The Israel Palestine conflict might seem like a million miles away from many of our lives, but let it serve as a reminder of just how fragile & wavering concepts like civil liberties, fundamental rights or even human compassion & morality can be when one's land or safety is threatened. It is very easy to pass judgement on Israel for the current atrocities and one would be quite correct to do so. Israel is militarily far superior to Palestine and their current offensive is a cruel & obscene display of precisely this. Having said that, we must also recognize that this action is not just arbitrary. There are reasons for it, however immoral or ill conceived they may be. And frankly, to my mind, behind all the bullets, rockets and blood is simple, cold blooded, human nature.
The big bully controls the big playground with advanced weapons and has no intention of conceding even an inch to the small kids nearby who have them surrounded. At the same time, some of the small kids are hell bent on getting back a piece of the big old playground which they view as their birthright, even though they have only sticks to fight with. There are going to be fights from time to time. There is just no getting around this fact.
Interestingly, the bully wasn't always a bully. In fact, Jews were persecuted internationally for many years which is why the Zionist movement in the late 1800s had so much appeal and gathered so much traction. Starting with the signing of the Balfour declaration in 1917 and ultimately leading up to the events of 1948 in which the state of Israel was acknowledged as an independent state, the Jews finally had what they wanted, a land of their own, and they were going to defend it at all costs. Meanwhile the Palestinians viewed the Zionist movement as an unfriendly occupation. The opinion on this varies, but to me it seems reasonable to suppose that many of the early Jewish settlements were established by force. There would surely have been violence & bloodshed and many Palestinian communities would have been displaced. However, not much attention is paid nowadays to the details of how the occupation took place. The terrible deeds of Adolf Hitler built up even more sympathy for the Jewish people at the international level and eventually, with the help of the Western powers that controlled the region, they got their state - a piece of land carved out from what used to be Palestine. Then in 1948, Britain was up and away and Israel & Palestine have been fighting ever since. In an added humiliation to the Palestinians, immediately after the Western powers evacuated, a few of the neighbouring Arab states marched forward under the auspices of providing military support to Palestine and instead, took control of some parts of the already diminished state, which they have held onto ever since. So effectively, an international arbiter carved out a portion of their land and gave it away, and from what little was left, their "friendly" neighbours stole some more away. One can't help but feel sympathetic to their cause.
I have thought about this long & hard, and have come to the conclusion that there is no absolute right or wrong in this matter. Israel is right in defending themselves. Palestine is right to want the land that was taken away from them. If someone can objectively argue against this, I would want to hear it. As far as the current Israeli offensive goes however, it certainly does not appear to be warranted and that is just my opinion, based on my limited knowledge of the situation and whatever I read in the media. I hope it stops as early as possible. But I also believe that when the current attack stops and a peace is called for, there would be an entire new generation of families that have lost sons & daughters, on both sides. And this will only serve to perpetuate the hostility and resentment within the hearts of the people. In short, the conflict will go on. Until the time when somebody can come up with a way to resolve the root cause of the conflict.
But all this thinking has made me sensitive to the fact that India's very own international borders are not some divine lines drawn by a supreme creator. They exist because thousands of men with guns are guarding them, and an army with sophisticated weapons is backing them up. Our freedom is not a birthright. It was won with blood. I feel sorry for all the innocent lives being lost in Gaza and elsewhere, but at the same time I can't help but feel a profound sense of respect and appreciation for the freedom fighters that fought & won us our freedom, the India military and all of its brave soldiers that continue to fight for and defend that freedom, and for all the politically machinery that makes this possible.
The big bully controls the big playground with advanced weapons and has no intention of conceding even an inch to the small kids nearby who have them surrounded. At the same time, some of the small kids are hell bent on getting back a piece of the big old playground which they view as their birthright, even though they have only sticks to fight with. There are going to be fights from time to time. There is just no getting around this fact.
Interestingly, the bully wasn't always a bully. In fact, Jews were persecuted internationally for many years which is why the Zionist movement in the late 1800s had so much appeal and gathered so much traction. Starting with the signing of the Balfour declaration in 1917 and ultimately leading up to the events of 1948 in which the state of Israel was acknowledged as an independent state, the Jews finally had what they wanted, a land of their own, and they were going to defend it at all costs. Meanwhile the Palestinians viewed the Zionist movement as an unfriendly occupation. The opinion on this varies, but to me it seems reasonable to suppose that many of the early Jewish settlements were established by force. There would surely have been violence & bloodshed and many Palestinian communities would have been displaced. However, not much attention is paid nowadays to the details of how the occupation took place. The terrible deeds of Adolf Hitler built up even more sympathy for the Jewish people at the international level and eventually, with the help of the Western powers that controlled the region, they got their state - a piece of land carved out from what used to be Palestine. Then in 1948, Britain was up and away and Israel & Palestine have been fighting ever since. In an added humiliation to the Palestinians, immediately after the Western powers evacuated, a few of the neighbouring Arab states marched forward under the auspices of providing military support to Palestine and instead, took control of some parts of the already diminished state, which they have held onto ever since. So effectively, an international arbiter carved out a portion of their land and gave it away, and from what little was left, their "friendly" neighbours stole some more away. One can't help but feel sympathetic to their cause.
I have thought about this long & hard, and have come to the conclusion that there is no absolute right or wrong in this matter. Israel is right in defending themselves. Palestine is right to want the land that was taken away from them. If someone can objectively argue against this, I would want to hear it. As far as the current Israeli offensive goes however, it certainly does not appear to be warranted and that is just my opinion, based on my limited knowledge of the situation and whatever I read in the media. I hope it stops as early as possible. But I also believe that when the current attack stops and a peace is called for, there would be an entire new generation of families that have lost sons & daughters, on both sides. And this will only serve to perpetuate the hostility and resentment within the hearts of the people. In short, the conflict will go on. Until the time when somebody can come up with a way to resolve the root cause of the conflict.
But all this thinking has made me sensitive to the fact that India's very own international borders are not some divine lines drawn by a supreme creator. They exist because thousands of men with guns are guarding them, and an army with sophisticated weapons is backing them up. Our freedom is not a birthright. It was won with blood. I feel sorry for all the innocent lives being lost in Gaza and elsewhere, but at the same time I can't help but feel a profound sense of respect and appreciation for the freedom fighters that fought & won us our freedom, the India military and all of its brave soldiers that continue to fight for and defend that freedom, and for all the politically machinery that makes this possible.
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