A Parable about Israeli Foreign Policy
A
guy moves into town. He’s never lived in a house before, doesn’t feel
all that comfortable there and dedicates himself to proving he is a good
neighbor. To earn good will, he says yes to all requests. The kids in
the park adjoining his house want to get into his backyard to get balls
they threw over the fence. He opens his gate and just to be nice he
offers them drinks of water. He starts leaveing water in the yard for
them.
One
day he comes home from the store to find a baseball game in his back
yard, The kid playing outfield is trampling on his flowers. He
experiences a flash or irritation but then look what a good neighbor he
is, The kids like him. Probably their parents also do, he assures
himself
“ Hey Mister,” a kid yells “ The water’s gone.”
Before the man has a chance to refill the pitcher, they notice the soda in is shopping bag. “I don’t like water. Gimme soda”.
And
the man does just that. Before long he is giving snacks and then meals
to all of the people in the park, and then the streets near it.
Teenagers camp out on his land at night. I’m a good neighbor he virtue
signals to himself.
Years
pass. The time before the man lived in the house is a distant memory.
The man, despite his generosity, still believes the house is his. The
rest of the town isn’t that sure.
The
man notices that people aren’t as nice to him as they should be. He
grumbles to his wife. One day he comes home do find a campfire in his
backyard, a broken door and several windows smashed. Enough is enough.
“Get
off of my F***ing land. Now! This minute”“ The kids look at him with
smugly.” “ Your land? your house? This house is part
of the park. Who told you , you could live here anyway? You get out.”
A
mother wanders over, “You want to cause trouble?” she asks. “ Unless
you want more broken windows do not mess with the status quo.”
Everybody
knows there is something wrong with a man like this. Shouldn't this
logic extend to a country. Why would a country do that same thing with
it’s land, again and again and again.. Why would a country make
agreements whose terms were not kept and do the same thing again? Why
would this country keep its end of a deal whern the other side stopped
long ago? - In the 1989 Taif agreement, Lebanon was to establish a
democratic government in exchange for withdrawal and failed to. Israel
initiated withdrawal despite this. In the Oslo accords Israel agreed in
principal to two states and Palestinian agreed to stop inciting and
recognize the Jewish state. Israel continued to support the two state
solution despite Palestinian incitement) Looking back many Israelis
know they were screwed royally, when Israel withdrew unilaterally from
Gaza and parts of Judea and Samaria. Why would any country keep
repeating the mistake. And if they did, why would they be surprised when
people expected them to continue doing this or called their holiest
place on earth “The status quo”
Imagine
a group of people walking around with signs that say “You can take
advantage of me.” Would you expect others, out of some odd moral
sense,to refrain? or would they laugh at the jerks, then push and push
and see how much they could get? Would you be surprised if others made
fun of these people and made more and more demands?
No
great shock. That’s human nature. Is it human nature, however, for the
sign carriers to, even after all this, do everything possible to get the
approval of people who clearly can’t stand them? If a fight broke
out, is it human nature for them, after their noses are bleeding, to
deliberate before hitting back because the people who can’t stand them
might not like them?
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