The problem with people who view the Israel/Palestinian conflict from American/European media is that they tend to receive a very saturated and often perverted perspective of how the conflict operates. It seems very few Americans and Europeans understand just how aggressive the Palestinian government is about controlling image and media.
The problem is perception. If BBC, ABC, or the Guardian didn't print it...it never happened. Whatever Israel says, Zionist propaganda. Whatever America says, lapdog for Israel. Anything that remotely conflicts with colonizing Palestinian narrative is immediately responded with mindless-anti-Zionism, which is mostly built on fantasy to begin with.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, read this:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804588639&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFullKhaled Abu Toameh is very popular journalists here in Israel. I've met him once, nice guy. He has a rather accurate assessment of what is going on:
http://www.meforum.org/604/telling-the-truth-about-the-palestiniansNow, back on topic. As an Arab living in Israel, I've always found it odd why the West cares so much about us. I always seem to here about how horrible Arabs are treated in Israel, the "apartheid" and institutionalized "racism" against ethnic minorities. At times I laugh because this couldn't be farther from the truth.
Israel is an imperfect country, but it has a respectable government with checks and balances. There is a natural tension between Jews and us, but its not systematic nor a "struggle for land" as I see in the headlines of BBC every hour. I personally have never been spat on, shielded, or made fun of. We go to the same gyms, eat the same restaurants, and attend the same universities. I've had my fair share of dealing with ultra-nationalists who want to "finish the job" but for the most part they are few and far between. Certainly not the mainstream as the West likes the portray Israel.
Don't think this is peace and leave, there have been fights - real ones - but not even comparable to the stoning of homosexuals in Gaza, or active persecution of religious and sexual minorities in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, etc....
This MUST be understood. The Arab despots have spent billions buying out universities and journalists to paint this illusion. Recruiting mouthpieces like Jimmy Carter (received 10+ million from the Wahhabist oil states) or sponsoring anti-Apartheid movements in London, etc..
What has happened is that Israel as a country has become pejorative. It is no longer a sovereign entity, it is a foreign policy objective. It is a cancer in the Middle East, blah blah blah. It has become so demonized in the eyes of the West that when people look at my passport I get dirty look. And I'm talking about airports in Scotland. XD
Perhaps my opinion is of less importance because I am a Christian and have a disgust for the heavy-Islam saturated Palestinian agenda. I am no loyal Zionist and don't have a perpetual erection for Israel but I am SICK AND TIRED of hearing about the poor poor Palestinians.
I was in Lebanon when the PLO torched my home and raped my neighbors. I was visiting family in Hebron when I witnessed my first ever suicide bombing. This is the story:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=294128&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=YI am SO SICK of seeing these thugs get to dictate peace terms. I can't say I condone Israel's heavy-handed approach to dealing with terror but I can empathize with the government's apathy towards the Palestinian agenda. As Israel has given up more land and concessions, poured billions into the Palestinian authority, subsidized their living and grants them access to hospitals, health care, etc...no response is made.
Nothing. In spite of all the power and wealth, representation in the media, teams of Harvard punks ready to cut themselves for Palestine....they demand more.
WTF?! I supported the Oslo Accords because I bought into the Arab propaganda. The Palestinian victimhood. I took for granted the privileges I receive in Israel even though I showed no loyalty to it. I voted for Maki (Arab communist party) in my first election for fricks sake.
I realize what a joke this is. The Palestinian leadership of today is simply an extension of Arab imperialism. Hamas and Hezbollah are an Iranian proxy and do their bidding. Fatah isn't even better, and the PLO (umbrella organization) is detestable.
These represent the "resistance". I put in Hezbollah because its partied with Hamas and plays a crucial role in wars.
THESE LEADERS make decisions on behalf of the Palestinians. Have you all forgotten about Arafat's palace in Paris? How about the Palestinian penthouses in London? Swiss Bank accounts?
Do you remember when the Arafat stole UNRWA food and sold it on the black market? How about when he extorted his own people? Do you remember the costly wars in Lebanon, Jordan, hijacking airplanes...torching embassies, assassinations...? No, you probably don't. You probably think the Palestinians are just pissed and hunkered because teh evil Zionazis are occupying them. This is what I believed since birth. Took me years to slowly get out of that state.
Is this making sense America? Why do you continue to extort Israel? No doubt Israel's addiction to military aid enables the US administration to meddled in her affairs, and at times that meddling goes against Israel's best interests. But why?
Why do you care so much? Are you truly upset that US-made weapons killing Palestinians somehow gives your country that right to reduce Israel to satan?
Where is your frustration at your country's support for Egypt's military? 1.5 billion a year. A country that supports the genocide in Darfur and arms Al-Shabaab in Somalia. American-made planes have been implicated in transporting goods and foodstuffs to the Islamist rebels in Mogadishu. Egypt's also been suspected of executing Sudanese refugees in Sinai. I know at least 30 Sudanese fleeing to the Negav by Egyptian border patrol.
