Making Nice Nice

The current trend in Daily Kos I-P seems to be a positive one. Meteor Blades, the dKos administrator who moderates dKos I-P is trying very hard to promote an atmosphere in which the pro-Israel people and the pro-Palestinian people might be able to speak with one another without the chronic vitriol and anger that has characterized so much of the conversation in the past. As anyone who follows this kind of thing knows, dKos I-P has been a toxic dump typified by accusations of anti-Semitism, accusations of racism, and a tendency to claim moral superiority over those who may disagree with one's position. Given the hard feelings that are so often involved it is likely that the two sides have tended to harden their positions, rather than moderate them. People who were pro-Palestinian to begin with have likely become more so over time and for many their feelings have seemingly morphed from pro-Palestinian to anti-Israel. People who were pro-Israel to begin with, or so I suspect, have probably likewise become more pro-Israel over time and for many their feelings have probably morphed from pro-Israel to a loathing for the pro-Palestinian movement, although, one hopes this loathing does not extend to the Palestinians, themselves.

Such is my impression, anyway.

If this impression is correct, Meteor Blades' efforts should be applauded, as well as the efforts of someone like Volleyboy1, a liberal pro-Israel dKos participant who is also trying mightily to create bridges between the pro-Israel faction and the pro-Palestinian faction. Nonetheless, I find myself rather ambivalent. While I think their intentions are of the highest order, I find myself wondering if making nice with radical ideological anti-Zionists does not legitimate their point of view?

From my perspective, the problem we have with dKos I-P is that any number of the pro-Palestinian side are actually anti-Israel. That is, some of them believe that Israel should never have come into existence as a Jewish state and should be dismantled as such via the single-state solution. As a Jew concerned about the well-being of other Jews, what should my attitude be towards people who would see the Jews, yet again, living as a minority dependent entirely upon the good-will of non-Jews? The history of the Jewish people has shown us again and again and again that such arrangements have not worked out well. Without belaboring an obvious point, for 2,000 years the Jewish people have, to be blunt, gotten their collective asses kicked all around the world. We have been subject to a seemingly never-ending series of pogroms and persecutions and exiles all leading to the Holocaust in which one-third of our number were entirely wiped out by the Nazi regime.

What, therefore, can we possibly have to say to people who demand that the Jews must throw themselves upon the mercy of non-Jews by giving up Jewish self-determination and self-defense other than, "NO"? Is Jewish autonomy negotiable? I do not think so. Of course, ideological anti-Zionists do not characterize the dKos pro-Palestinian position as a whole. There are also any number of pro-Palestinian advocates who believe in the two-state solution, yet who always and forever blame Israel for everything that has happened there.

For example, yesterday I published a diary, at Meteor Blades' request, laying out some of my thoughts on what a reasonable Israel-Palestine peace might look like. It essentially called for a two-state solution, shared control of East Jerusalem, easing and then ending the blockade of Gaza, and a sort-of "Marshall Plan" for the Palestinian state in order to create the conditions necessary for the emergence of a Palestinian middle-class. One of the final comments in my diary was this one.

"Continuing Israeli War Crimes in Gaza is a garenteed deal breaker."

What can one say to this? None of us were overjoyed with Operation Cast Lead and nobody wants to see other people get hurt. The blockade of Gaza is not something we take pleasure in or in any way benefit from. But what this commenter ignores is any Palestinian responsibility for the situation there. After Israel vacated the Gaza in 2005, Hamas came into power and Israel was forced to endure thousands upon thousands of Qassam and Katyusha rocket attacks into southern Israel over the course of years. Yet that commenter, as with so many others in dKos I-P, lays every bit of blame for the entire situation at the feet of Israel. In fact, I believe it's more than fair to say that he lays all blame not only at the feet of Israel, but specifically at the feet of Israeli Jews. It is the Jews, after all, that control Israeli policy. The unspoken assumption in that comment, whether people choose to acknowledge it or not, is that the only guilty actor, viz-a-viz Gaza, are the Jews of Israel.

Is anything that we say going to change that person's mind?

I suspect not.

Yet we are encouraged to respond in a calm and reasonable fashion to people who refuse to acknowledge any non-Jewish responsibility for the never-ending tensions and violence between Israel and the Palestinians and who lambaste the Jewish state in the most corrosive fashion possible. I suppose there is nothing else that we can do, however. Should we instead scream at the guy that he's an idiot? I don't think so.

So, what can we do? I, for one, wish Meteor Blades and Volleyboy1 the best in their efforts, but I suspect that they're pissing in the wind.

Posted by Karmafish