The Dude abides.

That we reinforce our own biases

“The Israeli attack on Gaza is unconscionable. It is wildly disproportionate … But it is only an episode in the terrible ethnic cleansing and destruction of the Palestinian people by the Israelis who have stolen their land.”

- The Limits of Free Speech, by Craig Murray

I find the use of the term “wildly disproportionate”, by those who hold an anti-Israeli stance, interesting. Fascinating even, for it implies that proportionate violence is somehow acceptable. So, if the Hamas government intentionally kills 20 civilians in Israel, well, that’s just fine and dandy. However, the Israeli response which ends up killing 500 civilians, hmm, that is somehow morally and “unconscionably” wrong.

With the paragraph above, Craig Murray has brilliantly summed up the general Malaysian reaction to Israel’s military response to Hamas attacks. To me, it is a clearly disingenouos argument. All life is precious and that we should not tolerate any violence at all, either by the Palestinians or by the Israelis. Yet, in the defence for either side, we end up tolerating and encouraging violence.

Thus, it is our reactions to the Gaza conflict that belay our own biases and stereotypes: The Muslims, almost unilaterally, support the Palestinians, as do most left wing political commentators (eg folk like Naomi Klein). On the other hand, the Jews, most US politicians, some Arab states and others support the Israelis. And in this partisan fight, no reconciliation is possible and it is the blood of the innocent that is shed.

Keep in mind that no conflict has ever been about one party being right and the other party being wrong. With the case of Israel and Palestine, given their 100 year violent history, neither side can hold moral authority, and in that context, being partisan is really about being ghastly irresponsible as it only worsens and inflames the simmering anger of both the Israelis and Palestinians.

We can surely expect politicians of all creed, races and religions to stoke the fires of communal hate to gain political mileage, but we as denizens of the Interwebs, should be wiser when taking a partisan view. We have sufficient information at our fingertips to know better then to get involved in the slippery paths of the politicians. We should be savvy enough to recognize that being biased and partisan cannot bring peace to this troubled region, that aggravating the anti-Israeli/Palistinian sentiment cannot help reconciliation efforts. Yet, in the two weeks past, this is what Malaysian politicians have been engaging in and we have been cheering them on without giving a regard to whether it makes a damned difference in the world.

Take, for example, the push for the UN security council resolution 1860. It was roundly rejected by both the Israelis and Hamas, it remains legally non-binding, and it did not even get the support of the most potent military power in the region (yes, that would be the United States). It was an empty gesture, as have been the anti-Israeli/Palestinian rallies to date. The attempt at an economic boycott was an equally empty gesture which was later publicly vetoed by the deputy Prime Minister (a local political commentator noted that the economic boycott was akin to cutting off one’s own nose to spite the other guy’s face).

Now, we hear that Badawi wants to push for war crime charges? Does he not realize that the Hamas and Hezbollah have been equally guilty of war crimes as well? To show how empty this gesture is, consider that the Malaysian government, under Badawi, has not even ratified the International Criminal Court and international human right treaties. The world will laugh at us and point to our double standards, at our own set of human rights violations, at our unfair biases. In the end, this path cannot lead to any form of peace in the Middle East.

To further illustrate posturing, misplaced priorities and empty gestures, take the case of the (Malaysian) Association of Religious Scholars (PUM), who filed a police report against a MalaysiaKini contributor for questioning the partisan approach of the Malaysian prime minister in the Gaza conflict. PUM said “the article … played on sentiments of the Muslims, the government, the people”.

Think about it: PUM could have been assisting reconciliation efforts and bringing peace to the region, but instead they chose to inflame the debate and alienate others. The article was the viewpoint of one commentator but in PUM’s worldview, there cannot be any contrary viewpoints. This begs the question: how is reconcilation possible with organizations like PUM stoking the fires of intolerance?

Such actions reflect anger, but anger doesn’t save lives, does it? Efforts at diplomacy and reconciliation, saves lives. Efforts at understanding the other side, saves lives. Efforts at taming down the political hawks, saves lives. Efforts at loving your neighbour, saves lives. And I don’t see the anti-Israeli/Palestinian crowd doing any of this.

It has been 100 years, but the Middle East has yet to learn the Gandhian lesson of Satyagraha, and as a result, the innocent in Gaza, West Bank and Israel are paying a dear price for it. And so are the rest of us who hold non-partisan views. We have been bemoaning the painful sight of people getting injured and dying over the many years and we want the violence to stop. We are giving our money to the needy and lobbying for peace in a non-partisan manner.

It is said that speaking the truth in this country is a dangerous exercise and hazardously unpopular, but let me speak it for once: both sides are morally bankrupt, both sides are excessively partisan, both sides are contributing to the violence and neither side has shown inclination to help improve the situation. We cannot help but think that the conflict is only going to worsen, leaving little hope of reconciliation and thus leading to more deaths in the future.

This article is a plea for you to stop stoking the fires of hate by being partisan. You can’t hate your enemy unless you know him. But herein lies the twist: to really know thy enemy, you need to love him and once you love him, you can’t hate him anymore then you can hate yourself.

Well said. You should send this to a couple of newspapers and get them to print this instead of the “calls to action” the YBs and YABs are making everyday. Cheers.

In my opinion, this article shows your level of ignorance of what is actually happening.

Please visit:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-why-do-they-hate-the-west-so-much-we-will-ask-1230046.html

@Ashraff:

Ignorance is a matter of perspective. It is easy to look at atrocities by Israelis and ignore atrocities by Hamas and Hezbollah. I have looked at both, and found that Hamas and Hezbollah are equally responsible for killing innocents, proudly and without guilt! Does that make their actions worse? Or better, since they were targeting Israelis?

Your approach is exactly what I wrote about: you are biased and therefore, only choose to see what reinforces your bias, thus ignoring the reality that both parties have and are committing atrocities.

Until you and others recognize this, there will be no end to the hate and violence. You are only contributing to it. Remember that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Calling all Israelis are evil is pretty much the same as saying all Muslims are terrorists.

Well written Ditesh!