Posted on 06/10/2007 5:23:43 PM PDT by SJackson
Many of us who grew up both Jewish and American were taught that Israel's Six Day War of 1967 was a tale of the small country of Israel fighting off the attacking armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and winning -- a modern-day David against the Arab Goliath. Images of soldiers praying at the Western Wall of the newly conquered East Jerusalem filled many of us with warm emotions.
The question is: What did this war signify for this volatile area?
The other side of this triumphant tale was the beginning of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Desert. This nascent occupation compounded and intensified not only the plight of the Palestinian refugees but set the stage for almost every crisis in this region.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war and of the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. It has not brought peace, prosperity or security to Israelis or Palestinians and has, in the words of one rabbi, "morally corrupted the Israeli soul."
The 1967 war created the longest-lasting military occupation in history. From it sprang the establishment of the illegal Jewish settlements in these areas, the Yom Kippur War with Egypt in 1973, the 1982 Lebanon invasion, and both the intifadas.
Most important, the Six Day War cemented the Israeli-American alliance, in which Israel has and continues to get more U.S. aid than any other country and acts with impunity despite 65 U.N. sanctions against its various illegal actions, due to the U.S. veto. According to Noam Chomsky, Israel has become a de facto offshore U.S. military base.
But what does it actually mean to be "under occupation"? For Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, it has meant 18,000 of their homes being destroyed since 1967, and since September 2000 half a million of their olive trees being uprooted (a sole source of income for many families).
There are fast-traveling roads for "Jews only" in the West Bank, while Palestinians spend hours wending their way through dirt roads and suffer through long lines at hundreds of checkpoints. There are 24-hour curfews that have sometimes lasted for 30 days. The Gaza Strip has become the largest open air prison in the world, controlled by Israeli forces by air, land and sea. Unemployment, poverty and malnutrition are high. Medical supplies are scarce, and getting an ambulance in or out of the territories is often difficult.
The human toll of the occupation is especially tragic. Since September 2000, 4,098 Palestinians and 1,021 Israelis have been killed. By perpetuating an atmosphere of misery and despair, the occupation has directly and indirectly led to the extreme violence of the suicide bomber, and to the creation of Hezbollah and Hamas.
Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker recently told members of the Bush administration that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict constituted the epicenter of global instability. Though hardly a liberal, he understands that until a just solution to the oppression of Palestinians is found, there will be neither real security for Israel, peace in the Middle East, nor geo-strategic stability for the United States. The Israel/Palestine conflict needs to be of the utmost concern to all Americans.
What can an average citizen do, you may ask? National groups like the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and Jewish Voice for Peace are great places to get information and to take action on a national level.
Here in Madison, grass-roots groups are working hard to promote peace and justice. Madison Rafah Sister City Project is building people-to-people connections with individuals and groups in Rafah, Gaza. Madison Friends of Jewish Voice for Peace provides an alternative to mainstream Jewish groups that present uncritical Jewish support for the state of Israel.
Through these and other groups, I hope we can start to see an end to the Israeli occupation and the beginning of a just peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.
As Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Tsela Barr is a member of Madison Friends of Jewish Voice for Peace.
I seem to be clicking on every artical today that leaves me madder than the one before!
I’d better stop, while my family still loves me!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
How can the Israelis “occupy” territory which has for millenia been a part of Israel? “Liberate” would be a more accurate term. God gave the land of Israel to the Jews, in an eternal covenant. It was the Muslim Palestinians who were occupiers of the rightful lands of the Israelis.
“But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.” (1 Kings 9:6-7)
But God found fault with the people and said, “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” (Hebrews 8:8)
By calling this covenant “new,” He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. (Hebrews 8:13)
Read all the verses you can find concerning the covenant, put them together without ignoring any of them, and I believe you’ll find the covenant concerning the land was conditional.
Yeah, it was/is. Really it's all conditional. I keep hoping a secular Israel will turn to God for a spiritual Israel. Just how did they think that 6-Day War came about?
“When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, and WHEN you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where He scattered you.” (Deut. 30:1-4)
and again:
“IF you obey the Lord your God and keep His commands...” (Deut 30:10)
How much more evidence would you like about the covenant’s being conditional and also that the old covenant became obsolete?
If that’s not enough evidence, then read 1 Kings 8 again. Read Jeremiah 7. Read Hebrews 8. Or if you don’t believe in the Bible, then note that there was no Israel for over 2,000 years — they lost it due to unbelief.
If you believe it was unconditional, you’d have to ignore a whole lot of scripture, not to mention, history.
Are you sure you're posting to the right person? I was agreeing with you that it was/is conditional. Everything on the table is conditional. Our salvation is free but conditional.
Ezekiel 44:9
Zechariah 14:9
Malachi 3:6
Tsela Barr is a member of Madison Friends of Jewish Voice for Peace Suicide.
Mark
As far as I'm concerned, when one country attacks another, and then LOSES LAND, it's too late for them to cry "mulligan!" and get their losses back!
Mark
Either you forgot the Barf alert! Or you are just completely anti-semitic. Please clarify which.
2) The threadmeister regularly posts articles about Israel has never shown even the slightest anti-semitic tendences.
Yup. It’s all the fault of the dastardly Israelis. There would have been no conflicts if the stupid jews had simply allowed themselves to be eradicated in 1948, or 1967, no wait, 1973.
Why on Earth not? She wants the same thing Osama bin-Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad want; she can share a pit with them in Hell for all I care.
Let me see...20mil Arabs vs. 3mil Israelis. Israelis kicked their sorry butts, and the Arabs can’t hold a job,much less a country! After Billions of wasted ‘aid’ to these vagabonds,Israel is the still the target? I’ll stick with the Jews.
Actually, Israel has been occupied by the filthy maggots closer to 60 years, now...
Just saying®
The only reason the Palestinians are still refugees is because Arabs want them to be justification to kill Jews.Not to mention the fact that most of the "refugees" aren't "refugees" at all but moved into the area long after the fact, to lay claim to land in Israel once it was "driven into the sea" (the goal of the 1967 Arab military buildup) and ended up staying in "refugee camps" because the shiite holes they came from were no different or no better than the shiite holes they've made of their "refugee camps" and they probably aren't welcome back where they came from anyway just like they definitely are not welcome anywhere in the Arab world, which generally treats Palis as the lowest scum on the scumbag muzzie totem pole, except when they want to use them for political rhetoric, in which case they proclaim them to be the most oppressed people on earth.
According to Noam Chomsky, Israel has become a de facto offshore U.S. military base.Noam Chomsky. Now there's somebody worth quoting.
When the next group of Nazis stoke up the next batch of ovens Noam Chomsky will be right there, running up and down the line of naked and starving Jews, assuring them that they are just going to be given a nice shower.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.