On July 28, 2024
© By John Arkelian
Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-94), an early Israeli critic of his country’s military rule over the Occupied Territories, wrote in 1968 that “A state ruling over
“Me miserable! Which way shall I fly, Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell.” (Milton, Paradise Lost).
Illustration © 2024 Linda Arkelian.
a population of one million foreigners will necessarily become a Shin Bet state, with all that implies for education, freedom of speech and thought and democracy. The corruption found in every colonial regime will affix itself to the State of Israel. The administration will have to suppress an Arab uprising on the one hand and recruit Quislings, or Arab traitors, on the other.” Indeed, Israel has too often ceded the moral high ground, which it used to so admirably occupy, in its illusory quest for more security. Security is a worthy (and indeed necessary) objective, but the disastrous misstep by successive Israeli governments has been to seek security by exercising power over others. That process has oppressed others (fueling their anger and sense of grievance in the process) and corrupted the integrity of the Israeli polity itself. It’s time the West took a decisive hand in cutting the Gordian knot of the Middle East conflict. Our unconditional support for Israel’s right to exist must never waver: we will always protect Israel from external attack. But we have erred grievously in giving Israel carte blanche over its treatment of occupied lands and occupied peoples. We can be Israel’s steadfast friend and defender without giving it free writ to pursue unjust policies itself.
We should insist that the parties to the current post-October 7, 2023 ruinous conflict in Gaza enter into negotiations for a ceasefire and not cease talking until an agreement is reached. The keystones of that agreement must be the release of all remaining Israeli hostages and an end to Israeli obstruction of desperately needed food, water, electricity, and medical aid for Gazans. We should assemble an international policing and peacekeeping force under a United Nations mandate. It should consist of soldiers and police officers from Western and Muslim nations, under Western command. It should have the resources and mandate to use lethal force to suppress terrorist activity within Gaza and the West Bank or directed against Israel. Once that force is assembled, we should compel Israel to withdraw all of its forces from Gaza and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). The new international force would take their place, with a mandate to stay there for the long haul, until stable, peaceful self-government can be established in an independent Palestine.
See “Curing What Ails the Middle East” at: https://artsforum.ca/ideas/in-depth
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