, especially, when Palestinians on the West Bank seem to have given up the PLO terror-attack agenda, is an excellent time to reengage them in peace talks. Sadly, this almost certainly won't happen. How many more years peace through repression, followed by periods of rage and bloodshed, will the Palestinians and Israelis have to endure until they BOTH are ready to accommodate the other?
20
@Lotzapappa For what it's worth, the genealogy of modern terrorism is IRA, Tamil Tigers, everyone else. The Basque terrorists are somewhere in there, near the front.
The PLO did not "pioneer" the use of terrorism for "liberation." Zionists, too, employed terrorist tactics when fighting to create Israel. Look up the bombing of the King David Hotel. No one side can claim innocence or victimhood. Both sides have their radical elements.
3
Sadly, your glib comments show you do not follow Israeli news. Rockets continue to be fired into Israel, Gazans continue to riot at the fence, terror balloons lighting fires continue to be launched into Israel burning thousands of acres of Israeli farmland and killing wildlife, and a 17 year old girl was blown up at a spring. This list does not include all the prevented terror attacks.
2
Thomas Friedman take note of this column and the many comments backing up its point. Not everyone - particularly those who actually live in Israel - take your view of Benjamin Netanyahu. Matti Friedman gives the best explanation I've ever seen as to how that can be the case.
8
@HurryHarry -- Genuine fear does not justify doing things that can only make worse the things feared.
18
It is amazing how the entire world, including the US, essentially refuses to acknowledge the existential threat the Israelis live under constantly. Israel was truly ready to give much to get peace. The Palestinian leadership recognized that peace represented an existential threat to their hegemony, and they torpedoed the process. It's mostly that simple. It is awful for both the Palestinian and Israeli people.
67
@MHW
It is amazing how the entire world, including the US, essentially refuses to acknowledge the existential threat thePalestinians live under constantly. The State of Palestine was truly ready in 2014 to give much to get peace.
The new Palestinian unity government was a serious threat to the Netanyahu & Co. agenda. Hamas was moving to accept all the pre-conditions of peace negotiations. Increased pressures for a peaceful solution to the age-old conflict would lead to a premature setting of borders. International acceptance of the Fatah-Hamas alliance infuriated Netanyahu & Co, particularly US acceptance. It was imperative that Hamas be demonized (again) and a destructive wedge be driven into Palestinian politics. So Netanyahu provoked Hamas and started the 2014 war on Gaza.
32
@Greg
That doesn't explain why there was no peace before Netanyahu.
This conflict is not about establishing a Palestinian state. If Palestinians wanted a state, they would have declared independence in 1948. Instead, they asked for union with Jordan. The conflict is that Palestinians want Israel destroyed & the Israelis don't want Israel destroyed.
4
@MHW
Existential threat? The Israelis are not taking the high road. The opposing side is throwing rocks. Compare the numbers between Palestinians and Israelis dead and wounded. Far from fair fight, but I guess might makes right.
5
Israelis want peace inside their borders. This is not an unreasonable agenda for a nation. Unfortunately, the current spate of colonizing the West Bank leads to angry neighbors.
Palestinians want peace inside their borders. Again, this is not an unreasonable agenda for a nation. Unfortunately, the suicide bombings of civilians leads to very angry neighbors.
Unfortunately for all of us, the lurch to the right has led to more appetite for violence, or at least more acceptance of it.
I blame nobody for wanting security. My real conundrum is that how you secure your security can be even more important than having that security in the first place, and this often gets lost in the rush.
45
@Jacob Sommer I think you are confusing cause and effect. The colonization followed the four "nos." The Palestianians (leadership and most of their public) have yet to manifest any serious willingness for a two-state solution. I wish you were right. But you aren't.
2
@Jacob Sommer
"...Palestinians want peace inside their borders. Again, this is not an unreasonable agenda for a nation. Unfortunately, the suicide bombings of civilians leads to very angry neighbors...."
Since 2007, there have been about 7 or 8 suicide bombings in Israel. 7 or 8 too many, without question, but a far cry from the period Friedman discusses.
During this same period, the number of colonists in illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has doubled. This expansion has come at the cost of numberless home demolitions, assaults on protestors, confinement without charge, and all the outrages attendant upon the brutal military conducting of an occupation.
So suicide bombings have all but vanished and Israel has accelerated and expanded - doubled! - its illegal adventures against Palestinians. Perhaps Mr Friedman might look elsewhere for a cogent explanation of Israeli behavior?
3
@ghosty
They didn't vanish, they were thwarted. Big difference.
While inside Israel, knife stabbings and vehicular homicide (running into and over pedestrians) have replaced the suicide bombs that Palestinians used to use.
2
I think the analysis is correct but people in Jerusalem during this phase were out-of-the-ordinary bravely resolved to conduct ordinary lives and not flee. A big sense of nothing can "dislodge me", or make me change my Israeli views. During these phases, the old city was largely vacant and spectacularly beautiful notwithstanding desperately needing tourist dollars. Walking the cobblestones mostly alone is peaceful as the history of the area is vivid and spiritual. Notwithstanding Netanyahu or others, at any given moment, conservatives and liberals exercise freedom of the press and free speech. You can get an ear full of "this or that" but not be entirely sure which Century is being discussed especially in Jerusalem. Everyone needs to visit Israel election time or not.
8
A very interesting piece, useful precisely because it largely ignores politics per se and instead focuses on the psychological framework within which politics plays out. This is a welcome addition rather than just another article reading like a dog doing you-know-what on a hydrant.
What came to mind reading this were the British "troubles." Perhaps some of you of appropriate generation across the pond would comment on this. Certainly the current angst about the Irish backstop for Brexit has the "troubles" as part of the mix.
25
The great tragedy is that those Palestinians who engaged in this violence were trying to ‘bring the war home,’ to ensure that ordinary Israelis felt the cost of the occupation. They failed miserably and the opposite has happened. The Israeli left has collapsed and the walls have gotten bigger and stronger. The Israelis live by and large in a place of denial vis a vis the occupation of the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu may have saved citizens in Israel from violent attacks, but he has pushed the reckoning forward into an untenable future. We have one de facto state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean with two populations treated unequally. From what I see most Israelis don’t seem to care: Out of sight, out of mind. But in the long run, the idea of a democratic Jewish state is dying.
