Israel vs. The World

Following a thread from Allah (now the newly anointed Allahpundit – fix your links please) I found this over at LGF.

Most of the comments are blasting Israel for being pushovers and giving into the demands of the PLO and their various terrorist factions.

Obviously anyone capable of murdering a baby at point blank range should be severely tortured and killed, but I don’t see how fair it is to blame Israel for the constant brutality of the Palestinian terrorist mentality.

One day Sharon is being skewered for being bloodthirsty and ruthlessly killing Hamas members, which invariably means sustaining collateral damage within the regular Palestinian community, and the next he is basically being called a pussy. The “national identity” crisis that was being repeated by lots of people in that thread is much easier identified than it is understood.

Israel’s situation is more complex than the average lay person can imagine. We are dealing with a scenario that changes from day to day, and depends on so many outside factors, that to make a concrete game plan (or peace plan for that matter) and stick with it, is almost impossible.

I can’t speak for the whole of the Israeli population, but as someone who has discussed at great lengths the situation with current and past Israeli citizens, as well as my own Jewish family members, it isn’t so black and white. As a born Jew, I am constantly at war with the instinctual need to feel overly protective and fight for self-preservation, while maintaining the need to see the whole picture. As any group who has been persecuted for thousands of years will tell you, the will to survive and the paranoia of being judged for your faith is a strong force to reckon with.

But conversely, within the Jewish faith lies the very beguiling power of revenge, Jews are also taught to individually overcome that desire and instead TRY to understand the enemy and appease their needs as well. A dichotomy of ideologies are consistently at work. Revenge vs. empathy – try reconciling that.

Israel is surrounded by enemies – no other country on earth is so precariously perched to receive pummeling by its every border. They are pressured to show restraint, while simultaneously defend themselves against an enemy that is entrenched deeply within its core. An enemy that sees only the destruction of Israel to be its only option for survival.

To say that this is a conflict of the most biblical proportions is an understatement – Israel vs. The World is a more accurate depiction. And what is worse is that the true cross that Israel must bear is Israel vs. Itself. The constant battle to do what’s right, fair and just against an enemy that is unwilling to play by the rules.

We all can related to that struggle I believe.

The United States government may consider itself a staunch ally of Israel, but the truth be told, it is its biggest enemy. Just when Israel has made a decision on what it must do to end this conflict (and making decisions seems to be the hardest thing for that country to do) the U.S. steps in and tells them something else, once again throwing their resolve into a tailspin.

If the U.S. wanted to show support and truly help Israel, it would shut up, sit down and say “We trust you Israel, do what you must do to find peace in your land.”

I don’t much see that happening. We here in the U.S. are much better at giving advice than we are at taking it.