Dear csteele,

Perhaps dismantling the entire colonial map imposed on the Middle East would go a long way to solving their problems. Colonial powers imposed artificial borders and states without due consideration to those who were forced to live within. Is there a legal basis to challenge these past injusticies? More people have been killed within Arab states, and between Arab states, than those killed in conflict with Israel.

Israel would still exist. Zionists were welcome ...

Sherif Hussein, the guaradian of the Islamic Holy Places in Arabia, and a leading Arab nationalist, welcomed Jews to their homeland.

"... we have seen Jews from foreign countries streaming to Palestine ... The cause of causes could not escape those who had a gift of deeper insight. They knew the country was for its original sons (abna 'ibilasliyin), for all their differences, a sacred and beloved homeland. The return of these exilse (jaliya) to their homeland will prove materially and spritually ... (Al-Qibla, March 23, 1918)

Emir Faisal believed the Zionist movement a companion to the Arab Nationalist movement.
Faisal confirmed this in a letter to Harvard law professor and future Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, on March 3, 1919.

"The Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement ... We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome home ... We are working together for a reformed and revised Near East and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is nationist and not imperialist. And their is room in Syria for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a real success without the other."

This letter was written a day after Chaim Weizmann presented the Zionist case to the Paris conference.

Colonial interests poisoned the water. The Middle East would be very different today ...

#Danielle

You hit the nail on the head.

The Arab world - and indeed the world at large - needs lots of other "Feisals" and "Husseins" to speak out and break down the monolithic Arab rejectionist viewpoint that the Jews are not entitled to national self-determination.

This takes a lot of courage given the Jew-hatred being currently espoused throughout the Arab world and at the United Nations.

One Arab defiant enough to publicly express a different viewpoint is Commodore Al-Mulhim a retired Commodore of the Saudi navy. I would refer you to his article in Arab News (another big breakthrough) at:
http://www.arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article322715.ece

If you are aware of any similar articles then I would appreciate your directing me to them.

When we can read or hear of another 100 such articles or similar viewpoints from prominent Arabs - there might be hope that the Middle East will not continue to be the graveyard it was in the 20th century and has continued to be for the first 10 years of the 21st century.

Dear Danielle,

Sadly I haven't seen porcupines in Australia - I did see an echidna once in nature, which was beautiful, but it's a bit too big and too wild to keep as a pet. In Israel they live in yards, hiding in holes in the walls during the day and coming out to feed at night. They are so cute!

Even while most Arabs are good and accommodating people, there is something about them that makes them helpless against violent extremists from within who ruin it for all. I can see little hope after reading about the shocking murder of their Israeli/half-Arab best-friend (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/actor-director-and-activist-juliano-mer-khamis-gunned-down-in-jenin-1.354098). Juliano was killed for offending Islam because he conducted a theater-workshop where boys and girls acted together and even wore pig-masks while playing George Orwell's "Animal farm"! I am so sorry for the Arab silent-majority, but they will have to live behind a wall until they are able to control their extremists - despite the fact that most of them would indeed prefer to live under Israeli rule.

I agree with your criticism of Catholicism, but comparison with Judaism is difficult because Catholicism is a religion while Judaism is not. As David just correctly implied in his last post, Judaism is essentially a nation (or strictly-speaking an identity-group or a club, because the modern concept of "nation" did not exist prior to the French revolution and Judaism is much older), a nation which just happens to feature a so-called religion, specially designed for the purpose of holding that group together (which indeed it did successfully for thousands of years). True religions focus on God, but the primary focus of Judaism is on the above holding of the group together, while using the name of God in vain to reinforce that political agenda. Sadly, even Jesus, whom I admire, was only partially successful in detaching his Godly teachings from the prevalent Jewish culture.

Dear Yuyutsu,

It was very disturbing to read about the death of Juliano Mer-Khamis who seemed to be one of the 'peace makers' and I can understand your depression. However the story also told of the involvement in Juliano's theatre of Zakariya Zubeidi, the former military leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades. To me that was a sign of hope for the future despite the murder.

I also am a little wary when I read that “Mer-Khamis was shot five times by masked Palestinian militants” then further on we are informed by a witness that, "He was on his way to his car when a masked man stopped him, shot him and ran away."

Lone psychopaths are able to gun down prime ministers. Was this a solitary attacker or a group? Time will tell we hope.

Dear Danielle,

You said;

“Am I to believe that you consider that the State of Israel should be dismantled? That’s not very nice ...”

I was going to let it slide since I wasn't sure where it had come from but will address it.

The Holocaust was a defining moment in world history. It served to rip any sense of complacency about anti-Semitism from much of the world. It also, rightly I think, gave the Jewish people a 'free pass' on things that might have otherwise been challenged if done by any other group. The formation of Israel was one of those things.

Why?

As a lapsed Catholic I'm sure you understand guilt. As a cultural Christian I accept guilt for what happened to the Jewish people by Christian hands, not just in WW2 but through the ages.

That guilt also extends to the Palestinian people and native the Jews who lived in and prospered through much of North Africa, the Middle East and beyond. Zionism and the imposition of European Jewry has inflicted great damage to both their lives and their culture. They are made to suffer because of our trespasses.

The call of Zionism and tensions the actions of European Jews created throughout the region has served to strip great historical Jewish communities from the lands they were part of for so many generations.

I am also mindful of the sanctuary from European anti-Semitism so often offered by the Muslim rulers and people. Spain is the stand out example.

The danger for the State of Israel, rather than the Jewish people as a whole, is through their actions guilt felt toward the plight of Palestinians now outweighs that felt toward Israel in perhaps a majority of people.

My Christian fundamentalist father-in-law who has been such a long term supporter of Israel now acknowledges it is only the prescriptions of his faith that keep him there such is his disquiet.

I do not think Israel in its current form and attitudes will last forever, but rather than total disassembling shall we say it needs urgent reassembling.

Dear csteele

Do you blame Jews for wanting a homeland? You seem very cavalier to the constant persecution of Jews in Europe throughout history. Do you really believe that this would end?

More Jews were expelled from Arab states than the Palestinian experience. Not only were Jews expelled, but they were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. All their properties, hospitals, schools, synagogues, private residences were appropriated by relative governments. No compensation.

Do you really believe that Palestinians have suffered at the hands of Israel, more so than they have inflicted upon themselves, and have experienced at the hands of other Islamic states?

Palestinians have only to accept the right of Israel to exist... Is this so wrong? Palestinians living in Palestinian territories have certainly benefitted from Israel. Many would prefer living under Israeli administration than Palestinian.

During the Palestinian civil war, more Palestinians were killed in the first ten months, than had been killed in conflicts with Israel. Indeed the understandable rush to leave Palestinian territory by businesses and individuals brought down a Fatwa forbidding immigration, except for study with assurance of return. Israeli Arabs have not felt the same compulsion to escape Israel ... if they felt their existence was so ghastly, they surely would have.

A British officer observed that if the state of Israel had ended up a wasteland, not unlike Palestinian areas, the Palestinians would not have been interested in the territory. This observsation was echoed by others.

Perhaps you believe that Israel is apartheid. Evidence does not bear this out. Israel is racially diverse. Arabs are in the Knesset, serve top ranks of the services, in the diplomatic corps, on the Supreme Court, are on university faculties, in the Cabinet.  ... Indeed, 20% of university students are Arab, which well represents the percentage of Arabs living in Israel. Arabs are in all walks of life ... Now describe the apartheid there. Perhaps you can demonstrate the same level of inclusion in other places in the world.

cont ...