by Tim Larribau
Hat tip to Danilette for pointing out this article:
As
I’m writing this article, I already hear the outburst of
criticism, insults, objections and gestures of despise, and maybe
even hatred, that such a statement will bring upon me. But inspite of
all the anger and objections that I’m about to generate,
I’m indeed going to make a clear statement and explain why. I’m Pro
Israel.
To prevent accusations of partiality, let me say that I’m not a Jew.
There are, indeed, in
my mother’s lineage some traces of Jewishness but
certainly not enough for me to be considered, or to feel, Jewish. I
don’t work in finance or show businesses and therefore I have no career
or financial interest in making this statement and for
conspiracy theorists, I open too much my mouth to be a secret agent
of Mossad. I don’t even have any jewish friends. I do know one or two, I
do have been around one or two others but I have no
personal, romantic or friendly relations that would influence my
statement. I’m not a fan of French Jewish show-biz stars Patrick Bruel,
Enrico Macias, Shirel, Elie Semoun, or Arthur even if I
like Gad Elmaleh. I
hate French philosopher and media star Bernard-Henri Levy, his haircut,
his shirts and the fact that he poses on Libyan
tanks wrecks in fashion costumes. As for French Foreign Affairs
Minister Laurent Fabius and for former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Khan,
both Jewish by birth, it wouldn’t be suitable to write
here the contempt I hold against them. The only contemporary Jewish
individual for whom I do have a full measure of admiration is Israeli
Air Force Colonel Giora Epstein, a physically and
technically exceptional soldier and the best fighter pilot and ace
of the jet age with 17 air kills over enemy aircraft. In brief, I do not
preach for my parish, I do not defend my blood, I do
not favour friends and I’m not soothing the feathers of my crooked
nose banker.
The partiality
that I must confess, though, is that I’m a Christian believer who reads
the Bible
and who is very sensitive to the Jewish people, their history, their
role and significance in the biblical message. These subjective
elements established, I feel free to make my statement without
having to constantly battle off usual prejudice.
A proud, free and independent people
The Jews
are nowadays maybe the oldest non-primitive people in history. Where
all other peoples from Antiquity have been drowned in multiple
conquests and assimilations, the Jews can be dated back to the gates of
prehistoric times. Since their very beginnings, first as the
twelve founding brothers of the twelve tribes of Israel, they were
fiercely independent and free. Of course, you will object that they were
slaves in Egypt! But their freedom from slavery was the
first great abolitionist struggle in history and almost sent mighty
Egypt to its knees. Non-historic biblical myths, will you protest!
Please remember the only partiality that I confess. The
Bible is THE book, THE Word of God. If you want to convince me that
I’m wrong, go convince Hitler to love the Jews, it’ll be easier. And
even if you consider this story only as a myth, it is
still a founding legend of the Jewish Nation, which enlightens its
commitment to freedom and independence.
After
becoming a
sovereign state, they never were a great empire and never even
wished to be. They are one of the few peoples in history who stuck to
their few acres of land. After the initial conquest of Canaan,
God’s promised land, they never pursued any imperialist desire
towards their neighbours, inspite of unending wars with them. The only
nation that was entirely conquered and destroyed by Israel
was Amalek. The Amalekites were such a threat to the very survival
of Israel that God ordered their annihilation. God's order shows that it
was not to be an economic conquest but a fight for
survival as no spoil should be gained. Amalek was to be destroyed
entirely, including their belongings and livestock. King Saul's
disobedience to this order would lead to his downfall under God’s
wrath. Religious nonsense, will you claim again? At the very least,
it’s another founding legend of the Jewish people’s mentality as it is
written it the Torah.
It is wrong
to presume they had to conquer and destroy all the inhabitants of Canaan
in order to settle
them. Foreigners who wished to live among the Jewish people were
openly accepted. Israel is one the first nation to adopt a legal status
for foreigners among itself, as recorded in the Torah.
