I'm Not F---ing Objective

[eumelia]

I've decided that I'm no longer going to discuss the Occupation or the Israel/Palestine conflict with my family.
Most of the time, it's fine and civil and everybody wants to smack the other upside the head and that's okay, it's even good, it's mean we're affecting each other (even if it is frustrating).

But when the discussion basically comes to the a place in which people are regurgitating (but in different words) "The Palestinians are doing it to themselves" and closing the discussion by saying "Israel made a big mistake in 1967... that we didn't push them all out into the Arab countries and make it all Arab free" (very little paraphrasing on my part).

Cue me being appalled.

"Because if you think they wouldn't have done that [ethnic cleansing] to us if we had lost, you need to educate yourself a little more" were (again paraphrased, this was last night) the parting words and the end of the discussion.

I'll no longer discuss this matter with people who have the ability to make me cry.

It is so retarded that I'm accused, again and again and again, of being brain-washed, of being an absolutist, of being "one-sided", of being naive, when talking about this matter.

It is so backwards that I need to ratify the fact that I think Hamas are fundamentalist whack-jobs with guns, who if they had any interest in actually leading the Palestinian people, their strategy wouldn't include killing people in the strip.
As for the firing Qassam rockets into Israel... you mean those three weeks back in December '08 and January '09 didn't actually help with that.
I'm shocked.
Absolutely... un-surprised.
Should have Hamas used the Disengagement plan in order to try and re-build something in Gaza and perhaps move people out of the slums of Gaza City and into the towns left by the Settlers who left them.
Probably.
Most likely.
Who ever said people had a reasonable response to a unilateral move which was viewed as a victory of terror tactics over Israel... the best way to get more results is to continue terror, obviously.
*sigh*
By the way, as far as we're aware, the trickling of Qassam rockets at the mo' come mainly from break away factions of Islamic Jihad... Hamas can control them to a degree (by killing them), though to the people of the towns surrounding Gaza, it doesn't really matter.
Nor should it.

Same as for Palestinians, an Israeli is an Occupier, even if they get them permits to cross the checkpoints, ambulances, medicine and letters and come to demonstrate against the Fence and Wall.
Being a good ally is knowing that we are a part of the Oppressive forces and not take umbrage when we're regarded as such, because it's not about us.
Though, it is also, because the violence committed in our name, the electricity and water flowing into Gaza (because Egypt doesn't want to deal with the strip, nor do any of the other Arab and/or Muslim nations want to deal with the "Palestinian Problem", because they'd much rather have a scapegoat on which to foist all their problems rather than deal with their own internal conflicts... hmmm, sound familiar... nations, like people, are so bloody similar it'd be funny if it weren't so tragic) in order to keep the population under our control and thumb (Cynical? You bet!).

Asymmetrical warfare brings about different tactics.
Would you say that 18-21 year old kids guarding an illegally constructed barrier are better or worse than 15-25 year old kids who strap on a bomb and walk into a market and blow themselves up.
Both are indiscriminate, though the soldiers have the ability to be more accurate.
Instinctively, I think, one would want to say that the bomber is worse, because of the location and the fanaticism that induces such an action.
I mean, the victims in the market or a pizza parlour were just innocent by standers, minding their own business and day.
They were.
No one plans to go out, hang out with friends and be murdered.

The people of Bil'in are subjected to nightly incursions, arrests, teenagers are taken from their homes, "interrogated" and then sent to prison, where they learn faster and better the art of guerilla fighting from their older and more experienced cousins.
Are those not acts which try and induce terror over a civilian population?

The people of Bil'in, Nia'lin, Jayous, et al, all go to the demos knowing the score (that soldiers shoot indiscriminately), the people sitting in the cafes, markets and Malls, are unsuspecting.
The people of Bil'in, Nia'lin et al can't, really, forget the terror that they're under, it is their daily reality, they are never unsuspecting that they are in danger.
Even during the worst of the bombings (that I remember), in 1996, 2000, 2003, etc we made sure to continue with our normal lives so that they would know that we continue on despite the terror and danger.

I know people who have died in bombings. If I had left my home ten minutes earlier not too many years ago, I wouldn't have just felt the tremors under foot of a bomb going off in the mall. My dad's store front shattered because of a bomb and he was nearly shot at a different time.

I'm not fucking objective.

And that's all I have to say about this at the moment.

For my next post, I may write about this, but after writing all of the above, I dunno if I have the energy.

