I responded to a note from Khalid that employed his usual collection of accusations about Israeli Nazis, Holocaust, genocide and other cruelties imposed on innocent Palestinians. I sent my reply to all the people who received his message, and thereby met some new friends.
The context is increasing chaos in Palestinian. The nth cease fire between Fatah and Hamas is in smoke. Deaths of fighters and others in Gaza have reached the level of 10-15 per day. It is small change compared to Baghdad, but a step up toward the big leagues. Hamas is blaming Israel for Fatah deaths, which Fatah is not buying. Somebody wounded an official Egyptian emissary on his way to a meeting called to arrange yet another cease fire.
Hamas is increasing the rain of rockets on Sderot. Thirty of its residents were hospitalized yesterday, two of them in serious condition. The assessment here is that Palestinians want to provoke an Israeli response that might bring them to stop killing one another. Israel's government pondered a range of options from a massive invasion to letting the Palestinians kill one another while the IDF demonstrates restraint. Restraint will play well outside of Israel, but not in Sderot. Chances are for something somewhere between the extremes.
Khalid is a resident of Hebron who studied in Oklahoma, then ran afoul of Israeli security and does not, or cannot leave his home town; Chris, is an American who mentions a background in the Peace Corp and more recently Iraq; Mary is an Israeli peace activist; Ahmed is an Arab from somewhere outside of Palestine; Joachim claims time spent in Israel and refers to Hebrew and Yiddish literature.
Khalid cannot resist the analogies of Israeli Holocaust and genocide, despite notes from me (and Mary) that he is infuriating many of the people he needs to convince. He predicts the imminent capture of Israeli government by Gush Emunim and other settler extremists, and then the onset of a Holocaust. Being confined to Hebron may shape his thinking. A high incidence of the Israelis he encounters or hears about are as far off the center as he is. I have tried, without success, to convince him that the settlers have no better chance than Mary of governing Israel.
Mary circulates among the Israeli left, perhaps further away than Meretz and its supporters, as well as among Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. She is hopeful of the proper values spreading further until they turn the Israel establishment. She is the most outspoken about my own isolation among people who think like I do. Either she does not know what prevails in a university faculty of social science, or that is not far enough to the left for her. We remain worlds apart. She recoils at Khalid's accusations about Israeli Nazis, but does not concede that Israelis who describe themselves as anarchists also limit their influence. As I understand political history, that label lost its appeal more than one hundred years ago.
Ahmed signs on to the conventional Arab view of who is responsible. He shows signs of recognizing other perspectives, but most of my notes come back on account of a problem with his address.
Chris sees an Israeli collapse due to our violation of all that is legal and decent. When pressed to compare recent Israeli and Palestinian accomplishments (who is collapsing?) he says that it may not be immediate, but sees an outer limit of three years.
Joachim argues that Jewish involvement in efforts to help the people of Dafur are nothing more than efforts to masks the abominations that we are visiting on the Palestinians. He has some nasty things to say about Russian and Zionist Ashkenazim, as well as classical Hebrew texts that express Jewish affinity for the Promised Land. He is more impressed by segments of the Quran that tell him it belongs to the Palestinians.
This correspondence is instructive as well as annoying. I may be old and stubborn, but I continue to value my education, experiences, and judgment. Arrogance or self-respect? You judge. I remain convinced that my reality is real.
Posted by Ira Sharkansky at May 15, 2007 09:17 PM