The fact that Jerusalem has been destroyed and rebuilt so
many times in its long history just proves the strength of the city and its
people. In Chapter 17 it discusses to some extent the “what ifs” that I have
been asking myself. What if the Arab nations all treated the Palestinian and Israeli
conflict similarly and gave all the refugees similar treatments? Would there
have been an alternate turn of events than it is today? If Jerusalem would have
been the capital of Palestine how would that have changed or altered the
relationship of the Palestinians and Israelis today? Oversimplifying the issue
seems to be something that many of us take part in today, especially as U.S
citizens. Accounts of struggle and conflict occur on both sides of the issue
and presenting it in terms of villains and heroes is not realistic and accurate.
Being able to overcome the ideological divisions within their own movement, the
Zionists were obviously more fortunate impart because the Arab nationalist
movement in Palestine lacked some extent of coherence or ability to deal with
the Europeans and Zionists at the same time. When mentioned that Lord Balfour didn’t
notice, “ the streets of Arab Jerusalem were shuttered and silent and that
black flags of mourning hung in the suq” was this believed to be a pivotal reason
riots arised in the 1920 riots?
I agree that many people on either side of the conflict have the problem of oversimplifying the situation. As Dr. Quigley said this morning, we cannot trust what others say about the issue. Each individual must do his/her own research on the issue in order to come up with their own conclusion.
ReplyDeleteReferencing the idea that many Americans oversimplify the Israel/Palestine conflict; many Americans seem to imagine that the Israelis and Palestinians are locked in perpetual conflict across all of the Palestinian territories. Unfortunately, many people have no concept of how Israeli relations with Fatah and Hamas are different or that the vast majority of violent engagements currently occur in Gaza. This point does raise a vital question; how much should the average American be expected to know about this conflict. This question is hard to answer, but I believe that every American should know enough about Israel's conflict with the Palestinians so that they can fairly argue their stance regarding U.S. aid to Israel.
ReplyDelete