Israel and Palestine

David Ben -Gurion, Israel’s first premier, had said in private conversation -

Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural; we have taken their country. Sure, God promised to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We came from Israel, true, but 2000 years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see only one thing : We have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?

It was a week in which George Bush visited Jerusalem and reaffirmed America as ‘the oldest and best friend of Israel.’ He also stated that it is impossible to negotiate with ‘terrorists’.

I’ve been reading Sumantra Bose’s Contested Lands, a hugely educative book on the nature of conflict in the world’s most troubled regions. Among other things, it shows how the United States’ unflinching support for the illegal state of Israel has served to exacerbate the deep divisions in the Middle East. It is too late to turn back the clock, though the ideal solution would be the deportation of all the Jew settlers who have migrated to Israel with the advent of the Zionist movement in the 20th century. It is one of the world’s great injustices, and its redressal lies in the creation of a state for the Palestinian people on fair and reasonable terms.

Doomed romantics

In an excellent piece, Peter Roebuck writes about the opposition to the IPL -

Suggestions that the game will be permanently damaged by these exuberances are also unduly pessimistic. The trouble with traditionalists is that they present themselves as protectors of the game’s values but are actually doomed romantics. They lament the present state of affairs yet resist innovation.

In his semi-biblical prose, he continues -

But it is a mistake to overestimate the past. It was not such a fine place. Nor is it possible to pin cricket into a book, like a dead butterfly.

Ramachandra Guha and Mukul Kesavan – two cricket writers I admire – have been outspoken critics. What makes it baffling is that over the years they have also lamented the state of domestic cricket in India. In my years of watching the game at the stadium, I’ve always faced poor facilities, a constant state of chaos and apathy. Anything that seeks to change that and finally give some respect to the most neglected of creatures – the Indian cricket fan – cannot be a bad thing.