Paranoia.
Lazy thinking.
Racism.
Jewish chauvinism.
Choose your nouns.
Choose your synonyms for the idea that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is beyond politics.
Beyond reason.
Beyond the give-and-take of negotiation.
Not a matter of land.
Not a matter of settlements.
But something deeper.
Something religious, or ethnic, or nationalist.
Or something even deeper than that: hatred.
If this is true, it is ageless.
I ran across an article in the April 4, 1923 edition of the Denver Jewish News, the original name of the IJN.
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, this is almost 100 years ago. Certainly far enough back in time to test whether the idea of Arab opposition to Israel is based on material grievance, or is irrational.
1923:
There was no State of Israel.
No metropolis in Israel.
No Israel Defense Forces.
No Knesset.
No Israeli control over Arabs or Bedouins.
No massive Jewish immigration from a post-Holocaust Europe.
No laws of a Jewish state that Arab residents needed to follow.
In fact, there were very few Jews in Palestine altogether, about 84,000. This is compared to about 589,000 Muslims.
In 1923, the Jews were outnumbered about six to one.
Yet, the local population was revolted by this small Jewish presence.
Judge for yourself whether this revulsion was rational.
Judge for yourself whether the Israel-Palestinian conflict is beyond reason, based on a small story in the Denver Jewish News nearly 100 years ago.
Here is the story, in full, from 1923:
Headline: “Arabs boycott Jewish electricity.”
Story: “Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Arab extremists are waging their fight against things Jewish even to the point of refusing the use of electricity derived from a ‘Jewish’ station.
“The Jaffa municipality has decided to stick to the old hand, foot and horse power rather than utilize any of the electrical power derived from the Rutenberg station at the Auja.
“Efforts by the government to convince the Arabs that electricity was neutral and knew no politics proved unavailing.”
When I read of “Jewish electricity,” I think of Hamas’ charter whose goal is the destruction of the Jewish state. It’s a straight line from “Jewish electricity” to rockets fired from Gaza on Jewish people.
When I read of “Jewish electricity,” I think of the Palestinian Authority’s policy of paying “salaries” to Palestinians who have murdered or wounded unarmed Israelis, and to the families of the “martyrs.” It’s a straight line.
It is irrational.
Beyond grievances.
Not a single one of the grievance that Palestinian leaders now cite — the “catastrophe” of 1948, the expulsion or flight (take your pick) of Arabs from Palestine at that time, the massive Arab defeat in 1967, the subsequent Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the check points, the Israeli police on the Temple Mount, on and on — not one existed in 1923.
Yet, “Jewish electricity” was to be shunned.
It came from Jews.
Ergo, it was evil.
If this is not irrational, what is?
If this is not the narrative of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, what is?
No doubt, there have been irrational elements among the Jews in Palestine and rational elements among the Arabs in Palestine. No doubt, in principle, there is no reason why Jews and Arabs should not be able to live together peaceably; and, in fact, Jews and Arabs who are far from Palestine do live together peaceably. But for whatever reason, the overwhelming approach of Palestine’s “Arab extremists” — i.e., those in charge — toward Palestine’s Jews these past 98 years is captured by the very words, “Jewish electricity.”
Of all the facts from 1923 pertinent to the conflict today are these two:
84,000 Jews.
589,000 Arabs.
The conflict predated Jewish power and has nothing to do with it.
If “Jewish electricity” is to be shunned and “salaries” to terrorists are to be paid, the conflict boils down to the same old same old: anti-Semitism.
The early years of the Denver Jewish News are available online via the Library of Congress Chronicling America collection.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
