1/24/2009
Gaza success proves Israel is strong, not right
I found a very good article about the Gaza conflict, which I like to share with you. It touches me to see how David Grossman is striving for peace, his nuanced, neutral perspective, how he tries to understand the Palestinian perspective / situation, how he treats them als humans, as equals, while he grew up with this conflict always around him, with all the violence and the hate, and he lost his son in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.Unfortunately Levinas never succeeded in applying his own philosophy of an ethical relationship with "the other" with regard to the Israel-Palestina conflict. He continued to consider a Palstinian as an enemy, not as the other for whom he's responsible. If Levinas would have been able to apply his philosophy properly, then he could have written this article.
There are two quotes which are especially important in this respect, one about language and one about looking in the mirror that the other shows me:
In Levinas's philosophy language plays an important role. I cannot understand the other, who is totally different from me. I cannot enter into his mind, I can only hear my own thoughts, I am restricted to my own consciousness, I don't have access to the consciousness of the other person (like in the film Being John Malcovich). But there's a very useful tool to make it possible to be in touch with the other: language. I cannot be him/her, he/she cannot become me. But we can build a bridge between us so we can meet each other halfway on the bridge. The bridge is built with bricks called "language". The language of violence is not suitable to build bridges, it will only destroy existing bridges. That's why Grossman says: "We have to speak with the Palestinians, we have to speak with Hamas."
"And because we have spoken to the Palestinians for so long in that language (the language of violence), and that language alone, we have forgotten that there are other languages for speaking to human beings, even to enemies, even bitter foes like Hamas - languages that are as much our mother tongue as the language of planes and tanks.
We must speak to the Palestinians: That is the most important conclusion from the most recent round of bloodshed. We must speak also to those who do not recognize our right to exist here. Instead of ignoring Hamas at this time, we would do better to take advantage of the new reality that has been created by beginning a dialogue with them immediately, one that would allow us to reach an accord with the whole of the Palestinian people."
About the mirror:
I cannot look at myself directly. I can not look at myself from a distance, because I am myself, I cannot take a distance from myself. I can only see myself in a mirror. It's the other person who holds the mirror. In what I am doing to the other I can see who I am myself. The Palestinians are holding a mirror to the Israelians:
David Grossman says:
"We must speak, because what has happened in the Gaza Strip over the last few weeks sets up a mirror in which we in Israel see the reflection of our own face - a face that, if we were looking in from the outside or saw it on another people - would leave us aghast. We would see that our victory is not a genuine victory, and that the war in Gaza has not healed the spot that so badly needs a cure, but only further exposed the tragic and never-ending mistakes we have made in navigating our way."
***
Here's the whole article from David Grossman:
"Like the pairs of foxes in the biblical story of Samson, tied together by their tails, a flaming torch between them, so Israel and the Palestinians - despite the imbalance of power - drag each other along. Even when we try hard to wrest ourselves free, we burn those who are tethered to us - our double, our misfortune - as well as ourselves. And so, amidst the wave of nationalist hyperbole now sweeping the nation, it would not hurt to recall that in the final analysis, this last operation in Gaza is just another stop along a trail blazing with fire, violence and hatred. As satisfied as Israelis are that the technical weaknesses of the Second Lebanon War were corrected, we should be paying heed to another voice - the one that says the Israel Defense Forces' successes in the confrontation with Hamas do not prove that it was right to embark on such a massive campaign, and are certainly no justification for Israel's mode of operation in the course of the fighting. These military successes merely confirm that Israel is stronger than Hamas, and that under certain conditions it can be tough and cruel in its own way. When the guns become completely silent, and the full scope of the killing and destruction becomes known, to the point where even the most self-righteous and sophisticated of the Israeli psyche's defense mechanisms are overcome, perhaps then some kind of lesson will imprint itself on our brain. Perhaps then we will finally understand how deeply and fundamentally wrong our actions in this region have been from time immemorial - how misguided, unethical, unwise and above all, responsible, time after time, for fanning the flames that consume us. Obviously, the Palestinians cannot be let off the hook for their crimes and mistakes. That would be tantamount to