Jeffrey Gedmin: Neutrality is not Possible

Proudly presenting the original English version of Jeffrey Gedmin's article in WELT ("Neutralität ist nicht möglich") on April 12, 2006. Mr. Gedmin is Director of the Aspen Institute's Berlin office.

Neutrality is not possible - Israel and the Palestinians
Column in "Die Welt" (12.04.2006)
By Jeffrey Gedmin

I cringe every time I hear the BBC or CNN report about Palestinian
"militants."  They are not willing to call the suicide bombers "terrorists".
European commentary is now talking about the next Israeli government
"threatening" the Palestinians with new unilateral pull-outs. Of course, it
gets worse. A friend brought to my attention a Tagesspiegel article, in
which Israelis who die at the hands of Palestinians lose their lives to "the
resistance" ("Widerstand"); while Hamas members who perish in the conflict
are "murdered" ("ermordet") by the Israelis. This does not seem terribly
even-handed. Rolf Behrens did an eye-popping study of Der Spiegel's bias
against Israel a couple of years ago. I have the impression not much has
changed at Der Spiegel.

I was in Israel for the country's recent elections and the visit reminded me
of my own bias. While I was there, the Israeli air force was striking
targets in Gaza. The Israelis hit bomb making factories and in one case a
vehicle carrying a Palestinian "militant." I think Israel deserves the right
to self-defence. That's why I favour "targeted killings." I visited the
security fence again. The International Court of Justice still sees this
barrier as illegal. The Guardian compares Israel to South Africa at times of
Apartheid. I am glad Sharon had built the thing. It looks hideous. It also
brought the number of suicide bombings down.

I visited during this trip a Palestinian womens' NGO in East Jerusalem. I
heard a young woman from the group explain how wife beating in her community
was somehow understandable. Palestinian men suffer so much, she explained,
from the Israeli "occupation."

I am not really sure how I became so one-sided in this conflict. I grew up
Catholic, knowing little about Jews or the Jewish state. I remember my

Grandfather telling me once how Jews were smarter than gentiles because they
saved so diligently for their children. I recall how, as a kid, when one of
us picked up a penny off the ground, another would say, "hey don't be a
Jew." That was about the extent of my knowledge.

When I moved to Europe four years ago, I became a little wiser. I recall
someone saying to me about an Aspen program whether we had "too many Jewish
names" as speakers. Shortly after I arrived in Germany I gave a speech in
Frankfurt, where a prominent businessman asked me during the coffee break
whether it was "the Jews" who were pushing the U.S. to invade Iraq.  Now
there is a new, much discussed study by two prominent American professors
who argue that it was indeed the Jews. The pro-Israel Lobby in the U.S. has
apparently ruined American foreign policy. I expect the study will become
regularly quoted (although probably infrequently read) in the weeks ahead.
For those who want a first hand look, the 83-page report was published in a
condensed version in the London Review of Books (www. Lrb.co.uk). I expect a
German version is on the way.

It seems some people will always blame the Jews. After the incursion into
Jenin several years ago, the UN accused Israel of "genocide." Norbert Blüm
said the Israelis had engaged in their own "Vernichtungskrieg." The
Israelis, after exercising much patience, had gone into this Palestinian
camp to hunt down terrorists. Less than 60 Palestinians were killed in
Jenin. Nearly all of them armed combatants. Mass murder?

For years everyone has been talking about "land for peace." I am pretty one
sided on this, too. Every time the Israelis try giving land, Palestinian
"militants" respond with more war. Sharon gives up Gaza. Israel gets
Katjuscha missiles fired at its civilian populations. Someone asked me once
why I am so pro-Israeli. I keep wondering why so many are the opposite.

Comments

[Pamela]

The irony of the Holocaust is that the state of Israel would not have come to be without it. If people really WANTED to understand how Gaza and the West Bank came to be, they'd have to 'fess up to the fact that the Palestinians are victims of Israelis winning wars waged against them by the so-called brothers of the Palis. And also do some research on the role of the effendi. Then we can talk about the Balfour Declaration.

I shouldn't be so non-plussed I suppose. Eurabians won't even defend themselves from Islamofacists on their own turf. Your masters at the EU have put the kibosh on the term "Islamic terrorism". So maybe you really do think self-defense in service of one's right to exist is culturally arrogant.

An entire civilization that has abdicated such fundamental beliefs to a nihilistic utopia is of course going to be outraged by Jews and Americans. We fight to live.
You surrender to live.

[playertwo]

Oh Pamela...YOU AND YOUR FACTS!!!
the mentally diseased arent going to get my full attention until I'm at least half as rich as they are..wealth/pride/ruin and all that 2000 year old crap.
Youre just going to have get over tha fact that youre (we're) never going to be accepted by the mass of idiocy. Its just too easy to be a Brad or an Angelina. Welcome to the living. Germans know full well that bagging on the jews is just another symptom of small dick syndrome, in the end it killed millions of Germans but who's counting when its just so fun to come up with all those funny jokes. Get the QUARTERBACK!!!

[Pamela]

I have a question for Germans here.

Do you know who Sigrid Hunke was?

I don't know when I'll be able to post again. Typekey gives me fits sometimes, so if I don't answer it's not 'cuz I'm not reading. I have a grabbag email account set up for people who don't know me you can email me at:

[email protected]

[J.T.]

Sigrid Hunke was a nationalsocialist philosopher, who rejected both Judaism and Christianity, because of the common roots of both religions , she however had some sympathy for Islam, which influenced her in founding the Germanian Church. I think that religious group still exists under a different name.
Because she was an intellectual and also held staunch feminist views she was an outsider in the nationalsocialist movement and never got much attention.