There Are Two Sides to Every Wall
Sowetan poet Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali does not like walls. His resentment was honestly come by, for his experience in the black townships of South Africa made him an expert sufferer in all forms of restraint, exclusion, and incarceration. He gives expression to his bitterness in a short and moving poem entitled — what else? — “Walls.”
Man is
a great builder
The Berlin Wall
The Wailing Wall of Jerusalem
But the wall
most impregnable
has a moat
flowing with fright
around his heart
A wall without windows
for the spirit to breeze through
A wall without a door
for love to walk in.
Though the sentiment may be unobjectionable and even inspiring, the poet’s thesis is obviously marred in the development since the two examples he provides are mutually inconsistent. The Berlin Wall and the Wailing Wall have nothing in common with one another, the former a gross totalitarian structure meant to immure and enslave, and the latter an archeological temple remnant signifying the transcendence of faith. But Mtshali’s point is that outer walls are only a projection of inner walls, confining, repressive, and stultifying. They prevent the spirit from animating life; they close off the possibility of love.
All this is no doubt true, so far as it goes. But it is not a sentiment that would have been shared, to give two mural examples of my own, by the inhabitants of St. Augustine’s city of Hippo, whose walls were breached by the Vandal hordes descending upon North Africa and whose citizens — man, woman, and child — were put to the sword. And the defenders at the gates of Vienna in 1683 were surely grateful that their walls were stout enough to resist an invading Islamic army — and so should we be or we might now be praying five times a day to an alien god.
The wall that has galvanized the world’s attention today is the security barrier erected by Israel to defend itself against the incursion of Palestinian suicide bombers. It has been condemned by the United Nations, the European Union, and the majority of NGOs for whom a Jewish life is a mere penny ante consideration. The reasons for their denunciation of the protective barrier (and, by implication, of the Jewish state) are, of course, political and emotional, not humanitarian as they righteously claim: political insofar as appeasement of the Arab world has become a major component of current Western ideology, emotional inasmuch as current Western thought and practice is dominated by a resurgent anti-Semitism which focuses on the state of Israel as proxy for the “international Jew.”
But objections to the Israeli “wall” derive from other sources and are advanced for other reasons as well. Some of these informal critics purport to understand the barrier’s raison d’être but insist that it should follow the Green Line rather than snake here and there into the West Bank proper. They are apparently unaware of the fact that the Green Line is not an internationally agreed-upon border but only a temporary armistice line reflecting the reality of the end-of-war situation in 1949. Indeed, Clause 5(2) of the Rhodes Armistice Agreement of 1949 specifies that “in no sense are the ceasefire lines to be interpreted as political or territorial borders” and that they do not affect “the final disposition of the Palestine question.”
Tear down the wall now… Yes I said it… But with no wall? I also demand the complete and total arming of the Israel population with the right, duty and demand to shoot to kill all attacking arabs..
I also demand the arab world to understand that any arab caught trying to sneak across the open border will be shot to death, stuffed into a pig skin and fed to the sharks..
Here’s another poet’s take:
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.
Richard Lovelace 1618 – 1657
From #1. “..stuffed into a pig skin..”
===============
That’s a waste of good pork rind. However, the rest of it sounds ok.
I think the following line in David Solway’s column best captures the mindlessness of those opposing Israel’s defense barrier: “it is an “ugly scar” cutting across the face of the Holy Land, a disfigurement of the sacred.” Apparently to such people, the death and disfigurement of a person by an Arab terrorist does not qualify as by a disfigurement of the sacred.
Why given the history of hatred for jewish people does this continue as acceptable? Maybe some will see the connection now between anti- semitism and anti- christianity,in our brave new world.
I do feel sorry for the plight of the Palestinians. But their plight has been perpetuated by their own corrupt leaders, who have for decades used them as pawns in the political game against Israel. Israel will surely bring down the wall once it is non longer needed -that is, when Arabs accept the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Fat chance of that happening any time soon…
I do feel sorry for the plight of the Palestinians
I don’t. I do feel sorry for Copts. I do feel sorry for Black Soudanese who are slaughtered and raped by the thousands.
