Through the Jerusalem Bus Station checkpoint I went, into the shiny new multi-level shopping mall and amongst the sparkling shops. We descended from the station and into the wide highway, west through the Holy Land, this Israeli Palestine, through the darkened blanket of its heartland towards Ben Gurion. The Towers of Tel Aviv glimmered in the distance like jewelry, a mountain of gold in a sacred wedge of the world, a sapphire in the crown of Zionism, a sparkling rock accenting the treasure trove for the Star of David; marker of the Promised Land. Or perhaps, stake in the heart of Arabia, plundered gold from the sands of the desert people, loot of bullion pirated from longtime occupiers. Set in this keep, the fortress of Zion, perched on the Mediterranean while the armies go forth again to rebuild the walls. More concrete dividers. State of the Art Security.

Executive First Class was the ticket and I laid back in my comfy chair sipping Hennessy as the A340 began its Rolls Royces, commencing a sine wave from the convergence of the Three Continents, cauldron of cultures, crossroads of religion and civilization, to the frozen wastes of Eastern Canada. A hotspot to a cold spot. My mind kicked into fifth gear.

The entire process seems baffling to me. The Israelis, with their interest in destroying land links between major Palestinian towns, aren't really stopping the Palestinians from getting to where they want to go, but merely slowing them down. Surely if the Israelis -wanted- to stop the Palestinians from getting around, they could, and could do it efficiently. So why are they going at it in this half-assed, lackadaisical manner? Sort of bulldozing Palestinian roads, sort of of blocking off neighbourhoods, but not really caring if the areas they block off are actually blocked off. It's like they're toying with them. It's like they're not sure what to do about the Palestinians. It's sort of like indecision, and a lack of conviction on exactly the direction to go.

The problem with wading into the Israel-Palestine morass is that you're bound to anger and disappoint people with your conclusions, no matter what they are. People are that divided on the problem. For me, I try to stay neutral on these things and look at the broader picture. the Palestinians do live a third-world lifestyle in a first-world country, and what is happening in the West Bank is indeed apartheid.

But one thing I always try to do when travelling is understand the justification that all sides have for doing what they do. I cannot entirely believe that the Israelis are just doing all this stuff because they are Bad People. Most soldiers I met, as well as all of the teenagers carting around their M-16s in their army uniform but more interested in their cellphone, seemed to be relatively decent human beings. How can they justify this apartheid?

The only justification I can think of, and again this is not that I agree with it, is that every conflict and annexation of land by Israel was instigated by a neighbouring state. It was the Arab forces that attacked Israel first, and it was the Arabs who weren't tactically strong enough to actually succeed in their offensives. The Israelis, who I will admit are expansionist and Imperalist by nature(who wouldn't want a few more hundred kilometres of land to terraform?), have used these opportunities to increase the size of their nation. To the Victor go the Spoils, right?

Of course, simply taking what isn't yours, even if it can be justified through your own self defence, flies in the face of Geneva Conventions, Human Rights Conventions, and UN Resolutions. Back in the old days, before the end of World War 2, all of this would have been okay. But in the post-war world of fairness and human rights, and the venerated 'right of return' that Palestinians underline in the Declaration of Human Rights(which guarantees that all people are entitled to return and live in their homeland), this shouldn't be happening.

But it is. And it's mostly because of Israel's large foreign backers that they are allowed to persist at this. Ideally, the Arab states wouldn't have abhorred Israel so much when it was created, to attack it. Or Ideally, the Arab armies wouldn't have been so inept as to attack Israel five times and fail -all five times- in their offensives. And let's not forget that without some diplomacy in the 70's, Israel might have stretched all the way to the Suez canal. The Arabs made a bad situation for themselves(the existence of Israel) worse with their offensives(annexed land and an oppressed minority). And the Palestinians, with their violent rebellion against the Israeli occupiers, simply exacerbate the problem.