132
@Ken of Sag Harbor Actually I think the article is about the fact that the Palestinians who engaged in violence did succeed in "bringing the war" home to the Israeli population.
I wouldn't conflate a drop in attacks with denial. I doubt there's much denial for parents sending their children off to the army while watching rockets fired at their homes.
4
@Ken of Sag Harbor
No, you don't have one de facto state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Gaza & the West Bank are not part of Israel & are not treated as if they're part of Israel. Did we have one de facto state when we occupied Japan & Germany after world war 2 or we occupied Iraq? Of course not!
4
@Ken of Sag Harbor
No, those Palestinians who engaged in violence made folks feel the cost. The left felt it most.
3
I am a relatively rare specimen -- a left-thinking American-Israeli citizen who tries to avoid the hatred.
Some of our "friends" call Arabs "animals". I tell them that when my wife was in the hospital, a wonderful "animal" took great care of her.
And yet -- I feel the pull of right-wing nationalism too. I will probably vote for a liberal party in this upcoming election, but the beat-your-chest, them-or-us drum beat is loud and terrifying.
I was brought up to believe that we are all human beings, we all want the same things. Hard to remember at times, but very, very important to try.
208
@David. Thanks for this comment, which needs to be said. I have never traveled to Israel, though my wife and daughter have and both were profoundly moved by the experience. Nor have I had the experience of living in a place where the prospect of serious injury or death by terror is high. So perhaps my comment is naive or irrelevant. But in reading this essay, I had the same bifurcated response, that of understanding how fear can motivate public opinion and how the desire for security can work against the desire for peace, but also to wonder how peace can ever be achieved when negotiations can be derailed by a faction of one side or the other that does not want peace. When one, two, or even a hundred suicide bombers in a population of millions can destroy peace, then the course of our futures rests in the hands of the zealots among us.
16
@David
We don't all want the same things because we were brought up differently.
‘son's death was "best day of my life," says Palestinian mother’
How can a mother who loves her son say that his death was the "best day of my life?" The explanation is that she believes that her son's becoming a martyr by dying while attacking Jews gives him instant access to Paradise & eternal happiness. People who believe as she does don't want peace. They want conflict because conflict provides an opportunity for martyrdom.
Most Americans don't want their children to be martyrs.
6
@m1945
One need only wonder why Masada is an Israeli national monument if the Jewish people dont celebrate martyrs.
4
This has to be the longest running conflict (war) in the history of mankind. Pick either side and you'll be right or you'll be wrong; there is no middle ground. Like some zombie, long after you and I are dead, this will live on.
9
@RonRich Not even close. The English and French were at war for pretty much of the entire period 1066-1815. The Irish-English war (it has no name) is nearly was nearly as long, assuming it's over. You have to wonder with all the nonsense about "the backstop." It will end, just like the English-French war of 1066-1815. Going by that, we have another 700 years to go.
9
@RonRich
No it's not the "longest running conflict (war) in the history of mankind."
The conflict between the Jewish Israelis and the Palestinians began in the early 20th century with roots in the 19th century.
The conflict between the Jews and Christians dates to the 2nd century CE. The conflict between the Muslims and Christians dates from the 8th century to the present; also the conflict between Muslims and Hindus.
The conflict between Native Americans and Europeans lasted from the 16th century into the 20th century.
The conflict between Muslims and Hindus
1
@RonRich Back to history class Ron.
2
It would be great for the NYT to do a similar article about Palestinians memories and how that shapes their actions.
I suspect there are a lot of similarities to what in this article.
Getting perspectives from both sides is what great journalism is all about.
273
Quite right! I also think that with the recent spate of mass shootings in the US, Americans are more able to understand the deep trauma of random violence. What’s interesting is that, despite their own experiences, many Israelis are unable to understand that Palestinians have their own heartbreaking stories of violence. Two traumatized peoples, steeped in victimhood, unable to reach out, to trust or to forgive. That’s what makes this conflict so intractable.
15
@Maison, You are right. Matti Friedman's column provides valuable insight and explanation that helps our understanding. But it reflects Israeli concerns and a perspective that (at least as I read it) is essentially supportive of Netanyahu's policies toward the Palestinians. Columns by Palestinian and Palestinian-American writers giving voice to their point (or points) of view are also needed.
14
@Maison I agree but as a progressive, I rarely get ANY insight into Israeli's as human beings.
3
I am 73, and remember this period very well. A few points.
1) The Intifadas don't come up in conversation in Israel more - or less - than the other wars. They are part of common knowledge. For 3 years I drove my teenage daughter everywhere, even the mall, so she wouldn't use a bus. I never knew if she was coming back in a new blouse or in a body bag.
2) The numbers (according to B' Tzelem): 84 Israelis killed in the First Intifada, 1011 in the second. A minority were military and security personnel.
3) What turned off the Left - me included - from any fantasies of a negotiated peace was not the outrages themselves, but the popular celebrations that followed them. "Successful" outrages, such as bus bombings with 20+ dead, were celebrated in Palestine streets with music, dancing, burning cardboard Israeli buses and giving away sweets, like in a wedding. We got it: Oslo was a scam.
4) The two countries we have peace treaties with - Jordan and Egypt - were and are military dictatorships, whose rulers understood that "if you can't lick'em, sign a peace treaty till you can". Peace there is top-down. Israeli tourists, businesses, performers, clients, etc. - are not welcome in those countries to this day, decades after the signings.
5) So our only hope for a marginally normal life is to withdraw unilaterally to UN-sanctioned borders (as in Lebanon or Gaza), and always make sure we have enough firepower to prevent anyone from thinking it was an act of weakness.
789
@Ury
Those who do not learn from the past are bound to repeat their mistake. Unilateral withdrawing from Gaza, gave us Hamas , with " a (daily) marginal normal life" ?. The problem is that they just do not want Israel around.
55
@UryV
What about the millions of Palestinians in Israel or Israel controlled areas? Do they have the kind of life you would want for yourself or your children? Will continuing to shrink and marginalize them with new settlements make them more compliant and easy to live with?
