Unasked Questions

I started this blog in March 2020 because there was a lack of information being provided about what was happening during the Covid pandemic. There were a lot of questions that weren’t being asked and a lot that weren’t being answered and I attempted to provide some information.

Today a major crisis exists in the Middle East. There are a lot of questions that aren’t being answered and many that aren’t even being asked.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has always tried to warn civilians about areas they are targeting so that they can move to safety and avoid getting injured or killed from the fallout when bombs are dropped. It has been reported repeatedly that people in Gaza have nowhere to go. 

What about Egypt? 

The western border of Gaza is with Egypt. Directly west of that border is the Sinai desert, largely uninhabited land, an area larger than Gaza itself. This could easily provide a safe refuge for as many people from Gaza who wanted to leave their homes. But Egypt is not providing this refuge.

A constant refrain from Pro-Palestinians is that Israel has oppressed the people in Gaza with a blockade. But Egypt has also blocked its border with Gaza. 

Why do people critical of Israel’s blockade of Gaza never mention Egypt?
Why does Egypt maintain a blockade and not do anything to support their Palestinian Brothers?

A criticism of Israel that has been mounting in recent years is that it is an “apartheid state” likening its oppression of Palestinians to the oppression of blacks in South Africa. This criticism is voiced by Palestinians, human rights organizations like Amnesty International, the new left and Israeli organizations like Yesh Din, in spite of the fact that Palestinians in Israel are citizens with voting rights and there is an Arab party in the Knesset that was actually part of the coalition government in Israel in 2021. Arabs in Israel hold positions in the courts, universities, hospitals and every walk of society.

About 2 million Palestinians are Israeli citizens. About 3 million Palestinians live in refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The Palestinians who live in these camps do not have basic human rights. They do not have medical care and only limited access to education and jobs. The physical conditions of the refugee camps are really squalid. It is not unusual for children to be electrocuted from the dangling electrical wires that are strung between buildings. You can find many videos documenting their conditions of extreme poverty on Youtube. This one is by Al Jazeera.
Palestinian Refugee Camp

Why do these Arab countries turn their backs on the Palestinians whom they say they support?
If Israel is an apartheid state, what does that make Syria, Lebanon and Jordan?
Why don’t all the groups that criticize Israel for its treatment of Palestinians criticize any of the Arab countries?

A big criticism of Israel has been its policy of enabling Jewish settlements in the occupied lands of the West Bank. This has been done contrary to most interpretations of international law and has been condemned by all the Arab countries, most European countries and the United States. Opinion polls within Israel show that it generally is not supported by a majority of Israelis. 

Why does the Israeli government continue with its policy of allowing settlements in the occupied lands?

Part of the answer to this seems to be the undue influence of the religious parties in Israeli politics. In Benjamin Netanyahu’s 16 years as Prime Minister he has always had to put together a coalition made up of several minority parties in order to get enough seats to form a government. The balance of power has often been held by the small religious Israeli parties that typically get a total of about 20% of the total electoral votes. In return for their support Netanyahu promised to allow expansion of settlements.

But there is another question here.

Does the Israeli political system lead to unstable and undemocratic governments that make decisions only supported by a minority of the population?

Members of the Knesset are elected by proportional representation – the number of seats a party receives is proportional to the number of votes it receives. No party has ever won a majority, so all governments in the history of Israel have been coalitions. In the Knesset today there are 10 different political parties. The coalition government is made up of 7 parties, and 3 of them are religious parties. There have been 37 governments in Israel since 1948. In Canada over the same period there have been 23.

People in Canada should take this as a warning. British Columbia and Prince Edward Island held referendums to change their voting to proportional representation (neither one passed) and there has been a push for it at the federal level. While proportional representation might seem to be a very democratic system on paper, over time small parties are formed to take advantage of the system. When a parliament is splintered into many different political parties, some of the small parties may hold the balance of power and exert undue influence over government policy. In addition, a strong and stable government that results when a party wins a majority of seats in the legislature is difficult to achieve.