Israel’s history also includes foreigners, perfectly assimilated and
even decisive in Israel’s fate. Ruth the Moabite is not a Jew but still
becomes King David’s great –grandmother and King David
himself will entrust foreigners with important missions such as
Hushai the Archite, sent to spy on his son Absalom’s rebellion or even
Uriah the Hittite who, before being trapped by David to
steal his wife, is one of his army officers. David’s crime on Uriah
will even be met by a dramatic answer, in his own flesh, that will show
him he is not above the Law, in a time where arbitrary
absolutism is commonplace.
Surprisingly,
the stories of the Kings and Chronicles of Israel show a very particular
and premature form of
separation of powers. The Law, promulgated by God, is enforced upon
all, including the King himself who cannot evade it without being
recalled to his duties by God’s Prophets, acting like a
judiciary power, opposing royal policies and imposing measures to
the governments of Israel and Judah after the secession. The absence of
royal absolutism is obvious when Queen Jezebel, a
Sidonian princess who is not used to opposition, simply cannot
understand why her husband King Ahab is powerless when the common
citizen Naboth refuses to sell him his vineyard.
At
the crossroads of most mighty
empires of Antiquity, the two Jewish kingdoms of Israel and Judah
will always resist the great Powers, always trying by any means to
preserve their independence or to restore it when lost. This
unyielding will of freedom will bring about them unending wars
against their neighbours' imperialism and many times in history, it will
result in blood, ashes, deportations and complete
destructions of their cities and capitals.
Even
the word
submission sounds strange in this case because, usually there was
nothing left to submit, the material, social and economic destruction
being thoroughly total. The Assyrian and Babylonian Kings
would have to besiege and conquer Jerusalem several times, deporting
the leading Jewish class and set puppet governments, only to see these
also turn against them to restore independence.
Nebuchadnezzar II will completely destroy Jerusalem and will deport
most of the Jewish people to Mesopotamia, reason why there were large
Jewish communities in Iraq and Iran up to the middle of
the 2Oth century. The
Romans will go even further in 70 AD and 135 AD by destroying Jerusalem
almost stone by stone, slaughtering in large
numbers and deporting the remnants of the people that came back from
Mesopotamia to create a new, if not independent at least autonomous,
government. The Romans will even rename Jerusalem to
Aelia Capitolina to show the Jews nothing was left of their land,
traditions and heritage.
But,
inspite of everything and while the
Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Muslim and
Ottoman empires have disappeared, the Jewish people still exists and are
still faithful to their land, traditions, language and
heritage. This spirit of resistance to imperialism and
totalitarianism, although powerful compared to Jewish weakness, has
brought them through centuries and has let them bury all their enemies.
Add to this list the European empires that segregated and expelled
them, Czarist Russia that invented the word “pogrom”, the French 3rdRepublic that roared against Jewish traitors during the Dreyfus Case, the 3rdReich
that enacted their extermination and the
USSR that secretly continued czarist persecutions. During almost 19
centuries, while trying as best they could to survive within their many
adoptive countries (that can almost be called
“concentration countries” in the Nazi way for some), they never
ceased repeating at each Passover: “Next year in Jerusalem”, indomitable
and fierce in their will to go home and retrieve their
nation. Which people can claim the same? The Assyrians have gone and
Babylon is no more than an open sky museum. The Persians have gone and
Persepolis with them. The Romans themselves left Rome
for Ravenna. The Byzantines have melted with the Turks and have
forgotten Constantinople. The Gauls no longer exist and we’re not even
sure where Alesia actually was.
Their
surprising capability to
resist adversity is all the more confirmed by the four wars in forty
years since the State of Israel was created in 1947. With no army, no
equipment, no trained soldiers and no reserves, crushed
by a blockade on weapons and heavily outnumbered, they changed the
course of events and saved their brand new nation with feats of arms for
which the word glorious is almost weak. In 1956, 1967
and 1973 no matter who and what they were facing, they prevailed,
fighting even further than reason can accept. It is often said, in
warfare, that victory belongs to those who want it the most
and each time, the Jews proved their exceptional will and a courage
to move mountains.
