“The Native American tribes bear a lot of responsibility for the long terrible conflict against the frontiersmen pushing westward; the massacre of Custer at Little Big Horn was only the most recent example of the violence and hatred directed toward the White man and the settlers pursuing our manifest destiny.”
I understand your point but I don’t believe the analogy is sound. The native Americans, for instance, were never offered a chance at a sovereign independent homeland.
People don’t accept an “offer” of a homeland they already live on, and already have. In fact they think it’s insulting, absurd, and they know it’s ominous and murderously dangerous.
I think if you look into U.S. history you’ll find that many such “offers” were made to many tribes in attempts to divide and rule. Some were accepted, some were rejected, and almost all were violated. I think it’s naive to imagine otherwise.
Well I’m no fan of the U.S. and its treatment of indigenous people, so we can agree on all of that. As for Palestine, I hear you. I understand your perspective. The question is how do we go forward? Israel exists. It is not going to magically disappear. The Palestinians exist. They are not going to magically disappear (despite Bibi’s best efforts). So now what? We have to find some way to live together. Or at least side by side. And to do that we can’t keep relitigating the past in gory detail.
As an Israeli Jew, this is a period of extreme frustration. It's not only how we are killing Gazans and causing them suffering. As the head of Yeshivat Har Etzion wrote, it is killing Israelis and hurting our society. Being disabled, I can't join the protest. I can only watch from the sidelines.
What Israel is doing in Gaza has sad precedent, unfortunately:
https://youtu.be/hXDUvyD_EVw
“The Native American tribes bear a lot of responsibility for the long terrible conflict against the frontiersmen pushing westward; the massacre of Custer at Little Big Horn was only the most recent example of the violence and hatred directed toward the White man and the settlers pursuing our manifest destiny.”
I understand your point but I don’t believe the analogy is sound. The native Americans, for instance, were never offered a chance at a sovereign independent homeland.
People don’t accept an “offer” of a homeland they already live on, and already have. In fact they think it’s insulting, absurd, and they know it’s ominous and murderously dangerous.
I think if you look into U.S. history you’ll find that many such “offers” were made to many tribes in attempts to divide and rule. Some were accepted, some were rejected, and almost all were violated. I think it’s naive to imagine otherwise.
Well I’m no fan of the U.S. and its treatment of indigenous people, so we can agree on all of that. As for Palestine, I hear you. I understand your perspective. The question is how do we go forward? Israel exists. It is not going to magically disappear. The Palestinians exist. They are not going to magically disappear (despite Bibi’s best efforts). So now what? We have to find some way to live together. Or at least side by side. And to do that we can’t keep relitigating the past in gory detail.
Unfortunately, "what we can't talk about right now" is also what we _must_ talk about _right now_.
I think that when Olmert is willing to call Israel's behavior a "war crime", the rest of us should feel empowered to do the same.
As an Israeli Jew, this is a period of extreme frustration. It's not only how we are killing Gazans and causing them suffering. As the head of Yeshivat Har Etzion wrote, it is killing Israelis and hurting our society. Being disabled, I can't join the protest. I can only watch from the sidelines.
Yes--it hurts everyone. I hope Israelis will find a way to hold Netanyahu and his cronies accountable.
Thank you for saying do clearly what i am feeling