Thanks all for a high quality debate. I think we can both learn from hearing the other side.
I want to take up for the Israel argument from the perspective of another Arab (in this case Palestinian) who has lived over half his life in the US and England.
Its true that in the middle east there is a culture of black and white. However, in the west, there is a CULTURE OF GRAY. In other words, there is a tendency to say both sides are at fault and there is no hard facts and no right and wrong. Sometimes this is true, but in my opinion often it allows one to have a lazy psuedo-intellectual opinion about a subject they know very little about. It takes knowledge to take a (fair) stand.
There is little remaining grayness in the Israel Palestine issue. This is a situation where one people came and displaced another, and continue to abuse them for over 50 years.
Israeli historians and most Israeli intellectuals agree with these facts. Look up Benny Morris and the new historians in Israel for the modern scholarly Israeli narrative for what happened in Palestine. Its not pretty. Israel is in defiance of nearly 100 UN resolutions, relating both to their land grab and human rights records.
The closest analogy is the displacement of the native indians in north america -- I am sure it would sound shocking if you try to assign them some of the blame for the genocide they experienced.
The other side tries to feebly resist, but are subjected to an overwhelming opression and injustice; the closest anology to the current situation on the ground is aparthide in south africa.
Nowadays, the Arab countries have made remarkable compromise articulated in the Saudi initiative more than 5 years ago. They are agreeing to complete normalization with Israel, in exchange for the west bank (21% of the area of the historical Palestine which had less than 5% jews 100 years ago). However, Israeli right wing, with the support of the Israeli lobbies the US (AIPAC and JDL and their cronies) insist on no compromise.
Meanwhile, over 2 million Palestinians continue to live in subhuman conditions and the world continues to find "both sides at blame" because they will not agree to it. We live in strange times.
I hope that you would instead encourage your kids to read and figure out the facts; isnt that a great lesson? I am a strong believer that with justice, comes peace, and the festering wounds that generate hate are dried up. I also sincerely hope that you invest a little more energy into learning about the middle east geo-political issues before assuming that you know about it than the people living it do.
Thanks all for a high quality debate. I think we can both learn from hearing the other side.
I want to take up for the Israel argument from the perspective of another Arab (in this case Palestinian) who has lived over half his life in the US and England.
Its true that in the middle east there is a culture of black and white. However, in the west, there is a CULTURE OF GRAY. In other words, there is a tendency to say both sides are at fault and there is no hard facts and no right and wrong. Sometimes this is true, but in my opinion often it allows one to have a lazy psuedo-intellectual opinion about a subject they know very little about. It takes knowledge to take a (fair) stand.
There is little remaining grayness in the Israel Palestine issue. This is a situation where one people came and displaced another, and continue to abuse them for over 50 years.
Israeli historians and most Israeli intellectuals agree with these facts. Look up Benny Morris and the new historians in Israel for the modern scholarly Israeli narrative for what happened in Palestine. Its not pretty. Israel is in defiance of nearly 100 UN resolutions, relating both to their land grab and human rights records.
The closest analogy is the displacement of the native indians in north america -- I am sure it would sound shocking if you try to assign them some of the blame for the genocide they experienced.
The other side tries to feebly resist, but are subjected to an overwhelming opression and injustice; the closest anology to the current situation on the ground is aparthide in south africa.
Nowadays, the Arab countries have made remarkable compromise articulated in the Saudi initiative more than 5 years ago. They are agreeing to complete normalization with Israel, in exchange for the west bank (21% of the area of the historical Palestine which had less than 5% jews 100 years ago). However, Israeli right wing, with the support of the Israeli lobbies the US (AIPAC and JDL and their cronies) insist on no compromise.
Meanwhile, over 2 million Palestinians continue to live in subhuman conditions and the world continues to find "both sides at blame" because they will not agree to it. We live in strange times.
I hope that you would instead encourage your kids to read and figure out the facts; isnt that a great lesson? I am a strong believer that with justice, comes peace, and the festering wounds that generate hate are dried up. I also sincerely hope that you invest a little more energy into learning about the middle east geo-political issues before assuming that you know about it than the people living it do.