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Moral RelativismWednesday 26 Feb 2003
author: David
Mr. Gordon suggests that occupation is absolutely wrong, and the IDF could not therefore produce worthy leaders. If life was only so simple.
Unfortunately for his thesis, clearly some occupations have been beneficial, both for the occupied and for the surrounding states. Would the world have been a better place had the Allies not occupied Germany and Japan after WWII? And don't we all wish Cambodia and Rwanda had been occupied by outside forces before hundreds of thousands were slaughtered by the regime in power (once based on ideology, the latter based on tribalism?). Similarly, the US (and some Europeans) bombed and occupied Kosovo without any UN (or Security Council) support, - much to the benefit of the Muslim population suffering at the hands of the Serbs.
However, let's accept that Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is bad for Palestinians (and - demographically and democratically - Jewish national self determination). Is a checkpoint that slows Arab commerce and access to hospitals more or less evil than mortars lobbed from Gaza into Sderot, or mass killers sent from Jenin and Nablus to Jerusalem and Netanya? So long as a large majority of Palestinians deny Jews have the same rights to national self determination which the Palestinians claim for themselves, and indicate they will use the West Bank and Gaza to eliminate "pre-1967 Israel", the occupation may be the lesser of two evils. As an individual, ultimately I need to occupy (restrain) an attacker to protect my life. Similarly, Israel, as a nation, may need, for a time, to occupy another nation, in order to protect Israel.
One can hate the occupation as hurtful to both the Palestinians, and to the Jewish right to self determination, but still recognize that unilateral withdrawal will be a "worse evil" in the current circumstances, if it unleases (as seems likely) a new government dedicated to Israel's destruction. It may be that a Palestinian leadership evolves which really and truly accepts Israel pre-67, and works hard to educate the Palestininan masses to that effect. It may also be true that Arab states may eventually urge Palestinians to do so. However, that day is not yet here.