I didn’t know what to think
about Israelis and Palestinians. I was brought up to believe that the creation of
Israel was the best possible response to the Holocaust, that Israelis had
created a remarkable and successful democracy in a difficult area of the world,
and that Israel deserved the support of Jews everywhere else. I believed
Israelis to be my distant siblings.
That message was promoted by
every Jewish organization in America, from the local synagogue down to mah-jong
games among Jewish women, and up to a spectrum of national Jewish
organizations. All forms of media agreed with that message and reported as if
it was an obvious truth. Palestinians came to public notice only when they
committed acts of terror.
Then that uniformity of
belief and message eventually began to change. Led by President Jimmy Carter
from the White House and Paul Findley from within Congress, our government
tried to negotiate peace by raising the status of Palestinians from a terrorist
society, which was always only a tiny minority, to a national people with just
grievances and demands. This “peace process,” which had begun much earlier, has
never succeeded in solving the cold and hot wars between Palestinians and
Israelis.
Opinion polls have shown a
similar uncertainty in the American public. In a 2012 poll
just before the election, most Americans were unsure what kind of policy they
wanted in the Middle East. Although more than two-thirds agreed that Israelis
and Palestinians are “equal people with equal rights”, about half were unsure
about the earlier Clinton peace plan, a Palestinian right of return, the status
of Jerusalem, or the role of Jewish settlements.
One small segment of public
opinion, American Jews,
have been gradually lessening their support for Israeli policy. Younger
American Jews tend to believe that the Israeli government is not making a
sincere effort to find peace. Few believe that building settlements contributes
to Israeli security.
I was fortunate to be able to
spend a week in Israel and in the West Bank in earlier this month. I was able
to talk with many knowledgeable people about the conflict between Jews and
Palestinians. Most important I was able to see with my own eyes Jewish
settlements, Palestinian cities and refugee camps, military check points, and
the ubiquitous walls.
It is easy to fault
Palestinian political organizations for engaging in tactics of terror against
civilians and for not being willing to accept the existence of Israel as a
state. It is easy to fault the Israeli government for military tactics which
kill civilians and for continuing to seize Palestinian land for expanding
Jewish settlements on the West Bank.
It is not easy to develop a
strategy toward peace. Most of the people I spoke with offered thoughtful
analyses and opinions about the current situation, but did not talk of peace.
Their hopes were much smaller: some progress in reducing tensions and the cycle
of violence.
How difficult that will be
was demonstrated by a political moment at the Miss Universe contest in Miami
last week. Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, posted on Instagram a smiling photo of herself together with Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige. That
prompted some Lebanese officials to demand that Greige be stripped of her title for consorting with the enemy. Lebanese are not
allowed to visit or even call Israel, and Israeli products are banned there.
Apparently Matalon chased
Greige for several days trying to get a photo together. This minor incident at
a beauty contest not only shows the obstacles to any reconciliation. It also
illustrates the differing situations of Arabs and Jews: Matalon could do what
she wanted without worry, while Greige was necessarily concerned about reaction
back home.
Is there a solution? I will
try to sort out my impressions of one of the world’s most intractable political
problems in the coming weeks.
Steve Hochstadt
Jacksonville IL
Published in the Jacksonville
Journal-Courier, January 27, 2015
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