I am not anti- Jewish, but as an outsider, having such a large, angry, marginalized population living in your country (but not in your country) ultimately looks dangerous. They won't disappear. there are too many.
Maybe Israel needs to cultivate and encourage the most moderate, civil society leaders of the Palestinians. Bring them into government, include them. Find the Palestinian Nelson Mandela.
84
@UryV
I would add to point five the need to engage in a asymmetric campaign that slowly disintegrates Palestinians. It sort of works, but then you have all these other countries that need to over living space as well -- a hard sell.
The sadness is that ancient religions keep otherwise fruitful, accommodating people from collectively thriving. A real solution would have both parties agree to separate religion from government.
It seems like Israel is winning something but really Bibi, et. al. are just delaying evolution as specified by the enlightenment thinkers and as implemented in the American constitution. The entire world is waiting for all parties to grow up and smell reality -- ancient religions are retro-grade to advanced civilizations. Treading water awaiting final victory of some super-natural being is just never going to happen.
46
I remember calculating whether I dared take a public bus as a tourist in Israel in 2003-2004. The country was unusually devoid of American tourists in that era. Thank you for the reminder of some of the relevant history to the current position of Israelis.
237
@Working Mama Same. I didn’t take local buses, only intercity
2
I don't have any qualms with the psychology, but the explanations are a bit onesided. The Palestinians could tell a similar story. The issue is whether you have leaders with courage enough to break the cycle. Or are they just opportunists intent on continuing to exploit the cycle?
96
@Odo Klem I believe you're correct and therein lies the tragedy. These are two groups of people who have been victimized and traumatized by persecution and history. It's a tragedy that neither side has produced leaders with the wisdom, courage, and ability to break the cycle.
21
@Odo Klem
"The Palestinians could tell a similar story."
Really?
How many bus bombings, restaurants blown up and other mass murders did the Israelis inflict on the Palestinians. Sure there were individual outrages. Even the U.S. suffered individual attacks such as the Oklahoma City bombing.
But Mr. Friedman is talking about a systematic series of mass murders that were tacitly condoned and sometimes explicitly endorsed by the Palestinian authority.
23
@HH
Not suicide bombings but air force attacks on buildings in which children were killed. Yes Hamas and Fatah put the children in harm's way. And Israel puts plenty of Israelis in harm's way too. The point is that there was terrible harm. And harm leads to hatred of the immediate cause: not your side but the other side.
1
The very sad fact is that if the Palestinians had used non-violence, a la a King or Gandhi, to protest settlements tens of thousands of Israelis would have joined them and who knows what political progress would have been made. But as it is, they chose a very different route, and the result is very plain: They are infinitely worse off than they otherwise would have been. Palestinian use of terror was a catastrophic mistake, and it's actually tragic for both sides - but certainly for them.
110
@Sheldon
Agree. For despots — there is no wealth to be gained in nonviolence — so they make war and the money pours in even as violence brings more violence.
4
@Sheldon
But that's demonstrably not true - Palestinians in the last two years have been holding angry but mostly non-violent protests at the borders of Gaza and every from young males to nurses to children have been treated as potential terrorists and shot seemingly at random by snipers.
Palestinians are in a bind: non-disruptive protests will just be ignored because they're hidden behind walls, whereas the media and Israeli government will portray any disruptive protest as a terrorist threat, which (a) de-legimitses Palestinian's genuine grievances and (b) allows the IDF to shoot people. Look at BDS - it is exactly like the movements of Gandhi and King but even that is described as an existential threat to Israel.
7
@Sheldon This is not about the settlements. They would not have occurred, and would not be an obstacle now, if the Palestinians had ever been willing to recognize Israel (genuinely -- not in phony press releases in English)
8
I am struck by the parallel between living in Israel at that time and living in the US now in the era of mass shootings. Always wondering when the next will happen and whether it will be you or your children. Avoiding, or at least thinking about avoiding, public places. And the terror etiquette; is it appropriate to do anything fun the day after another slaughter? Is it politicizing a tragedy to try to do anything to stop more of them? It's not acknowledged as a war, and has no name, but more people are dying than in our country's acknowledged current wars.
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There is one gaping problem with this analogy, which is largely appropriate. Proportionality. The impact on the tiny Israeli population was orders of magnitude greater.
85
@Tim Joseph Excellent point, and furthermore we here in the US tend to tuck these memories just as quickly. Nobody talks about the shootings much at get-togethers. We don't want to think about it at all.
27
@Tim Joseph Considering the difference in sizes, imagine that we had 50,000 deaths by shootings each year in the US, or about 140 per day.
Imagine who we'd elect in those circumstances.
38
The article highlights a few very simple points--First, nothing happens in a vacum--actions breed reactions. Second, people don't vote their hopes, they vote their fears and third, neither party is without fault.
31
No Israeli should have to experience the terror attacts described in the article. It should also be said that no Palestinian should have had to experience the terror attacts on them which occurred both prior to and after the establishment of Isael in 1948. Both sides have much to account for and the rest of the world should not be forced to take sides. I see no "happy ending" for some time to come but I suggest the illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank be removed forthwith. Jerusalem should be declared either a dual capital of both peoples or an international enclave by the UN. Obviously a complete "victory" cannot be declared by either side. In any case I suggest to both sides - grow up!
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@Cristino" His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." Palestine was, at the time, a remote province in the disintegrating Ottoman Empire, with which Britain had been at war since 1914. Yet despite having no claim to the territory, the British made the declaration without consulting its 650,00 inhabitants, made up of about 92 per cent Arabs (Muslim and Christian) and 8 per cent Jews. With World War I raging, many people in Europe had other things on their minds and paid little attention to this particular bit of political manoeuvring." Roots.
4
@Please list the terror attacks on the Palestinions.To equate what happens to the Israelis on a daly basis is the height of foolishness
2
@Cristino Xirau
Jews have lived in Palestine for thousands of years. Palestinians ethnically cleansed Gaza of its Jews in 1929 and the West Bank & East Jerusalem of their Jews in 1948. Why is it illegal for Jews to rebuild their homes in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem?
