A crisis of expectations

What is it that makes Israel different than other countries? Why do we (speaking from the American point of view) regard it so differently? And is that changing?

Considering the fact that very few people understand Israel’s origins (myself included; I cannot claim to have a total grasp of what happened, only a cursory understanding), it doesn’t seem likely to me that that’s the issue. That is, people probably aren’t inclined to treat Israel differently because of knowledge of how it came to be. Rather, the issue is ignorance, in that area and others. If someone understanding is limited to the concept that Israel was created as a Holocaust reparation, they’re not in a position to accurately understand the current position of that region. That being said, I, without having that detailed knowledge of Israeli history, am able to clearly distinguish unacceptable behavior on Israel’s part. What makes me able to do that and not others? I’m not smarter, not more aware, not more interested. Plenty of people are those things.

What I think it comes down to is essentially a question of expectations. We expect certain things of certain countries. We expect North Korea to be reserved and subtly hostile. We expect China to be oppressive and guarded. We expect England to be somewhat lofty but still friendly. And we expect Israel to be hostile and territorial. That’s because of our basic understanding of Israel’s existence is defined mostly by the measures it has had to take to preserve its existence, at least in its historical and current form. We’ve never seen an Israel that was open to any other kind of existence. That’s a result of internal politics, and the strong tie to the U.S. government, which is, again, not something that regular people really think about. So the real problem is that our view of Israel is defined by ideas and actions outside of our direct control. We only see the end result; Israel as it is now.

What do we do to change this? There’s a lot of responsibility and blame to go around in terms of meting out justice to those involved. But those of us who are fed that perception of Israel do need to step up and ask that we see the whole picture. We need to seek out media exposure, details, theories. Until the citizens demand that this become our concern, it’s not going to change. Israel’s government has shown itself remarkably resistant to political pressure, in a manner that is somewhat reminiscent of Iran. They can blame their problems on other factors, and use that to ignore other world leaders’ requests. Obama has made a start on breaking through re: settlements, but I question how much he can really do. This one’s on us.

I say we turn our attention from the leaders of Iran and the leaders of Israel to the people of Iran and the people of Israel. They’re the ones we can talk to. Apply that pressure effectively, and they’re powerless to stop us.