“The American pioneer spirit [was] characterized by a relentless pursuit of new opportunities, a willingness to face challenges, and a commitment to building a better future.” This spirit was propounded in “Manifest Destiny, in U.S. history, the supposed inevitability of the continued territorial expansion of the boundaries of the United States westward to the Pacific and beyond.” This sense of inevitability could be applied at any time and anywhere a resilient, ambitious, and even desperate and ruthless people come to a relatively sparsely populated region where the inhabitants do not have the wherewithal to resist their military, economic and cultural power. A corollary to this inevitability is the likely ethnic cleansing and/or genocide of the natives.
I was triggered (in a purely intellectual sense, not emotionally) to contemplate the European experience in America in comparison with Israel today by one of my favorite podcasters when he described Hamas, and I think more generally the Palestinians, as “savages.”
Europeans arrived in North America to a relatively sparsely populated continent full of potential. The Zionist Jews arrived in Palestine to a relatively sparsely populated territory that was a part of the sickly Ottoman Empire. By the 19th century the Manifest Destiny to control the continent from ocean to ocean was fixed in culture and was official policy. “The term “Greater Israel“ has been a contentious and debated concept related to the State of Israel and its territorial boundaries.” The concept of Greater Israel is certainly in their culture and seems to drive many policy decisions.
Relations with the indigenous peoples were mixed in North America. But there is no doubt that the native Americans were often very savage. Many tribes lived in constant warfare, committing murder and torture while making slaves of their victims, especially women and children. The European Americans could be vicious in turn. Perhaps the capstone event of Manifest Destiny and the ethnic cleansing that went with it was the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. While 90 Indian braves were killed, the killing of about 200 women and children made this a massacre. The following quote found at the Wikipedia page is illuminating of the mindset in the 19th century American west and, I think, the mindset today in Israel.
“In an editorial response to the event, the young newspaper editor L. Frank Baum, later the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, wrote in The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer on January 3, 1891:”
“The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past.”
I will never think of the Wizard of Oz in the same way. But Baum is insightful enough to recognize the tragedy inherent in his conclusion. I believe similar comments are commonly expressed by Israelis (for example).
This post is not a moral judgement, but an exercise in empathy for both Israelis and Palestinians. We Americans, especially young people, might say “we would never destroy Gaza like Israel has done,” and would be neglecting the fact that we have already done so to native Americans.
In the real world, might makes right. Furthermore, who are indigenous peoples itself is a complex topic as elucidated recently by Ryan McMaken, Are Any Peoples Truly Indigenous?. This is especially true in Palestine where there is an unarguable connection between Jewish people and this territory. But I wonder, in 100 years will most Israelis be ashamed of their ferocious ancestors’ actions as most Americans are today of our own?
The similarity between the history of the American West and Israel today breaks down in at least one important way. As Europeans swept the continent of Native Americans there were no similar relatives to sustain and support them. Thus their end did become inevitable. However, as Israel sweeps Arab Muslims out of Greater Israel there are hundreds of millions more Arabs and Muslims that could support them and eventually take revenge. Thus there is a different historical analogy to consider.
“The Crusader states, or Outremer, were four Christian states established in the Levant region and southeastern Anatolia from 1098 to 1291. Following the principles of feudalism, the foundation for these polities was laid by the First Crusade, which was proclaimed by the Latin Church in 1095 in order to reclaim the Holy Land after it was lost to the 7th-century Muslim conquest. From north to south, they were: the County of Edessa (1098–1150), the Principality of Antioch (1098–1268), the County of Tripoli (1102–1289), and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291).”
For me this is the more probable outcome for Israel if they continue on their current path of military conquest, a 200 year blip in history. If Israelis would understand this historical example perhaps they would explore peaceful solutions with their neighbors instead of a victory in total war.
