Letters | Sunday, 15 March 2009

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Brazen hierocracy

The more I read the writings of Rabbi Pollina (MaltaToday 22nd February) the more I understand why it is so difficult to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East.
To me Pollina represents the present conundrum that Israel finds itself after last month’s elections. Nowhere in his article does he mention the two-state solution; instead his arguments remind one of the fundamentalist Rabbis in Israel who advocate and preach that there should only be a Jewish State.
To him, the Palestinians never owned any land. Therefore the systematic ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians is justified because the land they used to live in belonged to the Jews.
He even argued that this is proven by 3,000 years of history: a tradition which provided ancient society with a common past, but which is very different from the critical analysis by contemporary intellectual historians. Truth is judged by archeological and historical evidence and not by the use of myths or origin and recurring motifs.
I advise Rabbi Polina to read the works of Biblical theologians Thomas Thompson and Philip Davies, as well as Niels Peter Lemche, a famous biblical scholar at the University of Copenhagen.
Pollina even had the temerity to call me dishonest because I published a map that showed the land on which millions of Palestinians used to live, and now occupied by Israelis. He said nothing about how, since l947, the Zionists fulfilled this ‘historical’ mission by the forced removal of Palestinians using horrendous violence and destruction.
Let me remind Rabbi Polina that since the ‘birth’ of Israel the Zionists were responsible for these massacres on Palestinians:
Between 1947 and 1953, the massacres of Sheikh, Abu Shusheh; Tanturn and Qibya. Since then, Qalqilya, Kafr Qasim, Khan Yanis, Sabra and Shatila (helped by Lebanese Christian militias); as well as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Cave of the Patricrchs; the Jenin refugee camp, and, since last January, the massacre of Gaza.
In all these massacres, Israeli soldiers, pilots and military ships killed hundreds, sometimes thousands, of women and children. While demonizing Hamas for firing rockets into Israel, Rabbi Polina never uttered a word on the 1,500 civilians brutally killed by Israel in last attack on Gaza. He justified the systematic killing of unarmed women and children by saying that in war “there are always civilian causalities”.
I beg to differ. That was not a war. That was an invasion by a country who owns the most sophisticated and destructive weapons in the whole Middle East, including nuclear bombs, against 1.5 million defenseless people, armed only with home-made rockets and a few rifles. That is nothing but brazen hierocracy.
It is also hypocritical to equate Hamas with Hitler to shoot down my argument that Hamas won a democratically run election in 2006. While he loudly proclaims that Israel is a shining example of democracy because it runs democratic elections, when Hamas wins such an election, he calls them terrorists. Can you please decide, dear Rabbi Pollina.
His line of thought reminds me of the Pharisees, that infamous Jewish sect that emphasized the strict observance of the Mosaic Law in words and in deeds. No wonder Jesus called them whitewashed sepulchres. Whoever had the misfortune to smell a dead rotten body will immediately understand the contempt Jesus had for this sect.
I am not a spokesman for the Palestinians. I abhor and loathe the dictatorial Arab regimes that do not lift a finger to defend the Palestinians because their only survival depends on supporting the United States that since 1947 always gave unshakeable support (the words of Hilary Clinton) to Israel.
I admire Israel for being the only state in the Middle East to have a pluralistic system, but I cannot uphold the apartheid doctrine practiced by the Jewish state against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
My conscience does not allow me to stay silent when I witness the outright and systematic ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by the by Israel. At this time of writing the Israelis are still building settlements on land on which the Palestinians are living. I cannot condone the brutal and indoctrinate violence the Israeli army, navy and air force commit every time they attack the Palestinian people.
There are millions of Palestinians refugees. Every time the Palestinians build, the Israelis destroy.
After the result of the last elections in Israel I am not so hopeful for a revival of the peace process. While the Israeli Army, Navy and Air force were killing hundreds of innocent children and women in Gaza, the US Congress unanimously a motion of total support for Israel.
Despite Barak Obama’s sweet talk about a new relationship with the Arab World his administration is totally influenced by the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States. Once again Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State has insisted that the US would not deal with Hamas. This, is in my view is nothing but double standards. Hamas won a democratic election in the occupied territories in 2006. It observed numerous unilateral or agreed truces that were violated by Israel. It offered Israel a 10-year-old truce. Hamas implicitly recognized the existence of Israel when it called for Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders. Unfortunately, Israel today is lurching into open fascism. With Netanyahu, who refuses the two-state solution forming a government with the support of the of Avigdor Liberman, the leader of a prop fascist Party, an immigrant from Soviet Republic of Moldova who was once a member of the outlawed racist party Koch. Lieberman, who served as deputy prime minister, has a history of racism and violent incitements. He demanded that those Knesset members who met with officials from Hamas should be shot.
Thank God former Presidnet Carter was not living in Israel these days. He met Hamas and argued that Hamas is now a political force and cannot be ignored.
Robert Malley, a respected commentator on Middle East issues who was part of President Clinton’s negotiating team at Camp David, was dumped by Clinton because he admitted that he met Hamas.
One thing is clear. One can kill thousands of people. One can destroy houses, factories, and all the infrastructure of a nation. But one cannot kill the spirit and aspirations of a people. .

Reno Calleja,
Zurrieq

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