2
As a resident of Jerusalem from 2001 to 2003, I remember that tense and fearful time as if it were yesterday. Waking up to sirens and thinking that there must’ve been another bus bombing. A soldier knocking on the front door to tell us that a bomb was in the restaurant next door. Attending the shiva for the brother of a murdered acquaintance. Learning of the murder of one friend (and the maiming of another) in the Frank Sinatra Center at Hebrew University. Giving the once over to every young male with a backpack. Liberal or conservative, those fearful and painful feelings never quite leave you. Probably they even change you.
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It is impossible and foolish to deny the State of Israel lives under an existential threat. It would be disingenuous, though, to claim that threat, annihilation, comes from the Palestinians. It is not the powerless Palestinians who have the power to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. Iran holds that distinction begging the question why are the Israelis comforted by a prime minister who is poking and provoking an enemy and its proxies capable of eradicating their nation?
A mideast war beginning with large scale military attacks between Israel and Iran will spiral out of control and not be contained to the region. The Palestinians are the least dangerous of Israel's many enemies. Netanyahu and his politically inspired militarism are far more dangerous and a greater threat.
26
I think this must be right and it shows what a tragic mistake the intifada was for both peoples. To think Arafat walked away from a deal with Clinton which could have changed everything.
29
@cort
To think that there was no such deal, that Israel never offered to show Arafat a map of the new Palestinian state, that such a state would have no control over its borders, airspace, water supply, and foreign relations, that Palestinians would have to give up their rights under international law...no wonder Arafat said no.
6
@cort -- There were poison pills in that deal. That was the tragic mistake.
6
This essay is one necessary part to explain the Israeli reticence to yield land. However, there is another critical part. That would be the Palestinians' objectives and how amenable they are to compromise with Israel.
Too many are uninterested in the Palestinians' objectives and instead ask themselves "What would my objectives be if I were in the Palestinians' shoes?" The Palestinians know how westerners answer that question and are all too happy to tell them what they want to hear. However, in their communications among themselves, when they don't think they're communicating to the West, they are more likely to reveal their actual objectives. Those internal discussions among the Palestinians are critical.
8
@Scott To your final point The Palestinian Media Watch https://www.palwatch.org/ does a rigorous job of translating and reporting what is written, spoken and broadcast in Arabic by political, intelectual and religious leaders. As you note this often contradicts what is written said and broadcast in English.
2
@Scott Exactly -- their "acceptance" of two states is in English -- not Arabic
1
@EDT PMW does great work, for those who are inclined to seek it out. Will any western media outlet report what PMW does, or would anyone mention any of it in a venue like the NY Times op-ed page?
1
In 2018, the number of recorded Israeli deaths due to Terrorism was 14. This includes soldiers as well as Israeli Arabs. In the months following the second intifada, it was 200 per month. The reality from my comfy chair here in the US is that Netanyahu has been PM at a time of extraordinary positive change for and in Israel. His diplomatic endeavors have brought stunning new relationships to Israel among countries in the region as well as Africa. Intel, Microsoft and almost every other major tech player invests heavily in Israel. He has been an extraordinary leader and I can't see who can truly replace him.
Different than the time of the Oslo accords, Hamas, hezbellah and Iran in Syria threaten Israel in a way that wasn't present back in the 1990s. Yet Israelis are secure. This alone speaks volumes to Netanyahu's leadership.
11
I kept thinking while reading: "Just eight?" "Just four?" "Just 10 or 12?" I know that sounds cold.
Then why in the United States doesn't mass shootings of 26 children, 36 night clubbers, etc. etc. even make the hard hearts of politicians burn?
25
@nlightning About 8.3 million people live in Israel, in America 327 million. See the difference?
1
I wholeheartedly DISagree with Mr. Friedman's premise. Those of us who were here during that dreadful period (and too many periods like it) in our short history not only have not repressed it, but DO talk about it. It's sort of like, "Where were you when JFK was shot?" or "Where were you when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon?"
I realize that most likely Friedman doesn't want, or doesn't expect, NYT readers to take the title of his op-ed literally, but, hey, titles have great power. Lest anyone think that Israelis really don't want to discuss "that one thing," well. we do, and we do it often.
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@Elisheva Lahav actually i don't think that is his main premise. The point he wants to make is that Israeli's vote security for good reason with the trauma of the 2nd intifada. I agree though maybe the lead in could have been better.
2
Worldwide sympathy and support for Israel is decreasing because of Netanyahu's repeated human rights violations and aggressive grab of land to prevent a two State solution.
The next US president and his/hers UN appointee might no longer dogmatically support Israel or veto anything critical without questions asked, and it would not upset a growing part of the American Jewish community.
65
Thank you for getting to the crux of the problem. Israelis may not a right-wing, intolerant government, but what is the choice? Sure, what now exists is a PR nightmare. But it's better than constant terror attacks.
14
@Barry Chussin -- What is the choice?
Peace. You make that with enemies, and stop killing each other.
It requires compromise. It would require compromises that are "impossible." But they are no impossible.
6
@Barry Chussin You are saying there's only one way. I disagree.
1
@Mark Thomason
In 1947, the scholars at Al-Azhar University (The highest authority in Sunni Islam.) declared holy war to return Palestine to Islamic rule.
Compromise is difficult, but it's even more difficult when religion is involved. Palestinians feel a religious obligation to destroy Israel.
1
Although Friedman makes the connection, I think many comments ignore it: this particular wave of terror was in response to peace negotiations. Those negotiations culminated in Barak peace proposal. The massive escalation in terror came instead of a counter proposal. This is what happened. Why this happened and why Palestinians (Arafat at the time) couldn't respond to the negotiations in kind really has no bearing on the Israeli election. Unfortunately, the why is the only thing that matters for an eventual peace plan. So we watch as reasonable responses to inexplicable actions lead to near total eclipse of hope. Fundamentally, Israel needs a leader capable of winning election with the message that peace is the only option, and that leader will need a partner with whom to negotiate.
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@Tinkers -- Consider what sort of peace proposal causes renewed fighting.
2
@Tinkers Unfortunately, you are wrong. It would be nice if you were right.
