[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Cz9PdX1dc]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-VCd2OGNbg]
And, Amira Hass’s last report from Gaza for a while…
Tarboush Tip: Hanaan, Hanitizer, and Diana
Related posts:
- Shoah Watch: Jabalya this morning
- The Only English-Language News Station Brave Enough to Produce a Story Like This
- Shoah Watch: Sudden Pullout
- Shoah Watch: Gaza Despair in an Image
- Thank you for calling Freedom’s Watch…
Amira Hass’s report has interesting points to it.
So, too, do many of the commentators critical of her article on the Haaretz site.
(What, for example, *is* the proper Israeli response to Sderot, soldier kidnappings, and Hamas’ refusal to recognize the Israeli state’s right to continued existence? It’s far easier to point out the problems with how Israel’s responded — and I’ve been critical of the response too — than it is to advocate for an affirmative, alternative course of action.)
Posted by Joe | December 1, 2008, 10:04 pmRelated question: Let’s say the strategy you propose for Israel in response to the above is followed… and the missile attacks increase, or more soldiers are kidnapped. Then what? How does your strategy change?
(In other words… Criticism is important, but thinking constructively is ten times harder than criticizing, and ten times as important.)
Posted by Joe | December 1, 2008, 10:37 pmI always say the best way to solve a problem is to look at its cause, so Joe-what causes Palestinians to want to fight Israel?
The cause is their continued dispossession, occupation and expulsion by Israel. Rectify that, and the problem is pretty much solved. Trying new, creative ways to maintain the oppressive status quo won’t get you anywhere. Israel has been trying it for 60 years, but people stripped of their rights can’t stop fighting for them.
Palestinian attacks on Israel have never come out of a void. When you understand that, the solutions become very clear.
Posted by Mohammad | December 2, 2008, 11:48 amI always say the best way to solve a problem is to look at its cause
Correctly identifying the cause of a problem is only the first step in solving it. Actually, it’s the second step… it comes after acknowledging that there is, in fact, a problem. Lots of people never get beyond denial, believe it or not.
so Joe-what causes Palestinians to want to fight Israel?
Let me guess… 60 years of hate-mongering against Jews, from people just like you?
So, assuming I have *correctly* identified the problem, how do we solve it? Kill all the hatemongers? Been nice knowing you buddy!
See? It’s not as simple as you make it out to be.
The cause is their continued dispossession, occupation and expulsion by Israel.
Oh, wait! Look… it’s you who *correctly* identified the problem!
Rectify that, and the problem is pretty much solved.
And how exactly should that be accomplished?
Trying new, creative ways to maintain the oppressive status quo won’t get you anywhere.
Oh, gee, look at the Palestinian talking about idiots who promote the status quo and telling us all how genuine progress is made! Yes, the lot of Palestinians has improved SO MUCH over the decades, do tell us the secret of your success.
Israel has been trying it for 60 years, but people stripped of their rights can’t stop fighting for them.
See? More promotion of the status quo from the genius. Less talk, more fight. You want war, then take it to the bitter end and get it over with. That’ll change things, one way or another, won’t it?
Palestinian attacks on Israel have never come out of a void. When you understand that, the solutions become very clear.
Yes. Obviously. That’s why everyone knows how to solve the problems in the ME, right? The only ones who ever thought the Middle East could be salvaged were the neocons, and look at them now! Enjoy the new world order, where everyone on both the left and the right thinks the entire middle-East is a lost cause that has to be contained and exploited, because middle-eastern societies are diseased to the core. Actually, that’s not the new world order, it’s the old world order, resurgent. But, whatever.
Posted by programmer craig | December 2, 2008, 1:09 pm“”I always say the best way to solve a problem is to look at its cause, so Joe-what causes Palestinians to want to fight Israel?
The cause is their continued dispossession, occupation and expulsion by Israel.”"
There’s been plenty of fighting in the region prior to the existence of the state of Israel. Wikipedia’s handy-dandy list of massacres chalks up a healthy tally for each side.
Furthermore, you completely failed to grapple with the counterfactual — what if you’re wrong?
What if Israel ceases all operations against Gaza and the West Bank tomorrow, declares Palestine is independent, demolishes all illegal settlements, re-routes the wall to an equitable arrangement (yes, you’re allowed to have walls at national borders, they’re called borders for a reason)…
…and the violence doesn’t stop?
What if there are still rockets hitting Sderot on a regular basis?
What do the Israelis do then?
And how do you make any of the above work politically?
Even if your simplistic, naive explanation of how the current violence came to be were accurate (hint: It’s not)…
…international politics are not chronologically symmetrical. That is, you can’t simply reverse an outcome by undoing the things that have been done, in exactly the same order. This is the same place where the Ron Paul crazies falter in America, when they think problems with monetary policy would all of a sudden cease to be if only we’d return to the gold standard.
Again, you’re not making a policy proposal worthy of the gravity of the situation.
Posted by Joe | December 2, 2008, 4:46 pmFill me my simplistic, naive self in on the cause of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict then please.
Posted by Mohammad | December 5, 2008, 7:00 am