You can hate
them because they are foreigners in your country, because they kept
their culture, their
traditions, their faith. You can despise them because they did not
completely become you. You may want to erase them because you think they
are low class race of parasites. Or you can hate them
for their resilient independence and their “chosen people” arrogance
that they have learned to hide. Whatever the kind of hatred they
encountered, they made through time with their history, their
traditions, their language, their faith with stubbornness and
courage. What an amazing paradox that Hitler, who praised the idea of a
pure people, rooted in history, a superior race that can
survive and triumph over any ordeal, assaulted the very people that
embodies this idea!
A modern nation’s economic miracle
Without
getting in the jungle of statistics and charts, there is one fact on
which
historians and economists agree. Only two countries in the last
fifty achieved distinction of becoming developed nations, starting from
nothing: South Korea and Israel. Without natural or
resources, starting from an under-developed region of the Ottoman
Empire whose economy was based on livestock, fishing and craftsmanship,
Israel is now a leading country in high-tech and network
industries, high level medical and surgical research and industrial
agriculture, having successfully cultivated fertile ground in the
desert, a feat unique in history. Israel's standard of living
is equivalent to western nations, with a similar life expectancy.
The education system is excellent and Israeli universities producer
internationally recognized engineers, scientists and
intellectuals.
This
development, of course, is made in spite of and under the constant
threat of neighbour countries that only very slowly recognize Israel
while major regional powers refuse to do so. The country is
surrounded by radical Islamic terrorist groups, Hezbollah in
Lebanon, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank,
Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Salafist groups linked to Al Qaeda in
the Sinai Desert.
Under constant
conventional as well as terrorist threat, Israeli society and economy
are models. Israel is a free, democratic country, based on the
rule of law, protecting freedom of speech and of press. One should
only consider a former president jailed for rape and sexual abuse or the
way Israeli press harassed Armed Forces officials
during the 2006 campaign in Lebanon.
Democratic freedom of
choice works very well, as the three major parties of the left, center
and right wings have held in office, sometimes in
coalitions that do not freeze the institutions and the electoral
process is proven, working without major flaws and with integrity levels
equivalent to western countries.
As of citizenship,
Israel is role model for successful integration. Even if Judaism and
Jewish immigration are essential factors, they are not
exclusive. Becoming a Israeli citizen is open and easy, as Christian
and Muslim Israelis from various ethnic backgrounds can witness, even
forming elite units of the Israeli Armed Forces such as
the Druze Herev Battalion or the Desert Reconnaissance Bedouins
Battalion to whom surveillance of the delicate southern border is
entrusted. Integration of Jews from around the world is also a
marvel of openness of society, each community contributing its
difference to the wider Israeli community. The variety of languages,
origins and cultures inside the Israeli society makes it one of
the largest and most successful melting pots in history. Charges of
Apartheid, commonly brought against Israel, do not stand for a single
second when facing facts. A policy of defiance and
defence towards the Arab populations which refuse assimilation is indeed implemented but those who wish assimilation are welcome without any
discrimination
or segregation. 
The Knesset, Israel's Parliament, even has Arab members who are fully
free to speak, even when it sometimes oppose Israeli interests.
One remarkable feat that
must be emphasized, as a mark of Israeli society vitality, is the
rehabilitation and resurrection, as a living and official
language, of Hebrew which was considered and spoken as a religious
idiom. Another amazing evidence of the resilience of this people and its
indomitable identity!
One can only note the
historical and traditional principles of Israeli society -equality
before law, rejection of tyranny, separation of powers, the
welcoming and assimilation of foreigners -still permeate modern life
and institutions in Israel. The more one thinks, the more one realizes
that our western political model of individual freedom
and responsibility of the citizen in a tolerant and open democratic
rule of law is clearly influenced by the traditional Israeli model and
not limited to the ancient Greek or Christianity.
Israel’s existence today and the natural way it implements these
principles inspite of centuries of exile and diverse political
influences is a particular evidence of the universality and
permanence of these values when they are not twisted or forsaken.
What about Palestinians?
