If Jews were Palestinian
Op-ed: The world's empathy for the Palestinians would be put to better use to persuade Israel's neighbors to make the best out of their painful history – not to sacrifice their children’s future in the pursuit of irredentism's utopias.
Understandably, these natives were unhappy with this prospect and resorted to boycotts, strikes and (self-)defense to ward off the encroaching Jews. When the Western powers granted these foreign-born immigrants a sizable portion of the land, the Palestinians rebelled to ensure that Palestine would belong to the Palestinians.
The Palestinians lost and were expelled en masse. Hoarded in refugee camps, these refugees did not accept their fate, but for over 65 years have fought to delegitimize and destroy Zionism. Their efforts have been unsuccessful; yet their resilience has earned them the sympathy and support of intellectuals and ordinary people around the world.
It is impractical to try to refute the former narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It dovetails too neatly with the worldview that blames Europeans for the lion-share of African and Asian suffering since the 17th century that now dominates Western culture. Nevertheless, it might be worthwhile to carry the narrative of the Palestinian camp a bit further – to its logical conclusion: That is, to claim that Jews should be so inspired by the Palestinian resistance movement as to emulate its choices.
If Jews acted upon this thought-experiment, we would soon see Israelis plotting suicide bombings in churches and cafés throughout Germany to vindicate the victims of the Holocaust. Furthermore, every American, Chinese or Argentine patron of Bavarian-style bars in Boston, Beijing or Buenos Aires would have good reason to fear bomb-explosions in such symbols of Teutonic self-aggrandizement.
The sales of Volkswagen, Bosch and Siemens would suffer as Jews worldwide would preach to their friends the need to boycott companies which exploited Jewish slave-labor during World War II. If Germans had the shamelessness of visiting Tel Aviv, they would be stabbed and beaten by Israelis whose grandparents were tormented in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. In Purim parties throughout the world, German flags and symbols would be merrily torched.
It would be indeed hard, in terms of pure empathy and retributive justice, to argue that Jews would not have the right to engage in such behavior.
It is a miracle of history and a monument to Jewish ethics that the Children of Israel emerged morally unscathed from the ashes of the Holocaust. Israelis today neither blow themselves up in Hamburg or Cologne nor lynch German tourists in Haifa and Jerusalem.
Instead, high-ranking delegations of German companies visit Israel every month to acquire advanced medical and telecommunications technology. Meanwhile Jews from around the world flock to Germany out of interest and love for its language and culture. And there is no Jewish BDS movement against Germany, even though thousands of Holocaust survivors languish during their final years in poverty and solitude.
The world is lavish with empathy for the Palestinians. Such empathy would be put to better use to persuade Israel’s neighbors to make the best out of their painful history – not to sacrifice their children’s future in the pursuit of irredentism's utopias.