I don’t feel sorry for people who brought their fate upon their heads by their own actions, I don’t feel sorry for people who, before the partition, repeatedly organized pogroms against their Jewish neigbors, I don’t feel sorry for people who have set remote controlled bombs on retarded or unaware teenagers, I don’t feel sorry for people who get FAR more international aid than any other refugees in the world and, who, by Darfur standards, are FAT and live in luxury, I don’t feel sorry for people who have been living on _our_ money for sixty fricking years and used it for weapons and terrorism instead of working, I don’t feel sorry for people who dance in the streets when tehy hear about thousands of American dead or one of them having crushed teh skull of a four years old (Jewih) girl, I don’t feel sorry for people who have repeatedly said their final goal is genocide, I don’t feel sorry for people who have tried to bomb maternities and fired thousands of Kassams (built with money _we_ worked over) over civilian targets and despite this are being treated with kid gloves by Israel.
Golda Meir said that there would be peace when Arabs would love their children more than they ahted Jews. He had all wrong. THere will be peace when we cut off all aid to Palestinians and make clear than a) they better refund us of every pence we have given them or else… b) That they will have to pay for every single cent of damages caused to Israel, indirect damages included (like compensating peole who, have to awaken at 3am, grab their baby and run to the biomb shelter) and that if they don’t pay they will regret it.
In the interim allow me to be sorry for worthier people whose enemies are not as kind as Israel.
Instead of building a wall they need to flatten the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and then move back in and turn them back into productive pieces of land.
Very few people seem to be asking the right questions:
1) Why do we have generations of “Palestinian” refugees?
2) Why haven’t they been absorbed into their host nations as most immigrants & children of refugees are?
3) Who benefits from this situation?
4) How is our Aad money being spent?
5) Should we continue sending aid in light of the answers to #4?
6) Why if a person or entire people behave like a vicious or rabid dog do we not treat them the same as we would the rabid or vicious animal?
Chileno;
The Palestinians supported, sympathized, and applauded their terrorist leaders. Let them stew in their own jihadist juices until they grow up and scrub their territorial toilet clean of the extremist crap they blesses themselves with.
How many Jews live in Arab territories and enjoy freedom and equal rights?
I wonder…what would have been the UN’s and European Union’s, (ad naseum), response to the Chinese building the Great Wall of China back many millenia ago to keep out the Mongol hordes???
Now if we could only get Israel to make it WIDER…with a great path you could ride on…THEN we would have another WONDER OF THE WORLD!!!
Not that Israel needs it…but think of the BOOM in tourism a few hundred years from now!
>sac off<
JFM said: “I don’t feel sorry for people who brought their fate upon their heads by their own actions, I don’t feel sorry for people who, before the partition, repeatedly organized pogroms against their Jewish neigbors”
Your list of Palestinian atrocities is quite complete (you left out dismantling a Palestinian youth orchestra simply for playing a peaceful concert in front of Israeli Holocaust survivors). I agree that it’s hard to empathize with a people who show no remorse for their own acts of cruelty. Still, it’s disingenuous to collectively label all 10 million self-described Palestinians as co-conspirators to terrorism (even during the 1929 Hebron massacre a few brave Arabs risked their lives to save their Jewish neighbors), and it’s heartless to show no pity for some who, through no fault of their own, have been left to rot in squalor.
During the 1980′s, over 150,000 Palestinians (nearly 20% of their work force) would enter Israel daily to work. Things deteriorated after the return of Arafat and his cronies in the 1990s, with the ensuing corruption, youth indoctrination, orchestration of suicide attacks, etc. The second intifada wave of terror provoked the clamping down of the territories and the building of the separation wall. The severing of economic ties between Israel and the territories translated into a collapse of the Palestinian economy, shrinking GDP by a third, and raising unemployment from 5 to 25-40%.
I’m sure many Palestinians avidly supported their terrorist leaders’ agenda, despite bringing upon themselves enormous misery. But others were likely duped by their leaders’ lies, and still others would have rather simply got on with their lives, but kept silent, as speaking out would have risked being labeled Israeli “collaborators,” and placed their own lives in jeopardy.
