Jerry Slater has a unique way of looking at the terrible situation in Israel/Palestine, inspired by Jonathan Swift: What if the Situation Were Reversed? He writes:
There has been growing outrage at Israel’s attack on
Gaza. It is hard to understand this
entirely unfair and one-sided criticism once you understand the wider
context.
Why do so many commentators forget that since 1967 the Palestinians have occupied Israel; colonized it with
settlers; invaded it a number of times, killing, wounding, or otherwise
destroying the lives of thousands of Israelis, including women and
children; assassinated its leaders (including those democratically elected by
the Israeli people); repeatedly attacked its political, security, and civic
institutions; deliberately attacked its schools and universities; closed its
trade and commerce with the outside world; bombed its roads and bridges;
destroyed much of its electrical power system; imposed severe restrictions on
Israeli drinking and agricultural water;
prevented thousands of farmers from reaching their lands and orchards;
disrupted its private and public health systems; surrounded Jewish areas with
checkpoints and military outposts; built Palestinian-only roads that the Jews
are not permitted to use; humiliated the Israelis in a variety of ways on a
nearly daily basis–and more?
Even so, it may be argued, the Israelis should never have
unleashed their inaccurate rockets against Palestinian town. For such actions
are justly labeled as terrorism, even though only a few Palestinians have
been killed. And terrorism—deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against
civilians—is rightly condemned by everyone, no matter how justified the cause
(the end of the Palestinian occupation of the Israelis and the creation of a
genuinely independent Jewish state), or how long the history of the failure of
every other alternative.
Still, in our heart of hearts, do we really mean that all
terrorism is equally to be condemned?
Isn’t the thought going to occur: What are the poor Israelis to do,
given the vast military power of the Palestinians as compared to their own
meager resources, not to mention the enormous economic, military, and
diplomatic assistance given to Palestine by its unwavering and entirely
uncritical ally, the United States, the world’s only superpower?
Alright: Consider a purely hypothetical
counterfactual. Suppose the situation were
reversed, and it was Israel that was actually the occupying power, the
oppressor, the impoverisher, the assassinator, and so on? In those circumstances, wouldn’t the
civilized world be increasingly outraged at Israel’s behavior?
Of course, I understand that this may seem
preposterous, since it is impossible to imagine that a Jewish state—a Jewish
state!—could ever behave in such a manner.
Still, it may be that such a “thought experiment” could be useful.
