Israel’s Wall of…Humanity maybe?

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Israel’s wall from the perspective of Palestinians very badly affected by it and termed it Israel’s wall of apartheid. Well, an excellent article in today’s NY Times by a Muslim Yale student gives the other side of that story http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/18/opinion/18manji.html.

As Irshad Manji says, “Since the barrier went up, suicide attacks have plunged, which means innocent Arab lives have been spared along with Jewish ones. Does a concrete effort to save civilian lives justify the hardship posed by this structure? The humanitarian in me bristles, but ultimately answers yes.”

Ms. Manji notes that the Israeli government allows civil lawsuits by aggrieved Palestinians and that Ariel Sharon himself agreed to reroute sections of it when the Israel High Court ruled in favor of the complainants.

Now this objectivity from an educated member of the aggrieved class certainly leads upwards to a higher truth. While I was already aware of the other side of the coin, perhaps I underestimated the havoc of suicide bombers and its utter uncontrollability by about any means short of that horrid wall.

Therein lies the rub, for I still believe that the wall will fall well short of providing long term security without the powers in control addressing the underlying root cause of bombers’ desire to sacrifice themselves. That desire stems from the unjust dis-enfranchisement of native Palestinians from land they lived on for thousands of years.

As I have long said, this is a situation wherein it appears that all sides have just cause: the Jewish people needing a post-holocaust homeland, AND the Palestinians…[just what is the HIGHEST TRUTH here—were they evicted back in 1948 in an unjust war, did they merely flee from fear of being killed by the armed Zionists, or did they voluntarily leave at the behest of other Arab countries who allegedly promised to return them in a later attack (this is a common Israeli argument)—I just don’t know]…who were displaced in the making of that homeland.

One thing I truly believe is that the Jewish people around the world along with those living in Israel want nothing more than peace. Above all, they want a secure and safe country, and even within Israel there is much distress about the methods used to attain that security. Most are eager to see a stable Palestinian state; many others, out of sincere empathy and desire for the highest justice, decry their government’s aggression towards Palestinians. This reflects the moral objectivity, compassion and empathy that infuses a people who themselves have suffered so much.

I shall keep trying to search for the highest truth. In the meantime I will pray for all.


RFD 3/19/06