But the worst conditions are reseved for Palestinians living outside the territories. Imagine yourself a 60 year-old Arab Palestinian refugee, born on Arab soil (in Lebanon), and being deprived of citizenship, the right to buy land, the right to work in 73 types of employment (including lawyer, doctor, and engineer), the right to freely move within the country, and the right to access the Lebanese healthcare system. Contrary to what the Arab leaders say, this has nothing to do with “the Jews.” The refugees are purposely left to rot in their overcrowded camps as a pressure tool against Israel. Some Palestinians may not be blameless, but some truly are worthy of pity.
Finally, I’ll ad that in all this, Israelis are not wholly blameless either. In the name of security, they have at times lashed out with excess violence, or broken their own laws. See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/909589.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060043.html
But at least in Israel, there’s a chance for self-criticism and correction, unlike the mafia-like rule of the PA.
@ 8:
“1) Why do we have generations of “Palestinian” refugees? 2) Why haven’t they been absorbed into their host nations…?” Indeed, the Palestinians are the ONLY group of refugees to include offspring. That’s why the number of “refugees” continues to rise. (Shows you how screwed up the UN is.)They are not absorbed because, despite Arab leaders’ vociferous support for Palestinians, their agenda is to keep these skilled laborers out of their job markets and utilize them instead as a weapon against Israel.
“3) Who benefits from this situation?” The radicals, of course. Keeping the refugees impoverished breeds desperation. And desperate youths are easier to recruit for terrorist activities.
“6) Why if a person or entire people behave like a vicious or rabid dog do we not treat them the same as we would the rabid or vicious animal?” I disagree with what you insinuate. Despite being vicious, they are not animals. And though some, even many, may commit heinous acts, you cannot condemn them all. If that were the case, we should have killed every last German after WWII.
@9: “The Palestinians supported, sympathized, and applauded their terrorist leaders. Let them stew in their own jihadist juices…”
You assume all Palestinians think alike. What if I were to say “all Jews are the same.” Would you not consider that an anti-semitic remark?
You also assume a free society, where a government’s acts can be publicly debated. In the corrupt, mafia-like PA where the news is essentially government propaganda, and dissent is swiftly dealt with, this is obviously not the case. Would you say all Russians/Germans supported, sympathized, and applauded their Communist/fascist leaders, as nobody questioned their government’s policies, and instead showed up in droves to government rallies? Did all Russians/Germans “deserve” living in the hell their totalitarian governments created?
I’m fully aware many Palestinians do, in fact, support “resisting” the Israelis, and have committed heinous acts. But to lump them all together and imply they’re all simply getting what they “desrve” is disingenuous, bordering on prejudiced.
Your list of Palestinian atrocities is quite complete (you left out dismantling a Palestinian youth orchestra simply for playing a peaceful concert in front of Israeli Holocaust survivors). I agree that it’s hard to empathize with a people who show no remorse for their own acts of cruelty. Still, it’s disingenuous to collectively label all 10 million self-described Palestinians as co-conspirators to terrorism (even during the 1929 Hebron massacre a few brave Arabs risked their lives to save their Jewish neighbors),
Yes, and God would have spared Sodom if there had been just one Just in it. But we are not God (not to mention Sodom’s inhabitants seem to have been relatively harmless) and unlike him we have peole to protect. We cannnot afford the luxury to allow 9 terrorists to enter Israel and fulfill their goals just because the tenth person is a peace loving Palestinian. Whatver the number of good people in Gaza or the West Bank (despite all the brainwashing every cilvilization produces some) the fact is that be it fear or little numbers they amke little noise and have no power. And that like it happenned wehn we bombed Germany and Japan, we must forget the trees and look at the forest in order to prevent a greater evil (300,000 dead Chinese a month. More than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined).
and it’s heartless to show no pity for some who, through no fault of their own, have been left to rot in squalor.
