By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
Historic patterns repeat themselves.
In his My Turn column, “Israel-Palestinian conflict explodes at our door,” in the Sept. 26, 2001 Juneau Empire, printed two weeks after the Sept. 11 heinous terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C., Lisle Hebert made various historical and statistical errors that in 2001 could lead to a divisive and anti-Semitic outcome on the matter in our country.
Hebert’s arguments were: (1) Unjust creation of Israel in 1948 had provoked conflicts in the Middle East; (2) “Israel-Palestinian conflict exploded at our door on September 11,” and, therefore, “… the United States have to cut off foreign aid to Israel to encourage fairness.”
Soon after Hebert’s opinion piece was published in the Juneau Empire, members of the Juneau Jewish Community courageously responded to his misleading and fabricated article via several submissions in the Empire and public meetings in Juneau.
One of the responses came from Shari Kochman’s article, “More than one book on Mideast history,” published in the Juneau Empire on Oct. 4, 2001. At the time, she was a board member of the Juneau Jewish Community. In fact, the narrative and information in her article is still relevant to today’s Israel-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, and explains it all. Several critical points in the Kochman’s article of More than one book… reverberates today.
On the history of creation of the modern Israel, she responded to Hebert’s article as follows:
“Stating that, ‘President Truman decided to give the displaced Jews someone else’s country, i.e., Palestine,’ is extraordinary. Palestine was not Truman’s to give. The partition plan was established by the United Nations based on recommendation from an 11-member commission, which did not even include the United States. The Jews of Palestine were not completely happy with the plan, but accepted it. The Arabs rejected it. They went to war. Had Arab governments not gone to war in 1948 to block the UN partition plan, a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Galilee and Negev could be celebrating 54 years [76 years today] of independence. Instead, Egypt occupied Gaza; Jordan occupied the West Bank.
“Mr. Hebert’s reference to the land in question as clearly Palestinian by right is amazing. I challenge him to offer clear proof that it is Palestinian land and not the ancient land of the Jews.”
The second point in Kochman’s article was on establishing a two-state solution in the region. Kochman writes:
“Mr. Hebert claims Israel will not accept the legitimacy of a Palestinian state. In the most recent peace efforts, Israel agreed to establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians rejected the offer and insisted on the “right of return.” That has the façade of a justifiable request. But by sheer numbers, it would mean destruction of the land of Israel as a Jewish homeland [i.e., “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”]. Based on the years of exile, discrimination and murder suffered by Jews, can Mr. Hebert understand why the destruction of Israel is not an option? Would any nation willingly allow self-destruction?”
And in her final point, Kochman warned that a rhetoric of the Hebert’s article may lead to a possible emergence of terrorist activities in the region.
“Perhaps most alarming of all Mr. Hebert’s assertions is that Palestinians, out of despair brought on by an uncaring world, became terrorists. It seems Mr. Hebert is supplying an excuse, an explanation for terrorism. Is such a thing possible? Have other horribly persecuted peoples resorted to terrorism? And if they had, if they do in the future, would we offer an excuse that an uncaring world drove them to it? Is there ever a justification for terrorism?
“I am among the millions, who pray for peace in the Middle East and recognize it will require compromise and concessions by Israelis and Palestinians. While this quest continues, terrorism is not and will never be a legitimate path.”
Indeed, progressive and radical far-left advocates for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza/Hamas must learn from Kochman’s insights—written 23 years ago—in order to understand the geo-political complexity and history of the region.
Today, “Hamas lovers” and violent pro-Palestinian protesters are either naïve or misinformed, or both. The world-wide pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic protests clearly resemble those of the leftist Black Lives Matter and Antifa. These violent protests and anti-Semitic rhetoric must be stopped by rational and patriotic Americans.
As Golda Meir, an Israeli fourth prime minister from 1969 to 1974, observed: “You cannot negotiate peace with somebody who has come to kill you.”
Alexander B. Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and was enroled in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present. He has conducted about 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, andClipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. He was the Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka; Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia; Old Russia in Modern America: Russian Old Believers in Alaska; Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During WWII; Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East; Living Wisdom of the Far North: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska; Pipeline to Russia; The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in WWII; and Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers; Ancient Tales of Chukotka, and Ancient Tales of Kamchatka.