Closed Zone and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
The National Hustle welcomes Roni Bossin in our blog’s first guest post. Roni comes to us from Haifa, Israel and currently resides in San Francisco.
First of all I would like to thank Matt and Camo for allowing me to post a guest article on The National Hustle. For the past few weeks I have been following their posts and have found the website to be both interesting and refreshing.
Yoni Goodman, one of the creators of “Waltz with Bashir”, has recently created a new animation film for Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement – depicting the impossible situation that the Gaza Strip civilians face every day. Gisha is an Israeli non profit organization, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents, and calls upon Israel to open the Gaza border crossings and allow freedom of movement to its 1.5 million citizens.
The freedom of movement is no minor freedom. Our ability to move around freely is directly connected to such rights as the right to a family life, the freedom of occupation, the right to live in dignity, to earn an honest living, and many more. Many of us might take our own freedom of movement for granted, but if we think about it for a moment, especially those of us here in the USA, we can easily comprehend how freedom of movement has shaped our own lives.
For purposes of full disclosure I must share with you that I am not an objective party to this matter. I am an Israeli, who has also served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in and around the Gaza Strip on a couple of different occasions. This fact does not preclude me from appreciating the suffering experienced by the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip. As Israelis, our biggest arguments are with each other as to how do we reach a solution that will satisfy all parties involved.
I will not attempt to dispute the grave conditions in which Gaza residents live. However, I will say that the story is not as simple as it is described in the animation above. Enabling free movement across the border is an invite to terror organizations to take advantage of trucks with goods, ambulances and civilians in order to smuggle weapons and to carry out terror attacks. Such exploits eventually are what limits the freedom of movement of Israelis when terror hits major cities.
The above brings me to my point. I believe it is time we start following a saying that is very common where I come from – “Don’t be right, be smart.” It means that it doesn’t matter who’s wrong or who’s right. It doesn’t matter who started. What is important is to find a solution that is sensible and logical. Even though there are so many emotions involved here, it is time to start using our brains and not so much our hearts.
Although I have many ideas in my head, I can’t say that I have an exact outline of a solution. Probably no one can. However, an approach that does coincide with “don’t be right, be smart”, is to start talking to as many parties as possible and to let the bygones be bygones.
In view of this approach, this week’s events are positive. On Monday, the American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton shook the hands of her Syrian counterpart Walid Mualem during the International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Economy for the Reconstruction of Gaza taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. This handshake comes in light of the gradual renewal of diplomatic relations between the USA and Syria – a change that derives from the new administration in the USA.
On Tuesday, Clinton met with Israel’s elected Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. Netanyahu is considered more hard line than the previous government and it is a big unknown how and to what extent will the peace process with the Palestinians advance, but at the same time the Obama administration has expressed on more than one occasion that it intends to be very active when it comes to promoting diplomatic relations in the Middle East, and particularly with respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict. And on Wednesday, Clinton met with Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority.
This is a very optimistic, and perhaps simplistic, approach, but it is time to reopen the communication lines and swallow our pride. Remember, don’t be right, be smart.
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Roni Bossin is an attorney and sport industry professional based in San Francisco, CA.
March 5th, 2009 at 8:26 PM
One term I have rarely been referred to as is “simple-minded,” and I do not mean this to compliment myself; “multifaceted,” “convoluted,” and “byzantine” are much more likely to be used to describe my analysis of complex circumstances. But in the case of the subject of this post, I am very simple-minded. As Martin Gore wrote in 1984 “People are People.” We all want similar things, we just go about getting them in different (not necessarily wrong) ways. I hate to sound innocent or naive, but it is refreshing to hear from an objective source who has served in the Gaza Strip area (and can probably shoot an Uzi better than I can wield my electric razor) that peace is desired. I hope for the sake of humanity that in the coming years we will be able to set aside our differences and be able to see people for who they are and not through a cloud of religious rhetoric or hateful propaganda. Please leave a comment for our first guest author and thank him for his contribution to YOUR site.
March 6th, 2009 at 6:47 AM
I support your approach, I wish more people would be like you and start thinking smart!
“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…”
very interesting, waiting to read some more
keren
March 9th, 2009 at 10:42 AM
I saw the video and I was pretty shocked by it…
Why don’t people–even Israelis themselves–focus on all the positive things going on in Israel??