belittling and condescending to them, as if they were not mature adults with minds of their own, responsible for their own decisions and failures. The inhabitants of the Gaza Strip may have been "strangulated" in many ways by Israel, but even they have other options for protesting and drawing attention to their misery than the launching of thousands of rockets against innocent citizens in Israel. We must not forget that. We cannot pardon the Palestinians or treat them forgivingly, as if it were obvious that whenever they feel put upon, violence will always be their sole response, the one they embrace almost automatically. Yet even when the Palestinians act with indiscriminate violence, when they use suicide bombings and Qassam rocket fire, Israel is stronger than them, and it can have a tremendous impact on the level of violence in the conflict as a whole - and hence on calming it down and even bringing it to an end. The current confrontation has not shown that anyone in the Israeli leadership really grasps the critical significance of this aspect of the conflict in any fully conscious or responsible way. One day, after all, we will seek to heal the wounds we inflict today. How will that day ever come if we do not understand that our military might cannot be the primary instrument for carving out a path for ourselves in this region? How will that day ever come if we fail to comprehend just how graveness is the responsibility that lies on our shoulders by dint of our complex and fateful relations, both past and future, with the Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Galilee?
When the clouds of colored smoke dissipate from the politicians' claims of sweeping and decisive victory; when we discover the actual achievements of this operation, and how far they are from what we really need in order to live a normal life here; when we finally admit that a whole country eagerly hypnotized itself, because it needed so badly to believe that Gaza would cure it of Lebanon-itis - maybe then we will settle accounts with those who, time after time, incite the Israeli public, whipping them into a frenzy of arrogance and a euphoria of power. Those who have taught us over the years to scoff at belief in peace and any hope for change in our relations with the Arabs. Those who have convinced us that the Arabs understand only force, and therefore that is the only language we can use in our dealings with them.
And because we have spoken to them for so long in that language, and that language alone, we have forgotten that there are other languages for speaking to human beings, even to enemies, even bitter foes like Hamas - languages that are as much our mother tongue as the language of planes and tanks.
We must speak to the Palestinians: That is the most important conclusion from the most recent round of bloodshed. We must speak also to those who do not recognize our right to exist here. Instead of ignoring Hamas at this time, we would do better to take advantage of the new reality that has been created by beginning a dialogue with them immediately, one that would allow us to reach an accord with the whole of the Palestinian people.
We must speak to the Palestinians: That is the most important conclusion from the most recent round of bloodshed. We must speak also to those who do not recognize our right to exist here. Instead of ignoring Hamas at this time, we would do better to take advantage of the new reality that has been created by beginning a dialogue with them immediately, one that would allow us to reach an accord with the whole of the Palestinian people.
We must speak to them and begin to acknowledge that reality is not one hermetic story that we, and the Palestinians, too, have been telling ourselves for generations. Reality is not just the story we are locked into, a story made up, in no small measure, of fantasies, wishful thinking and nightmares. We must speak to them, and create, within this closed-off, deaf reality, the very possibility for speech. We must create this alternative, so mocked and maligned today, which in the tempest of war has almost no place, no hope, no believers. We must speak to them as part of a calculated strategy. We must initiate speech, insist on speech, let no one put us off. We must speak, even if dialogue seems hopeless from the start. In the long run, this stubbornness will contribute much more to our security than hundreds of planes dropping bombs on a city and its inhabitants. We must speak out of understanding, born as we look out at the horrible devastation, as we grasp that the harm we are capable of inflicting on each other, each people in its own way, is so enormous and so destructive and so utterly senseless, that if we surrender to it and accept its logic, it will end up destroying us all.
We must speak, because what has happened in the Gaza Strip over the last few weeks sets up a mirror in which we in Israel see the reflection of our own face - a face that, if we were looking in from the outside or saw it on another people - would leave us aghast. We would see that our victory is not a genuine victory, and that the war in Gaza has not healed the spot that so badly needs a cure, but only further exposed the tragic and never-ending mistakes we have made in navigating our way.
