[Marxism] why should a future Palestinian state be demilitarized?

[Dennis Brasky <dmozart1756@xxxxxxxxx>]

  The Magnes Zionist <http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/>
>
> Self-Criticism from an Israeli, American, and Orthodox Jewish Perspective
>     Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Palestine -- The Case Against
> Non-Militarization<http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/2009/06/palestine-case-against-non.html>
>
> When the Palestinian Authority, during the Oslo final status talks, agreed
> to a demilitarized state, I shook my head in sadness. It was clear that the
> negotiators only agreed because they knew that they wouldn't get a state
> otherwise. I doubt they were motivated by progressive, anti-military
> feelings. In Israel, citizens from all walks of life serve proudly in the
> military (many don't, but that's another story.) The Israel army is firmly
> rooted in the Zionist ethos of the Jews being able to protect themselves,
> without having to rely on the good will of the gentiles. I have students
> from my US university come to volunteer in the Israeli army. Can you imagine
> a non-militarized Israel? I would like to, but I can't.
>
> What the Palestinians are being asked to do, as a condition for statehood,
> is to complete the process of emasculation that Zionism began, and if that
> sounds too old fashioned and macho for a progressive blog, then let me put
> it another way – they are being required to outsource the most fundamental
> responsibility that any state has, which is to provide for the security of
> its citizens. And why? In order to allay Israel's existential angst. What
> about the angst of the Palestinians?
>
> Now under any circumstances I would consider this to be a huge demand. But
> when it is made by the descendants of settlers who expelled the majority of
> the natives, imported members of its own ethnic group to the new state,
> occupied the rest of that land, and for the last forty-two years have
> deprived the natives of their life, liberty, and property – well such a
> demand is beyond chutzpah. It is obscene.
>
> By requiring that Palestine be non-militarized, Israel implies (usually, it
> states openly) that the Palestinians are being punished for their behavior
> in resisting a long term occupation, At the very least, it implies that
> Israel, the more powerful country, gets to dictate the conditions for
> Palestinian statehood.
>
> So whether the Palestinians decide to forgo a military or not, they cannot
> make the decision in order to meet an Israeli demand. The last hundred years
> show amply that Palestinians have at least as much to fear from Zionist
> ambitions as vice-versa, and probably much more.
>
> But is non-militarization a good idea in its own right? Since I assume the
> arguments for non-militarization are obvious (militaries are expensive,
> developing countries waste time and resources on them, militarism is a bad
> idea), I wish to focus on the case against non-militarization.
>
> First off, a Palestinian military would serve the same function as
> militaries do around the world. It would be a source of national pride, a
> place for social consolidation, and, for recruits coming from
> underprivileged homes, an opportunity for social mobility and education.
>
> Second, a military serves as a place for *national* integration and
> consolidation.
>
> Third, a military provides a sense of security, especially for a
> justifiably insecure people.
>
> Fourth, a military acts as a deterrent for those wishing to solve bilateral
> disputes by force. Of course, I don't expect that a Palestinian state would
> have an army that comes close to the Israeli army. But neither does Syria,
> and Israel knows better than to humiliate Syria (well, usually it knows
> better)
>
> Finally, if there is a Palestinian military, the incentive for Palestinian
> youth to join guerilla/terrorist organizations will be diminished.
>
> I have heard all the above reasons from American neocons in connection with
> building an Iraqi army. When you tell them to apply the same principles to
> Palestine they start to hem and haw.
>
> There are so many pluses to a Palestinian military that it is hard for me
> to see what the downside is, besides the obvious ones that militarism is a
> bad idea for any country, and militaries are too expensive for developing
> countries.
>
> Perhaps the best idea for Palestine would be for it to have a small armed
> force that has been trained by NATO and a coalition of Western and Arab
> states, and that has a joint defense pact with NATO or a major Western army.
> A country that acts belligerently against Palestine would not only incur the
> wrath of its armed forces, but of the NATO alliance, or something to that
> effect. The Palestinian army could even have joint units with the larger
> army.
>
> Of course, what I would really like to see is one army, with joint units,
> for Israel-Palestine. Maybe now is not the time, but it is time to start
> thinking about it.
>
> But, you will argue, there are plenty of countries that don't have
> militaries. Indeed, here is a list:
>
> Andorra. Costa Rica. Cook Islands. Commonwealth of Dominica. Grenada.
> Iceland. Haiti. Kiribati. Liechtenstein. Maldivias. Marshall Islands.
> Mauritius. Monaco. Federated States of Micronesia. Nauru. Niue. Palau.
> Panama. San Marino. Solomon Islands New developments in the Salomon Islands.
> St Kitts and Nevis. St Lucia. St Vincent and the Grenadines. Tuvalu.
> Vanuatu. Vatican City state. Western Samoa.
>
> Do you see on this list a country whose land has been occupied and
> expropriated for decades, whose people have been denied citizenship and
> representation, and who will be located alongside the settler state from
> which it was displaced, and which has one of the most powerful armies in the
> world, and an irridentist population?
>
> What would Ben-Gurion have done had the UN offered the Jews a state in
> 1948, on the condition that it was non-militarized?
> <
> http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/2009/06/palestine-case-against-non.html
> >
>
>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
>
>
>
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