By George Polley – Sapporo, Japan
On April 24 of this year, blogger “the elder of ziyon” wrote the following comment about Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor’s earlier speeches to the UN General Assembly: “It is really compelling to hear someone tell the truth in a hall of lies.” Little did he know that on November 29, Mr. Prosor would finally tell the truth about Israel’s intentions: “The Palestinians must recognize the Jewish State and they must be prepared to end the conflict with Israel once and for all. . . As for the rights of Jewish people in this land, I have a simple message for those people gathered in the General Assembly today, no decision by the U.N. can break the 4,000-year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel.”
There it is, in all its naked ugliness, what so many have known all along: To Israel, anyone who is not Jewish has no rights at all, and every square inch of what they define as “the land of Israel”, will be theirs. East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, every last inch, he said “is ours”. Period. End of discussion. I found the revelation breathtaking. Finally, one of Israel’s chief propagandists, admitting the utter, devastating truth. It was classic self-righteous abusive behavior of a lifelong abuser justifying his behavior in public and defying anyone to take issue with it.
In my long experience in the mental health field, this is behavior that I have seen over and over again as an abusive boyfriend, spouse or parent justifies his or her monstrous behavior. Everything would be just fine if “they” would “behave themselves” and follow his “gentle”, “peaceful” guidance. And everyone who knows the real story, knows the abuser is lying in his teeth.
How can the US justify supporting this, as UN Ambassador Susan Rice did, saying that “Today’s unfortunate and counterproductive resolution places further obstacles in the path of peace”? It is classic cynicism in which, without realizing it, she echoes what Mr. Prosor said about Israel’s intentions: “Today’s grand pronouncements will soon fade and the Palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives has changed save that the prospects of a durable peace have only receded.” Astounding! She tells the Palestinian residents of the West Bank, Golan Heights, Gaza and even Israel’s own Palestinian citizens that they have no alternative at all but accepting the “deal” that Mr. Prosor so unwittingly announced to the world: Roll over, play dead, and go away. The “land of Israel”, which “we” have a 4,000 year bond to, is ours, and We. Will. Take. It. All.
What can the Palestinian people and the rest of us do in the face of such naked tyranny? Resist it, call it out over and over and over again. Let the Israeli’s know that it is they who have sunk their own ship by making a “two state solution” impossible, and putting themselves in a position that is so untenable and unacceptable to anyone with even a shred of decency and justice could stomach that it is they that have destroyed Israel as a Jewish state by declaring that anyone not Jewish is unwelcome. “But we treat everyone well,” they say. Really? Ask just about anyone who is not Jewish, or not white and Jewish, and we hear a different story, if we can’t see it with our own eyes by just walking about in the land.
Tell Mr. Prosor’s truth-revealing story again and again by way of showing people what an impossible predicament this places Palestinians in, and how criminal behavior and rhetoric is in its violence and self-justification. “Peace is a central value of Israeli society,” Mr. Prosor said; “The bible calls on us (to) “seek peace and pursue it. Peace fills our art and poetry. It is taught in our schools. It has been the goal of the Israeli people and every Israeli leader since Israel was reestablished 64 years ago,” this truth-teller went on to claim, and by so doing opened himself and his country to verifiable attack on every single word he spoke.
Chronic abusers almost never own up to their abusive behavior until, faced with the stripping away of their façade, they crumble. Will Israel crumble, begin to admit their wrongs and open themselves to changing into a truly democratic state where all people are treated with respect and live side by side in peace . . . or will it do as some abusers do, lash out in a final Masada-like suicidal act? For some time I’ve been saying that Israel is on a suicidal course that, if not intervened with, could end in a massive conflagration of rage and pain. I am not alone in saying this.
Our work is cut out for us. Perhaps it will be somewhat easier, now that the world knows what Israel is really up to.
-George Polley is a novelist based in Sapporo, Japan. He contributed this article to PalestineChornicle.com.
Excellent article!! Thank you.
Why the world has not woken up to these lies years ago, I always said israel will not be happy till they get all they want.
Have you heard some of the lies that Arab leaders tell about their being no connection at all between Jewish people and the Land of Israel. How does Prosor stating a 4,000 year bond equate to no rights for anyone else. Is the bond between Israel and the Jews news to you or to anyone in the world who reads history? Why are you not in melt-down over Hamas stating that they want Jews out of all of the Land of Israel, from the river to the sea? If it’s so terrible for minorities in Israel, how come none of them want to leave and in fact African MUSLIM refugees try to get to Israel, not to an Arab country to live. All food for thought George, assuming this gets published.
I find it interesting, Mo, that you seem not to know about news reports on the way African Jewish refugees are treated in Israel, or the way that Palestinian citizens, with 2nd class citizenship, are given 2nd class treatment. All these things have been reported in the news media, and in reports from people living there. Do you deny these things? If you do, please supply some proof. Non-Jews are not treated the same as Jews, beginning with not having the same class of citizenship. Sorry, Mo, but what you say simply does not wash with reality. And as for the 4,000 year connection between the Jewish people and Palestine (“the land of Israel”), for most of today’s Jews, that would be very difficult to prove, as most of their ancestors did not come from there.