While there is no
doubt that Israel is an apartheid state and that I personally believe
an open and transparent democracy to be an optimum form of
government, I am also aware that there are circumstances under which
democracy fails to achieve the goals required.
In this case,
Israel was created specifically to be a sanctuary for Jewish people
so that Jews being persecuted unto death in other nations might have
a place to flee to rather than be turned away as so many Jewish
refugees were before and during WW2.
U.S. history does
not document it's failures well and one of those failures was the
refusal to allow Jewish refugees into the United States both before
and during WW2. I'll post a link about one such story.
Since the primary
purpose of the Jewish State of Israel is to create a sanctuary for
Jewish people the conversion of the current apartheid government to
an open and transparent democracy would prevent the nation from
achieving its one and only true purpose. Sanctuary.
If there ever
comes a time in the history of this world where people are no longer
violently bigoted against each other, then I would support the
concept of Israel becoming an open democracy. As long as national
leaders such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, as well as a list of
others much too long to post, continue to politicize antisemitism I
will support both the right of Israel to exist and the right of
Israel to maintain itself as an apartheid state.
The problem I see
is that international politics, as well as internal politics in the
United States, are trending to eliminating support of Israel on the
basis of apartheid. There are internal protests in Israel by Jewish
people who support the concept of an open democracy. There are those
in Israel who advocate for the establishment of a more open
immigration policy. Israel faces internal opponents to their
original purpose just as they face external opponents to the
political policies developed to achieve Israel's original purpose.
I don't believe
Israel can stand against the tide of international and internal
political opinion. I am of the opinion that Israel will probably
cease to exist as a Jewish Sanctuary State sometime in the next 100
years.
The original
terrorists or insurgents or freedom fighters who fought for an
independent Jewish State during and after World War 2 created
underground factories where they produced firearms and ammunition,
including an open bolt, fixed firing pin, blow back operated,
sub-machine gun called the Sten.
Israel is an
excellent example of what determined people can do when motivated by
an oppressive and even genocidal political system such as that which
occurred in Germany prior to World War Two.
That motivation is
gone from the minds of people today. People have replaced this
genocidal motivation for a Jewish Sanctuary with dreams of “peace,
love and good will towards all”. Others have maintained the dream
of an antisemitic Jewish genocide where the bane of their existence
is eliminated from the face of the Earth.
Growing up in a
Jewish neighborhood and having many Jewish friends and family I am
well aware that some Jewish people, like some “ugly americans”
and some people from many other cultures, can adopt an attitude of
superiority and condescension towards others. If one's only
experience, or the majority of memorable experiences, are with these
“ugly culture” individuals a person may categorize all of the
members of the culture as “ugly”. In fact, this happens often.
This
categorization is not a symptom of hatred, rather it is a symptom of
limited intellectual capacity. People make categories under which
they assign people based on their experiences, their education and
their intellectual capacity. No one is capable of infinite
categorization. Typically we categorize the people closest to us as
individuals. The farther from our personal orbit a person is, the
more likely they are to be categorized using some generalization or
generalizations.
There is usually
some truth to generalizations. For example, there is a
generalization that Blacks like watermelon. This is a true
generalization. People like watermelon is also a true
generalization. Blacks are people so Blacks like watermelon. There
is a caveat that not all people like watermelon and so not all Blacks
like watermelon. Every generalization has exceptions.
In psychology
there are several personality traits and many psychologists
differentiate between these personality extremes using either/or
categorization. A person is either this or that.
The theories of
personality traits depends on what is called a bi-modal distribution.
An individuals personality will 'rank” somewhere along this
bi-modal distribution. We could say that the total distribution is
twelve standard deviations long. Six standard deviations for each
end of the personality spectrum.
From reading and
conversations over the years with psychologists it is interesting to
listen to how they describe these personality traits. In my
experience psychologists use four categories, extreme trait, trait,
alternate trait, extreme alternate trait. Occasionally two other
categories will be added, mild trait and mild alternate trait.
Rarely do psychologists seem to add a seventh category of
“borderline”, meaning within the central tails between the traits
or a seventh and eighth category of extremely mild trait and
extremely mild alternate trait.
In a normal
distribution there should be just as many extremely mild traits as
there are extreme traits, yet, rarely do we hear psychologists speak
about individuals who fall in the center tails and probably exhibit
behavior attributes of both traits and alternate traits. These
“centrists” are probably the most confusing people for
psychologists to work with.
I explained all
that to explain why I believe that even the most educated and
experienced use a finite number of categorizations for people.
Politically I am a
centrist. I have very strong opinions on political issues. I am
opposed to the existence of prisons, but, I believe strongly in the
death penalty. I am pro-choice and pro-second amendment. I could go
on, but, I believe I have communicated that my opinions typically
balance each other such that I am neither a liberal not a
conservative, but, to many people on each side I appear to belong to
the other because they have a limited capacity for categorizing and
they place me in the category they choose. If a person of limited
intellectual capacity believes in the generalization that only
conservatives support the individual right to bare arms, I become a
conservative in their eyes. If a person believes that only a liberal
would be against the concept of prisons, I become a liberal in their
eyes.
If we accept that
all people have limited intellectual capacity and cannot create
infinite categories where each person is evaluated on an individual
basis, then we also assume that there are some criteria for inclusion
into these categories. There are some criteria which people believe
are “absolute”. This is “right” and that is “wrong”,
regardless of the individual involved.
The currently
popular anti-apartheid sentiment in the world is one such
“absolutist” criteria. Apatheid is “wrong”, regardless, and
must be eliminated.
In addition, some
people have an antisemitic absolutist criteria where Jews are “wrong”
and must be eliminated.
In addition, we
have some people who have an occupation absolutist criteria where any
nation which is occupying the land of another nation is “wrong”.
I could go on
listing these absolutist generalizations to explain how international
public opinion is turning against Israel based on these absolutist
generalizations, or stereotypes, or bigotries.
Where does
propaganda stop and discussion begin? What exactly is a fact? How
can the average person develop an opinion about what Israel is and
should be based on the conglomeration of propaganda, facts and
absolutist drivel designed to appeal to those of limited intellectual
capacity?
I just don't think
Israel can survive the political onslaught over the next hundred
years, unless, God takes a hand and delivers Israel. Will God accept
that Israel is faithful? What does that even mean? Who can
interpret the mind of God except God?
I can't predict
what God will do. I believe the actions of large groups of people
are fairly predictable though, and I believe international public
opinion will continue to build against Israel.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005267
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005267