Of course, no moral outrage. No Israel to demonize!
The Palestinians assassinated the US Ambassador to Sudan. They assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. They celebrated in the streets after 9/11. They sided with Saddam during the Gulf War. They applauded China for its brutal actions during the tiananmen square protest.
They've offered nothing to the USA or the West except terrorism and propaganda. Why do you guys care so much about giving them a state? WHY? Does the world need another Arab state? We have 23 of them. All are despotic, all contribute nothing to humanity.
Israel, in spite of NOT being loaded with oil, has done more than Einstein:
*Cell phones
*Cancer treatments
*Weapons systems (Arrow Missile)
*Medical innovations. Cancer research, etc.
*Computers - Windows XP and Vista developed by Microsoft Israel. So is word.
*Instant messaging
*Military technology and tactics. Israel trains commandos in Georgia, India, used to support the Christians in Sudan, etc...
All while fighting wars and in a perpetual state of world-criticism.
All I'm doing is making a case. Israel poses NO threat to the West, has never called for the genocide of any group of people, and does not want to own the world.
Why do you care so much about the Arabs? Because they are intimidating? Because they fight Jews?
Put this for size:
Since 1998, 9,000 people have been killed in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Mostly in conflicts STARTED by the enemy.
Since 2003, the Arab League-sponsored genocide in Darfur has killed 400,000 black muslims and christians. I was rather ignorant until I met a pair of Sudanese refugees in Tel Aviv seeking amnesty.
Get this, they were muslim. Waving Israel flags with tears in their eyes, they told me about all the crazy crap that goes there that no one talks about.
And get this, most of the weapons Hamas receives comes from the Arab genocide in Darfur. Makes sense, Israel bombed half a dozen trucks in Sudan suspected of carrying weapons.
Noam Chomsky claims bulldozing homes of suicide bombers is state-terror, well what about the whole-sale destruction of 1,000 Sudanese villages? Thousands raped, some by UN peacekeepers, and the rest slaughtered senselessly by the Arabs. Every attempt to recognize this genocide in the UN and apply an appropriate international response has been steamrolled by the Arab bloc and non-alignment movement, both in the General Assembly and the Muslim-controlled Human Rights Council.
So those who cite UN reports like gold need to actually read them. Most of the time, they are written by the villain.
Point is, the Middle East is a brutal reality. Israel's contributions to human rights is marginal compared to our neighbors. I love how people say we are child-killers, when if you look at the civilian to target ratio it is 2:1. 50% minimum, in virtually all of our wars. You might laugh at that, but America's war in Iraq has killed 1,000,000 since 2003. 10 times the amount killed in the Arab-Jew conflict of the last 90 years. The next best military has a 10:1 ratio.
Israel has always been more supportive of the peace process. in 2000, 80% of Israelis supported a 2 state solution. Less than 40% of Palestinians did, and on different terms...some truly bizarre.
I know this is a really long rant, but I hope for the sake of humanity that the world focuses on other problems. I am sick and tired of turning on the news and hearing about the poor poor Palestinians. Yeah, the poor poor Palestinians that are world-record holders in humanitarian aid. More than Congo, Somalia, and Sudan combined.
600,000,000 from the UN per year, mostly subsidized by the US government. 500,000,000 in Israeli taxes annually, and 500,000,000 goods exported into Gaza annually. This is on top of the ~200mill Pals receive from the EU every year, and 100 million Hamas makes a MONTH off the tunnels and price-fixing/levies on Palestinian businesses etc...
PLO alone makes 2 billion a year simply from drug-smuggling, weapons dealing, and foreign donations.
The PLO has a combined networth of 50 billion supposedly, 1/4 of Israel's GDP. These aren't stone-throwers, these are wealthy despots who jizz in their pants at DU lefties defending their "resistance."
I NO longer support the Palestinian agenda. I believe in returning to the 67' border. Give Gaza back to Egypt, and the West Bank (Samaria) back to Jordan - with the exception of Jerusalem. Jordan and the Arabs forfeited their right to Jerusalem when they did not agree to Israel's request to stay out of the war.
I sympathize with the millions of people in the world who get to die because they aren't Palestinian. They don't reflect Arab foreign policy objectives, they don't sell newspapers in the West, and they don't give "human rights" activist a purpose in life. The millions that die at the hands of Arab despots. The millions that die in America's neocon wars, and the millions that die under the Asian dictatorships.
6 million children starve to death every year. you want to know something? No a single one of them is Palestinian. This rather minute conflict has generated far too much drama, and because of it, areas of crisis have been ignored in favor of Palestinian press.
Take this from someone who has lived in Israel, odds are you simply don't know this country. you sit thousands of miles away reading DemocracyNow and BBC. amnesty international tells how we are Nazis and relish in killing Palestinians.
It's all a load. Wake up America. Soon your embassies and planes might be getting hijacked-en mass. Will you cut off California in hopes for peace?
LOL!