10-09-2003, 05:21 PM
Thanks for the translation! I was confused.
The Western world NEEDS to hear these sad stories about Palestinian loss. All we hear about over here is Israeli losses. The newspapers, TV, and radio stations are constantly reporting about "Palestinian suicide bombers kill Iraelies" yet we hardly hear a thing about Israeli raids and curfews and how the Palestinian people are going without water or electricity. Now, about how Palestinian babies die of sheer terror. Good grief!! If these stories do make it to the papers they are printed way in the back pages, not on the front pages like Israeli losses.
Just this morning I was listening to the National Public Radio and heard all about another Palestinian suicide bombing. Yes, I was very sad for the Israeli losses - but there was nothing said Palestinian losses due to Israli agression.
There's no <i>balance.</i>
I do not support Palestinian suicide bombers or any other Palestinian attacks on human beings. That is why I cannot turn around and support Israely attacks on human beings. It's not right to point fingers at one side and ignore the same crimes coming from the other side.
I'm going to share a very controversial thought which just might get me attacked on this forum, but I can't help but let it out:
Maybe these problems wouldn't exist if Israel hadn't been created through stealing land...
If Israel steals land from people, are we to expect that those people will just walk away? Look at what happened here in America back in the days when Americans were stealing Native American land. The media demonized the Indians and canonized the Americans. Under such light it was perfectly ok to go and take land from the violent, ignorant "heathens". I see this same additude towards Palestine. "Only a few nomadic herders wandered the land." I'm often told. "So it's not like the Israelies stole anything."
Really?
I try and put myself in their shoes. How would I like it if the Russians came over here to Alaska and started stealing land where "only a few nomadic Eskimos wander around"? And then they took more...and more...until they owned plots of land that separated one Eskimo village from another. Then they put up fences, set up armed road blocks, and created curfews where folks could be shot dead if they were outside past the curfew. On top of that, they would periodically shut down water and electricity in the Eskimo villages for weeks at a time and raid the villages with Apache helicopters, machine guns, and tanks. Meanwhile they decided to erect a huge wall to further block off access to what used to be American land.
Hmmmmm....I don't think I'd like that one bit! So why should the Palestinians?
Unless I'm totally missing something here....Did the Israelis own the land first, then the Palestinians stole the land, and the Israelies had to steal it back? Is that the case?
It wasn't until more then 100 years passed that the truth started to come through about Native Americans and how their land was stolen by force. Now we see movies and read books that tell all about how civilized and organized the Native Americans were - and how they had owned the land for thousands of years until it was forcefully stolen from them. Oooops!
Ooops, but oh well - they aren't getting their land back. We stole it fair and square and it's been such a long time that now it's ours.
Is this what will happen in Palestine/Israel? 100 years from now everyone will learn the truth and say, "Oh gee sorry about that."
I think that if the media wants to give us fair coverage of the Israeli/Palestine issue they should report about both sides. For every "suicide bomber" story there should be a story about raids, broken curfews, dead children, and the like - on the front page of the newspapers.