@Mark Thomason Consider who the other side is and how deeply their anti-Semitic hatred is? Are you aware of what is taught in some of the madras schools? That the infamous fraud "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is taught as truth? That there are financial reasons for carrying on the war, such as aid from other Arab nations? It is more complicated than you seem to think.
1
Thank you, this is very helpful in understanding more about a situation I feel I will never fully understand.
I also wonder if the US is now living through our own "time of the attacks" and how we will look back on it.
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@April best comment of the day.
If you want tomorrow to be different from today, what are you willing to do today which is different from what you did yesterday? This is the question to ponder if the cycle of violence and revenge is ever to be broken. Another way to put it: If both sides are "right", "doing God's will", then what? The core belief that all life, that all persons, regardless of politics and ethnicity, are of equal value and importance, to be loved and cherished by everyone, needs to inspire the future.
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@ES
Palestinians don't believe that all persons are of equal value and importance. Palestinians believe that they are superior to the Jews. The Palestinians say “The Jews are our dogs!” & “The Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs.”
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@m1945
Exactly the point. The non-recognition of the equal value of all human life resides on all sides of this, and any conflict What does assignment of blame accomplish?
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@m1945
Funny because Ive heard all those things from Israeli leaders. Do Christians and Muslims have the same right to immigrate to Israel as Jews? Seems like Israel doesnt consider all persons equally either.
2
I suppose if one looks at this period in a bubble, as Mr. Friedman does, and ignores what caused this terrible behavior, such a campaign speech for Netanyahu might seem justified. But ignoring the root cause of the violence is as much a case of “repressed memory” as the violence itself. And without coming to grips with the root cause, you may be able to go to a cafe in Jerusalem today, but the cost of that coffee - like the trains that suddenly ran on time when Mussolini came to power - is far too high, and ultimately unstable.
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@Jonathan Friedlander "what caused this terrible behavior"--Just imagine if the Palestinians had accepted partition in 1948. They would have a state. Yhey cose with the help of the armies of 7 Arab nations to try to destroy Israel. So that is the root cause of the problem. Mr. Netanyahu, by the way was born in 1949.
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@Jonathan Friedlander The root cause of that “terrible behavior” (blowing up children in pizza parlors) was the Palestinian leadership’s absolute and unyielding rejection of the existence of Israel in any form, with any boundary. The proximate cause of that terrible behavior during the period that has no name was Yasser Arafat’s rejection of a good faith peace deal offer by a progressive Israeli government that had the fatal flaw of requiring Arafat et al to accept the existence of Israel after decades of telling his people that the Jews would be driven into the sea. Arafat felt cornered, and instead of continuing the peace process that would inevitably require him to accept the existence of Israel, his counter offer was to launch the terrible behavior of the Intifada II.
7
@Jonathan Friedlander
What is the "root cause" that you speak of? Is it the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the Jaffa Pogrom of 1921, the War of Independence in 1948, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the withdrawal from Gaza, or the fact that many Palestinians and the entire Arab world won't accept any Jewish state with borders that allows it to protect itself? Your allusion to a root cause without any attempt to define it seriously detracts from your comment.
8
This is an interesting and well written piece, and it helped me to understand the resilience of Prime Minister Netanyahu. I had completely forgotten about the wave of bombings during the early part of this century, but this piece reminded me of that time. Fear of the past repeating itself isn't unique to Israel. German governments insist on balanced budgets, remembering the ruinous inflation under the Weimar government. Here in the United States the Democratic party leadership remembers the electoral beat downs of 1980, 1984, and 1988, so the blandest, safest candidates are put forward.
27
@Maryland Chris To compare the Jewish concerns about terrorism with that of the Germans concerns about balanced budgets trivializes the lives of the Jews.
2
This was a very good and important article. And I am sure true in its assessment of the scarring effect on the Israeli population. There are though other points which should be made. The first is that the Intifada was a response to occupation and having Palestinian land taken. It was indisputably horrific, morally and politically, in its indiscriminate targeting of civilians. The same can be said of the airline hijackings which had occurred earlier. During this period, and I encourage readers to read Wikipedia’s summary, which lists both Israeli and Palestinian civilian victims, and which states that over 1000 Israeli civilians died, and over 3000 Palestinians. The great semi documentary, the Battle of Algiers, also describes a situation in which an occupied people take up terrorism against the occupiers, including civilians. Whether this is moral is a difficult question. Was it moral for Indians to attack a wagon train, or burn the home of settlers who were taking their land? These are all situations where disproportionate power is held by one party attempting to dispossess another. I should say that I am a passionate supporter of the Palestinians and believe that no matter what happened during the Second Intifada, and in the initial dispossession of 1948, the way forward to any sort of peace is the cessation of settlement building, and the surrender of land seized by Israel in 1967. And in the meantime, everyone should support BDS, a nonviolent movement to achieve peace.
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@Wan So, the reward for not being annihilated in several wars repeatedly initiated by several surrounding countries with that distinct goal of its annihilation is being labeled as “holding power” and thus somehow morally wrong because of successful survival?
I don’t think so.
46
@Wan I totally agree. The example of native people fighting the occupier was right on.I only hate injustice
10
@Dr. Azin
No Dr. Azin, Sadly This is consquence of oppression.
Every where in the world. Never in history has an oppressed group agreed with it's oppression.
12
My husband and I moved to Jerusalem from Manhattan in October of 2001 for a year of study in our respective Rabbinic and Cantorial programs. I’ll pause while you do the math.
This column took me right back to that year, and I have not forgotten any of it. Moment Cafe was right down the block from our apartment and while we were too close to it all, there is nowhere I would have rather been. Our year in Jerusalem gave us a life changing perspective on Israelis living in Israel, with all the messy nuance involved.
27
@
What do you expect from a people who were uprooted and exiled from a land they once considered to be their own? Palestine wasn't exactly uninhabited territory prior to the establishmet of Israel in 1948. On the other hand people born in this land after 1948 also have a right to consider the land they occupy as being their own. Where is Solomon when we need him?
