the week's review will have to be sorted out tomorrow, i've been that busy that i haven't had a chance to post at all and i'm going to focus now on getting my poetry paper (due sunday) sorted out.
in the meanwhile, an old friend posted a question on my facebook wall, an irresistible one in spite of a facebook wall being a decidedly inappropriate place for a question of that magnitude:
Q. alright bud, had a massive discussion with a pro-palestine supporter over dinner last night, remembered you're in tel aviv, was keen to hear and share your thoughts!
A. wow - a wall post for a description of a tangled mess of thoughts. i'll try.
1. as jews, we have no place else to go and we have an obligation to protect ourselves. we are constantly under threat and what the world doesn't get it that having a superior military force does not provide any real advantage in modern warfare. just ask the americans who have served in iraq and afghanistan.
we are split between the hard right who stupidly believe that violence is the only way to go and the hard left who stupidly believe that there's someone across the border to talk to, because
2. the palestinians are split into two groups, those who live to fight israel and those who just want to get on with their lives like everyone else on the planet; but the palestinians (and most arabs) educate their children to HATE the jews and israelis, the results of which are something that neither you nor i can possibly fully understand; but even worse than that is
3. the arabs are just as happy destroying each other as they are destroying the jews, because they are a culture of physical strength and "honour" and they respect death more than life.
bitch no. 1: israeli policy is to employ restraint wherever possible, but there are always going to be elements of our society that don't abide by the philosophy of the majority. almost all cases of israeli action are handled as respectfully as possible, however
bitch no. 2: israelis aren't very good with diplomacy, and the palestinan propaganda machine ("pallywood") is top-notch. so if there is a stuff-up, or in the relatively obscure case of unnecessary and unrestrained israeli violence THAT's what you're going to hear about. and, *GASP*, most of what you've heard is simply NOT TRUE.
good luck separating the wheat from the chaff.
the worst of the lot is international media, because they've been selling the "poor palestinian" story for so long that they can't reverse themselves when the palestinians do wrong. and what YOU don't hear about is all of the terrorist attacks, and you definitely don't hear of all the attempts that we manage to avert.
the interesting thing is that nobody gives a shit when israeli kids are blown to bits; nobody gets that most israeli soldiers REALLY don't want to be fighting. the palestinians, on the other hand, get all our sympathies even though their victims are happy to be martyred and i assure you that all of their fighters are volunteers.
there is no solution to the situation because each side thinks it's blameless and each side has its needs that totally don't work with the other. one day, when people wake up from the primitive idea that god and religion are more than personal, and that there are better ways to live than in blood, perhaps there will be a way to get along.
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