The most important thing is not to fear at all

thearcanetheory:

proud-to-be-a-jew:

Israel has repeatedly offered territorial compromises, but Palestinians and other Arab leaders have consistently said no to establishing the first Palestinian state in history, as they did in 1937, 1947, 1979, 2000, and 2008 because it would have also meant accepting Jewish rights. Israel is in the West Bank because Palestinians have refused to make peace, terrorists from the area continue to endanger Israeli civilians, and Israel has no assurances that the Palestinian Authority can maintain law and order. In addition, Israel has legitimate claims to the land, in which is the heart of its ancestral homeland. When Palestinian leaders make establishing their own state a more important priority than destroying Israel-which will unfortunately never happen-there can be compromises that will lead to a peaceful coexistence. 

I’m sorry, but this is just completely wrong.

For one thing, you are blaming the party with less power for their own continued oppression and occupation. That’s just…wrong! Israel is the party with more power and resources, Israel is the one occupying the West Bank, and to pretend that the ball isn’t in Israel’s court is disingenuous.

Technically speaking, Israel can pull up, pull out, build itself a Berlin Wall around the entirety of the Green Line and have done. Not that that’s recommended, because there is no surer way to strangle the Palestinian people and economy, but to say Israel has no choice? No.

Second, you are glossing over some very real current and historical complexities, including lack of political unity in both Israeli and Palestinian governments. This will, and has, result in contradictory and counter-productive security policies, on either side. Go ahead and Google that for more details.

Third, the Jewish people do indeed have legitimate claim to that area. Some settlements there now actually long pre-date the formulation of the state and were only ethnically cleansed of their Jewish population during the Jordanian occupation from 1948 to 1967. Some of the holiest sites of Judaism are located there. And you know what?

THAT DOESN’T MATTER. Because the Palestinians have just as strong a claim, and their claim also doesn’t stop at the Green Line either. Why does our claim trump theirs? (newsflash, it doesn’t.) If you want to see peace, if you want to see two states, that means doing things like, you know, accepting that the Palestinians have equal claim, equal rights, and a whole bunch of other things that will get you to the bare minimum threshold of “decent human being.” It definitely means quitting the occupation and constant oppression and repression, which is such a stain on the record of the Jewish people, I don’t even have words for it.

Finally, your personal politics do NOT belong on the Jewish tags. (If it’s true of anti-Israel sentiments, then it’s true for pro-Israel sentiments as well!) Please put them in the Israel-Palestine tags, where they belong. Those tags exist for a reason.