2
The fear and horror that these terrorist attacks engendered is palpable here and can not be ignored. It is a descent into chaos that wipes away any sense of humanity and a view of the bigger picture in the desire to punish and survive. And yes, I who sit here and write this can not understand this terror completely.
But still if those most directly involved stay in that place of fear and terror and do not rise up to find a better more compassionate way, the cycle will continue despite the draconian measures Israelis and Netanyahu have used to suppress the bombings. Is it possible to both protect yourself and acknowledge the claims and pain of others? Will Palestinians always be the feared other even though they are your neighbors?
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@just Robert As long as they keep terrorists like Abbas and Hamas in charge, how can you expect Israel to just lay down and die? The change you are looking for must start with the Palestinians. Until they show a desire to stop killing Jews, then Israel will continue to defend itself in any way possible. Which is exactly what you would do to protect your family if someone kept trying to kill you and yours.
4
@just Robert
Palestinians continue to raise their children to hate Jews so Palestinians will continue to be feared. Here’s what Palestinian kids see on Palestinian TV:
• A song in a children’s cartoon includes the lyrics, “Zionist man, run away, Zionist woman, run away, very soon you’ll be killed by a car.”
• A Palestinian singer is shown in another clip, singing the lyrics, “Oh Martyrdom-seeker, make them cry. Make the fire engulf them. Turn them into body parts, roast them.”
• A Palestinian child declaims in a speech into which he has been indoctrinated, “Oh sons of Zion, oh the most evil of creatures, oh barbaric apes.”
• In a children’s TV show, a Mickey Mouse figures asks a child, “How will you sacrifice your soul for the sake of Al-Aqsa? What will you do? The child replies, “I will shoot. We want to… We will annihilate the Jews.”
5
This speaks eloquently to the futility of violence to solve our basic human problems. Hundreds of Palestinians have also died during Israeli attacks on Gaza. All that death and both parties are no further down the road to a solution. Something gets stuck in the human psyche in the presence of the fear and anger that violence breeds. Perhaps it’s time for a more radical solution. As the Dalai Lama puts it, “Compassion is the radicalism of our time.” Focusing on what both sides have in common as human beings and feeling compassion for all stuck in this senseless cycle of violence would get things moving again. It really is the only way forward.
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@DanD Yes. The saddest part of this article is the point that Israeli opinion now focuses on vengeance. I really pray that isn't true.
1
@DanD
It's not a cycle of violence.
In a cycle of violence, the cycle continues as long as each side retaliates for the previous attack. If one side refrains from retaliation, the cycle ends.
If the Palestinians lay down their arms & don't retaliate, the cycle is over.
If the Israelis lay down their arms & don't retaliate, Israel will be destroyed & the Jews will be exterminated.
7
@m1945
If the Palestinians lay down their arms they can enjoy the same peace that Black South Africans had under white rule. Sounds great.
3
I found this article a powerful reminder of the ways in which extremism amplifies itself, as a signal passed back and forth between adversaries in an increasingly vicious cycle.
Most chillingly, the road to extreme measures appears to be lined with the fundamental human capacities of memory and abstraction, which color the present so thoroughly that alternatives become invisible. Where the past crimes of "groups" and the replacement of individuals, in our minds, with those groups becomes impossible to avoid, the present is held in checkmate.
We say to ourselves, again and again: To accept risk to myself for the sake of the Other is to show empathy; yet to ask my people to accept the same is irresponsibility.
The tragedy is that this is both A) true by consensus, and B) a guarantee of further horrors tomorrow, if not today. Where shall we go from here?
32
@Biomuse
Incredibly well said. I would only add: and even when the cycle is not actively vicious, it is viciously stuck.
Yes. As someone older than Mr. Friedman, I can attest that there were decades in which many, many Israelis hoped and worked for peace with the Palestinians. And that terrorism was an active and grotesque reality for far longer than even he writes about. The Munich Olympics were perfectly representative of the 1970's, for example.
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@LF
Israeli terror against the Palestinians goes back to the 1930s when the country was under Birtish mandate and long before the admittedly outrageous attacks of Palestinians against Israelis in Munich in the 1970s. Neither side can be excused for their mutually nasty attacks upon each other. I say, "a pox on both your houses" and don't expect me to take sides. Until you come to a mutual agreement you are both losers.
2
@LF Some Ben Gurion quotes
1/ Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.
2/ We must do everything to insure they [the Palestinians] never do return.... The old will die and the young will forget.
3/ If I was an Arab leader I would never make [peace] with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country.
4/ “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.”
5/We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return”
6/ “We must expel Arabs and take their places.”
7/“The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.”
-- David Ben-Gurion
The Zionist plan to colonize Palestine/displace the indigenous people is many decades old.
8/ “Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.”
-- David Ben-Gurion
9/ “Which are you first, a Jew or an American? A Jew.”
-- David Ben-Gurion
ome
I visited Israel in 1991 shortly after the first Gulf War and first Intifada. I traveled throughout, visiting sites and enjoying unusual kindness and hospitality wherever I went including to the ancient city of Jericho where Palestinian strangers welcomed me with food and drink even though the once lively place was deserted and everyone was still on edge. One young man gave me a sample of Dead Sea mud he wanted to bring to market as a cosmetic. I’ll never forgot his entrepreneurial fervor. But the memory, the image, that I remember most clearly from 30 years ago is that of the line out the door and around the block of customers at the “Arab Window” at the Central Post Office in Jerusalem. The non-Arab windows were virtually empty and my business was attended to and completed in a few minutes. I remember the faces, the sad eyes, of hundreds bored frustrated customers, second citizens, waiting their turn watching their fellow countrymen zip in and out. I thought of our “colored” drinking fountains and restaurant counters and I remember thinking that the situation in Israel will not resolve as long as this kind of indignity, relatively minor in comparison with the traumas inflicted by, yes, both sides, is in their past. Plenty of blame on both sides but the Israelis have the power, I remember thinking, and therefore the responsibility to fix this falls more heavily on them.
669
@Rufus Collins
No occupier has ever treated the occupied the same way that it treats its own citizens.
In 1948, Palestinians could have declared independence. Instead, they asked for union with Jordan so when Jordanians were attacking Israel it was also Palestinians attacking Israel. The IDF had to go into West Bank to silence the guns. That's how the occupation began.
