I was relieved to read the letters of Mr Maarof Salleh, “Islamic Centre condemns recent actions by Israel” (ST: 10 July 2006) and the letter of Harveen Singh Narulla, “Give both sides of story on Israel and Palestine” (ST: 10 July 2006.) People are finally pointing out the obvious – Israel’s recent invasion of the Occupied Territories supposedly in retaliation for the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit is morally reprehensible.
Israel is an extraordinary nation. The modern State of Israel has grown into a vibrant and prosperous society in otherwise poor and unstable region in a relatively short time. Israel has made the most of her only resource –people. Israelis have shown themselves to be ingenious and achieved great things especially in the field of agriculture.
Singapore has rightly used Israel as a role model for many things. As well as adapting Israel’s model of a “Citizen Army,” Singapore has also learnt from Israel’s philosophy of maximizing scarce water resources, which has helped Singapore to develop a much admired water industry.
However, Israel’s achievements should not blind the International Community and Singapore to her short comings, especially when it comes to the Palestinians. There is simply no other way to describe the using of tanks and rifles against stone throwing civilians other than to call it a crime. Israeli governments have always shoot down such complaints as being either “Anti-Semitic” or pointed to the fact that Israel has a right to defend herself against “Terrorist actions.”
While nobody denies Israel the right to defend herself, it’s becoming clear that Israel’s military interventions against the Palestinians have not decreased terrorist activity against Israel.
Actions like blockading Palestinian territories and withholding taxes collected by a democratically elected government have only caused Palestinians to support groups who are hostile towards Israel. Look beyond the headlines of suicide bombers and at the economic situation of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and one will realise that the Palestinians have reached the stage where they have nothing to lose and cannot be cowed by physical force alone.
How does one get both sides away from this bloody situation? One example could be the way in which Singapore has maintained its national security. On one hand, we, like Israel have our own well armed citizen army that is meant to deter potential aggressors. On the other, we have learnt that our security and prosperity depends on our neighbours prosperity and security. In spite of early disagreements with Malaysian and Indonesian governments, Singapore’s governments have always encouraged Singaporean businesses to invest in our neighbours creating a situation where by everyone benefits from peace.
Isn’t it time that Singapore acted as a true friend to Israel and instead of blindly accepting Israel’s justification of its current military offensive and provided Israel with a roadmap on how it could create prosperity for the Palestinians and other Arab regimes hostile towards Israel.
This is admittedly hard to do. History has given both sides an ingrained hostility towards each other and overcoming this will not be easy. But pure military solutions did not stop “Terrorist” when the Fatah party, which accepted Israel’s right to exist, ran the Palestinian Authority and it’s less likely to stop now that the Hamas party is in power.
As the more powerful of the two parties, Israel needs to take the first step in recognising that a prosperous Palestinian community is the key to securing its security.
One only has to look at the way Singapore’s relations with Indonesia evolved. In the 50s and 60s we were involved in Konfrantasi and there was the case of the hanging of the Indonesian Marines. Nobody thought Singapore, either as part of Malaysia or as an independent entity could peacefully co-exist with Indonesia. Today, after years of Singaporean firms investing in Indonesia and people-to-people interactions, Indonesia is an important ally of Singapore.
Now if Indonesia and Singapore can work together to develop a situation of prosperity and understand that this prosperity was dependent on mutual security, why can’t Israel and the Palestinians do the same? If only the Israeli government understood how much greater her business people could be at creating her prosperity than her military machine ever could.
Copyright: Tang Li (C)２００６
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