Reflections on Ben Hur

I saw it a long time ago: this time, 45 minutes was enough.

As beastly as the Romans were to "the Jews" in Ben Hur, they were no worse than Israelis today to Palestinians.

When Elizabeth Cunningham (my wife) was doing research for The Passion of Mary Magdalen, she went to Israel. Her Jerusalem visit coincided with Ramadan, and she saw Israeli soldiers standing guard over the restive Arab quarter. She easily imagined them as Roman legionnaires, guarding the same streets against Jewish rebels during the Roman Empire.

Yet, Romans didn't push most Jews off their land until 70 AD. They demanded taxes and obeisance--and occasionally massacred them; as they did to people all round the Mediterranean. The Israelis don't massacre on the Roman scale, but they encroach increasingly on Palestinian land in the West Bank, after pushing most Palestinians out of the rest of Palestine when creating Israel. While some Romans recognized that Jews had a long connection to the land, Israelis discount Palestinian claims: they say their right to the land precedes the Palestinians'.

A friend of mine traced his family back to a Polish shtetl, and then found cousins in Israel, survivors of the Holocaust. His immediate family missed the Holocaust; it was in the US. While he's liberal on most things, on Israel, he says things like, "The Palestinians were conquered; the conquerors always set the terms." To him, the experience of the Holocaust justifies Israeli claims: where else would Jews feel safe?

How about the US?

I'd argue it's safer than Israel, which has managed to alienate the whole region, despite the US and Europe continually attempting to bring the two sides together. Meanwhile, the US has collaborated in building up the Israeli military to be a match for all its neighbors combined, reinforcing Israel's sense of conquerors' rights.

The West Bank is still occupied land. Settlers have become a surging political force in Israel, and expansion into additional Palestinian lands is nearly constant. Land is declared vacant, although Palestinian villagers have farmed it for centuries; and sometimes have documented proof of ownership: no matter. Venerable olive groves are bulldozed for new suburban settlements, and highways are built for Jews only: Palestinians are forbidden access--in their own land.

After Masada and the Diaspora, Rome didn't last forever in Palestine. It's unlikely Israel will either, unless: it withdraws behind the 1967 line and recognizes the independence of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, or becomes a secular, bi-national state, incorporating all within its expanded borders, and recognizes full rights to all its inhabitants. Neither seems likely.

Israel cannot expect the US to arm it forever, or forever shield it from its neighbors, especially when Israel continues to arouse them by acting as conqueror: US regional hegemony is already weakening.

Pro-Israeli US policies cannot be guaranteed if the US can no longer afford them.