Unlike other occupiers (China, Russia, Morocco, Turkey) Israel offered to end the occupation in return for a peace treaty. Israel is still waiting.
The occupation is necessary to prevent Palestinians from murdering Jews. If Palestinians were willing to live in peace with Israelis, the occupation wouldn't be necessary.
If Israel were to end the occupation of the West Bank today, Palestinians would fire rockets & mortars from the West Bank just as Palestinians fired rockets & mortars from Gaza after Israel pulled out of Gaza.
50
@Rufus Collins
Israeli Arabs have the best treatment and economic outcomes of any minority in any country and they have equal rights and better outcomes that Palestinian Arabs.
What you think you saw is not the reason for the conflict and not a reason it is ongoing.
31
@Rufus Collins I am touched by your reflections on Jerusalem. However I do want to clarify for all those who have not traveled to Israel (I am an American who lives in Israel) that, while I can't comment on whether there was an "Arab" counter at the post office in 1991, there is definitely no such counter now. If I had to guess I would assume there was a counter for citizens of Israel and a separate counter for Palestinian citizens of East Jerusalem (who hold a Jordanian and not Israeli passport), perhaps because their postal needs were different given the divided nature of the city. Meaning that that the many Arab citizens of Israel would have been served on the "non-Arab" windows. In my town's post office and every other post office I have seen in this country, all the windows are for everyone, and used by everyone. Things are not perfect here but we must be very cautious about comparisons to the segregated US South.
60
“The attacks, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, ended hopes for a negotiated peace ...”
Friedman would do well to look at the what happened to Yitzak Rabin, and how that affected the peace process.
He, and the people of Israel, would also do well to reflect on how, while the bombings from this period brought the war from distant battlefields to their home, those distant battlefields *were* someone else’s home. And if a brief period of one’s home being a battlefield has profound effects on one’s psyche, imagine the effect of being born on a battlefield and living one’s entire life in a battlefield.
I don’t begrudge Israel its desire for security. But I do beg Israelis and Palestinians both to remember each other’s humanity - and their own. And I beg each to work in good faith to figure out a way to live with each other in a way that doesn’t crush that humanity.
883
@Benjamin Hinkley
I will tell you why the "Israeli" perspective is one of constant fear of terrorism and constant reminders of the security risks because of the Palestinians - it is because of Netanyahu's blatant politicizing of the threats by claiming that he alone can save Israelis.
Friedman has proven that in this essay when he explains why Netanyahu continues to win elections. Israelis are blinded by the security he promises and his constant reminders of the dangers of the "other" and yet it is driven by Netanyahu's political and personal ambition not security of Israel. He has no goal of peace or resolution of the conflict - why would he? that would render him unnecessary in Israel's politics.
Another leader - in fact every other leader in cities such as Paris, Rome, NYC, Moscow where terrorists have attacked - strives to ensure their citizens do not fear the "other" - rather, their intent is to seek resolution.
Netanyahu has done the opposite. And what is disgusting is that his is purely a personal power move for political purposes to maintain control.
72
@Benjamin Hinkley
Palestine was the name given by the Jews for their homeland. The word Palestinian is obviously not Arabic. It was created as a gimmick to lay complete claim to that land. The British divided the land at that time, not the Jews. Palestinians enjoy more rights in Israel’s democracy than under their own government. Israel has handed out the olive branch on several occasions. The Palestinians have not. They don’t peace. As their charter says, they want the destruction of Israel and its people. Facts that are relevant.
41
@Benjamin Hinkley
It is also important to put these tragedies into perspective,
In the second intifada, 1000 Israeli and 3000 Arabes were killed, so it's 3:1
In the first intifada's, first 13 months, the score was 27:1, but after two years, 7:1 , (1162 : 160)
In my observation, if the quotient goes below 10:1, we have a war. Now it's round 100:1 , an unusually peaceful time.....
19
I'm sure the responses will not be in agreement but as I read this I think about the US reaction to Sept 11. Did the last 18 years of US policy make America safer? Was invading Afghanistan and Iraq, waging drone/proxy wars in N Africa a route to creating a safer nation? What about domestically - the values of the nation? Were they altered in a way that lessened what the country stands for? Is it acceptable to say "Because of our fears, even when they have some basis, we're going to embark upon aggressive, combative, carceral, at times murderous programs in our desire to keep ourselves safe?" I'm not sure that the destruction we create at home, as well as what we do to others across the oceans has as much value as we might think. It behooves a democracy to think about these things and do what's right, not just expedient.
318
@jimmboy The comparison to 9/11 is not valid. We were attacked by people who infiltrated the US from the other side of the world and our wars were also fought thousands of miles away.
It was also a one-time tragedy.
The suicide bombers in Israel lived a few miles away and the fear was constant.
Imagine, if you will, that Ontario-based insurgents were blowing up buses and restaurants in Detroit and Buffalo for several years running and celebrating in the streets afterwards.
The US would likely have a similar reaction.
17
@jimmboy Thank you, this so important to point out. We Americans went down the wrong path in our reaction to 9/11, and are so much worse off for it.
4
@jimmboy "Did the last 18 years of US policy make America safer?"
What an absurd question.
1
We went through the same thing in Spain in the mid 70s, what with Franco dying, the ETA bombing left and right, people getting blown up all the time... many of us, who participated actively in the protests against the police and the dictatorship do remember having one aspect of the future very clear: no matter what, democracy is worth the risk of getting blown up.
I had never read the famous phrase about the people who are ready to give up liberty for the pursuit of safety not meriting either, but it certainly applied to us.
I am not Israeli (obviously) but it is sad to see so many people put up with a substandard government full of corrupt politicians only because they want to feel "safe".
We didn't in Spain and it worked well for us.
295
@MSA
This subject was on my mind today because my daughter "interviewed" me about 9/11 for school. One of her questions was, "How did 9/11 affect your sense of patriotism?"
What I said was, it made me realize that patriotism was about fighting for your national principles—democracy, equality, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, due process, justice, honest and transparent government—not a feeling you get when you see a flag or a uniform. And that too many of those principles got sacrificed after 9/11 so that we could feel safe.