In this fine
portrait of Jews and Israel, my opponents are already loading their
arguments that can be
summed up in one sentence: Palestinians’ fate is the only necessary
evidence that everything I say is wrong. But here’s my answer.
The word
“Palestine” was created by the Roman invaders after having destroyed
what was then Judea and Jerusalem, deported its population and forbade
them by law to return. To destroy every residual Jewish
resistance to Roman domination, the method chosen was to morally
rape them and to permanently redefine everything including the land. By
romanizing it, latinizing the names, by encouraging
immigration coming from the Desert nomadic peoples, the Romans hoped
to finally cut every roots of the Jewish dream of sovereignty and
independence in their homeland. But history shows the Jews
have always tried to come back. During the Muslim and Crusader
invasions, the Jews were there though a minority. During the Muslim era,
Jerusalem and the old Judea now called Palestine were only
a region of various Muslim empires. By the way, the region does not
attract much interest and does not see an important cultural or economic
development. Aside from the sacred significance of
Jerusalem in Islam, even if the Quranic verses that seem to
designate Jerusalem must be considered with caution, this land is only a
Muslim conquest that is now considered part of the Muslim
community as all conquered lands. The idea of an Arab nation and
identity was born during the Ottoman domination and is not as much
linked to the land as to ethical considerations. Arabs briefly
dream of a large Arab nation including Egypt, Palestine, Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria. When the British conquer Palestine in 1917, there was
nothing as a claim of a Palestinian Arab State and there
would not be any before 1970. What the Palestine Arabs want is not a
Palestinian State but the integration of Palestine in the large Arab
kingdom led by the Hashemite dynasty. It is therefore
only natural to reject the 1947 Partition Plan since the only state
they feel loyal to already exists east of the Jordan River.
The
Palestinians’ commitment to this land has no common measure with that of
the Jews. The
only time in history the Jews had a country, a state, a code of laws
and a government was on this land. They wished no other and still do.
Their only political and spiritual capital has always
been Jerusalem. For the Arabs and Turks, it was only an under
developed region inside a wider Muslim empire in constant expansion
whose capital was either in Baghdad, Damascus or Constantinople
and whose spiritual center was in Mecca and Medina before Jerusalem.
When Zionism influenced European Jews to emigrate to Ottoman Palestine
in late 19th Century, Jerusalem was already to
a majority of Jews, as noted by French author Chateaubriand. And it is
this immigration of men, competences and funds that made Palestine
attractive again for
Arabs. Selling land to Jews brings unexpected funds that fuels a
constantly growing local economy, thus creating jobs. Palestinians see
their living standards improving, their way of life
becoming more civilised. Many can leave their flocks to become farm
workers or craftsmen or start small businesses.
But if the
Jews do have in their religious and traditional codes a status for
integrated
foreigners, the Muslims are religiously not allowed to live under a
non-muslim sovereignty. When Zionist claims to autonomy and independence
became prominent, tensions and conflicts erupted and
worsened until the UN Partition Plan of 1947. The plan was accepted
without conditions by Israel which was granted a coastal strip and a
desert, leaving most of the land to Palestinians who
rejected the plan to claim all the land. They chose an armed
confrontation as the means to return to them estates that had been sold
legally. In doing so, they were grasping an economic structure
they were never able to create and rejected bluntly the very idea of
sharing, negotiating and of reaching compromises with the Jews, boldly
stating they would push them back into the sea.
The Palestinian tragedy lies there, in this permanent refusal of
sharing and negotiation. In 1948, rather
that accepting defeat and building peace that could have led to a
negotiated and acceptable solution for all, the Arab leaders called
their people to exile, throwing hundreds of thousands of
their fellow countrymen in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan,
leaving Palestine open for military action and recapture against Israel.
But they never succeeded and let the refugees situation
become a security challenge for Jordan who will settle it in blood
in September 1970. Similarly, Lebanon, unable to deal with Yasser
Arafat’s PLO becoming a state within the state, will fall into
a 15 years civil war. Since then, no matter what the peace plans,
the work sheets, the negotiations and other attempts to conciliation,
Palestinians have always chosen the hard way, confrontation
and conflict, requiring Israelis to make impossible compromises and
setting conditions they know Israeli leaders cannot and won’t meet. This
never-ending conflict, of which they are themselves
the willing hostages, can only be settled, according to them, with
the downfall of Israel.
