Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Historical Injustices in a new light?

Last month, Tjada and Simon vigorously challenged the idea that a historical injustice could be viewed in an alternate light after the passage of time had revealed new facts.

I thought about that as we glided through the still relatively new airport in Tel Aviv.

Israel’s ascendancy as an economic and technological power happened, in my mind, in large part because of the fact that the Arab states rejected the 1947 Partition Plan and have continued a declared state of war ever since.

It’s a historical injustice that Jews have been killed for simply being Jews and living in the Jewish homeland.

But, the success of the country today is connected to the root cause of those deaths.

  • Would I rather that all of those people not have died?
  • Would I rather that not all those Africans had been enslaved?
  • Would I rather that Indians had not been subjected to the excesses of British rule?

Of course.

Still, it’s interesting to see how these things play out over time.

blog comments powered by Disqus
 
View Comments