Majoring in Aliyah: Israel is not the problem

A few days ago, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and activist Alice Walker visited Gaza with Code Pink, a group that describes itself as "a grassroots peace and social justice movement." Sitting with a group of hijab-wearing women, she called upon the Obama administration to change the narrative the USA follows when it comes to Israel.

"We were indoctrinated to the song in that film Exodus, you know, 'this land belongs to us, this land is our land,' meaning the Israelis, the Jews," she said. Walker believes that most Americans do not know about the "plight" of the Arabs. "I think all of us have an opportunity here to just say what we believe, which is... we think stealing land is wrong," she explained (while sitting on land Israel gave to the Arabs three and a half years ago, in exchange for a daily barrage of rocket attacks).

Let's say that I buy into Walker's post-modern rhetoric, that different narratives reveal different truths. Why don't we look beyond the story of "stolen land" that Arab PR feeds us? Walker is active in promoting human rights and feminist causes. Why didn't she look at the narrative of the women in Gaza?

Granted, when Hamas came to power in 2006, they announced that they would not force women to wear the veil, and many Gazan women do get an education. However, there are methods other than legislation for a totalitarian terrorist regime to get what it wants. It is not rare to see a woman in a niqab, a full veil with only a slit for her eyes, in photographs from Gaza. Some even tie green Hamas headbands over the black robes. In "Hamastan," as the Israeli press often calls Gaza, women are respected mainly as mothers sacrificing their sons in the name of jihad.

The Hamas PR machine tried to show the world how well they treat their women: "Look! We have policewomen!" they exclaimed in a 2008 New York Times article. However, even a newspaper that is often accused of sympathizing with Arabs could not cover up the clear subtext of the story. Most of the policewomen interviewed refused to give their full names and kept their faces covered to preserve their anonymity, because they were afraid. It is still considered unacceptable for a woman in Gaza to hold such a job.

When the United States began the war on terror in late 2001, even the most peace-loving liberals agreed that the Taliban was bad. Of course, they couldn't really admit that while calling George W. Bush a "cowboy" who could only see things as black and white and didn't recognize the "nuances" of Islam. Instead, they focused on the women of Afghanistan. The American media was full of descriptions of Afghan women covered from head to toe by stifling burkas and forbidden to go to school. A Thousand Splendid Suns, which told of the plight of women under the Taliban, became a best-seller, as did Reading Lolita in Teheran, a book about Iran after the revolution. Afghan women became a cause célèbre in America.

Why haven't the women of Gaza been treated in the same way?

Let's look at another popular cause in America: homosexuals' rights. Proposition 8, an amendment to the State of California's constitution allowing gay marriages, was voted down in November. This led to a chain of protests across the country, as did President Obama's inviting Reverend Rick Warren, a pastor that has spoken out against homosexuality, to his inauguration. When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed, in front of an audience of Columbia University students, that there were no gays in Iran, Americans scoffed, mocking his primitiveness.
Who do you think funds Hamas? (Other than the United Nations, that is.) The correct answer would be Iran.

Earlier this year, the blog "Gay Persons of Color"  wrote the following about Gazan homosexuals:

"For gay Palestinians, much of their lives are spent deciding when, where, how and if they should hide. They are caught somewhere in between choosing to be quiet about who they love, [and] undergoing harsh maltreatment at home, which includes physical abuse, death, disowning, or imprisonment."

Yet I don't see anyone protesting Hamas's mistreatment of gays. Maybe it's because there are no homosexuals in Gaza!

American conservative pundit Ann Coulter defines a liberal as someone with "the absolute conviction that there is one set of rules for you and another, completely different set of rules for everyone else." This description has, once again, proved itself to be true. Would Alice Walker and her ilk stand for such discrimination in the United States? I think not.

However, when the "underdog" discriminates, the whole liberal card castle comes tumbling down. When it turns out that the left's favorite "freedom fighters" take their cues from the Ayatollah, their reaction is something like "does not compute." They prefer to ignore the injustices of Hamas's regime, rather than admit that "the occupier" is actually the only true democracy in the Middle East, the only country that grants its citizens full human rights in the whole region.

I recommend that the next time Alice Walker and Code Pink visit Gaza, they take a detour and go to Tel Aviv. There, they will clearly be able to see the rights that people of every gender, sexual orientation, religion or race enjoy. A visit to the financial district will show them women at the head of Israel's biggest banks; a visit to Chof Hilton (Hilton beach) will show them that no one is afraid to come out of the closet in Israel. Alternatively, they can look at Israel's history: Israel was amongst the first countries to have a female prime minister, and despite the protests of the ultra-Orthodox, a gay-pride parade was held in Jerusalem, Israel's holiest city. Actually, if you ask me, Israel is too liberal.

When Alice Walker and the rest of the extreme left complain about the inhumane conditions in Gaza, and say we should stop listening to the Israeli narrative, I say they need to open their eyes. This isn't a matter of narratives. This is the truth. Israel is not the problem; Hamas is. They are oppressing their own people. Whether you're modern or post-modern, liberal or conservative, it's obvious which side cares more about human rights in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just ask the homosexuals and women of Gaza.