***
Michael Heart
A blinding flash of white light
Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight
People running for cover
Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive
They came with their tanks and their planes
With ravaging fiery flames
And nothing remains
Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze
We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight
Women and children alike
Murdered and massacred night after night
While the so-called leaders of countries afar
Debated on who’s wrong or right
But their powerless words were in vain
And the bombs fell down like acid rain
But through the tears and the blood and the pain
You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze
We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down In Gaza tonight
See also this film: Gaza dreams destroyed
Comments:
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One more comment: Khalid said that the Israelians should not talk with Hamas, that would not be useful, they should talk to the PLO in which the different Palestinian parties are represented.
Shut up with your ugly dirty posts, or at least tell me who you are. (although it's not difficult to guess)
>>khalid a traitor living in sweden ,watching his sister brother die.
now that people are calling me traitor i really think i am moving up in the world :D
now that people are calling me traitor i really think i am moving up in the world :D
# posted by 
: 1:11 PM
: 1:11 PM
Loooooooooooooolll :-D
Sometimes the comments are much more fun to read than the blog entry itself :-D
Sometimes the comments are much more fun to read than the blog entry itself :-D
# posted by : 1:15 PM
: 1:15 PM
How is it possible, Anonymous / Hamas / Omar that you don't want to be solidary with your "brother", that you don't seem to care yourself about the people who died in Gaza?
@ Adrian
The comments are at least less predictable.
With regard to jokes I can think of some better ones
The comments are at least less predictable.
With regard to jokes I can think of some better ones
u called my comment joke where is muslim brotherhood ? ,fatah is usa puppet ,hamas supported by iran got it.if u turn off the anonymous post i can post with a register blog :D ,someone dont like my comment i think ,yah i care about inoccent human civilian death, i dont support any extremist it belong to any religion .
I have some question to ask who is supporting suicide bomber? .
most of the suicide bomber are paid up? whos interest in that west or islamic ? .
khalid is atheist i told u who care what he say ?,does he hold higher authority in govt lol :D
I have some question to ask who is supporting suicide bomber? .
most of the suicide bomber are paid up? whos interest in that west or islamic ? .
khalid is atheist i told u who care what he say ?,does he hold higher authority in govt lol :D
# posted by : 1:52 PM
: 1:52 PM
Good that you don't support extremism.
How do you know Khalid is an atheist, why do you think so?
I don't understand your questions about suicide bombers.
How do you know Khalid is an atheist, why do you think so?
I don't understand your questions about suicide bombers.
see many people in fatah are paid up mean given money by west,about suicide bomber most of them are poor nothing to eat ? if they are paid up few dollars they would do anything for family ,u can search in google in google iraqi refugee selling their kid why because they have nothing to eat,sorry for my few comment if you havent like it i just said in anger,poverty is main cause of terrorism ,political parties, rich people other countries use terrorism tool for own benefit,did you care in the terrorism million people are killed people are divide by religion ,Afghanistan or iraq are developed these countries are war torn ,go inside and check out in these countries what destruction war did ,does war bring peace in there ,jews are majority in Israel ,Palestinian population ,always majority rules ,who care in this world majority follow which rules.
# posted by : 2:27 PM
: 2:27 PM
I can understand that you are angry, but you shouldn't be angry with the wrong people.
You want peace, don't you?
Terrorism is not a solution to end poverty or war, on the contrary.
You want peace, don't you?
Terrorism is not a solution to end poverty or war, on the contrary.
>>yes i hate misery,chaos in the world,i want peace around the world.
glad to hear it.
glad to hear it.
# posted by : 3:02 PM
: 3:02 PM
Esther, thanks for your blog (at least the parts in English which i must delve into)
I started with your post G-d as Infinity.
You might be interested in the website www.ipeace.me. Come and have a look.
Your challenge to Levinas vis a vis the Palestinians is one the has intrigued me as well.
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I started with your post G-d as Infinity.
You might be interested in the website www.ipeace.me. Come and have a look.
Your challenge to Levinas vis a vis the Palestinians is one the has intrigued me as well.
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