"This nation was forged in refuge, not imperialism."
So it seemed to most in, say, the 1950s, but that view may need serious reconsideration after 60 years of history.
I think Einstein had it right in his view of Zionism. He advocated Jews settling in the Mideast, but did not want to see a formal Jewish state with war-making capacity. And his reason for having this view he, in typical Einstein fashion, bluntly stated as certain characteristics of the Jewish people.
But Einstein's view clearly did not prevail.
What we see instead is an almost constant form of aggressive war by Israel, whether it is taking water rights or orchards or destroying homes or bombing all of its neighbors.
Of course, there is always a superficial rationalization for such savage acts as the attacks on Lebanon, but doesn't George Bush offer superficial rationalizations for his dreadful acts? Doesn't every aggressor, from Stalin to Hitler?
Democracies are just as capable of brutality as any other form of government. America's history with its black population proves that conclusively. Apartheid South Africa is another example. So is Israel.
Power is power, no matter how conferred, and if a people are motivated by such passions as hate or greed or fear, they will act horribly despite otherwise having fair institutions.
The U.S. had its much-vaunted Bill of Rights utterly ignored for centuries. Of course, the very purpose of a Bill of Rights is to protect the rights of minorities against the tyranny of the majority. Israel doesn't even have such a document.
Israel has a slow-moving, never-announced process of ethnic-cleansing underway. The land seized by its Berlin Wall, the houses regularly destroyed, the new settlements constantly built, the destruction of Palestinian commerce and normal life, and a thousand other measures.
I think the future is clear to anyone who views the situation objectively. Through patient, endless pressure exerted while ignoring the rest of the world, Israel will one day become the Greater Israel many Zionists have always advocated.
As to the Palestinians, they have been kept under the most miserable conditions for decades, so why would it bother Israel to continue this brutal behavior until they virtually go away?
Even when Israel has made the least effort to agree to a Palestinian state - as under Rabin, who paid with his life even for doing comparatively little or under Barak, whose concept of a Palestinian state was a permanent nightmare with the same unspoken end in view of slow ethnic-cleansing - the efforts are feeble.
Peace has never been possible without the United States exerting itself for fairness, and it is clear that the United States cannot summon the psychological force to do so.
The United States has tolerated, bit by bit, Israel's worst policies, and there is no reason to think this will change.
