Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Munson: I would question the accuracy of some of the statements in this review of Yifat Kedar’s documentary Between the Lines (2001) about Amira Hass. For example, Sachs writes “from what the film shows, she apparently has no friends in Israeli society.” This seems implausible and biased. I do not know Amira Hass personally and I have not seen this film. But I do know Israelis who revere her–as I do.

Micah Sachs, Seeing between the Lines, (Review of Film about Amira Hass) - San Diego Jewish Journal, February 3, 2002

Amira Hass is probably the most committed journalist in Israel, for better or worse. When first assigned to cover Gaza by Israel’s best-known daily, Ha’aretz in 1991, she decided to spend part of each month living there. She permanently moved to Gaza after the Oslo peace accords.In 1997, well before the current intifada, she moved to Ramallah, in the West Bank. She remains there to this day, braving power outages, squabbles with the Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinian Authority, tanks and stonings. During her time covering the occupied territories, she has come to a simple conclusion, fervently held: the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank is a travesty.

If you tend to agree with her, then Israeli director Yifat Kedar’s documentary Between the Lines (2001), about Hass’s life in the West Bank, will confirm your convictions. But even if you don’t, you can’t help but empathize for this lonely, courageous and angry woman.

One of the great powers of film is its ability to make us understand those we might normally demonize. Among other reasons, Schindler’s List (1993) is a masterpiece because Ralph Fiennes makes the viewer understand how a person becomes a Nazi monster.

By showing direct evidence of the indignities, injustice and hate that Palestinians in the occupied territories endure, the film makes us empathize with them. But more importantly, it makes us - and hopefully Israelis - understand why one of their own would choose to live “behind enemy lines.”

It would be easy to dismiss Hass if she had a cozy relationship with the Palestinian Authority. But she does not. She needles P.A. leaders about corruption and lack of democracy just as ruthlessly as she hounds Israeli military flaks about the destruction of Palestinian crops.

When she writes, it is with the passion and conviction of a prophet. Her articles are not possessed with the tone of calm evenhandedness that American readers are accustomed to; her work (available at www.zmag.org/meastwatch/amira_hass.htm) is scathing, judgmental and accusatory.

Sudan, 1993. Famine victim in a feeding center.

Afghanistan, 1996. Land mine victims learn to walk on prosthetic legs.

Albania 1999. Deported Kosovars in refugee camp.

James Nachtwey

Kalandia, near Ramallah. A few days after the Six-Day War, an Israeli officer studies a proposal from the ICRC, under the gaze of a Palestinian boy (1967). Jean Mohr

Jean Mohr, Israelis and Palestinians: “Side by Side or Face to Face”

Aftermath
The fighting in Lebanon spread to the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, where the dust settles after several days of fighting. Ben Curtis / AP

The Year in Images - Photo Essays - TIME

State Rep. Jason Bedrick, left, hosted a house party for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, right, in October 2007. Rabbi Moshe Bleich of the Wellesley Chabad also attended the event. (Yeshiva World News)

Munson: Huckabee makes some seemingly sensible statements in his article in the January-February issue of Foreign Affairs. For example, he writes: “The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out.” He also writes that if the US “attempts to dominate others, it is despised.” These statements are reminiscent of the seemingly sensible things George W. Bush was saying when he ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000. But other parts of Huckabee’s Foreign Affairs article could have been written by a neoconservative. As for Huckabee’s advocacy of a Palestinian state in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, the Yeshiva World News notes that “when asked about a Palestinian state, Gov. Huckabee stated that he supports creating a Palestinian state, but believes that it should be formed outside of Israel. He named Egypt and Saudi Arabia as possible alternatives.” That one of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination–according to recent polls –should spout such nonsense is disturbing. But the rhetoric of his main competitors is equally obtuse when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Huckabee’s rise puts focus on religious rhetoric - JTA, December 24, 2007

NEW YORK (JTA) — Mike Huckabee was a barely known former governor of Arkansas when he attended an October house party on his behalf at the home of Jason Bedrick, New Hampshire’s first Orthodox Jewish state representative.

Despite the candidate’s long odds, Bedrick was brimming with confidence in an interview he gave to an Orthodox news Web site.

“No one had ever heard of the last governor from Hope, Ark., Bill Clinton, the summer before he was elected,” Bedrick told Yeshiva World News. “Huckabee is polling well in all the early states. He’s a long shot, but he’s the best shot we’ve got.”…

To boot, the New Hampshire lawmaker added, Huckabee is pro-Israel: He has visited the Jewish state nine times, and told the crowd at the Bedrick house party that he favored the establishment of a Palestinian state — in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

Jonathan Martin, Huckabee runs as GOP rebel, Politico.com, December 24, 2007

SHELDON, Iowa - To spend a day with Mike Huckabee on the campaign trail is to hear echoes of his three insurgent predecessors.

He has the fervent evangelical following in this state that Pat Robertson had in 1988, he deploys populist rhetoric like Pat Buchanan and, just like John McCain eight years ago, he is not afraid to diverge from party orthodoxy in speaking to Republican audiences….

“Well, he is not afraid to say, ‘Merry Christmas,’” Gary Thies of Mapleton said when asked after the Sioux City event why he’s supporting Huckabee.

And why is that important?

“Because that’s the most important thing in my life,” Thies responds with an icy glare. “That’s what we’re doing here. Those are the principles that made this country great.”…

His supporters are unmistakably Christian conservatives.

The boys are typically dressed in their Sunday best, the girls wear modest, ankle-length dresses, and the parents offer Christmas blessings after speaking with a reporter.

“It has the feel of a revival meeting,” George Schneidermann explained after Huckabee’s appearance in Orange City.

