It was disheartening to read Ralph E. Brooks’ commentary about the “occupation” of Palestinian lands by Israel (“Holocaust can’t justify occupation,” Sept. 4, pg. 10). Brooks should re-evaluate the impact and severity of his Holocaust-as-excuse remark and assume responsibility for a statement that disregards the memory and honor of victims of Nazi persecution and trivializes a period of extreme inhumanity.
To classify the Holocaust as a Jewish “excuse” validating Israeli actions serves no productive purpose, and adding that Jews supposedly broke their promise to God is demeaning. Rather than seeking to mitigate the strong words and sentiments already boiling over from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Brooks adds to the conflagration remarks that hint at carefully cloaked anti-Semitism.
If Brooks maintains that “the land remaining certainly belongs to the Palestinians,” he should consider the following two scenarios. Firstly, look at the Kingdom of Jordan (formerly Transjordan), which is also land that purportedly belongs to the Palestinians, and ask what productive steps Jordan has taken to facilitate the Palestinians’ call for self-determination. Secondly, consider the American occupation of Mexican and Native American lands, neither of which rightfully belongs to the descendants of Europeans who arrived here more than five centuries ago. We neither see the United States negotiating a “land for peace” treaty with Native American tribes nor do we see Presidents Bush and Fox concluding the return of the American Southwest to Mexico. If, as Brooks claims, Jews use the Holocaust as an excuse to occupy others’ lands, we should determine what “excuse” we as descendants of settlers to the New World used and continue to use as justification for our occupation. Should Israel be held to a higher standard with respect to territory won in war simply because it is a Jewish state? Will a revised edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion surface with claims of Israeli Manifest Destiny?
Furthermore, likening Jewish resistance fighters who strategically bombed the King David Hotel in opposition to British Mandate rule to Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers who strike human targets at random is unfortunate. Shall we now regard the British as “terrorists” for engulfing the Capitol and White House in flames during the War of 1812 and have the audacity to refer to the September 11th hijackers and perpetrators as “freedom fighters”?
It is noteworthy to add that today [September 5th] marks the 30th anniversary of the Munich Olympics tragedy when armed Palestinian terrorists penetrated the Olympic Village, took Israeli athletes hostage and blackened the games by ultimately executing the Israeli team. It would be difficult to find a comparable incident in which Israelis deliberately plotted and implemented a similar assault against innocent Palestinians. Nonetheless, both sides must assume responsibility for the significant and unfortunate losses of life incurred as a result of constant attacks and reprisals.
In order to seek a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, preconceived stereotypes held about Jews and Israelis must be abandoned and replaced with a genuine desire to reach a realm of objectivity. Just as Jews cannot be demeaned through accusations of using the Holocaust as justification, neither can certain Palestinian responses to their plight be given legitimacy by using Israeli “occupation” as their justification.
If Palestinians maintain that they are entitled to their own state, then they hopefully are so committed to that end that they will no longer tolerate the fact that a minority of their people dictate violent means as a platform for change. By displaying to the international community that their social, economic and political infrastructures (upon which they should concentrate their efforts) are worthy not only of recognition but of respect, Palestinians give their cause far greater weight than any campaign promoting their sons and daughters to martyrdom.
Until both sides shed their inherent mistrust of each other, and Palestinians embrace a brighter initiative, however, it is counterproductive to place the burden of a failing peace process solely upon Israel and extremely dangerous to characterize the Holocaust as anything other than a severe human tragedy.
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