Of Olives
In a rampage which served no security purpose whatsoever, bands of Israeli settlers destroyed large numbers of olive groves in the West Bank just before harvest time. In a brief blip on Israel National News, the Yesha Rabbinical Forum condemned this, to no avail. Haaretz did have a longer story earlier today, but I can't find it now. The Jerusalem Post story is here.
Cutting down trees does not sound like very much, so let me explain it to you. Olive farming in the Middle East is a highly lucrative business. When I was in Jordan, I saw a small olive groves of less than a dozen trees which would keep a family easily well off year after year. The catch is that they're very expensive to start with, and take years to develop. When you decide to plant olive trees, you're thinking about your descendants more than your immediate future. Once a tree is planted, the family continues to harvest it for generations, making it like a small family business, life savings and prized heirloom all in one.
Many among the settlers, of course, want to drive out the Palestinians. And they realize that destroying their families' lives would quite likely force them off the land. So they go after the olive trees, even if they have to attack some rabbis to do it. Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers for doing nothing more than trying to harvest their crops, events which go relatively unnoticed by a media more interested in the sirens and flashing lights of urban terrorist attacks.
That terrorism, however, is an outgrowth of a conflict, a conflict which began decades ago in a regional and international climate which has long passed away. Today, that conflict continues, each new provocation spurring it a horrid new step further. Yosi Peli, a settler leader, said, "The trees grow back and ultimately we hope to harvest them in the place of the unwanted inhabitants of the area." Meanwhile, many among those "unwanted inhabitants" will resolve to fight the ones who ruined their families, and come to believe that most Israelis are like the ones they see around them, fanatics who want nothing more than all the holy land in the in the name of their religion. And when they see the IDF protecting these settlements and Ariel Sharon building a wall to protect them further, they will conclude that they have no choice but to resist by any means necessary, just as Israelis have in response to terrorism. And the cycle will go on as two peoples clutch at each others' throats afraid to let go and put out the fires which burn the world around them.
NOTE: You may notice that al-Jazeera quotes only one rabbi, and he supports the settlers. This directly parallels much Western media coverage of the Islamic world.
Cutting down trees does not sound like very much, so let me explain it to you. Olive farming in the Middle East is a highly lucrative business. When I was in Jordan, I saw a small olive groves of less than a dozen trees which would keep a family easily well off year after year. The catch is that they're very expensive to start with, and take years to develop. When you decide to plant olive trees, you're thinking about your descendants more than your immediate future. Once a tree is planted, the family continues to harvest it for generations, making it like a small family business, life savings and prized heirloom all in one.
Many among the settlers, of course, want to drive out the Palestinians. And they realize that destroying their families' lives would quite likely force them off the land. So they go after the olive trees, even if they have to attack some rabbis to do it. Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers for doing nothing more than trying to harvest their crops, events which go relatively unnoticed by a media more interested in the sirens and flashing lights of urban terrorist attacks.
That terrorism, however, is an outgrowth of a conflict, a conflict which began decades ago in a regional and international climate which has long passed away. Today, that conflict continues, each new provocation spurring it a horrid new step further. Yosi Peli, a settler leader, said, "The trees grow back and ultimately we hope to harvest them in the place of the unwanted inhabitants of the area." Meanwhile, many among those "unwanted inhabitants" will resolve to fight the ones who ruined their families, and come to believe that most Israelis are like the ones they see around them, fanatics who want nothing more than all the holy land in the in the name of their religion. And when they see the IDF protecting these settlements and Ariel Sharon building a wall to protect them further, they will conclude that they have no choice but to resist by any means necessary, just as Israelis have in response to terrorism. And the cycle will go on as two peoples clutch at each others' throats afraid to let go and put out the fires which burn the world around them.
NOTE: You may notice that al-Jazeera quotes only one rabbi, and he supports the settlers. This directly parallels much Western media coverage of the Islamic world.
posted by Brian Ulrich at
10:46 PM
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