Israel

This article was in the New York Times this morning:

click here

I have a hard time sometimes explaining to people why I don't blindly support Israel.  It's complicated, I suppose, because I'm Jewish by heritage, and I think a lot of people assume that because of that, and because I'm American, I'll support any action Israel takes.  For me, it's more complicated.  

First of all, I don't think Israel should have been created in the first place.  I know it's age-old Holy Land.  I know Jews have lived there for centuries.  I know we felt like we needed to compensate for atrocities during WWII and gave into zionist pressures as a solution for our remorse.  I get all of that, and I know how we got where we are today.  I can follow the logic, but I think it's faulty.  First of all, Israel was Palestine before the British colonized after WWI, which means an entire people with their own government was established there, and the British overturned it. Then, even worse, they passed it on instead of returning it.  So, in a way, Israel is one of the last hold outs of British colonization efforts.  But, even so, it's too late to take it back now.  So, regardless of potential illegitimacies, Israel exists, and has a lot of power.

But in the immediacy of the moment, the most important thing to me right now is how we continue to support Israel, regardless of blatant violations of human rights.  It's as simple as this: Israel has the right to defend itself against real enemies.  So, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other organizations that have attacked Israel are fair game for action in a practical sense.  However, instead of taking action against the organizations themselves, Israel chooses to take action against Palestinians by denying aid and bombing public space.  Not only is this horrifying because of what it has done to those living in Gaza and the West Bank, but it perpetuates the conflict by driving ordinary citizens to the kind of desperation that leads them to join terrorist networks in the first place.  

So please, Israel, America, rethink Israel/Palestine policy.  It's not working.