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Since the creation of the state of Israel a narrative has emerged, and it is repeated often in the media. It states that Israel is this tiny, helpless country surrounded by people and countries always ready to destroy it. It says that Israel is constantly a victim of aggression and terrorism and it must defend itself; that she has to resort to massive military build up to protect herself, and over the past 60 years, multiple wars have been fought to protect this perceived insecurity.
Time and time again history has proven that the countries surrounding Israel are no match for her from a military standpoint. Countries that have launched attacks against Israel have been defeated due to inferior military technology, strategy and tactic, and resources. There can also be no nuclear threat to Israel because no country in the region can match its nuclear arsenal which is estimated at 150 nuclear bombs and the delivery systems required. Thus, any nuclear attack on Israel would be suicidal. Then, there is the issue of terrorism. There are many definitions of terrorism, but one may define it as the use of violence, targeting non-combatants, for political means. By this definition, suicide bombings, or the hijacking of civilian airliners are acts of terrorism and must be condemned. These acts, which have caused many Israeli civilian casualties, do not threaten the existence of the state of Israel. A government’s act of killing civilians is also an act of terror. Examples of such acts are the daily killing of Palestinian civilians, wholesale bombings of cities and towns (ie. The bombing of Beirut for days in the summer of 1982), the continuing siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip with one million inhabitants, the dropping of one million cluster bombs in southern Lebanon in 2006, and the random detention of Palestinian and Lebanese citizens with no due process of law.
So why is there a constant military build-up by Israel and a regional arms race? And why has there not been a genuine peace between Israel and Palestine? Some possible answers are the existence of oil, the strategic location of the Middle East, and the double standard in favor of Israel. The Financial-Oil-Military Industrial Complex thrives and profits from the sale of weapons to Israel and other countries in the region. Therefore, more conflict equals more profit. The control of oil and thus the control of the region are paramount. Israel is often used as a huge “aircraft carrier” for the projection of power in the region and beyond and for the control of the strategic resources in the Middle East. US politicians, both Democrat and Republican, often talk about the “special relations” between the US and Israel. Israel receives billions of unconditional US aid annually. The money is usually used for military build-up and operations, arms export (Israel is the third largest arms exporter in the world next to France), and continued occupation and settlement construction. The US gives unconditional support to Israel and in return Israel has often done the dirty work. In peace negotiations all sorts of pre-conditions are imposed on Palestinians and rarely any imposed on Israel. No peace is possible between parties in the Middle East so long as the Palestinian side is considered unworthy of an unconditional dialogue. The question of demilitarization (or at least making the region a nuclear weapon free zone) of the Middle East is never raised and the continuing arms race and militarization of the area is not viewed as hostile to peace efforts. Consequently, the peoples of the U.S., Israel, Palestine, and the whole Middle East region are consumed and devastated by direct and indirect consequences of these policies.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a religious conflict and it is not one between two equal forces fighting each other. Rather it is a conflict between an occupier and the occupied. How can an occupied people, i.e. Palestinians, with no army, navy, or air force, be a mortal threat to the existence of the Israeli state, when Israel has perhaps the fourth strongest military in the world? The death of countless Palestinian and Israeli civilians and the continuous conflict between them are not just horrific acts but a tragedy of two nations that can either flourish together or loose their humanity and souls to an unholy union and ever more deadly orgy of militarism and Petro-Dollar profiteering. Jews and Arabs have lived together for thousands of years, there is no reason for them not to be able to live together again in peace. If the state of Israel is constantly put in the position of local executioner of foreign interest in the area, then peace becomes unattainable. The majority of Israelis would like to exchange land for peace, and many Jews in the US and around the world are also in favor of this. Peace will create a sociopolitical powerhouse, whose fruits will wash all hatred and bad “blood” between these two nations. For peace to happen, the occupation, attacks on civilians (on both sides), and the US unconditional support for Israel must end. The Palestinian and Israeli people must be treated equally and all sides must obey international law. Only in such a climate can Palestinians and Israelis reach a mutually agreed upon solution to the conflict. Whether it is a two state or one state solution or some other arrangement, this is the only way for this long lasting tragedy of the modern era to come to a peaceful end.
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