been caught thinking again

[plural]

I am one of those people cursed as we are
who pretty much knows a little bit about everything

just enough on most topics mind you to make you feel ignorant
or be amusing at a party,
however there a few topics which I have bothered to become extremely well educated on
and one of them is the Israeli/Palestinian Issue.

you see pretty much since I was a small child
[been an orthodox Jewish kid with lots of Quaker friends]
I was put in the position of defending Jews and Israel
or at least explaining what the hell I thought was going on

I remember being a boy and it all seeming so clear
Arab terrorist killing Jewish civilians

then came my first terrorist attack
I performed CPR on a man
who had been shot three times in the chest

it was also my first real test
you know
the world has just gone to shit how are you going to handle it

its strange cause I was never scared

from the time I realized
that there were several men spraying the street
with automatic weapons in short rapid bursts

my first thought hearing the noise of the first hail of bullets
was "fireworks?"
then I saw the sparks as bullets ricocheted off the stone walls
and heard the screams of terror

my mind was entirely calm
I took what cover was available and assessed the situation
with two words

umm fuck

I was getting ready to make a dash down to an alley for safety
when I saw a man struggling to pick up the limp form of another
and I ran forward in a crouch to help

we carried him into the small restaurant across the street
threw tables out of the way
and I ripped open his shirt

there from right nipple to armpit
three evenly spaced holes

I tried to stop the bleeding and performed CPR
and while it didn't look hopeful
he did survive long enough for the paramedics to take over
and shoo me out of the way

I walked dazed through the back alleys of Jerusalem
heading to a friends bar for a drink

it was then I felt my first tinge of fear
[the flood came shortly there after]
realizing just how close I had come

I indulged myself in more than a few tequila shots
and must have been a fairly gruesome sight
as I had neglected to wash the blood of my hands
somehow it just didn't seem important

the next day
I found out that the man I had done CPR on was an Arab,
[he died as a result of his wounds]
and the uncle of some Israeli Arabs
who had recently befriended me

it hit me like a truck
that it isn't an issue of Jews and Arabs
who we are is really beside the point

it is good and evil

good people just trying to live their lives
and evil people trying to take those lives

now do not get me wrong
I am not saying that all Palestinians are evil
nor that all Israelis are good
for I am sure both groups have a number of both types
and the general masses lie somewhere in between

but I am saying that terrorist and those who support them are
at least in those actions inexcusably evil

anyway I ramble on here

what I was trying to say
is that the experience opened my eyes
to just how little I actually understood the situation at the time
and caused me to take an in depth look
from as many angles as I could

I have often been confounded
by the ease at which people not only regurgitate falsehoods
and dance to the tunes of propaganda ministers
but how emotionally they cling to the question
refusing to even examine the most cursory facts
instead waiting for their turn to speak

While I often criticize or disagree with specific policies
of the Israeli government or Israeli politicians
[for example, I think Sharon is a quack]
I try to examine and criticize each side on its individual merits and behaviours

because of this, I often end up in discussions
on the subject, if nothing more to dispel myths and falsehood
because without an honest discussion and realization of exactly
which claims each side have that are valid, and what can reasonably be asked/expected of each side
do we have any hope of peace

and I am often simply astounded
by the depth of the ignorance and misunderstandings
people have of Judaism, Israel, and the Palestinian situation
if it was simply a case of not knowing things
I suppose I could be more understanding
but the crap that gets spewed sometimes
amazes even me, in both its creativity and absolute disconnection to reality

Take this guy for example
[yeah, I bitched slapped another one, but I was fairly nice about it for once]

I checked out his journal
and he seems a fairly common young west coast liberal type
who so often sympathize with the Palestinian cause
without knowing anything but the smallest amount of rhetoric
[and rhetoric based on outright falsehood as well]

That reminds me
the other day I was reading an article about pro-Palestinian groups in the US
I wish I could remember which site so I could give you a link
but one of the groups mentioned as helping to organize a pro-Palestinian rally
was entitled "gays for a free Palestine" or some such thing

which considering that homosexuals are persecuted and killed
with some frequency in the Palestinian Authority controlled areas
so much so that Palestinian homosexuals are forced to turn to Israel for asylum and protection
seems a tad bit incongruous

but it is disturbingly common among the new fellowship
of liberals supporting the Palestinian cause

these are not for the most part bad people
but I have a hard time how liberals who support and work
for freedom and safety from prosecution for homosexuals
for equal rights for women
and for human rights in general
can be so supportive of an administration
which condones the killing of homosexuals for no crime other than being gay
the murder of women who have premarital sex under the pretext of it being a way to redeem the family honor

people who spend their lives working for justice and rule of law
supporting an organization which shows little interest in either.

it simply boggles my mind

Comments

[plural.livejournal.com]

what else do you call an irrational dislike of israel on the part of your friends and liberals in general? especially if their logic is based on stereotypes, lies and "feelings".

I would call it ignorance, they do not criticize israel out of a hatred of the jews, but because they have been hoodwinked by an incredibly sucessful palestinian propaganda/PR machine.

They get told stories about valiant people fighting against oppression and occupation, standing up to tanks with rocks, and it is well designed to yank at their heartstrings.

Being duped by a well orchestrated propaganda campaign does not make one an anti-semite, it makes one a fool.

which is sort of what I meant by being used too freely, sure in essence their one sided criticism of Israel without honest comparison and equitiable criticism of the Palestinians is in many ways an anti-semetic behavior, but to say that someone who is suckered into believing something is enherently a racist seems fairly extreme to me.

while I always like to understand the backstory behind a persons beliefs and views, I do not hesitate to confront or as you put it, call a spade a spade when it becomes obvious there is no other explaination.

[maryshelley.livejournal.com]

first of all, they do have other side presented to them, all the time.

but the question to ask, why does this propaganda works?

there are many other issues that is constantly thrown at liberals. a lot of propaganda. but the only kind that got caught and stuck in their "hearts" is palestinian propaganda.

why is that?

unless palestinians are just really good at pushing their point (which i don't think they are any better than anyone else), i suspect that the reason this goes over so well with liberals is precisely because of anti-semitism.

[maryshelley.livejournal.com]

i did not write my last comment as well as i would have wished.
here is what i was trying to say:

the success of Palestinian campaing makes one question the reasons for its effectivness.

why was this PR so affective, while the rest of the nonsense that liberals busy themeselves with, never comes to fruition.

i suspect that , partially, the abundance of anti-semitism on the left, is responsible for it.

otherwise, it is hard to explain why palestinians succeeded so well in converting the left (with lies), while other propaganda did not.