Reading an interesting but disturbing book on Palestine-Israel conflict. The book starts with a quick historical recap, with a focus on last 200 years. It's a recap of a region and a community that was ostracised for centuries, and which behaved more or less in an equally ruthless way when they came to power.
In early 1900's lands were bought from Arabs in Syria, Palestine and Turkey by questionable means, and once that was done, the focus was to make sure that the landless Arabs do not get employment opportunities...the whole objective was to displace the Arab peasants and farmers of the region. Such hatred, such spite...To think that people who were doing this were the same people who were racially discriminated by Russians till then. They were pushed to live on the periphery of Russian cities, and were denied prestigious professions. A few years later, what do they do? They plan strategic evacuation of some land for their own habitation! In Theodore Herzl's (one of the leading zionists) words, "We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country...Both the process of expropriation and the the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
Should any cause be worth so much hatred, so much spite? Worth enough to repeat the same mistakes that were inflicted upon the subject till a few decades back? Today, when Israel cries wolf, it sounds hollow.
In early 1900's lands were bought from Arabs in Syria, Palestine and Turkey by questionable means, and once that was done, the focus was to make sure that the landless Arabs do not get employment opportunities...the whole objective was to displace the Arab peasants and farmers of the region. Such hatred, such spite...To think that people who were doing this were the same people who were racially discriminated by Russians till then. They were pushed to live on the periphery of Russian cities, and were denied prestigious professions. A few years later, what do they do? They plan strategic evacuation of some land for their own habitation! In Theodore Herzl's (one of the leading zionists) words, "We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country...Both the process of expropriation and the the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
Should any cause be worth so much hatred, so much spite? Worth enough to repeat the same mistakes that were inflicted upon the subject till a few decades back? Today, when Israel cries wolf, it sounds hollow.
