Schwartz - Israel/Palestine: What America Was, Good and Bad
[Reflection & Update]

For the last few days I have been working with Voltaire, a Palestinian villager here at Neve Shalom/Wahat as-Salaam, former shepherd and now teacher at the village's elemenary school. We have been digging holes and posting signs along the side of the road that winds its way up to the village from the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. It's good, hard work. I have to wake up by 6 AM every morning -- quite a feat for a spoiled modern American! -- and work for several hours on this project. Voltaire is excellent company, and true to his name, he is very philosophical (the philosopher was his grandfather's favorite, which was why Voltaire's father chose the name for him), reflective, calm, meditative, with a Socratic gaze as sharp as pickaxe.

By 10 AM, the unmerciful Middle Eastern sun finally begins to reach the peak of its Apollo-like journey to the throne of Allah in the center of the firmament. But before that happens, the earth is blanketed by the shadows of long white clouds, and a refreshing, electric breeze rolls down the valleys. At the top of one of the hills that leads to the village, I took a moment to look out across the land. To my left, the farms of a nearby kibbutz; to my right, more farm, and beyond that the wineries of the Latrun monastery; and behind me, the world's only cooperative Jewish/Arab village. All around me was the spirit of experimentation, of newness, of youth. I glanced at Voltaire, who stabbed at the earth with his tools, and I remembered that the farmland around me was once Palestinian villages, and the youthfulness of the State of Israel was once the ancientness of Syria-Palestine. I thought of last night: I was with the village's Palestinian workers, smoking the nargila, when word reached us that soldiers were in the village. Instantly the lights were shut off and I and one of the older workers snuck out to survey the scene as the others nervously peered through the doorway. The soldiers were only waiting for the bus to come get them, but their presence was enough to terrify my acquaintances. I found myself also thinking that were I in a Tel Aviv cafe, the presence of a Palestinian in a heavy jacket would be enough to sew terror in the hearts of those around me, as well. Back in the present, atop the hill, after the memories passed was when an idea hit me: today's Israel/Palestine is what America was, in the 19th Century.

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The American Frontier was where the persecuted masses of Europe -- Scottish, Puritan and then Catholic English, Irish -- collided with the natives of an ancient continent, a land the newcomers claimed was "empty" and "undeveloped." This is Israel/Palestine, where another persecuted people of Europe -- the Ashkenazim -- have collided with a native population whose land was also declared "empty" and "undeveloped." As in the case of America, the newcomers seek to "modernize" the land -- huge rational agricultural projects, cities sprouting left and right -- while their opponents seek to "preserve" it or what hasn't yet been "cultivated/corrupted." As in the case of America, particular segments of the formerly persecuted Europeans rise to the top of the new regional socioeconomic ladder (New England Puritans and Southern Anglicans; Northern and Western European Ashkenazim) and send their former kinsmen (America's poor whites; the Eastern European Ashkenazim and the Sephardim) and new members of the underclass (Irish, Africans; Falashim and Lost Jews) to die suppressing the natives' insurrection. As in the case of America, the natives resort to a dubious mix of armed freedom-fighting and terrorism (i.e., Geronimo and Yassir Arafat), even millenialism (i.e., the Ghost Dance and HAMAS' desires to "drive Israel into the sea" to fulfill Qur'anic prophecy). Moreover, as in America, the natives are being relegated to a bantustan existence (the "sovereign nations" of the Amerindian Reservations; Clinton and Sharon's proposed "Palestinian State," a hodgepodge of territories lacking control of its own resources and airspace).* But also, as in America, there is a brave urge to experiment with new socioeconomic arrangements (i.e., the Oneidan Community, Nauvoo, Neve Shalom/Wahat as-Salaam, the kibbutzim), and a desire from all the peoples, newcomer and native, to be one with the land, to be rooted.

