Forget politics, forget religion, forget sex, forget any mixtures of the three - what drives even more of the nasty-mouthed freaks out from all sides is any post on Israel and the Palestinians.
I will confess that over the years I have moved from a strong support of the Israeli side to a disgust so deep that it is almost existential. I am not so self-righteous, so sure of my Gandhi-nature, to think that if I had been born in Palestine, as a Palestinian, that I would be committed to a non-violent solution.I have had supposedly rational people tell me I just don't get it - that there is a difference in targeting a school bus with a suicide bomber and targeting someone who might be a Palestinian leader knowing you will hit 50 women and children as well. I will confess, I don't get it. You don't compare evil behavior you support with the most evil behavior in history and claim the moral high ground because it could be worse. This applies to other topics as well - don't give me "we don't boil people alive to get confessions, we just sent them to where they will be boiled alive" and proclaim moral superiority.
People don't seem to get it. Most Palestinians have never known anything but occupation. They have never known anything but curfews, residences being bulldozed, travel passes and settlers moving in increasing numbers and taking the best land, along with access to water.
They have never known anything but a boot in the face. It's that simple.
And the Israeli army, once the finest in the world, has been, as all armies are, coarsened by the occupation. The Israeli state bemoans suicide bombers, then kills Palestinian opposition leaders with rockets - rockets they know will cause collateral damage (a phrase that means "will kill innocents").
Right Christians especially seem oblivious on this. They ignore the lessons of the Bible as their minds get warped around literalism. What was the lesson you were supposed to learn from Pontius Pilate? What were any of the teachings of Jesus? Show me where Jesus was on a crusade to rid his land of heretics, the Samaritans, prostitutes and homosexuals? How would Jesus act if he was like the Right televangelicals painted him? Who would Jesus torture?
On my Sexual blog, and I haven't gotten any thanks for removing the topic to its own blog, some anonymous commenter supposedly left when he thought I was mocking the Bible when I linked to some religious freak justifying his sexual kinkiness with long Bible sermons.
When I quote, digest and excerpt, is it mockery, observation, serious, or funny? What liberals get outraged by reading information you don't see elsewhere? If you are not liberal or looking for liberal ramblings why are you reading this? More than occasionally I dive into the other side to see what they are thinking, but I have a limit to my outrage when I know they are going to be, from my perspective, twisted and crazy.
Right Christians are also such strong supporters of Israel it is sometimes difficult to get rational arguments. If they are not agitating for Israeli support because Armageddon is coming soon and we need to be on the right prepared side it is the condemnation of the Arabs as uncivilized heathens who support IslamoFascism.
3 comments:
Great post Gary! I have also gone from pro-Israel to deep disappointment. The easiest way to upset people in this country is to speak the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the famous book Influence Robert Cialdini reports that people are more susceptible to specious arguments about subjects they have little knowledge or interest in. Such is the case with Israel/Palestine issues. Americans just don't have enough interest to feel passionate about it, and just walk away from it deciding it's too complicated.
Also, the Israeli lobby and community support is very large.
I actually would be tolerant of pro-Israelis in USA....as long as the US government totally ended all foreign aid (both economic and military) to Israel. They are the number one recipient of US foreign aid. All the Middle East knows this fact, but few Americans do.
If Israel wants to piss off their neighbors, that's their perogative, but they should do it totally on their dime.
I see a guest poster on TPM proved my point.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008910.php
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