Well, I've finally decided to weigh in on the thorny perpetual conflict between Israel and Palestine. While I have historically sided more with Israel, I have to agree with many of my fellow Leftists that Israel has really gone too far this time. But, as is frequently the case when I feel the need to blog about something, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY is missing the main contributing factor in the conflict. There are no clean hands on either side, but there is an overriding, overlooked cause.
Religion? Yes, that's a big one, but it's not being overlooked.
Historical claim to the land? Yes, but again, that one is also frequently cited.
The primary cause being overlooked is - CLOSED BORDERS.
Yes. Closed borders. It's not sexy or obvious, but it's true. Because when people are not allowed to leave somewhere, their economic prospects are limited, and everyone in that area suffers as a result.
Say you're a young Palestinian man living in Gaza. You want a good job? Good luck. There aren't any good jobs available. You might find good paying work if you went to a different Arab country. But will any Arab countries let you in? No! Because that would make too much sense, of course. How dare people leave Palestine to get a good job with better pay which they can then wire home to help support extended family and improve the lives of everyone in the region. How dare they want to work in a country where the language is similar and their job prospects are therefore better!
Why bar the Palestinians from leaving? Primarily it's because the rest of the Arab world is scared shitless that those Palestinians will refuse to come back. They'll have built better lives for themselves, and won't want to return to the ghettos they escaped. And, most importantly, every Palestinian that leaves is considered a winning vote for Israel, and a step closer to Israel's domination of the entire region.
No, the Arab world refuses to consider any solution to the Palestinian crisis except one: Trap the Palestinians in the region and force them into having no other choice but to invade Israel.
Of course, one might as well wish for the moon. Short of nuking the entire region, Israel isn't going anywhere. But that doesn't prevent the closed door policy of the Arab world from being just as immovable.
And all Palestinians pay the price for this stupidity.
So what is a Palestinian person to do if he wants a better life? Well, according to the propaganda the Arab nations constantly pipe in, he must arm himself and attack Israel. It's the only way.
Now, as impossibly stupid as that faith-based bullshit is, it overlooks the fact that one nation that was wise enough to open its borders to give Palestinians better pay and good, permanent employment. That nation, in fact, has had a running policy of employing Palestinians to better their lives.
Yes! That nation is Israel! The ONE nation that has given Palestinians a better shot at life is the one nation the extremists keep firing make-shift missiles into!
Again, you have to have religion to be that stupid.
Not Egypt. Not Jordan. Not Lebanon, Iraq or Syria. Israel.
Now, Israel has been brutally attacked by a hopelessly impossible assault yet again. Only this time, the assault was bigger and better planned than ever before. And the retaliation to that attack has predictably been just as ruthless. In fact, it's as ruthless Israel's currently extremist government will allow. It has made the conscious decision that if Hamas militants are hiding behind innocent civilians, those civilians are forfeit. It's harsh, it's brutal, it's ethically dicey at best, and it needs to stop. Many of my friends on the Left are screaming that this amounts to ethnic cleansing, and they're not wrong.
But here's the thing: Egypt could save millions of their fellow Arabs if they just open up the damned border and allow them to park their keesters in a HUGE FUCKING UNUSED DESERT so that they won't get killed!
And will they? Even now? NO! Because they are still too irrationally terrified that any Palestinians who leave will stay gone!
In my book, watching your own people get run over by tanks, and doing nothing when you had the opportunity to help them flee, is just as bad as running them over with tanks yourselves.
Fuck! Egypt!
The borders must open! Palestinians must be allowed to flee the BOMBS, for fuck's sake! And they need to make encampments where food, water, and medicine can flow in freely. Egypt is simply, plainly, not helping by keeping the borders closed! Neither is Jordan, for that matter.
They are every bit as complicit in this admittedly horrible genocide.
Also, I must point out that Hamas is, even now, STILL firing make-shift missiles into Israel. And once again, you need religion in order to be that goddamned stupid.
That's me laying the blame. NOW hear me lay out a solution. And it's so crazy it just might work. So hear me out.
First, everyone calls for a two-state solution. And that sounds great, but it's simply unrealistic. Ask a Palestinian child where they're from, and they'll likely name a town or village way on the other side of the border, deep inside Israel. Why insist on such a foolish narrative? Because that's their faith-based bullshit, that's why! And so long as that situation remains (which is forever, by the way), Palestine can never be an independent state. No matter what non-militarization treaties are in place, a free Palestinian state today will militarize tomorrow and be invading Israel by June.
If a two-state solution were even remotely possible, it would have been done by now. But it isn't. So it hasn't.
So what do we do? Let Israel continue to occupy the territories? That hasn't worked out so well, either. Because Israel isn't really "occupying" Gaza. Oh, it's been encroaching into the West Bank for years, but Gaza, not so much. And the Palestinians living in those areas have been allowed to go pretty much unfettered, which is why the networks of tunnels and systems of smuggling in weapons have gotten so sophisticated over the years. "Occupying" a territory takes a lot of police presence, risk, and money. And Israel has limited supplies of all these.
So here's my suggestion:
Make Gaza and Palestine permanent protectorates of the United Nations. The U.N. can rule Gaza and the West Bank, administer passports, build airports, roads, infrastructure as possible and/or needed, and help distribute foreign aid. And best of all, it will help guarantee that weapons are not smuggled in. Or, if they are, that they are found and neutralized before use.
And Israel's extremist factions won't be able to use Hamas as an excuse to slaughter civilians anymore. Because they won't be the ones calling the shots.
I mean, what do we even have a United Nations for, otherwise?
It will be painful at first. Many nations will call it a boondoggle. But as Palestine prospers under this forced peace, people's lives will eventually improve. And as they do, the peace will gradually become more and more permanent.
The best way to avoid militant extremism is make sure the potential militants have full bellies and ample bank accounts.
It's the only thing that ever works.
Oh, and a note to my fellow Leftists who are being all pro-Palestinian right now: I guarantee you that you are simply planting the seeds of more future war. I simply know too much about Islam to say otherwise. If you succeed in building a Palestinian state, you will get wars, wars, and even more wars, and it will be your own, dumbass, damned, naive fault. I'm not saying that you shouldn't oppose genocide. But don't buy the narrative that the Palestinian cause is so holy and just. And don't lay all the blame on Israel, either. There's a reason Israel has been attacked, and attacked, and attacked. And it's not because Palestinians simply want to live in peace.
So knock it the fuck off with your naive bullshit.
So that's my two-pronged solution. 1) Fuck Egypt, force them to open their borders and give Palestinians a way out, then 2) give Gaza and the West Bank over to U.N. rule.
A perfect solution? Hell, no. But I dare you to come up with a better one.
Eric
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