Hi Rasheed, Valence, Marco, Lawrence and all,
Rasheed, I commend you for your attempt to "encourage everyone to
seek out alternative sources on this matter, such as newspapers from the
region, both Israeli and Palestinian". Today's column by Israeli humorist
Sam Orbaum
(Jerusalem Post) says:
"Thank goodness we have freedom of the press,
or we wouldn't know we're the bay guys."
VALENCE (to Platt) reminds us that considering things in the light of the
MoQ is the primary aim of this forum - something I need to repeatedly remind
myself.
MARCO reminds us that there is a distinction between political anti-Israel
sentiments and racist anti-Jewish ones. I agree.. Unfortunately, some of the
latter sentiments have surfaced even in this forum. However, the
distinction is blurred. I respect honest criticism, but when it is perceived
distorted and hypocritical, most people infer a sinister motive.
Marco gave a quote from Lila Ch. 24 about crime in America's black
community. Funnily enough, I was going reference the same passage - here is
a quote from a couple of paragraphs earlier:
"The professor had blown up at him.
'What you don't know!' he had said.
'We've tried everything! [snip]
If there'anything we've missed we don't
know what it is. EVERYTHING has failed."
I think Pirsig's words summarize the way many Israelis now feel about the
Palestinians. It's not just the terrorists who inflict the carnage, but the
fact that according to pols on both sides, the majority of the Palestinian
population appear to support them!!!!!!!
MARCO
Sharon
says Arafat is the leader of the terrorists. If it is true, then he has been
able to swindle almost all European and American premiers, all the UN
secretaries, the Nobel academy, and many Israeli premiers... but Sharon, of
course. More likely, Arafat is just a weak leader, unable to control his own
people. But, tell me, who else?
JONATHAN's reply
Israel's government is only now releasing documents to link Arafat to the
current terrorism. I am worried that this will be used as the pretext for
Israel to kick Arafat out by force - IMO a low quality response.
Marco's second alternative charge is the one that Arafat himself admits to.
It is a great shame that the Palestinians have continued to accept a leader
who declares himself to be ineffectual. A higher quality response would be
for the Palestinians themselves to remove him. There appear to be much
better alternative leaders (e.g. the people Arafat sends to talk to CNN and
diplomats). Of course, it is the Palestinians themselves who bear the
responsibility for their leadership.
Finally I come to LAWRENCE
>Jonathan, I believe you are sincere in your efforts to look at the history
>of the conflict and its meaning. But your account is quite badly distorted
Lawrence, are you claiming that you know the "correct version"? How very
unPirsigian of you!
I know the contents of some of the documents you quote, but not all. I know
also of several others.
Many of them (even from the same government) were mutually contradictory.
For obvious reasons, the Zionist movement endorsed the documents that suited
its purposes and opposed the rest. This is hardly relevant any more. History
(what actually happens) is almost impossible to undo. I KNOW that hundreds
of thousands of Arabs were displaced in 1948 - a low quality occurrence,
especially for them. By now, it is as hard to reverse this as it is to
reverse the displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands.
I also think that Israeli settlement in occupied territories is a big
problem, but also not completely reversible.
Any progress on resolving the conflict should be based on giving as many
people as possible a decent, DIGNIFIED life without displacing them from
their homes. IMO, Barak made a big mistake by going for a comprehensive "end
of conflict" solution, - a STATIC pattern of fixed borders and rights.
Instead, we should have pursued a DYNAMIC open-ended approach via string of
minor pragmatic agreements on living arrangements. I believe that the effect
would be to gradually dissolve the antagonism. My dream is that one day,
Arabs and Jews will "hate" each other the same way as the English and the
French.
Jonathan
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