The ‘wounded spirits’ of the Arab-Israeli conflict

Author David Shipler, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, said, “Jerusalem is a festival and a lamentation. Its song is a sigh across the ages, a delicate robust, mournful psalm at the great junction of spiritual cultures.”

Thus is the blessing and the curse of the holy city.  Jews, Christians and Muslims all claim portions of Jerusalem’s history, its culture, its revered places and its land.  It has been the crossroads of faith and conflict for 5,000 years.

All of Middle Eastern history has marched through the city and surrounding countryside: King David, Cyrus the Great, Alexander, King Herod, Caliph Omar, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, the British, David Ben-Gurion, Yasser Arafat.

Is it any wonder this small strip of land remains the epicenter of tumult?

The current violence is the latest incarnation of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict stemming from the 1948 war and the establishment of the state of Israel. This time the fighting was triggered by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, which Israel blamed on Hamas.

Tensions increase along the border between Israel and Gaza. Hamas, which governs Gaza, fires rockets into Israel. Israeli war planes strike targets in Gaza.

Israel, which has a sophisticated missile defense system and a network of bomb shelters, suffers minimal casualties.   In Gaza, where there are no such protections and rockets are launched from amid the civilian population, sometimes next to schools and hospitals, casualties are significantly higher.

The press falls into a routine of recounting the casualties as a kind of grisly score.  “The Palestinian death toll passed 200 on Wednesday morning…”

Many of the casualties are women and children, which further embeds the hatred many in the Arab world have for Israel.  Israelis seethe at the video showing Arabs cheering when an Iranian-made rocket fired by Hamas reaches Tel Aviv for the first time.  The Daily Beast reported that a Palestinian perfume maker “even produced a special scent for men and women named for the rocket, M75.”

Egypt brokered a cease fire, which Israel initially agreed to.  However, when Hamas continued rocket fire, Israel resumed its air strikes.  Now Israel is warning of a land invasion of Gaza.

The civilian deaths represent a perverse public relations opportunity for the Palestinians.  They reinforce the notion of the “bully Zionists” killing innocents.  However, it’s critical to remember that Israel is aiming for military targets in a heavily populated area and trying to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas is specifically targeting a civilian population, while using their own people as human shields.

Eventually Hamas will run short of rockets and agree to a cease fire.  The ensuing months will give them time to rearm.  There will be no victor because Hamas is not capable of defeating Israel on the battlefield and Israel is not willing to seize Gaza and destroy Hamas, possibly triggering a Middle East conflagration.

Gaza will continue to boil and fester as long as Hamas remains in charge and Israel keeps Gaza essentially sealed off from the rest of the world.   While the body of the fight is primarily in Gaza, the heart of the conflict remains, as it always has, in Jerusalem.

This is the “mournful psalm” of the great spiritual junction.

 





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