But let’s go
even further and use our imagination. If Palestinians had accepted the
Partition Plan in 1947 and created the state they are now asking
for, is there simply one little reason to think that Palestine would
today be in a better shape than its Syrian, Egyptian, Iraqi
or Lebanese neighbours, with their dictators, their soviet-style
planned economies that are disasters, their violent, under-educated
societies in constant decline and under the threat of the
worst fundamentalist extremism? The way the Gaza strip is operated
by a de facto autonomous government is enough evidence. The human,
social and economic disaster is total and accusing Israel is
nothing but a fairy tale. Either Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran,
Libya, Algeria, even Jordan which is still in better shape, no Arab
state of the Mediterranean or Mesopotamia, although
independent and freely governed, has achieved a stable society
served by a prosperous economy with the demographic standards of modern
nations. A Palestinian State would have in no way escaped
this sad fate.
I have made my decision
Of course, it would be
easy to think that I’m glorifying Israel and demonizing the
Palestinians. I could easily be opposed with some abuses or crimes
committed by Israeli troops, with the injustice of the West Bank
colonization policy, with the disproportioned retaliations to rockets
fired from the Gaza strip, with the fate of Palestinian
children held at gunpoint by Zahal soldiers.
I know all this. I’m not
saying Israel is perfect, that its army is exemplary, that its policy
is just and that I would give a blank check to the
Israeli government.
I note that Israel is a
democratic nation based on the rule of law with strong institutions. I
note that Israel favours economic development of its
population, Jewish or not, in a spirit of freedom, equality and
pursuit of happiness. I note that, in regard of the behaviour of the
British forces in their colonies, French in theirs, Russian in
Germany or Afghanistan, German in Europe, American in Vietnam,
Afghanistan and Iraq and Arab in their own countries, Israeli forces
have shown they are capable of restraint, discipline and
humanity and they should be congratulated rather than condemned.
As for Israeli
colonization policy, I have a very different view than the usual
dichotomy. What if it was the best thing that could happen to
Palestinians? What if the Israelis, at last rid of the fear of
terrorists and extermination by Arab forces, could follow their
tradition of Israel’s fully integrated foreign friends, already
lived by many Arabs that would not turn from it? What if the
colonies brought funds, allowed businesses to open, created jobs and
returned to smart Palestinians the hope of a better life far from
stupid conflicts and from an Arab nationalism that has proven in
every way a lamentable failure? What if Palestinians became, by a
welcome mind opening and by putting an end to their unyielding
bellicosity, the modern Ruth the Moabite, Hushai the Archite and
Uriah the Hittite? What if, rather than uselessly promoting a two states
solution that will never work, we encouraged Palestinians
to settle peace right away, without conditions, and to build their
lives in an Israeli nation that welcomes so much foreign cultures that
it has all the keys to do it the best way? What if we
encouraged Palestinian leaders to stop waving impossible ultimatums
to finally address their people’s true problems and allow it to have a
share of the social and economic miracle Israel has
created?
I have made my decision
and it is very clear. I’m pro-Israel, I’m even pro-Zionism because I
believe in the extension of the Israeli state to
Palestinian territories and the integration of their population, in
good feelings and good will, in the Israeli nation and I’m pro-Jew
because it is an admirable people that lives through the
ages of time showing an exceptional resistance, a remarkable sense
of freedom of equality, a touching attachment to its land, its ancient
culture and traditions and that still is on the front
line of modernity and of future’s challenges.
Long lives Israel and I
call upon the leaders of the Western nations for them at last to
support, without ambiguity and without false empathy towards
irresponsible Palestinian leaders, the only democratic nation based
on the rule of law that is an example for the Middle East and for many
western nations who lose their values in a few decades!
Tim Larribau
Source: http://www.timlarribau.com/article-why-i-m-pro-israel-120659003.html
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment