I've known for some time the world's going to hell. I just didn't realize I'd be riding shotgun in the handbasket quite so soon (it's just a matter of time before we get hauled into this). I agree with you that MAYBE a draft will wake up some people - a friend of mine has been saying for the past four years that it's the only thing that MIGHT move rightist idiots off their "convictions" (air-quoted because they're so malleable if those people are personally threatened by what they espouse).
I was watching a show on the History Channel the other night about Biblical battles. I think it was a thinly veiled religious piece judging by the various 'experts' but it was interesting in that it showed that the Hebrews were always a warlike people who held themselves apart from and above everyone with whom they came in contact. Nearly all of their religious commandments were a way to differentiate themselves from surrounding peoples (nearly all sexual laws are a reflection of this i.e., the prohibition against ritual prostitution and/or so-called homosexual acts). No wonder then, when they came to live in other countries and refused to assimilate, that the native population rightly or wrongly persecuted them.
What I find to be most ironic is that the State of Israel was largely established out of pity for a decimated people after the Holocaust. One would think that a people experiencing such a catastrophic event would bend over backward to avoid becoming like their oppressors and yet, those in power think the solution is to build walls and fences; completely forgetting that many of their forefathers have been kept behind walls or in ghettos for much of the common era.
This is not to suggest that there are not a great many in Israel and elsewhere who would like to hold out an olive branch but as long as nearly every country involved in whatever conflict around the world is governed by authoritarian personalities the cycle of violence will continue unabated.
I'm not talking about events from over 60 years ago. We're in the here and now. And raking the past wringing of hands won't do a thing to help the current situation. But I am aware of the historical issues you mention.
You keep focusing on the events that lead to the resettlement of Palestine. But you leave out the important facts like--- the UN partition had more land for the Palestinians, but the Arab states rejected the plan and declared war on Israel in an effort to wipe it off the map.
Interestingly enough--none of the other Arab states offered any of *their* land to house Palestinians. I wonder why?
And you have the President of Iran declaring quite openly that Israel should be wiped off the face of the planet. That's the present situation. That's the world we are living in now.
Israel is quite right to do everything to secure it's peace and guard it's citizen's against terrorists.
…and as long as we have a president(s) who kow tows to the Israel lobby and adheres to a belief in the same 'god', that's the world that will continue to exist unless it destroys itself first.
Britain pretty much destabilized the entire region as far as I can see though in fairness a lot of the blame can be spread around to all of the victors of WWI when they imposed arbitrary borders on a place in the world not used to western notions of order or governance.
Did you ever read Exodus by Leon Uris? It would seem that most of the trouble started with the Zionist movement as there was relative peace in the region between arab and jew before the one group decided its relious beliefs were pre-eminent.
I look around and every country that's causing trouble in the world today is run by fundamentalists of one stripe or another. It's disgusting, like they all have an inherent need for Armegeddon.
The only thing that has made this a guerilla warfare characterised by terroristic tactics is that those are the only avenues of resistance available to the Palestinians.
The same tactics that were employed by the Irgun prior to Israeli statehood.
To be fair, any country in the Middle East over 2000 years ago was pretty much warlike, because, well --- it was a tough world back then. And like now, war was pretty much over the usual things: power, spheres of influence, trade routes, raw materials, manpower. Israel happened to be at the crossroads of a lot of potential competitors. It makes sense they'd be warlike.
Sure Israel had some differnt ideas, you mentioned the sexual component. But to be fair, as a society, Israel was the only nation in that period that ever talked about caring for the poor, and the sick at an institutional level. There's nothing like that remotely talked about in Egyptian records of the time. What about Persia? You won't find it. And let's not forget while the Israelites were puritans sexually (at least in the Bible)--their peers around them routinely had rituals involving children, and human sacrifices (just like the Aztecs were doing in Meso America).
You also forget that many religious groups have been unpopular-- the Christians themselves were persecuted in a much more vigourous way by the Romans for over 300 years. Moslem's were castigated just as much as Jewish people were in Spain, after the Christians took control in the late 15th century. Let's not forget about native American's here in the United States and Canada since Columbus. There are many ethnic groups that have been the brunt of hatred and bigotry: and it's never justified. It's just rationalized.
Ah, the limitations of language. It's hard to talk about one group and what they may or may not have done wrong without implying that other groups weren't guilty of the same transgressions or worse. You are, of course, quite correct. There were no innocent parties there then or here now.
All these tribes were and are operating out of self-protective impulses. It's largely the history of the entire race. As proud as we are of our intellect we aren't much more than advanced apemen and until 100 monkeys come to see that we're all in this together the world will continue as it is barring ecological collapse which will only make it worse.
Let's see, as part of the peace process, in 2005, Sharon agreed to remove all permanent Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip; and from four settlements in the northern West Bank. But that hasn't stopped Hamas and Hezbollah from doing everything possible to disrupt the process with attacks on civilians and launching rocket's from Gaza and south Lebanon. It's pretty obvious that Hezbollah is a destabling force funded and fueled by both Iran and Syria.
I'm surprized it took Israel so long to finally do something about the situation in south Lebanon after so many years. And it speaks tons Israel isn't getting raked over the coals by moderate Arab states (that's simply because they know what's at stake if another Islamic style Republic is set up in Lebanon modeled after Iran).
I agree. I think Israel's restraint has come back to haunt them. I have little sympathy for Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Syrian and Iranian governments, or the people who tolerate and support those entities.
Your last paragraph is right on the money. I would not be surprised at all if individual, less religious officials in Amman, Kuwait, and even Beirut were secretly rooting for the Israelis.
Here are a couple blogs that have been informative on the situation:
Most of the time, the earthquake's epicenter is many hundreds of miles away, so you wouldn't just feel a rumble. And some of them happpen in the middle of the night too.
I've known for some time the world's going to hell. I just didn't realize I'd be riding shotgun in the handbasket quite so soon (it's just a matter of time before we get hauled into this). I agree with you that MAYBE a draft will wake up some people - a friend of mine has been saying for the past four years that it's the only thing that MIGHT move rightist idiots off their "convictions" (air-quoted because they're so malleable if those people are personally threatened by what they espouse).