Here is the latest report that Amnesty International has released on the current Palestinian uprising. I read it in it''s entirety today, and was actually disgusted and terrified by what is going on. It wont be updated until the IDF lets officials into the refugee camps, but I cant even imagine what the next report will look like. What terrifies me is that the US has done no more than nicely ask Sharon to stop what he''s doing, and wont even cut off aide because he''s not . Wars on terrorism are turning out to be more catastrophic than terrorism itself. I honestly cant see how anyone can rationalise, much less defend, what is going on. I see some politicians calling it a defense of "our judeo-christian" values. It''s just awful, and because the Middle East is more than just a desert with oil underneath, for me, at least, it''s affected me profoundly. So much for defending freedom.

I couldn''t agree more.

The war on terrorism *is* terrorism.

I was referring to the Middle East in general, not just Israel when I made the comment about oil, in any case, the reason why the US supports Israel, other than Christian/Jewish lobby groups, is for its strategic importance in the region, a region which has a plurality of the worlds known oil reserves.

I''m pro-humanity. The US policy in the middle east benefits american corporations, not people in general, which is why I oppose it. And the current manifestation of the Israeli government is doing more harm to Israeli citizens than good (not to mention what its doing to the Palestinians) so that is why Im against the Israeli government. It''s pretty much the people who are pleading for the lives of the civilians in the region who I side with. You have no idea how upset I am with arab leaders due to the current circumstances of the situation. They only seem to be bothered with building multiple palaces. None of them are legitimate leaders...I''ll see if I cant start a revolution when im there this summer, eh? :]

Joseph Lieberman is sickening to my stomach. I cant beleive how he''s not only defending Sharon, but criticizing Bush for not taking a more hardline stance against the Palestinians, who have already suffered scores of casualties in the past few weeks, not to mention the psychological ramifications the IDF''s actions will reap.

I just hope that Joe Average American can see through all the media spin to see the disgusting human crisis.

quote:The Israelis have a right to be there -- after all, they were there, then were kicked out of their own land.

Arabs have always been living there, Arab Jews, Arab Christians, Arab Muslims, Arab Zoroastrians, etc. If you trace the lineage of 90% of the Israeli government and a plurality of the population in legitimate Israel, with an overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of occupied Palestinian land, you'd have a hard time tracing past the Caucasus, the Eastern Bloc, what was the USSR and parts of Europe. Ariel Sharon is from Russia, Golda Meir lived in Wisconsin, etc. So if the references you are making are "it was their land" stem from the Bible, then they can easily be refuted from passages of the Bible itself. ie, God promised the Seed(offspring) of Abraham the land of Cannon(a region that stretches from the Nile to the Euphretes river). According to the Jews, they are the offspring of Abraham's son Isaac, and the Arabs are the offspring of Arbraham's son Ishmeal (born to a "slave wife, sara") So, using that argument, biblically, the Palestinians have just as much right to Israel that the Israelis do.

But that is all stupid! You cant just say "this is what I think, so it has to be" when it will effect an entire demograph, even if the argument DID fit, or was credible. The fact is, there is a people living on a land that had a legitimate social and political infrastructure, and we're basicly watching as their rights are as humans are swept aside.
(*edit stupid fingers*)

quote:But why can't they live side by side? Why must there be constant aggression?

While the area was part of the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800's and the early 1900's, it was a relatively peaceful place where all 3 major religions did, for the most part, live side by side. It was with the influx of Europeans along with the British occupation of the land that coincided with the fall of the Ottoman Empire where the region turned into what it is today.

But thats history. The reason why there is no movement towards solution is because no one is taking into account the people that live in the region, but instead are trying to further their own political or economical goals.

quote:In Lebanon, for example, the Palestinians are barred by law from being part of the nation's society, similar to how it is in Israel. So while many Arab nations try to capitalize on the suffering of the Palestinians, they are doing nearly the same things that the Isrealis are.

While I'm probably more upset with the Arab governments than anyone else here is, this is factually inaccurate. The states that border Israel (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt) allow palestinian refugees to become part of their society, but they deny them citizenship so they "preserve their national identity". Whether there is any truth or not in their reason for doing so is not up for me to decide, but I can see the rationality behind it. There are millions of refugees, so logistically this also makes sense, but they're not kept in cages like they are in the west bank, I know from first hand.

[edited by - firahs on April 14, 2002 11:16:06 PM]