Many of the world’s problems are so intractable that it’s hard to think of ways even to take steps toward mitigating them.
The Israel-Palestine conflict is not one of these.
I admit I’ve fallen prey to the line, re: the occupation of Palestine, “it’s too complex to understand.” Not only is that too easy an out, it’s an outright lie, as this book thankfully illustrates. Chomsky and Pappé cut through the murk of propaganda and politic with much-needed clarity. As per usual, things get spun as a “peace process” when the real words are too ugly: colonization, ethnic cleansing, and incremental genocide. And when there’s a profit involved.
The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is a medical miracle: it died several times, was resuscitated for a while, then collapsed again. It holds on not because there is the slight chance it will succeed but because of the dividends its very existence brings to many involved.
That means there’s a precedent, though, that such things can be stopped once people see through the narrative and start taking a stand. Excellent primer on where to start looking, i.e. how big a role the US plays in the atrocity, and what it will take for that to change.
The dehumanization in Iraq and Syria is widespread and terrifying, as it is in Gaza. But there is one crucial difference between these cases and the Israeli brutality: the former are condemned as barbarous and inhuman worldwide, while those committed by Israel are still publicly licensed and approved by the president of the United States, the leaders of the European Union, and Israel’s other friends in the world.