I sat thinking of what to say to accompany this image in this entry for about 20 minutes.
I still can’t think of something adequate in order to describe how disgusted I am that the same people who were persecuted, tortured and slaughtered in their millions during the Nazi reign of World War II are now committing similar atrocities to the Arabian people while the world watches and does nothing…
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The world doesn’t watch and do nothing. USA is supporting the war and Israeli hatry that further fuels it. That’s what they do.
All this is just part of the circle of evil that has been circling on and on in the middle east for decades, even centuries. Those who choose to get involved in any way ought to be careful not to get caught in the negativity of the whole thing themselves. Those who however get involved merely to profit from what is going on there are clearly parted with any sense of morality. Even ignorance is better than that.
Just don’t let it get to you too much. As long as you can do something positive about it, like spreading awareness of the issue, that’s good, but the images of horror, however hard to grasp, are just mind breaking and soul infectious.
Not sure if I expressed that well.
We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. George Bernard Shaw
This does get to me a lot. I feel I have come to appreciate the benefits that friendships can bring to human beings, especially with my strong participation in the free/libre/open source software community. I have witnessed what happens when social networks are formed and grow vibrantly. I have seen what comes to when people cooperate, collaborate and share with each other, what happens when friendships are formed between people of different cultures and experiences.
Every single human being on this planet is yet another part of a massive force that can help shape the world to be a better place for everyone. This is especially true and can, I believe relatively to history in a short period of time, with the use of the single, largest, most efficient, hopefully free communication network in our history make this world a better place.
One book of a few hundred pages when digitized can be sent from one location in this world to another in less than half a minute. We have the technology to freely share photography and film and writings of literally anything to anyone and everyone around the globe connected in a matter of minutes.
When I see and use this technology, or more importantly, the possiblities that arise out of this network, I am deeply stunned and disgusted to see hatred, violence, racism, sexism, greed and corruption threaten to destroy the possibilities that we have within reach.
Every single time I turn on the television set and watch the news as I do almost daily I see footage of oppression, hatred, war and death. And what do I see predominately in the news in the current times of our age? I see this hatred and racism coming from a group of people whose ancestors have been victimized less than a hundred years ago. Yes, of course it comes from all sides involved however it I find the power that one particular side has and the negligent abuse of that power to be more vile than the hatred displayed by the oppressed.
I guess that should give people some indication about how any why I feel as I do about these issues.
Well said Pascal. Not much to add to that.
I only advised a bit of caution, if that’s the right term, regarding the emotional impact of these happenings. Letting yourself get too emotionally hurt may have adverse effects to you and possibly your goals. Maybe I’m being a bit too dramatic about this, but the war there (as any other war of the kind) is very dramatic indeed..
I think what I am suggesting is to keep a cool head about this, at least as much as that is possible. Think with reason above emotion.
Maybe a good example of otherwise happening would be feelings that could start developing against Israelis because of what they are doing to Palestinians, after watching that video you linked me. I can very well imagine people in which this video would seed a very negative and potentially deep feeling against all Israelis (potentially developing into hatry), but that would be putting emotion beyond reason and would end up contributing nothing to the solution of the problem.
Of course, I don’t suggest that you’re in that situation at all. You might count this as just a friendly little advice.
But you’re right regarding what you say about using this incredible network and possibilities we have to affect major positive changes in the world. I can only agree to that and hope enough people start believing it too.
Agreed. :)
Okay lets get a little perspective here. Yes the Israeli’s are being complete and utter bastards, stupid ones at that. They are damaging both themselves and the US in the region and giving groups like Hizbollah a legitamzcy they do not deserve.
However to compare the limited civilian casualties (and yes in terms of war, 400 civilian casualties in however many weeks this has been going on is limited) to the mass slaughter and attempted genocide of the Nazi’s is way over the top.
I second Nick’s quote of GBS.
A a complete race, we’re incredibly dense. Bad examples are laid out before us , and what we seem to do is *follow* them. D’uh? This tells us some basic things about ourselves.
HHmm. Probably because the world did nothing but ignore this the first time hence 6 million people (not just the jews) just dissappeared, so why shouldn’t the Jews use the same mentality. This process has been used many times in history in Africa, Europe etc many times over (and not that long ago were Christians doing it to Moslems). It may not be right but ignored once or twice or three times it becomes acceptable human practice, becuase that is what humans do…defile each other.
There will never be a resolution to the Jew / Arab issue because they are the same family split along time ago, with very common roots that now refuse to accept each other. Both the Moslems and Christians are both rooted in the Jewish faith hence why the white supremacists, Moslems and jewish extremists will never get along. They are the fringes of their religions with the biggest barrow to push.
History, politics and the Britsh stuff-up will mean that this area of the world will never settle, and any peace will only be short term. Sad but true if you think about it.
This hatred did not develop overnight over this conflict. I am talking about the last 50 years of oppression against the Palestinian people, the decade long occupation of southern Lebanon and more. Kill one person - kill 10 people - you’re still a murderer and when you add the strife that the various peoples around Israel have lived through for the last 50 years then I’m sorry I cannot find a difference except for perhaps in numbers between what is happening now and what happened in the second quarter of the 20th century.
Palestinian school children getting stoned on their way to school, checkpoints in your own land where-ever you go, the apartheid wall segregating you from your fellow people, destruction of your land and crops and livlihood to be replaced with prestigious Zionist settlements.
If you watch the footage of some of these events you would surely agree. For example there was one such recording of where an olive farmer’s cropland is coincidentally in the way of the planned apartheid wall and the IDF protected Israeli workers as they used chainsaws to cut down the olive trees - essentially this community’s only income of money. The Palestinian man broke free of the IDF soldiers holding him back and tried to pull off any remaining olives from one of the trees being dragged away and the IDF jump and hold him down like some criminal.
This sort of treatment the Palestinian people have to go through on a daily basis.
this hatred goes back centuries more than you think, and is way more deep seated than the last 50 - 100 years and palestine in particlar. It goes back to the initial start of the moslem religion as a spin off from the jewish faith.
Don’t forget the cruaders had a large impact in this region too
Definitely and it is also not one-sided. Note though what I chiefly wanted to point out was what has been happening post WWII. The Jewish people suffered so much during WWII and now, some members of the Jewish people seem to disregard the horrors of oppression and death committing war crimes en masse in the Middle East today, especially with the recent escalation.
I don’t care who supposedly was responsible for the escalation - what I really care about is peace and justice for all involved.
and hence the problem, the issue isn’t new or even recent and this escalation is just another of very many, but now very one sided (depending on where you sit) or so it appears.
Israel has been invaded or attempted to be invaded a number of times in earlier decades past, now they fight with a venegence to never let that happen again.
Though an eye for an eye may seem old school to many of us it is a strong belief for others, so when you start something ie kidnap soldiers, you must expect that the return hit will be larger than the initial action. This doesn’t say it is right or wrong but it could be very easy to lure Israel into a conflict and get the sympathy of the world stage by orchesrating such an action
“An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.” — Mahatma Ghandi