Public conversation about the military actions of Israel is always noisy and combative. Large statements of principle, contradictory telling of stories and ad hominem arguments make evaluation difficult. In reflecting on the events of the past week I found myself returning to my first visit to Israel over 30 years ago.
Before going to Israel, I had come to see for the first time the extent of the horror of the Holocaust, especially by reading many diaries and reflections of survivors. I was deeply sympathetic to all that the new State of Israel represented. My sympathy was heightened by the terrible events at the Lod Airport shortly before I arrived, and by the massacre at the Munich Games that took place during my visit.
I was deeply impressed by Muslims whom I met. As I waited at country bus stops, they often invited me to take coffee with them and revealed themselves as people of a deep local culture. I came to see that two peoples had claims, bound to history and to religion, to live on the same land. But it seemed likely that when a culture that values time as a space for meeting met a culture that values time as an opportunity for building, the latter would inevitably push out the former. My sympathy for the Palestinians grew.
On Mount Tabor (pictured), traditionally identified with the site of Jesus' Transfiguration, I saw that inherent in the State of Israel was a conflicting logic with a potential for tragedy.
The mountain looks out over a broad plain along which most of the invading armies of history with their spears, their horses, their chariots and their tanks, have made their way to and fro. The logic of the land is that possession is everything, and that possession is secured only by armed force. The logic of history is that over centuries armed powers wax and wane, and that alliances fade. A permanent presence on the land could be won only by a society based on generous values that made connections with surrounding peoples.
The conflicting demands of these two logics are the soil for tragedy.
Seen from this perspective all Israel's recent engagements with its neighbours seem to embody more and more forbiddingly the imperative of survival by virtue of armed force. The building of walls of separation, the extension of settlements on occupied Palestinian land, the