A recent National Geographic article (a magazine that bends over backwards to achieve balance) indicates the Christian population began its long decline from the time of the Crusades as during that time (1095-1291) Arab Christians were slaughtered along with the Muslims. Currently, the economic situation and the ID pass regimen between Israeli and Palestinian sectors interfere with the lives of Arab Christians:
“You’re surrounded by this giant wall, and there are no jobs,” [Mark] says. “It’s like a science experiment. If you keep rats in an enclosed space and make it smaller and smaller every day and introduce new obstacles and constantly change the rules, after a while the rats go crazy and start eating each other. It’s like that.”
The U.S. receives its due share of the blame for the Christian situation in Israel as well:
“It’s because of what Christians in the West, led by the U.S., have been doing in the East,” [Razek Siriani] says, ticking off the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. support for Israel, and the threats of “regime change” by the Bush Administration. [1]
Zionism and the Amorphous Arab
Another implication of the work is that Zionism is the dominant strain of Jewish philosophy without taking into consideration the ideas of a secular Jewish state or of the religious beliefs that a Jewish homeland will not arrive until the Messiah returns, and until that time, the Jews will remain in exile. The differing positions within the Jewish faith are not elucidated or clarified. For that matter, little is elucidated or clarified in the work as it is too short to accommodate all the parameters of the arguments that need to be considered for any one state, two state argument, whether discussing the various Arab positions or the various Jewish positions.
On the other side, Morris accepts the Orientalist perspective of the Arab as developed by Western writers generally ignorant of Arab culture (I don’t know if Morris is ignorant of Arab culture, but the manner of his writing about Arabs in this book would indicate yes to a degree). In this view, the Arabs are an “amorphous” uniform lot spread throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa (and the text would not make it clear if the author is aware of the boundaries of various Muslim beliefs and the overlaps of the Arab world with other Muslim nations), yet at the same time he indicates they are a tribal, clan and family based society – so if they are all so amorphous how does one differentiate the different clans and groups within their societies?
Questions
One technique of arguing and avoiding making any commitments to an argument or advocating a position yet still conveying one’s bias and suggesting the ‘proper’ response is to ask questions such as I did above. While discussing the Hamas charter Morris asks “What Muslim Arab society in the modern age has treated Christians, Jews, pagans, Buddhists, and Hindus with tolerance and as equals?” Apart from being a bit of a stretch to include the Hindus and Buddhists, my response is I simply do not know, but I will not accept the implication from the question that none of them do. Further, the same question could be phrased “What Jewish country….?” with the same implications and a similar response.
The following question adds emphasis to this implication as Morris asks, “Why should anyone believe that Palestinian Muslim Arabs would behave any differently?” Perhaps because the majority of Muslims are not fanatics and like many other members of the human species are able and willing to accommodate their neighbors in order to live peacefully. Would the Zionists do the same? Oh my gosh, another question with implications.
His final question concerning the nastiness of the Palestinian Muslim Arabs is “Why… have black Africans, who over the centuries have suffered infinitely more at Western … hands than the Arabs ever did, never resort to international terrorism and suicide bombings against Western targets.” Perhaps because the black Africans never achieved the societal status that the Arabs achieved (although from Morris’ description one would never know this); or perhaps because the extreme poverty in Africa necessitates a purely survival regimen for the peoples of the area; or perhaps because there are no actual occupiers of the land at the moment with no biased religious interpretations creating a dominant elite who are determined to mine the wealth of the region for their own exclusive purposes. That is without arguing Morris’ usage of “infinity” and “never”, absolutes that work poorly in any academic argument.
Where To?
All those questions arise at the beginning of his final chapter “Where to?” in which he reiterates the nastiness of the Muslim Arabs and the reasonableness of the Zionists while leading to his own solution. Part of his argument, one that always accompanies the reasonableness of the Israelis in negotiating with a “partner” is that as well as being reasonable in the face of their victim hood, they are also weak and vulnerable against the armed Arab hordes who wish to do them in. Morris argues rather fancifully that the “attritional contest between the two”, being “primitive Qassam rockets” against the overwhelming U.S. supported regular military might of the IDF and the covert activities of the Shin Bet “could impoverish Israel and render the defensive systems ultimately inoperative.” That argument hardly deserves rebuttal, but if the recent vicious attack on Gaza is any indication, Israel is fully capable of destroying any Palestinian resistance fully if it chose to do so, notwithstanding international verbal disapproval or sanctions.
The clear nuclear dominance of the region is never mentioned in any of the arguments but needs to be considered with his own answer to the problem, one that neatly sidesteps some of his own arguments. Morris’ answer is that of union between the West Bank, Gaza, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In the manner in which it is phrased, little weight is given to the democracy values that he advocates so strongly, and he also includes population transfer (ethnic cleansing in any other language) as a means of achieving this final status. Other than this vague outline, there is no definition of the terms that this would occur under, if the area would truly be sovereign or simply be a line on a map still under Israeli control.
The latter is very likely, as Morris also entertains the idea of a region of federated states with all boundaries guaranteed and accepted by everyone else. Here the nuclear dominance re-enters the picture. Ironically, nuclear weapons are useless against the Palestinians as that would render useless land that the Israelis wish to control (or to ask another Morris style question, how could they bomb the Arabs out of Haifa or Jerusalem?).
The purpose of the nuclear weapons is twofold. The first purpose is to guarantee that the surrounding Arab states will always be subservient to Israeli goals (Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are already very compliant). The second purpose is so that other nuclear nations would think twice about attacking and using nuclear weapons in retaliation against Israel for any of its nuclear aggression in the Arab/Muslim world.
This review shows that if you repeat lies often enough, people will believe them. Was the Balfour Declaration “official”? Of course it was – it was adopted – word-for-word – by the League of Nations/ “Ethnic Cleansing”? Yes – Europe, West Asia, North Africa were ethnically cleansed of the Jews – the world decide they should live – in Mandatory Palestine? Terrorism? Yes – the Holocaust. It’s nice to forget the Holocaust – Iran even says it didn’t exist. It’s end was 1945. Israel came into being 1948. The struggle then was over 100,000 immigration certificates – into Palestine. No one – except the Dominican Republic wanted the Jews who survives Hitler. And the survivors were even afraid to come to the USA – they did not feel safe, except among their own Jews. And they didn’t want to say where 6,000,000 had been exterminated. Terrorism? It’s amazing – incredible – how nice the Jews were to the Arabs considering the example of the “civilized” Western world. I’m definitely going to read this book – especially because of this “bleeding heart” for the poor Palestinians whom their fellow Arabs, Muslims, and Western liberals care so much (but are afraid, heaven forbid, that they might emigrate to their “wonderful” country!
Israel was established on a foundation of rejection of the rights of the Arab Palestinians to the right to self-determination. The Zionists, the British, the League of Nations, the U.S., the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine — all explicitly rejected the rights of the Arabs. And then the Zionists ethnically cleansed Palestine upon the unilateral declaration of the existence of the state of Israel.
Ah yes – the book was written as an apologist for the rogue state of Israel – what else to expect from Benny. Thank you for an insightful and thorough review. My suggestion, read the review, pass on the book and thanks for the list of other books.
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