[mosta]

I think it almost could have gone very differently. When the Jews first started settling in Palestine, in a way, they were a blessing to the region. There was lots of room there and not a whole lot going on. The Jews brought technology and knowledge and set out to develop industry. They started buying up land and making modern, productive farms. As more and more land was acquired the Arabs could see that they were in danger of being left behind and squeezed out. At that point they could have gotten on the ball and gotten with the times. But they didn't. They publicly proclaimed that they must protect their land from the Jewish takeover, while privately happily selling it. And they used the situation to squabble and feud and backstab with each other. They were not culturally prepared to step forward into modern society as it was being created around them. Imagine if a bunch of Asians showed up in America and started buying up businesses and land. Well they did, and do, and it's no threat to this society, a modern society, at all. It's a boon.

So on that basis, you can make the case that it's the Arabs' own fault that they lost their land because of their backwardness. They stood outside the burgeoning economy, and they failed to organize into an effective military when it became a war. Survival of the fittest. But then, it was theirs, their land, their society, even if it was backwards, still. And the fact that the Jews won doesn't make it right. It doesn't mean we should endorse them. And if they are going to claim to represent modern, peaceful, open society in the region, should we not demand of them a moral foundation above the fact of military and economic victory? The fact is their true moral foundation is racist, religious nationalism, and this element, the modern settler element, probably poisoned the possiblity of an open, modern society inclusive of Jews and Arabs from the beginning as much as the Arabs' own (latent at the time) nationalism, and their backwardness. (Ben Gurion and the Zionist founders had the idea of "transfer" in mind, behind the scenes, from the beginning. And if it was the Arabs' own fault that it would have to come to that, the Jews weren't any better, because they were willing to countenance it.)

The only course for two nationalisms is genocide. So far the Jews "won". Good for you, nice life you've got for yourselves. You can make a case in favor of each side and their rights and good intentions and victimization. But both of them are tainted with nationalism, and as they perpetually pursue each others destruction, it's gotten so far along that I feel like almost the only thing to do is wash our hands of the whole situation.