JEWISH-ARAB CONFLICT NOT A SIMPLE ISSUE - CEDAR RAPIDS GAZETTE - JANUARY 12, 2011

There is a recipe for inciting hatred and promoting the ethnic cleansing of half the world’s Jewish population.

First, deny the historic Jewish presence in Israel, both the biblical presence and the more recent Jewish majorities in Jerusalem and other towns since at least Ottoman times. Do this by claiming that Arabs alone are the “indigenous” population.

Second, recast the Jews as usurpers. Make sure the revised context allows for no parallels to Russian pogroms, the Holocaust, or the near-total ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands.

Third, on the basis of such lies, demand the Jews “get the hell out of Palestine.” Since Jews have been cast as usurpers throughout Israel, this means throwing them into the sea.

Sadly, this recipe appears all too frequently in newspapers, the letter by Gail Coleman (Jan. 6) being one such example.

The truth is that both sides have done wrong and have suffered. On the Jewish side, their fight has been mostly one of survival — both as a refugee people and as a people born in the crucible of the Middle East.

On the Arab side, their fight has varied from the cynical Machiavellian manipulations of powerful regimes to the struggling as pawns of ordinary people caught in the midst of larger forces.

Reducing the conflict to usurper against sufferer is dangerously simplistic and lobbies for violence.

James Edward Johnson

Iowa City