The American Left, which years ago was a strong supporter of the nation of Israel, has become decidedly pro-Palestinian over the last several years. On the fringes, you will even find people who claim that the United States and Israel are the only terrorist states on the planet. Even more mainstream leftists complain that if Israel didn't control our foreign policy we would have fewer problems in the world. See Ernest Hollings.
Let's make sure we understand the basics, though, before going further. There has NEVER been a nation called Palestine. The so-called "Palestinians" from the West Bank and Gaza were citizens of Egypt and Transjordan, later Jordan, prior to 1967. In 1967, the armies of the Arab states massed in preparation for a major attack against Israel. Israel beat them to the punch and humiliated them with relative ease.
In the process, Israel took over the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and much of the region called Sinai. The Arabs who lived in those regions were told by the Arab nations to stay put and become refugees and, thus, they became pawns in the Arab world's attempt to finish what Hitler started.
As years passed by, and the Middle East remained a powder keg, and the American Left began to more closely resemble the European Left; sympathy for the refugees became animosity toward Israel. There's something in the psyche of leftists that makes them believe that the underdog is ALWAYS right, whether said underdog is really right or not.
Leftists began echoing the Arabs in their outrageous statements toward Israel. Their demands for Israel to sacrifice "land for peace" became the norm rather than the exception. Even some leftist Israelis, forgetting Hitler's demands for Austria and the Sudetenland and where those demands led, have taken up the cause of giving land to an enemy that wants to see the people of Israel drown in the Mediterranean.
Given all of that, it is time that American leftists begin practicing some consistency. This country called the United States is built upon "occupied" land. Much of the Southeastern United States was the domain of the Cherokee and the Shawnee. My home county in Tennessee contains holy sites to the Cherokee nation. Florida is the homeland of the Seminole. The Plains states are the home of the Lakota, the Pawnee, the Crow and others. Texas, California and parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada were taken from Mexico, and even Mexico took them from the indigenous peoples.
To be consistent, the Left should demand that the government of the United States end its occupation of North America. In fact, the American Indian has a more legitimate claim to kick out the whites than the "Palestinians" have to kick out the Jews. The natives were here for ten thousand years before the first white guy ever arrived. The "Palestinians" have no such LEGITIMATE claim. The whites took land from Native Americans by unprovoked conquest and aggression. Israel took Gaza and the West Bank in a defensive war AGAINST aggressors.
Consistency demands that the Left call for the United States to abandon any claim to its occupied lands. I realize that could result in the native peoples demanding that all non-American Indians be expelled from this land. That is their right to make such a demand.
In fact, as a show of good faith, I would recommend that leftists go ahead and leave now.
3 comments:
While I agree with your sentiment I would really like a few of the further left ones to stay. After all we need some dogs to kick, don't we? The loss of them would mean that we would have to spend a lot more money on recreation centers and fitness centers since all the exercise many of us get is in venting our rage at their imbecilities and then kicking them. Without that outlet we would just vegetate.
When you make sense, you confuse em and they have done more than enough damage in their perpetually confused state.
I still believe the Palestinians deserve a homeland of their own within what became Israel in the late 40's.
While their is no justification for the kinds of terrorist acts groups like Hamas perpetrate, their should be some consideration of the land they have held onto--no new Israeli settlements should be allowed there.
Still, I've become more and more disappointed with the way the Palestinians and some on the Left call "the path to peace." As long as terrorist groups like Hamas are allowed at the negotiating table, and as long as those in this country continue to blame the US and Israel for reprehensible suicide attacks the terrorists were "compelled" to carry out, then I shall continue to lose more and more of my empathy for them and for their cause.
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