Horse 2843 - Victory to Nobody

There are several things all going on at once which I need to lay out before I can even hope to build an answer. Part of the problem in imaging the world complexly is that you actually have to take the time and effort to look at the various complex pieces, so that you can imagine the world complexly.

The modern state of Israel is in no way shape or form congruous to the ancient theocratic judgedom/kingdom. The modern state of Israel exists as the result of a kind of a modern political crusade which began in the 19th century and came about through the instruments of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, the aftermath and consequences of World War I, the total collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the mandatory carvery of what used to be Ottoman Palestine by the great powers of Europe, the results of World War II, the apathy of those great powers of Europe, a series of conflicts which should properly be called a civil war between 1945 and 1948, and finally the declaration of the United Nations.

This presents a bunch of internal logical inconsistencies and disputes. Any argument which disputes the right of the state of Israel to exist, must also dispute the right of the states of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine to exist. The genesis and creation of one, is the same modern genesis and creation of all of them. 

This means to that that people who hate the existence of Israel on political grounds, I think must also hate the existence of the other modern nation states and if they do not, then I will default to the only reason that any of them exist and that is the collapse and subsequent vanquishment of the Ottoman Empire. The proper custodian of all the land is Great Britain by means of conquest and that is an utterly stupid and evil starting point.

Of course I say that deliberately as a stupid position because if someone else is going to take hating the existence of Israel as a thing and not the rest, then we can only throw acid into a bucket of acid. If however we are prepared to concede that Israel has an historical right to exist along with the rest, then we open the nuance window and look into a complex landscape.

Israel was conceived as a secular state and a homeland for the Jewish people. Unfortunately what it almost immediately became was a two state ethnocracy, with both sides unified in mutual hatred of each other, while also being bound with their own internal sectarian tensions and turmoil. The modern secular state of Israel started with the displacement of around 700,000 Arabic people who were then forcibly herded into what would become the nominal state of Palestine. Palestine which should appear as a victim here by virtue of actually being the result of displacement, then promptly turned around and sought revenge.

Palestine has over the years funded terrorist organisations and even elected them to secular poorer in the forms of Hamas and Fatah; while Israel achieves state terrorism against their neighbours through the instruments of the state armed forces. I think that both are quite quite evil and that your position whatever it is, is completely undermined if you use violence against civilians who have no part in the conflict, except through unfortunate historical accident of being born into stupid nation states. There might be a place to fight against injustice and unjust governments but in this case, there simply is no just government on either side of the conflict.

Most people just want to be left alone. They want a reasonable level of government services and a reasonable level of government protection and order, so that they can live boring lives. There is a lot of good in a boring life because if you have the ability to live a boring life in safety and quiet happiness, you are then free to pursue other more rewarding things. People want a roof over their heads, nice dinner on the table, a family and community that shows practical love, and a rewarding job. That's not too much to ask for.

But, when you have governments in charge who are hell bent on raining destruction on innocent people who have done nothing except live on the other side of a border, then those governments can take a long walk off a short pier. Do not say that you hate anything unless you want it to die. I want both the governments of Israel and Palestine to die and be replaced with kind ones that actually do the job of governing kindly.

There are five million displaced people and refugees in Palestine. That's awful. If Israel is supposed to be some kind of moral virtue keeper here, then I do not understand why foreign governments send it something in the order of about $5bn a year in military aid to Israel; which is then is used to demolish Palestinian homes, imprison Palestinian children and displace Palestinian families. Our government should not fund state violence in any form, anywhere. Yet we tolerate it.

I do not think that it is antisemitism to speak up against the actions of an evil government which started a war purely for internal political reasons. I do not think that it is anti-Palestinian to speak up against the actions of an evil government which started a war purely for internal political reasons. At the moment there is a far-right Israeli government emboldened by a need to appear strong in the face of all manner of political pressure; it has had 4 elections in 24 months because it can't even resolve the factionalism within its own borders.

Having said that, Palestine is also engaged in its own stupid internal political struggle with terrorist groups at the helm of both halves. If you were to quite rightly speak out for Palestine, it is also a deep mistake to suggest that Hamas is firing rockets "due to Israeli actions." Here to the bottom line is that they are also firing high explosive ordinance at Israeli civilian's because their stated founding purpose is the annihilation of world Jewry, starting with Israel.

Almost from the outset the lion's share of the reason of existence for the movement for Palestine Liberation, is that it is built upon on the notion that in order to be pro-Palestine you have to be anti-Israel which turns a nuanced situation into a binary for no other reason than it makes it simple for people with no connection to take a side. 

I like the idea of Political Zionism; which suggests that there should be a homeland for the Jewish people and that made political sense in the 1890s when the whole land was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire now has its remnants in the modern state of Turkey; which is neither Israeli nor Palestinian. However, just because I like the idea of Political Zionism, does not mean that I am anti Palestine. 

I’m scared because when tensions are high in Israel and Palestine there is a carry over into the diaspora. Anti-Semitic incidents increase because people conflate Jews and Israel. Anti Arabic and anti Islamic incidents increase because people conflate Palestine and the Arabic and Muslim worlds. 

I guess that what I am trying to say here and incredibly badly is that not only that two wrongs don’t make a right buy many wrongs just makes everyone even wronger. As I write this, both the Palestinian and Israeli Governments have refused to agree to a ceasefire. As far as I am concerned Hamas, Likud, Fatah, Yesh Atid are basically four terrorist organisations. If you want to present any argument in favour of either the current Palestinian and Israeli Governments, then you are also wrong.

When I see something like this, I hate the Governments which caused this. This girl has seen more pain and destruction than I ever will. I'm not even going to tell you which side of the political divide she is on, because she isn't. 99% of people caught up in this have no part in this, they did not make the decision, but they suffer.

This is Abraham's children fighting each other for no good reason whatsoever. There is literally zero virtue about any of this.