Comments on: Our Children Will Repair What We Have Shattered

By: Make Films, Not War « South Jerusalem: Gershom Gorenberg and Haim Watzman

Make Films, Not War « South Jerusalem: Gershom Gorenberg and Haim Watzman — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:16:46 +0000

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By: Y. Ben-David

Y. Ben-David — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:44:48 +0000

It is very nice to think that these “face-to-face” programs will contribute to peace, but that is a fantasy. The situation on the ground is controlled by the politicians, not by fresh-faced teenagers who attend a joint program for a few days or a few weeks.
For example, in Hevron, Jews and Arabs lived together in peace for generations. They knew each other, did business together, Arabs were treated equally along with Jews in the Jewish Hadassah Hospital in the city. Yet, all it took was a little incitement on the part of the Muslim preachers in the mosques in August 1929 and a horrible massacre of Jews by Arabs ensued.
In Yugoslavia, after the horrors of the Second World War, Tito and his Communist regime worked hard to unite the Serbs, Muslims, Croats and others into a nation. In multi-ethnic cities like Sarajevo, different groups learned to live together in peace, doing business together, visiting each other and forming friendships. Yet all it took was some incitement from ambitious politicians for all the old hatreds to return and thousands died in a mutual slaugher.
In Baghdad, Shi’ites and Sunnis lived together for generations, doing business, forming friendships and even intermarrying. All it took was for some ambitious politicians to see opportunity for personal aggrandizement of power in the wake of the downfall of the iron-fisted dictatorship of Saddam for them to start slaughtering each other.

Jews are a forgiving people. An article in a recent Makor Rishon pointed out polls showing most Jews have no problem travelling to Germany and buying German goods, in spite of the horrors the Germans inflicted within living memory. However, the Arabs are filled with resentment that the dhimmi Jews are ruling over them in Israel. So how can you think these “face-to-face” programs are going to overcome the humiliation they feel? How much incitement from a Muslim preacher or Palestinian politician will it take to set off violence, if the Jews let their guard down, as was the case in Hevron in 1929?

By: George

George — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:10:37 +0000

You seem to be a thoughtful, and clearly a knowledgeable person; and, you live right there. But, I don’t understand how you have any positive expectation for the outcome you seem to want.

It seems to me that the Palestinians are doomed. They are weak, poor, and unconnected. There are certainly those, including people in Israel, who do not want them dispossessed. But, of these, those who are passionate have no power; and, those with power have no passion. Against them, I see very passionate people, relentlessly using the combined power of all that Israel is.

By analogy, I see Israel as the ‘tip of the spear’; behind it is great wealth, intellect, and raw power, from within Israel, from the USA, from around the world. Many, or most, of those pushing on the spear probably do not want to see the Palestinians dispossessed. But, they keep pushing. They must.

Those who are passionate about expansion are able to use some of that power for their ends. It may only be a fraction of of it; but, that fraction is far more than the Palestinians possess. I do not see a good outcome here, any more than there was for the American Indians.