Comments

[whereisjoy.livejournal.com]

hey,

I'm all for you and anyone else setting good healthy boundaries for themselves. No one should have be an activist/educator all the time. That's sucks.

But....

I hope you find a way to keep talking about this issue with as many Israelis as possible. Maybe not your family, but if you stop, we're all in serious trouble. We really need Israelis who support human rights and know what's happening to keep talking to other Israelis. If you guys stop, it's only going to ensure that things stay bad for much longer.

I'm sure you know that. I'm sure saying. :-)

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I don't plan on staying silent.
Ever.
But discussing this with close family members, it's just too charged, seeing as they're the reason I'm here and my household is very Liberal Zionist and I'm... kind of beyond that.

It's really frustrating when the people who taught me human rights and justice seem to be blanking on what I say when it comes to this and accuse me of taking Their Side.
Bleh.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[hemlock-sholes.livejournal.com]

Would you say that 18-21 year old kids guarding an illegally constructed barrier are better or worse than 15-25 year old kids who strap on a bomb and walk into a market and blow themselves up.

I'd say they the 18-21 men are better because they are operating within a framework in which the soldier's actions are a temporary solution until a permanent solution is found. In other words, the soldiers actions are not meant to solve the problem, they are meant to control the problem until a political solution is found. The 15-25 year olds actions, however, are the primary solution and therefore, in my opinion, less moral.

As for the main gist of your post, I'd like to point out that since you started this blog, you've improved your writing style and have become much more persuasive and convincing - probably, your skill with the written word has outstripped that of your spoken word. I was not present at the argument last night, but I don't think that you should just "give up".

Hang in there - you could still make converts!

:)

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

The 15-25 year olds actions, however, are the primary solution and therefore, in my opinion, less moral.
Not according to the grass roots non-violence resistance groups in Tuwani and Bil'in, etc.
Because the bombings are acts of violence they get more coverage. Same as the "less" violent forces of Occupation are not so widely known - http://www.whoprofits.org.
And you're definitely giving us way more credit if you call the past 40 years temporary and them no credit at all if you think they want to keep on dying in order to resist.

And thanks for that encouraging comment. Much appreciated. I also, think I'm better at it in Hebrew :)

Sorry for the multiple edits!

[ninboydean.livejournal.com]

I think that moralistic comparisons are some of the most cynical, reactionary arguments that can be made on any controversial issue.

More specifically, I would say that those soldiers guarding a wall are probably desperately trying to defend their own sense of people and security within a conflict which they understand from a primarily one-sided, un-analytical perspective.

The kids that strap on bombs (oh yeah, Palestinians are overwhelmingly young due to the high death rates and historically strangled economy, so that's a good context for their age category) have been pushed to the depths of despair which poverty is so well known for. While I can't necessarily understand suicide, I do intimately understand that kind of self-destructive drive, and I can assure you that the underlying goal is nothing short of a desperate attempt to create a better world - even if they can't be a part of it.

Neither group is "bad." They are doing shit things because they live within a pretty terrible paradigm - be it racist nationalism, abject poverty, or any of the other side effects of the system of conflict.

That's if you want to analyze the pawns in the conflict. Their stories are some of the saddest, just like in any war. If you want to analyze the material and political forces that drive the conflict, you're absolutely pursuing the wrong stories. And when you follow the movements of the powerful systems and institutions which have created the conflict, you are always going to end up looking at institutions which are primarily Israeli or 'pro-Israeli' and increasingly isolated from the will of the Palestinian people and organizations.

[ninboydean.livejournal.com]

My problem with the discourse is that it is always some kind of race-nationalism that forms the basis of the pro-occupation cliques. It really says a lot that we are on the side which says "all people ought to be able to live in Palestine / Israel and all residents thereof should have the same kinds of human rights".

What is most frustrating is those people who recognize that there is a problem but refuse to take even baby steps toward finding out what the facts are. I was recently talking to my future father-in-law who absolutely agreed with me that the discourse on TV is a bunch of irrelevant smokescreen, and very little accurate investigative journalism. I replied that there are good independent media out there, notable Christian Science Monitor and AlJazeera. He immediately replied "oh I won't watch AlJazeera."

It's like, even when people can glance outside of their sick little world and long for a fresh paradigm, they are still too afraid to seriously look that way.

I try not to debate nowadays, just try to encourage a humanist perspective where it is convenient.