I can have pity of individaul Palestinians but none for the entity called Palestinians aven if I feel anger to the cynical way they are treated by their Arab “brothers” (not just the states, derived from the belief that Arabs are a herrensvolk entitled to take lands from others but not the opposite. I also feel anger about those Western people who are outraged, only when it is Israel who deals roughly with the Palestinians.
Also, through no fault of their own, inhabitants of West Sahara are rotting in squalor (in far worse conditions) not to mention Black Sudanese. That was just from the top of my head.
I happened to read a book recently on the Russo-Finnish War. It was, of course, launched by the Soviet Union in an act of unprovoked aggression. When it was over the Soviets took a chunk of Finnish territory and expelled about 400,000 Karelian Finns, all of whom left with what they could carry and no more.
Yet the Karelian problem is not on the UN’s agenda, bien-pensants in the west do not wring their hands over it, the plight of the dispossessed Karelians does not fill the media, and academe is not filled with people who make careers out of displaying solidarity with the Karelians. Of course, it would be hard to do so since the Finns absorbed the Karelian refugees.
So my sympathy for the Palestinians is equal to my sympathy for the Karelians; no more, no less. One might say that the Karelians might have won world sympathy by being put in camps by other Finns and engaging in acts of grotesque and savage violence.
But one would be wrong, because those sort of acts are only understandable, if not quite condoned, when they’re committed against Jews.
@JFM: “I can have pity of individaul Palestinians but none for the entity called Palestinians…” Fair enough, I’ll agree to that, as it’s pretty much what I was trying to say all along: While condemning the terrorist acts of the “collective,” we cannot fail to see the humanity of the individual.
“I also feel anger about those Western people who are outraged, only when it is Israel who deals roughly with the Palestinians.” Agreed, this is hypocrytical. But the opposite, only feeling outraged when Palestinians commit atrocities, is also wrong. Granted, given the Israeli war machine, they have shown far greater restraint in dealing with the Palestinians than vice versa. But that doesn’t mean they are completely blame free.
“Also, through no fault of their own, inhabitants of West Sahara are rotting in squalor (in far worse conditions) not to mention Black Sudanese.”
Indeed! I certainly agree these groups, like many others (e.g. the Iranian/Cuban dissidents) deserve our sympathy and support. Yet their misery does not take away from the plight suffered by individual Palestinians.
I’d like to add how, for all his liberal idealism, Obama has hypocrytically neglected these groups, as supporting them results inconvenient in his political agenda. For example, as candidate, Obama implied Bush ignored genocide in Sudan. But as President, Obama has done little to pressure the Sudanese government (whose president is an indicted war criminal) to change its repressive policies. It seems that, after decrying Bush’s policy, Obama has hypocrytically opted to continue it.
Some speculate the US does not want to pressure the Sudanese, as we need their help in fighting terrorists. I wonder if Obama simply doesn’t want to be seen as tough on a standing member of the Arab League, which could alienate the rest of the Muslim world that he is trying so hard to befriend. Nevermind that the Black Sudanese are suffering genocide.
I remember Bush taking heat for doing little to ease the conflict in Liberia, with subtle accusations that this was likely because “Bush doesn’t care about Black people.” But few seem to care today, when a Black President ignores 3 million Black Sudanese refugees…
In the name of appeasement (sacrificing those we should be helping in order to befriend our enemies) Obama has failed to support dissidents in Cuba and Iran. So throw the African Sudanese under the bus, they’ll have plenty of company…
Alex Bensky: Karelia is one of the excellent tragic examples of a people displaced by aggression who ‘moved on’ without international outrage. In Finland today, there remains deep-seated resentment to the theft of Karelia, expressed by overt rudeness to Russian tourists, and intensely emotional songs.
I use Karelia, and the Sikhs expelled from Punjab, in my rare attempts to argue this point about the leftist obsession with the “plight of the palestinians”.
But, because Jews are involved, the irrational belief in the fabricated history of palestininans always trumps reason and sanity.
Thank you David Solway for the best read of my week.
PJ commenters lift my despair to know so many Americans understand Israel.
@ 16 “So my sympathy for the Palestinians is equal to my sympathy for the Karelians; no more, no less.”