Elizabeth White, Huckabee defends religious tone in ad, Associated Press, Boston Globe, December 24, 2007

SAN ANTONIO - Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made no apologies yesterday for the religious tone of a recent holiday campaign commercial and said it is important to look for Jesus at this time of year.

“You can find Santa at every mall. You can find discounts in every store,” Huckabee said from the pulpit of Cornerstone Church. “But if you mention the name of Jesus, as I found out recently, it upsets the whole world. Forgive me, but I thought that was the point of the whole day.”

Huckabee was referring the ad airing in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina that shows him in a red sweater in front of a Christmas tree.

In the ad, Huckabee asks: “Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you’ve been seeing, mostly about politics? Well, I don’t blame you. At this time of year sometimes it’s nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and friends.”

“And I hope that you and your friends will have a magnificent Christmas season. And on behalf of all of us, God Bless and Merry Christmas. I’m Mike Huckabee and I approved this message,” he says in the spot….

Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and an ordained Southern Baptist minister, has been on the defensive in recent weeks because of the ad and his rise in the polls, particularly in Iowa, where he has taken away the top spot from Republican rival Mitt Romney.

Speaking at a later church service, Huckabee said: “I got in a little trouble this last week because I actually had the audacity to say ‘Merry Christmas.’ Isn’t that an odd thing to say at this time of year?”

Photo by Aman Sharma, AP. Millions of Hindus celebrate Ardh Kumb Mela, a 45-day festival that commemorates a mythical battle between gods and demons over the nectar of immortality.

Cleansed of Sin by the River Ganges, washingtonpost.com, January 17, 2007

Ajit Solanki/Associated Press

Bharatiya Janata Party supporters celebrating Sunday in Ahmadabad, India, after the announcement of state election results.

Somini Sengupta, Hindu Radical Is Re-elected in India - New York Times, December 24, 2007

NEW DELHI — He has been likened to the Emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned. He has been denied entry into the United States for violations of religious freedom, yet praised as a business-friendly politician who has allowed private industry to flourish in his state.

On Sunday, voters re-elected the politician, Narendra Modi, arguably India’s most incendiary officeholder, as the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat. His victory, by a wide margin, was a stunning defeat for the country’s governing Congress Party and signaled that Mr. Modi and his charismatic, often pugnacious, brand of Hindu supremacist politics would be a force to be reckoned with in the future.Gujarat is considered a test case for national politics because it is viewed as a laboratory for radical Hindu politics in contemporary India.

Mr. Modi, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is accused of sanctioning or taking no steps to stop Hindu mobs from massacring at least 1,000 of their Muslim neighbors in February 2002, after a mysterious fire engulfed a train carrying members of a Hindu nationalist organization, killing 59 people on board. Ten months later, voters in Gujarat returned Mr. Modi to power.

In elections held earlier this month, Mr. Modi’s B.J.P. captured 117 seats in of the 182-member state legislature, falling just short of a two-thirds majority; the Congress Party, which leads the nation’s governing coalition, trailed with 59 seats, while 6 went to other parties. The results were announced Sunday by the Election Commission of India.

Gideon Levy, Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Haaretz, December 24, 2007

Don’t let the quiet fool you: It is imaginary. While all eyes are on Gaza, the impression has been created, under the aegis of a media turning a blind eye, that the West Bank is quiet. That’s where the “good guys” are in charge, those with whom we went to Annapolis, those who will be getting the money from the donor nations, and life there is great, so it seems.

Well, that is not the case. The lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank are also intolerable, blood is being shed there too. For the Israel Defense Forces it is business as usual, with a frighteningly quick finger on the trigger. The spirit of Annapolis and the lofty words of the prime minister do not prevail there.

I have visited quite a few mourners’ homes in the West Bank in recent months. They were all mourning family members who had been killed for no reason. Every week, innocent people are killed in the West Bank, and nobody talks about them. Among the dozens of Palestinians killed recently, not all were Qassam launchers or gang leaders from Gaza. If a new uprising erupts in the West Bank one day, it will originate in these mourners’ homes.

The daily routine in the West Bank is also patently inhumane. The night I spent last summer in the Jenin refugee camp brought that home to me: The IDF enters the camp every night, and even when it does not kill, it strikes great terror in the hearts of thousands of families, who are the victims of anxiety. There are few Israelis who can imagine the daily routine of West Bank residents, during the day and even more so at night. And we have not said a word about the poverty, the roadblocks and the home demolitions.

The story of the recent killings in the West Bank is not on our agenda, because so far the Palestinians there have not responded with attacks in retaliation for these deaths. But it is not certain that this quiet will continue.

Adib Salim, paralyzed on his right side, sold lupini beans. When the IDF conducted one of its raids on Nablus he dared to stick his head out. The soldiers killed him. The IDF Spokesman claimed that he threatened to shoot at the soldiers, but the paralyzed bean seller was totally incapable of doing so.

Abdel Wazir, the 71-year-old cousin of the legendary Abu Jihad, was a retired accountant. He spent a terrifying night in his home: for hours the soldiers fired next to his window, while he sat with his wife on the sofa, both of them incapacitated by fear. When the order to go outside was heard, he left his house and was immediately shot dead….

All these people were killed by the IDF in recent weeks, for no reason. Add to them Mohammed Askar from Saida, who was shot at close range during riots at Ketziot Prison; Kamela Kabha of Bartaa, an elderly woman whose son tried to rush her to the hospital in Jenin and was delayed at the Reihan checkpoint for three hours, until she died in his arms, and other incidents of killing, and you will get the true picture of Israel’s “peace efforts.”