You know that definition of insanity which is sometimes ascribed to Einstein: doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome? Something Ryan Bellerose posted prompted the following two tweets from me:
Arabs are fighting against an occupation. Except Jews are indigenous, not colonial occupiers so their tactics won’t work. Their single goal is to make the cost of occupation outweigh the benefit. These tactics have worked many times over: against the Russians and the Americans in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and against the British Empire all over the world.
We Jews did this to the British in 1948. After thousands of years we regained sovereignty over our lands and earned the right to defend our ancient nation, culture and identity as a modern nation amongst the other nations. The British ran because they aren’t indigenous. In the end they had no strong attachment to this place.
After Israel’s declaration of Independence, the wars against Israel waged by the Arabs were classic wars of imperial conquest: tanks and professional armies rolling across borders to destroy and conquer. We haven’t really faced one of those since the Yom Kippur war of 1973. What we’ve faced are terror attacks and external delegitimisation.
But one of my Facebook friends who, let’s just say sees things in Israel from a different side, wrote this:
Newsflash, the Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the Jews, like it or not. And they will get them. Like it or not. The only question is when and at what price. Because they aren’t going anywhere either.
And I thought immediately no. They are not entitled: worse, they’ve done everything possible to de-entitle themselves with their uncompromising violence and hatred. There is no political equality here for a number of reasons. I’m not talking about human equality, but about the equality of political goals. I’m not going to dehumanise Arabs, of course not, but I’m going to strongly criticise them politically.
Zionism is the establishment of a Jewish home in the indigenous lands of the Jews. It is an indigenous return. On the other side we face an Islamic Jihadi desire to re-conquer and re-impose Islamic rule over the people and land they previously conquered. You can’t tell me that the strict requirement NO Jews live in areas controlled by Arabs isn’t their political goal. It is what they’re most proud of!
What my Israeli friend’s statement shows is just how dumb we Jews were to ever call this an “occupation”. This is the return to Jewish control of Jewish lands that Jews died to regain in a defensive battle. We immediately internalised the other side’s lying language of colonial conquest and applied it to ourselves! On land that is most definitely the birthplace of our entire civilisation and which so many of us feel deeply about.
Israeli society is rejecting this false language because deep down Jews who’ve returned know we’re home. The left has shrunk again and again: the last remnants who believe the land for peace lie are shrinking. That line on a map drawn with a green crayon is going away. #EndOfTheGreenLine
