Israel Uprising

I was just watching 'Uprising' the tv movie starring Hank Azaria about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, one of the few instances of armed resistance to the Nazis by the disempowered victims, by the Jews. These heroic people drove back the Nazi military with little more than Molotov cocktails and pistols. They held out longer than the Polish army did, and some even escaped. Quite impressive actions-done with strategy and bravery; and the movie itself was worth watching.

What was made reference to a few times in the movie by the main characters was escaping from the Warsaw and going to Palestine, to farm, to make the desert grow. It seems like for the victims of the Holocaust, or at least the Jews in the ghettos, Palestine represented the promised land. But promised to whom?

Well, we know that Palestine already had people in it before the victims of the Holocaust went there (ilegally). Some might say they deserved to go there, they survived horrendous ordeals. But that they went through hell doesn't mean they have the right to dispossess someone of land they had first.

Now when I talk to ardent Zionists, even people whom I consider rational on all other topics, they become irrational in their defense of Israel. It seems they stick to prescribed talking points no matter what I say. For example, if they say people are being blown up by suicide bombers, I say Palestinian civilians are getting killed 8 times more than Israelis. Then they retort how Israel is a democracy, or how the Arabs are ruled by dictators. It's often a disconnect like this that makes me think the person I'm talking to is not really talking to me, and by talking I mean listening to and considering what I'm saying and responding to part of or at least acknowledging some part of my argument. Instead it's a PR campaign targeted to Americans using specific words and imagery: suicide bombers, democracy, dictators-words that play on the notions of ourselves and what we Westerners fear in the 'Other.'

Watching the movie gave me some perspective on some of the shit that the Jews had to go through just to survive as a people. And it also gave me some idea as to what Israel means to Zionists: a place where Jews won't be persecuted. I mean, if you came from a culture that had a history like that, one could see how you might want a place of your own, how you might protect it to immoral ends, i.e. the fact that other people were on this land doesn't matter too much to you, if you have the means to push them out.

I've heard Israeli officials say that Israel is a place where Jews won't be persecuted, but I guess I just don't think the Left recognize what psychological factors are involved in the maintenance of a Jewish state. At least I haven't heard anyone talking about it.