The Situation

If you're going to talk about Israel, sooner or later you have to talk about politics. I've been avoiding this, mainly because the issues are impossibly complex, and bumming around Israel for two months does not make me an expert. I am certainly under-informed about the Israeli/Palestinian situation, both historically and in its current state, but I think I've seen and heard enough to form some preliminary opinions:

1. I believe that Christians bear a special responsibility toward Jews, both as our religious antecedents and kin, and as a group of people that we have historically treated horribly.

2. I also believe that Christians bear a special responsibility toward the marginalized and oppressed. In some contexts this includes the Jews and the state of Israel, but within Israel this primarily means the Palestinians, who are discriminated against, and in many cases driven from their homes, impoverished, restricted in their movement, and harassed by soldiers in the name is Israeli security.

3. It must be said, however, that the threat to Israeli security is very real. This is why I think it's misleading to condemn Israel by simply listing off the injustices suffered by Palestinians, or by analogy to other regimes such as apartheid South Africa. Israel is in a unique situation - surrounded by nations that would happily wipe it from the earth, and threatened by terrorism and rebellion from within its borders. The pressures of this situation (building on the long history of anti-Semitism) are not easy for white Canadian Christians to comprehend, but we need to try. We can argue (and I do) that Israel goes too far in its pursuit of security. We can seek (and we should) to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians through various means. We can even make high-minded observations about true freedom requiring the freedom of others, but we can't judge the actions of the state of Israel as if they exist in a vacuum.

4. I don't think that points 1 and 2 are necessarily in conflict, although in practice, they often are. Policy issues here often boil down to Israeli security versus Palestinian rights. They must be weighed against each other, and compromises must be found between them. (Of course, it's somewhat problematic that those empowered to adjudicate between the two are all Jewish Israelis.) But I think we should all be able to agree that both are important, and we must seek solutions that respect and enhance both. We cannot fully support any act or policy that benefits one at the expense of the other - one could argue, for example, that the wall is a necessary thing, but it cannot be a good thing.

5. Israel does do some things which seem to me unambiguously wrong - harmful to Jews and Arabs alike. The big one is the continuing expansion of Jewish settlements in the Arab territories. I may be missing something (remember: not an expert) but this seems like a simple land-grab. I don't see how it accomplishes anything except to increase Palestinian hardship (see e.g. Hebron), inflame hatred, endanger Israelis and hinder the peace process. And it's not a matter of a few extremists - over 500,000 Jewish Israelis live in settlements (about 10% of the population) and half of Israelis support continuing settlement, even if it means conflict with America. I'm still trying to understand this.


In non-political news, I'm now hanging out in the old city of Jerusalem. More on that soon.