I'm Not F---ing Objective
Oct. 3rd, 2009 01:07 pmI'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.
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.