I appreciate your comment, and I am glad you are here.
73
@MSA: while analogies can be a powerful rhetorical device, they are often a fraught instrument for logical reasoning. I still lived in my home country of France in those days and allow me to say that you are trying to compare apples and oranges.
17
@MSA
They didn't in Israel for the forty or more years prior to Intifada 2 and it let the terrorists cause increasingly more terror.
But glad yours worked out.
8
I lived in Israel in the early 90s. I remember all this viscerally. The parallels are uncanny to our sense of fear today, in the US, regarding mass shootings. We can respond with anger and nonsensical walls that do nothing to address the root causes of these acts of madness, or we can tackle these problems with strong gun laws, community outreach and red flag interventions. We are on a precipice.
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@Rill
The curious difference is that in the U.S. the enemy is our selves--men who act out their darkest fantasies on school children, concert goers, and mall patrons, with military style weapons. Our self-inflicted carnage is unique in the Western hemisphere.
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@Rill False equivalence.
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Israel has either been at war or threatened with war since its very inception. What is herein termed "memory repression" a quasi-psychiatric term indicating a failing of sorts of the Israeli State Conciousness is in actuality a great strength of a remarkable people. When the civilian population under such constant threat is able to not be cowed by constant terrorism, live their lives unafraid, and to flourish in such an environment is quite the opposite of a failing, it is rather a model. I was there some years ago seeing the young guys and girls in the military with machine guns at almost every juncture, side by side with little children and their parents going about their lives as if it were central park on a weekend in spite of routine bus and train bombings. Not having to replay the past as if it were a PTSD nightmare is a blessing, not a repression.
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@NYer In the six months before Israel was a State, Zionist militias uprooted 400,000 Palestinians, destroyed 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods including Jaffa and Haifa. Last month Israeli forces destroyed 70 Palestinian homes in one day. What is really being repressed here?
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@Cran
I sincerely hope that the truth about Hamas and Hezbollah, both terrorist organisations perpetually at war with Israel is not surpressed in favor of a false narrative of Israeli aggression. What would we do if those illegal immigrants via Mexico fired rockets at us and enabled suicide bombers over our border instead of simply peacefully seeking security?
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I remember, when our daughter was doing a semester abroad in Jerusalem in 1996, the several nighttime phone calls we received, when she wanted to reassure us that she was OK even though another bomb had just blown up not far from where she lived. So I understand what the writer is talking about. Add to that the totally unrewarding pullouts from Lebanon (followed by a rise of Hezbollah) and Gaza (followed by a rise of Hamas) and I understand how a nation dedicated to decent principles has shifted so much to the Right, much to the disappointment of many of my fellow Democrats, who have been living safely in our wonderful country.
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@Claude Vidal
You claim Israel pulled out of Gaza and Hamas arose afterward. No, Israel pulled out BECAUSE of Hamas's terrorism. The Palestinians were negotiating constantly and getting nowhere. Finally, Hamas took over the "negotiations" and Israel decided it just wasn't worth the blood and treasure and pulled out.
I point this out, not to condone terrorism, but to show that to learn from history, we must get the history right. The Israelis are not the only ones who can get fed up. Wouldn't it be better to negotiate in good faith with the West Bank Palestinians rather than have them decide that Hamas are the only ones that can get results?
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My parents lived In Jerusalem at the time. My mom would phone me after each terror attack to let me know they were safe. How ironic it was then that I had to phone them right after the Sept 11 tragedy to tell them that I and my husband were OK. Both of us steps from ground zero at work that day.
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@Thucydides
"The Palestinians were negotiating constantly and getting nowhere. Finally, Hamas took over the "negotiations" and Israel decided it just wasn't worth the blood and treasure and pulled out."
Thanks for reminding us. There was a process, however imperfect and bedraggled, and it was moving forward. There was also the full measure of sarcasm and duplicity now openly on display at the highest levels of the Super-Duper Hard Right Proto-Fascist Netanyahu government.
Then too, mad, partisan Israeli violence (I believe the only time in Israeli history, in fact) that led them to kill their own leader in the midst of promising negotiations (Trump reports he saw thousands dancing in the settlements that late night).
So long as Israelis, officially, do exactly what Matti claims they do not, talk on and on and on about what they have been made to suffer for no imaginable reason and, yes, Palestinians do the same, there is no hope for peace.
Which, it increasingly appears, is exactly what Netanyahu and the Israeli electorate want: just enough violence to keep the land grab going, the sense of fearful crisis growing, and American funding flowing.
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What a brilliant and chilling reminder of what's at stake for the Israeli people. Never again means Never again. At the same time, the demographics of the region work against perpetual occupation of Palestinian lands. The exit ramp requires something that is missing in the Middle East and, alas, increasingly in the Western World: compassion and the ability to take the perspective of the "Other".
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@Down62 Never again mean never again. Unless the genocide is against the Palestinian people?
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@Down62
"Never again means Never again." But Never again must also mean, Never again will will do to others what was done to us. In their determination never to be abused again in the way that they were abused, the abused can oh so easily become the abuser.
The Palestinians are not the Nazis. They do not have the power of Israelis that the Third Reich had over its minority population of Jews. Oppression and injustice shift shape, while humans go on desperately and fearfully repeating the mottos that arose from the previous conflict but do not fit this one.
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@Asif No, Asif. Read the rest of my comment. It means both sides!
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This is a crucial essay which highlights the origin of many policies such as the separation fence/wall that Israel erected and is now routinely criticized for without understanding that it is only a relatively recent response to the targeted slaughter of its civilian population by Palestinian terrorists starting in 2002. States will always choose security first, it is the most essential human need and the end of walls will only happen when peace is achieved. It took decades for the Berlin Wall to come down, for peace in Northern Ireland, and it may be even longer in this part of the world.
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@michaelf
Of course, the Berlin Wall had the rare feature of being for the expressed purpose of keeping people IN, not OUT. Hard to remember sometimes how upside-down the Cold War era was.
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@michaelf and @Ben,
And here in post-9/11 USA our terrorists come from the same side of the wall as their targets.
I think 2019 is the upside-down time.
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