overthrowing an oppressive government does not equate with genocide.
It's not just the government that groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Iranian theocracy want to overthrow.
It is the very existence of Jews in what is now Israel and Palestine.
It would take genocide to achieve that goal.
That is a trap of hate, and an easy way out to avoid the hard work of achieving peace. You are not going to remove Israel from the Middle East without engaging in major genocidal killing.
You think the current treatment of the Palestinians is unfair, I think that the current treatment of the Palestinians is unfair.
You think the current living conditions forced on the Palestinians in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in camps all across the Middle East are unjust. I think the current living conditions forced on the Palestinians in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in camps all across the Middle East are unjust.
You think the killing of Palestinians in Gaza right now, and the people killed including the families and children killed in attacks like operation Cast lead are horrific and evil. I also think that they are wrong, unjust, and were often unnecessary and preventable.
You and I have both looked at the continual shrinking control of Palestinian land, and thought that it was not right. That is was unjust. That it is wrong.
The only real difference is what you and I think should be done about it.
For too long, too many in the Middle East have grown up in cultures of hate, despair, and desires for revenge. It is the easy way out to blame this all on Israel, to blame it all on the Zionists. To caste our finger out in an unflinching and unwavering certainty of guilt at the party that is fully responsible for all of the woes.
That thinking however prevents serious self reflection. It is a 'scapegoating understanding' that forgoes serious analysis of all of the many factors in this conflict in favor of a simplified one sided, and unchanging viewpoint.
It is the easy way out, and it doesn't help anyone.
It doesn't help the poor kids in unrecognized villages get any closer to getting the food and materials they need to survive. It doesn't help the families in Gaza living near the Israeli border reduce their fear that at any time they could be a victim of an Israeli air or artillery strike. It doesn't help the families living in the many Palestinian camps around the Middle East get any closer to the goal that they will at some point be vindicated for their suffering and earn the right to return to their families homes.
It is easy to slip into a pattern of hate and one sided condemnation, but it doesn't get the Palestinians anywhere closer to peace, and it is not befitting of the beyond war hippie ideology that you and I respect.
If you truly care about the people suffering in Palestine, there is a way to help them, but it cannot be achieved through war. It cannot be achieved through genocide, it can only be achieved through lasting peace, and the promotion of mutual understanding and justice.
Letters from Asel
Asel Asleh said:
Today I will be asked to choose between what they call as “protecting and remembering” and between what they call “forgiving.” I will be asked to choose. And I will, will my choice be the right thing to do, or will it be the wrong thing to do. Well… as a friend of mine once said: “Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”