Last week was the 69th anniversaries of the dropping of
the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I've never struggled much with
the morality of dropping the bomb. Less than a week after Nagasaki
Japan surrendered and the War in the Pacific was over. In March
before the bombing nearly 7,000 Americans lost their lives in the
invasion of Iwo Jima, a small island east of Japan. It is said that
the invasion of Japan would have cost 100,000 American GI lives.
Between 130,000 and 250,000 were killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
without doubt almost completely civilian, non-combatants. There was
no point to the bombing except to kill as many citizens of Japan as
possible in order to convince Japan to surrender and it worked.
Last week in a discussion about Israel Gaza with Jewish friends,
men of moderation I respect and like, the argument was made that
killing Palestinian civilians while not intended, collateral
to killing Hamas leaders, would convince the Palestinians to
give up Hamas and terrorism. My belief is that the death of three
Israeli civilians does not justify an invasion that killed 1800
people mostly civilians.
The argument that is strongest for me is my firm belief that
violence begets violence, that the abuse of the Palestinians stokes
hate on both sides and strengthens the hand of Hamas and any group
that resists Israel, and that the State of Israel cannot survive by
killing as many Palestinians as possible and depriving the survivors
of any human rights.
I have to admit it is not a rational argument that moves me
against the State of Israel, it is visceral. My visceral reaction is
based on the memory of the USS Liberty and the 34 American GIs killed
in the Israeli attack on the US Navy vessel monitoring the Six Day
War in 1967. My job in the Air Force one year later was the same as
the sailors, we monitored everybody, and I identified
closely with the Liberty sailors.
Around the same time I was in the UK when the Troubles
started in Northern Ireland in 1968. As an Irishman I identified
with the Palestinian victims of colonialism in an insoluble problem
similar to Northern Ireland. I grew up in the American spirit of
support of the new state of Israel and the hope it held for the Jews
of the world to finally have a homeland again. Later seeing the brutality
of the Zionists against the Arabs in the West Bank converted
me to a dissident to the Jewish occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
I stopped short of supporting the Palestinians, the PLO, the
Palestinian Authority or Hamas. I sent my check, the only thing I
could do, to Yesh Gvul, a group of Israeli soldiers resisting service
in the occupied territory.
The violence that created Israel was as much Arab as it was
Jewish, fundamentalists and nationalists on both sides justified
brutality in an intransigence that ended in stalemate that continues to this day. But if the violence in
Israel is to end it's the Israelis who have to end it. Unfortunately
there is no Palestinian Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King.
Things I know, judgments about right or wrong, the rights of
return for Israelis or Palestinians are not the basis of a solution.
While a large number of Americans acknowledge that the land grab and
genocide against the Indians was wrong, no one is considering giving
back anything our ancestors fought so hard to attain. They may have
been wrong but they are still heroes of the American imagination.
I know that a one state solution, where Jews would eventually be a
minority, is impossible for Israel to accept. I know that peace
between the two parties as they currently stand is impossible.
I believe if peace is ever going to happen between the
Palestinians and the Israelis, that the aggressive settlement of the
West Bank by Israelis has to stop. I believe that the Palestinians
living in the West Bank and Gaza have to be treated with respect and
their basic human rights respected. Important first steps would be
fair water rights for everyone in the West Bank and freedom from
harassment and violence. The Palestinians will have to accept that Israel can protect the
border of Israel Palestine and stop the inflow of weapons to be used
against Israel.
I believe the United State should stop supporting Israeli aggression and stop all military aid to Israel; and Egypt and Saudi Arabia while we're at it.
I don't know how the conflict between Arabs and Israelis in Israel
can ever be ended. But I do know that bombing and killing civilians
is the problem and not the solution. I also know that civilian
casualties on either side do not justify killing civilians in
revenge.
Both sides need to stop the senseless killing, stop the revenge
for past wrongs. Is it going to happen soon? No, but we need to
condemn the murder of civilians by both sides and stop our
unquestioning support for Israel to murder civilians. It's ironic
that there is more criticism of the Israeli government in Israel than
there is in the United States. In the United States we need to
discuss our support for Israel.
I think if Israel stays on its current path led by Netanyahu and
the Likud Government world opinion will eventually turn against
Israel, may have already done so, and Israel's brutality more than
anything else threatens the continued survival of Israel.
I started this essay with Hiroshima and Nagasaki because my argument is against violence but I have to admit to not having the same problem in a far worse killing of civilians. I think we have to acknowledge that we have different points of view even within ourselves and that this is not an easy topic to discuss. It is a discussion we have to have because what is happening now is not leading toward peace and the United States is an active partner in the problem.
