Since World War II, Israel has relied on its firepower to stay alive.
I know all the historic arguments about Israel and Palestine. By World War II, they were colonial lands, ruled by European powers, and occupied by both Jews and Muslims. Both have rights to exist, live and flourish, and it’s existential for both.
I also understand where Israel’s reliance on arms comes from. Before Hitler, Jews thought of themselves as proud Germans, participated in every aspect of German society, producing musicians like Mendelsohn, and scientists like Einstein, among others in many fields. They fought for Germany in World War I. Germany expressed its appreciation in the Holocaust.
One of my own friends survived by being passed by his Jewish mother to a woman in an organization dedicated to rescuing the children. He was brought to America, adopted and has had a distinguished career and fine family. He eventually found cousins, who told him his mother survived the Holocaust but had died, living not one hundred miles away with her sister in New Jersey, bitter, without ever knowing her son was alive.
In an existential battle, it’s hard to imagine survival without arms. Jews didn’t have enough friends to save them from the Holocaust. Like Lincoln, who took no steps to free the slaves until it would advance the war effort, Roosevelt refused to admit Jewish refugees with war raging, but Truman led the world in recognizing Israel, and American support became indispensable to Israel’s survival.
Israel, however, could not absorb the change in its situation and the need to maintain friendships in America and Europe. I write about Israel in tears but I don’t know what to do if they can’t wake up. American Jews have embraced the rights of “minorities” and people of color. I have many Muslim friends who enthusiastically show up to defend the rights of their Jewish fellow Americans, though I don’t expect their support for the eviction of Palestinians. I myself have lived in a Muslim country and know wonderful people there like everywhere else. I do not hold them responsible for the misbehavior of the theocracies and autocracies that rule them. But Israel’s survival depends on living within rules everyone can live with.
After the way Germany turned on its loyal Jews, I understand their unwillingness to rely on anything but force. But it can’t work. Neither force nor diplomacy is sufficient. Without armies and police, the vicious will do their damage. With only armies and police, the world becomes a continuous battle-place and killing field.
Instead of reducing the conflict, Israel’s been supporting so-called “settlers” who take lands occupied by Palestinians and turn everything into armed battles. That deepens the conflict. They’ve made little effort at integration, only ever-increasing restrictions. Why wouldn’t Palestinians fight back?
But in the world they’ve created, arms will not be sufficient.
The World Court won’t solve anything. The UN is a different institution but I don’t ever remember a UN vote in favor of Israel on any issue and don’t expect one – there are too many Muslim states in the UN and they’ll support the Palestinians. Genocide, however, goes well beyond ethnic cleansing. Both sides are seeking to “cleanse” the other from land they claim as theirs – Hamas’ stated goal is elimination of Israel and Israel acts like pushing Palestinians out of Judea and Samaria would solve its problems. So both are guilty of the same thing. If neither side is willing to admit legitimacy to the other’s claims, it will be a fight to the finish with millions of people yet to be slaughtered.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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