February 12, 2007
by Steve Osborn

The time was 1940, the place was Warsaw, Poland. Jews had never had an easy time if it in Poland, but they did live there, with some dignity, and were able to carry on business and life, until the Nazi Blitzkreig. I don't intend to do more than outline the story of the Warsaw ghetto. Hundreds of books, plays and songs have been written, movies have been made. It was a time of horror, hopelessness and heroism.

In October-November 1940, Germans established the Warsaw ghetto, into which some 500,000 Jews were crowded. Food and medicine was withheld, heavily armed Germans were allowed into the ghetto to go Jew hunting. An average of 5,000 to 6,000 died each month from starvation, disease, exposure to cold, and the shootings.

In the summer of 1942, about 300,000 Jews were deported by train from Warsaw to Treblinka. When reports of mass murder in the killing center leaked back to the Warsaw ghetto, a surviving group of mostly young people formed an organization called the Z.O.B. (for the Polish name, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, which means Jewish Fighting Organization). ZOB issued a proclamation calling for the Jewish people to resist being deported in the railroad cars. In January 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters using a small supply of weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto fired upon German troops as they tried to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation. After a few days, the troops retreated. This small victory inspired the ghetto fighters to prepare for future resistance.

On April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. About seven hundred-fifty fighters fought the heavily armed and well-trained Germans. The ghetto fighters were able to hold out for nearly a month, but on May 16, 1943, the revolt ended. The German's overwhelming force had slowly crushed the resistance. Of the more than 56,000 Jews captured, about 7,000 were shot, and the remainder were deported to killing centers or concentration camps.

I bring up this "ancient" history because, unfortunately, I see the same thing going on in Israel today. In1947, the UN General Assembly approved the 1947 UN Partition Plan dividing the territory of Palestine into two states, with the Jewish area having roughly 55% of the land, and the Arab area roughly 45%. Jerusalem was planned to be an international region administered by the UN to avoid conflict over its status. Immediately following the adoption of the Partition Plan by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947, David Ben-Gurion tentatively accepted the partition, while the Arab League rejected it and at midnight on May 15, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed.

I cannot consider myself qualified to pass on the legality or illegality of this. I suppose that, in theory, the UN could declare that the Native American population was entitled to the United States as their original homeland, and all of the foreign newcomers or their descendants since the 1400's could be put into reservations. There is plenty of desert and wasteland to hold them, if you crowd them a bit.

The point of this article is that I see a parallel between "Palestine" and the "Warsaw ghetto." As the Germans did in Warsaw, the Jews are walling in the Palestinians. They are cutting off their access to work, food, medical care. The Palestinian youth have little or no hope for any future other than deprivation and arbitrary rule, backed up by superior firepower. When the youth do fight back, Israelis come in, bulldozing and killing in reprisal.

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It would seem to me that somewhere in this history should be a learning experience. Historically, oppressed peoples fight back and the more heartless the repression, the stronger the fight. The Germans made a policy in occupied France that if something was sabotaged or a German soldier killed, a number of French villagers would be killed at random. This happened many times, but the sabotage and killing went on despite the cost. The terror bombings of civilian cities prolonged the resistance and will to fight in England, Germany and even Japan before "the bomb." We are seeing the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Jews are seeing it in Palestine. A desperate people with nothing to lose will fight to the death.

Palestine had an election which was, according to the international observers, a fair election. They elected Hamas, which has a history of violence. It is not unheard of for violent revolutionary groups, upon acquiring power, to discover that there is more to governing than throwing bombs. Some have proved to be good at government, given the chance. Hamas might or might not have evolved in that direction, but apparently is to be given no chance. The Palestinian people made their choice and are to be bombed and starved until they make another choice. This is presented to them as Democracy. Chose the government someone else wants for you or else. This will give Hamas little incentive to change and, in fact, may accelerate the terrorism. The same apparently pertains to the Iraqis, the Afghans, and now Iran.

It doesn't work! We can't keep killing everyone who doesn't agree with us. There is an ancient maxim; "Do not unto others as you would not have done unto you." Some call it the Golden Rule. We must cultivate empathy; be able to put ourselves in another's shoes, to understand and feel the pain, grief and joys of another. This can lead to understanding and understanding can lead to healing.

We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars waging war. Much of that is being "invested" in the Israeli war machine. What could be accomplished in the world if those hundreds of billions of "swords and spears" could be hammered into "plowshares and pruning hooks?" Would we have the rage, frustration and hopelessness if the common people of the world had clean water to drink, wholesome food to eat, a roof that didn't leak, and expert medical care and medicines for their children and themselves? Do you really think that youth would prefer to strap on a dynamite vest and walk into a crowd before pushing the button if there were a forum where problems could be discussed and solutions and compromises reached and acted upon without violence? Given a way to help their people to a better life, do you think youth would prefer death?

The UN was supposed to be that forum, before it became the toy of power politics and greed. The UN Charter was supposed to have eliminated aggressive or preemptive wars. UN Peacekeepers in their white vehicles, wearing their blue helmets were to provide a nonviolent barrier between disputants while things were worked out at the UN level until a compromise that could be lived with by both parties was ratified. It worked, until certain countries decided that they were too powerful to be governed by reason and discussion. Perhaps it could work again, or the idea could be developed until something came out that would be followed by all civilized nations.

What is happening in the world today is not working. We are destroying the planet through greed, and terror. We are recognizing no laws but force. Human beings are reduced to statistics, and the statistics are buried to be forgotten.

If We the People of the world do not call an end to this soon and begin to heal, the world will soon make an end to us and we, too, will join the dinosaurs in the mists of time.

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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.