“Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it,” according to philosopher George Santayana. For Israel’s critics however, there is no reason to learn from history because history has stopped. History can not repeat itself.
The Holocaust is over and we are past the anti-Semitism that began in the age of Constantine and made a Jewish homeland necessary for Jewish survival. History will not repeat. We are finally in an age where the evils of human history are mostly in the past; just a bit of mopping up a few remaining trouble spots around the globe and all will be good forever. The future does not look like anything from our past. History will not repeat itself.
That Jews have lived continuously in present day Israel including parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank is just a part of messy history. That many of those Jewish areas were captured by Jordan in 1948 and constitute land later recaptured by Israel in 1967 does not matter; in fact it is complex so we would rather set that uncomfortable fact aside. We’ll also toss aside the history of Jews throughout Muslim lands since the rise of Mohammed. We can do this because we know there are no lessons we should learn from history.
Israel should either share Jerusalem, according to her critics, or should just give up all land taken since 1967. This move will, of course, solve the entire Arab Israeli problem. Forget that the Jewish presence was a problem at the dawn of the 20th century and in fact a problem since Mohammed. For Israel, history does not repeat itself.
It is easy for U.S. and Europeans to criticize Israel because the Israelis desperate struggle to survive – yes, survive – has made her far stronger than the surrounding nations. We can allow the 60 years of work painting Palestinians as victims to cloud our thinking into accepting their often dubious claims of rights to land that was often empty swamps or desert, and, where viable, was lost to wars the Jews did not want and would gladly have avoided. Because this is merely history and we know now that those days are over. There is no point to heeding the lessons of history because there are no real ‘lessons’ to be learned. History is over.
I have no doubt that in order to achieve real and lasting peace Israel will need to allow, even enable, a Palestinian state to exist. But those that desire peace for Israel and/or land for the Palestinians need to recognize that there are lessons from history. For Israel and her supporters, the most important lesson is that the Israel’s neighbors, particularly the Palestinian people, must truly accept her existence and desire long lasting peace.
For Israel to accept anything less than true acceptance of her existence and a real desire for peace is to pretend that there are no lessons to learn from history because history can not repeat itself.
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If Israel doesn’t stop messing around, history will indeed repeat itself and the land Israel sits on will once again belong to the Arabs. The US can’t protect you forever. If you don’t make peace you are doomed and Israel won’t last through the end of this scentury.
We will eventually rid the area of Jews so we can extend the Gaza Strip all the way to the Jordan River. We will, have no jobs, no economy, no friends, no food, no laws, no nothing…But THERE WILL BE NO JEWS…Thanks God..