John Minto has written a first-rate article in the New Zealand Herald about the ridiculously one-sided American proposal for a Palestinian state. That’s a far more sensible approach than for example, his disgraceful wrecking of Auckland’s wonderful annual tennis tournament a few years back, by standing outside megaphoning cruel abuse at an innocent Israel teenage lass playing. It was following that disgrace when I dubbed him the Screaming Skull.
Rob Berg, President of the Zionist Federation of New Zealand, wrote a counter-argument on the same page.
Zionism, a Jewish word for Palestine, was utterly immoral. To claim ownership of a land (not a nation but part of the Roman Empire) Jews were forced from 2000 years ago, was simply outrageous. But what’s done is done and the status quo sensibly must now be acknowledged, which Minto tacitly does.
That said, the sad aspect of this situation is the Zionist founder Theordor Herzl, foresaw the potential problem and was open to alternatives for a Jewish state. That should have been pursued although not in Kenya as the Brits offered but in Paraguay, a lush land desperate for migration after a ludicrous war wiped out most of its male population. Imagine how rich that Jewish state would be today, without the massive waste of money on military primitiveness.
Rob Berg correctly claimed the Palestinians have always been belligerent towards any peace proposal. “The first war it (Israel) loses will be its last one,” he observed. Therein lies the problem.
The resistance to Israel is not just Palestinian, but to varying degrees is fanatical Islamic, and thus will not go away. Their sole goal is to wipe out Israel. All in all it’s an irresolvable terrible state of affairs for both factions.
Is there any hope?
I believe so. The nation-state is a relatively modern concept. New Zealand for example, is one of the oldest states out of the circa 200 existing, older indeed than Germany and Italy.
Mass travel, migration and internationalism is steadfastly weakening the concept of states as young travelers in particular wake up that people are all the same. Thus states are gradually becoming territorially administrative but otherwise losing their broader functions in any practical sense.
Hope to end this primitive stone age animosity lives in a borderless world and total freedom of movement. The trend is that way but it’s gradual and several life-times away.
But only when that occurs will the constant warfare Israel is immersed in cease. That said, they may not survive long enough to reach that nirvana.