There are major exceptions to my comparisons. Very importantly, Isreal does not have slaves, and while it is true that the Palestinians, Sephardim and Falashim serve as cheap source of labor, Israel's economy is thoroughly dependent on American foreign aid and global Jewish donations. In other words, Isreal isn't getting a free ride to prosperity like America did (and for that matter, America didn't either; remember that little snaffu, the Civil War?) In point of fact, unlike the Amerindians, who were left to rot under the foot of American soldiers by the world and often their own kindred, the Palestinians receive monetary aid from the European Union and global Palestinian, Christian and Muslim donations. Also, the Jews are not "newcomers" in the strictest sense of the word, being that this territory was theirs 2000 years ago, though conquered from and often shared with non-Jews. Also, in Israel, all Jews serve in the military, unlike in America where only the poor served, though I've heard rumors that in the IDF, some Jews are more equal than other Jews.** The West Bank and Gaza are occupied, not annexed, as was the case with the Wild West, though there are those in Israel who are trying to make this otherwise. And while the Occupation is a martial endeavor to support a political and civilian expansion, as was the case of Manifest Destiny in America, in the West Bank, the Occupation is in a much physically tinier geographic space and is conducted with extremely powerful modern, deadlier and less accident prone weaponry (that is to say, many of the IDF's claims that so-and-so's death or the demolition of so-and-so's house were "accidental" are suspect on technological, not to mention professional, grounds). While America's weaponry in the Wild West was cutting-edge, that did not mean America could have won the Wild West easily if it just decided to; take for example Custard's Last Stand and the Red Cloud War. In the case of Israel (which, ironically, receives most of its cutting-edge weaponry from America), if the Jewish State decided to do so tomorrow, it could end the Intifada with a Viet Nam War-style carpet bombing of the West Bank. But this leads me to an important difference: in the 19th Century, the world, most non-native Americans, and many Amerindians themselves, turned a blind eye to the what was happening in the Wild West. However in Israel/Palestine, the world is paying attention. But how the world has done so is a much more complicated matter. As often as the world has tried to do right by the Jewish and the Arab peoples, it has done wrong by both peoples, it has exploited the conflict to its own ends -- just look at the obscurantism of the Republican Party of America and the Arab States! -- and it has increasingly allowed itself to be perverted by the distorted ideologies that are sprouting from the violence -- take a gander at all the polls indicating the increasing popularity of Christian Zionism, al-Qaeda globalized fascism and anti-American neo-Marxism.

But the most obvious and I believe most pertinent correlation between the American Frontier and today's Israel/Palestine is this: it is a tragic war for stolen but sacred land, loved by both peoples -- indeed, often lusted for and horded by each nation -- and it is an even more tragic civil war of a shared dream to find a place to call home, a dream that has been cleaved into two resentful, competing and almost irreconciable halves. This was the American Frontier... no wonder I can smell an electricity in the breeze...

*There is a bitter joke in the Gaza Strip: A rich man had a dog who was unhappy where they lived in America, so the rich man moved to India, but the dog was still unhappy. Then he moved to Korea, but the dog was still unhappy. So he moved again, to Egypt, and the dog was not as unhappy, but still discontent. Then he moved to Gaza City, and the dog was frollicking and joyful. The man asked, "Why are you so happy?" The dog replied, "Because here is the life for dogs!"

**But even this is a complicated matter. As in America then and now, Sephardim-Ashekanizm mix-marriages are increasingly common, though I do not know if it is primarily the East European Ashkenazim who are doing this or all the Ashkenazim. I've met at least one Yemeni-Romanian, and I've seen a few Eastern European-Sephardim running about.

Painting: Artist unknown; Engraver, Hunter and Co.; 1870
Photograph, Yassir Arafat: Photographer unknown
Photograph, Geronimo: A famous photograph, so I don't think I need to cite it. Besides, I haven't a clue who the photographer was anyway.

This entry will be reprinted in Thinking-East.Net... that is, as soon as my username and password become functional. Ollie!!

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Update I'm going to the village of Beit Syhra (not sure of the spelling), which is near Ramallah, this Friday and Saturday for an Arab wedding. I can't wait!

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18.8.04
Correction According to a source in the examinations division of the IDF (the office which determines who is given what assignments), my second endnote is highly innaccurate. In the Israeli military it is not true that "some Jews are more equal than other Jews." The fact that a high percentage of Israeli soldiers in combat right now are Sephardim is not due to intentional racism as it is due to institutional racism, a socioeconomic pattern knitted into the fabric of contemporary Israeli society. As with Blacks and Hispanics in the US, Sephardim often live in poor economic conditions. In the US, minorites enter the military -- a volunteer force -- in hopes of improving their socioeconomic position. In Israel, upon entrance into the military all conscripts are tested for various skills and aptitudes. Ashkenazim Jews, who have greater resources and thus better education, often score in ways that would make them more suitable for noncombative assignments, such as intelligence, etc. Sephardim Jews, however, tend not to receive good education, and so are less cultivated and thus more "suitable" for combat duty. So, while American minorities and Israeli minorites might start from very different points of origin, ironically they end up in the same place: in the line of fire.

My source made an interesting comment: "The problem isn't that the military is segregated. In fact, like in America, the military is a model of integration. All the money we spend on trying to better integrate the military could be better spent elsewhere. The problem is that we even have a military at all: what has happened historically to require such a huge army? Why are we at war with our neighbors?"

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Reflection Journalists don't usually need to footnotes because their profession is imbued with a natural authority. Thus, a journalist or would-be journalist must always be careful about what they report and how they report. Exactitude must be as important to the journalist as it is to the philosopher or scientist.