CALLING ALL CHICKENS

 

CALLING ALL CHICKENS

 

Once upon a time, actually not all that long ago, there was an area controlled by the British called Palestine, a contentious piece of land on the Mediterranean and for centuries home to two different tribes and cultures; one Arab, the other Jewish.  The history of this area is filled with turbulence and discord, not because of oil or precious metals or a thriving economy, but as the home for not two, but three competing religions.  All laying claim to overlapping religious sites.  It is the ruins of ancient sites and those still standing that are coveted.  If Abraham had emerged in Norway, Jesus been born in New York, and Mohammed had chosen London, England from which to start his religion, the Middle East might have remained sleepy and peaceful and only the discovery of copious amounts of oil would have had an impact on their existence.  Wow, money does buy a lot of nice things and I can park my camel and fly around the world in my private jet.  Well, only a lucky few.  Why would Arabs behave any different than us?

Our colonial past continues to hang over us like a dark, angry cloud, still wreaking havoc after all these years and leaving behind in its wake asinine, political decisions that continue to hurt and divide.  The state of Israel owes its existence to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that in principle supported a home for the Jewish people in what was known as Palestine, an area controlled by the British.  It is a lot easier to give away something you don’t really own.  Palestine, rather than treated outright as a colony, was held by the British in some sort of trust.  Rationale: Once the people living there could be trusted to responsibly take care of their own affairs, the protection provided by the ‘trustees’ would be gradually withdrawn, leaving their subjects with an undying gratitude and a solid allegiance to the former masters.  Of course I’m being a bit factitious here because resistance to the British occupation was fierce, both from Arabs and Jews.  Menachem Begin was the leader of a breakaway Jewish resistance group the Irgun and Ben Gurion was the leader of the Haganah.  All were branded as terrorists by the British and had a price on their head.  Both ended up as prime minister of Israel and it goes to show you that today’s terrorist might well end up as tomorrow’s hero.  Even George Washington had a price on his head and look where his face is now!

Not unlike Hamas, the early Jewish resistance was ill equipped and fighting a superior British force, but they were determined to establish a free state of Israel.  Hamas is now being hunted down for a similar desire; to establish a free state of Palestine without interference and occupation by Israel.  The big difference; the state of Israel has become a formidable player in the Middle East and is heavily supported by the US.  The Israeli Defense Force has a superior advantage on the ground and in the air and Hamas is basically a ragtag band of renegades with inferior weapons.  Neighboring Arab states have considerably cooled their jets in their support of the Palestinians, especially after suffering some serious defeats.  The conflict has also been dragging on for decades and with no end in sight.  Supporters are getting tired.  And with a lame-duck American president waffling on the sidelines, flip-flopping like crazy, Israel’s current president, Benjamin Netanyahu, is banking on an all-out offensive to destroy the Palestinians once and for all.  He knows that as long as he can count on American bombs, weapons and support, there is nobody who will stop him.  The entire conflict is a charade of human misery and suffering.  Bombs are raining down with impunity killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians, mostly women and children.  The Palestinians are treated as vermin, a disease, a blight on the landscape and the world stands idly by and watches.

Where are the United Nations peace keeping forces?  Why is there no armed intervention to keep the two sides apart until a permanent peace agreement is in place?  Why are there no sanctions?  This is textbook genocide, crimes against humanity and even starvation is used as a weapon of war.  What will it take for the world to take a stand and put a stop to this madness?  And the answer is embarrassing.  We will do what we have done in the past when genocide took place.  Nothing.  A lot of grandstanding on the floor of the United Nations, exhortations of outrage, pleas to stop the carnage and veto’s from the usual gang.  The strong once more riding roughshod over the weak and the rest of the world is standing around like a flock of hapless chickens, cluck-clucking and tut-tutting.  I thought the chicken reference was kind of appropriate when put in the context of this article as there are so many literary allusions to chicken-like behavior and actions.

Although there is public resistance within Israel, people openly denouncing the violence and deaths, most of them are concerned with getting the remaining hostages back home.  The complicity to get rid of the Palestinians runs much deeper in support.  Most Israelis are well aware of the historic, checkered past of Palestine and its inhabitants.  From a historic and legal perspective their land claims are tenuous at best and most are complicit in the ill-treatment of Palestinians and the injustices perpetrated.  The great majority align themselves with their government’s policies and objectives and support the government’s hardline stand to deny the Palestinians statehood.

What will happen to them?  What will their world look like?

As a writer, a student of philosophy, history and the humanities I don’t take sides.  I simply report on what I see and observe.  This is a cruel reversal of a similar holocaust perpetrated on the Jews by Nazi Germany, and this time it is Jews calling for the elimination of Palestinians.  They don’t want a single Palestinian entity to exist within their borders and most definitely not within two separate enclaves.  They have placed themselves on a perilous path with history and with a rather uncertain outcome.  Currently they are secure in the knowledge that the outside world won’t lift a finger to stop their actions.  We have witnessed enough proof of that in the preceding decades.  Although there is a role and place for the United Nations, as a body they are at a total loss on how to deal with out-of-control individuals and nations.

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