The Finns did the humane thing in absorbing the Karelians, hence this group no longer suffers as refugees. Palestinians fared no such luck at the hands of their Arab “brothers,” who stuffed them in ghetto-like camps to rot as pawns against the Israelis. I’m sure many Palestinians avidly join the fight against Israel. I’m not so naive as to see them all as hapless victims. But to do the opposite, and label them all bloodthirsty terrosits is equally simplistic.
Do not confuse sympathy for some Palestinians with acceptance of their group’s heinous criminal acts.
And you needn’t go as far as Finland for a parallel to the Palestinian refugee crisis. During post-WWII, Germany saw a quarter of its territory annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union. 12 million ethnic Germans that lived in those annexed regions -some in centuries-old communities- were forcibly removed and shipped to Germany proper. 2-3 million DIED en route. Yet we never hear about this catastrophe, as the resulting refugees were absorbed by Germany. In fact, the post-WWII period saw many tragic acts of land takings, expulsions, and the creation of millions of refugees, most of which were never repatriated, nor compensated for their losses. They were, however, absorbed by their kin in neighboring countries. Contrast this to the 711,000 Palestinian refugees (and their descendants), who have been left to rot in refugee camps.
It’s undeniable that many Palestinians do suffer their present status. But while the Arabs allege this is all because of Israel, in reality it is perpetuated by the Arabs themselves.
Ooops! Last paragraph above should read:
It’s undeniable that many Palestinians do suffer their present status. But while the Arabs allege this is all because of Israel, in reality it is perpetuated by the Arabs themselves. And it in no way justifies criminal terrorist acts against unarmed civilians.
“I also feel anger about those Western people who are outraged, only when it is Israel who deals roughly with the Palestinians.” Agreed, this is hypocrytical. But the opposite, only feeling outraged when Palestinians commit atrocities, is also wrong. Granted, given the Israeli war machine, they have shown far greater restraint in dealing with the Palestinians than vice versa. But that doesn’t mean they are completely blame free.
Who said thya re? But given the blamable things made by both sides allow me to be fair and spend 99% of my time blaming Palestinians. And from the 1% remaining that I spend mots of it blaming Israel for failing to enforce Geneva Conventions who, between things allow to execute for war crimes those who hide in hospitals and between civilians while firing at you (you are also allowed to shoot back) or at your own civilians. Israel’s weakness has made (war) crime pay and this encourage it.
Yet their (Sudanese) misery does not take away from the plight suffered by individual Palestinians.
Perhaps. But we can question why Palestians zre getting far more international aid and why, leftists and celebrities spend so much of their time blaming Israel or helping well fed Pälestinians and so little on Sudan and undernourished Sudanese.
@ 21 “But we can question why Palestians are getting far more international aid and why, leftists and celebrities spend so much of their time blaming Israel…”
I’ll agree to that!! It reminds me of the hypocrytical lefties who adamantly condemn right-wing dictatorships, like Chile’s Pinochet, yet have only the most timid response when asked about far worse left-wing dictatorships like Castro’s.
The problem with the wall, is that it looks like a wall, it’s ugly. No doubt many Israeli’s both vocally and privately look upon it with a sense of embarrassment & disgust. Walls obstruct the senses, humans innately avoid barriers that hamper their ability to maneuver. Maybe in the future an invisible wall will be invented that preforms the same function, until that time they have a saying in Israel, “ein barrah,” “I have no choice.”
FYI – Several a day infiltrated population centers, most would be apprehended but one always got away to become the latest breaking news story. The wall took years to complete once implemented the ability to strike has been greatly reduced.
Yo, David P
FYI – 90% of the “wall” is not a wall at all, but a network of fences with vehicle barrier trenches. Those tall concrete walls the MSM loves to photograph only make up around 10% of the separation barrier.
The separation barrier is not yet complete. The last update I saw (2007) stated around 60% had been built, 9% was under construction, and over 30% was still unrealized. The tentative date for completion was sometime in 2010.
Yo Chileno,
The sooner it’s completed, the better, it’s been determined that separation is the best temporary answer for an obvious scorched earth solution.