The Palestinians are caught, then, by simply rolling over to the will of Israel, or continued violent rebellion knowing that it will make the situation worse before it makes it better. In many ways, the Arab world is as much to blame for the Palestinian mess as the Israelis - on the front lines, these towns have been occupied by Israel and they seem undecided as to how to deal with the Palestinians.

Israel is taking what they want from the West Bank and Gaza, and pushing the Palestinians into ghettos. Yes, it's "their land", but at this point the losing nation can't really dictate what the winner does with his or her land. Perhaps a less sympathetic person could call the Arab states sore losers. Perhaps the Palestinians should just stop their rebellion and integrate with the Israelis - they wouldn't mind that, surely. But the Palestinians want their own nation and refuse to integrate with Israel.

This is why the service taxis bump along muddy roads and are not allowed to use Israeli roads - if they used Israeli roads, they would be admitting that they are a part of Israel. They would rather live in squalor, in fenced-off towns, counted by head at Checkpoints, than be issued Israeli passports. They want their own nation, they want to live in an Arab state. Perhaps they didn't want the wars to turn out like they did.

But the Israelis too live under constant checks, in gated communities, in perpetual paranoia. They may have more freedom of movement than the Palestinians, but Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights are very much closed-off forts focused on their own defence and self sufficiency. Both societies live in fear.

Can I offer a solution? Not really. I don't even know if a viable Palestinian state is possible at this point. Israel has stopped building new settlements in the West Bank, but damned if they will remove their current ones. I've seen those synagogues, those apartment blocks, the roads and infrastructure -where they are now, they're not going anywhere. So you end up with a partitioned West bank and a slightly partitioned Gaza Strip. For anything to work, you need to forget about the Right of Return clause in the Human Rights declaration, it's simply not going to happen. Compromises must be made on both sides, which is quite difficult in a place where both sides hate each other so much.

To be fair, the Arab states -should- be the ones doing the compromising. But their steadfast hatred of Israel, both at the level of government and population, denies them this. to the victor go the spoils, right? Israel won five wars over its Arab neighbours, it gets to say what does and does not fly. However the ego and pride inherent would never allow any of these people to let that happen.

So what, eventually, will be called Palestine? The Israelis, by my conclusion, don't want to commit genocide on the Palestininan people. But they aren't just going to let them roam around and take their land back. Palestine might possibly be merely a small collection of city-states criss-crossed with Israeli roads and a few settlements. 100% of the West Bank returned to Palestine is highly unlikely, and Israel would never go for it. Israel was attacked in 1967, and it repelled the attack, and annexed territory in the process. Israel sits on the top of the heap, it gets to say what does and does not happen.

Yes, too bad for the Arabs. Too bad, especially, for the Palestinians. They are the ones that must put up with this apartheid and slow erosion of territory. But the Arabs made their bed, and now they must lie in it. It is not unfair to say that the current problem of Palestine and Gaza was created by the Arab states, is it? After all, if they had never attacked Israel, the West Bank would still be Jordan and Gaza would still be Egypt.

Such are my thoughts on the matter. I may or may not be wrong. Emotions run so high over this issue that it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a balanced opinion between what should and should not happen, who's right, who's wrong. I honestly don't think anyone is innocent in this situation. Yes, the Palestinians are an opressed people. Yes, the Israelis are a bunch of Imperialist and opportunistic Zionists. Yes, the Palestinians live much worse than the Israelis. Yes, the Israelis are arrogant and have no respect for the territory of their neighbours. Yes, all of it is a big mess.

It is not so much paradoxical as exceedingly complex. The magic word, "Compromise", is a piece of vocabulary that simply does not exist here. So what does that mean?

Continuing bloodshed, the escalation of bitter feelings, and no end in sight. Perhaps if all sides can learn that word, and realize that the outcome of negotiation must include such a thing, this bitter and divided conflict can finally be sealed as merely another chapter in a timeless region's brutal history.

-Januar 2003





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* A full account of my visit to this country is available in my yet to be published book, Means To An Exit. If you are an agent or publisher and would like to receive an outline and manuscript, please Contact Me.