The Israeli-Palestinian conflict saves lives

All governments, except the US, a few African countries and tiny Polynesian nations, use Israel as a way to distract their people from issues at home. Israel provides catharsis for local problems.


Seth J. Frantzman
Opinion/JPost
08 June '10

People often ignore the tremendous amount of good the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does for humanity. It provides endless hours of entertainment, a place to project one’s anger, a way to ignore problems at home and in so doing, it may actually save lives by preventing local conflicts through distracting people and encouraging them to focus their hate and emotions at a far off place they cannot change.

People often view the world’s obsession with the conflict in one of two ways. Some believe the fact Israel is condemned yearly by the UN, that a special agency exists for the Palestinians that does not exist for any other group, that the death of one Palestinian is reported around the world, while the death of 100,000 Africans is routinely ignored, is evidence of modern anti-Semitism, especially by Europeans and Muslims. The organ theft allegations in newspapers in Sweden, the hate-filled comments of socialites such as Britain’s Jenny Tonge or America’s Helen Thomas seems to add evidence to this affect.

However others allege that the obsession is due to a world that no longer tolerates the human rights violations that Israel metes out to its enemies. Haaretz’s Anshel Pfeffer claims that “moral people around the world see almost everything that happens in the region as a result of a deeply immoral situation that the Israeli leadership and... public is doing nothing whatsoever to change.” American commentators have noted that this is the reason some young American Jews feel they have little in common with Israel, it is not living up to their secular-progressive world view. So protests against Israel in Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa and Venezuela are all because these people are moral and they are speaking out against the one immoral state that exists; Israel.

(Read full story)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.