Violence is Its Own Reward

Many Progressives have a strange and convoluted approach to Israeli foreign policy. Somehow, they manage to link Israeli motives to American ones and then demonstrate that such aims can only arrive to a negative conclusion. The latest demonstration of this is today's article byIra Chernus, The Wages of Fear in Israel and the U.S.. Posted in Tomdispatch.com.

“When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews; you are talking anti-Semitism." Dr. Martin Luther King said shortly before his death. Many Muslims substitute Zionist for Jew, because they wish to avoid being labeled as opposed to the Jewish human being's right to exist. They claim they attack political [Zionist] Jews and not human beings who happen to be of the Jewish faith. This distinction is lost when a bus is demolished or Yeshiva students are gunned down.

Chernus argues the Israelis and the Americans share an unreasoning fear. Since both possess a huge advantage in conventional weapons, he claims they are in a good position to wage peace. The Americans have lost three land wars in Asia as hostilities continue without an indication of wisdom from any of the parties involved. From 1967 Israelis have learned that victory in warfare does not guarantee peace. The treaties with Egypt [1978] and Jordan [1988] occurred only after the leadership of those nations agreed that violence avails nothing.

The Israeli wall-building, blockades, settlements construction and unilateral withdrawals have had little - if any - effect on the prospects for peace. As long as Palestinians hold out for a military victory, the clouds of war will not drift away.