LAME UPDATE- LOUSY WEEKEND…
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Now, the mess in Israel/Lebanon- for once, I'm not gonna blame this one on Bush. The Israeli/Palestinian/Muslim conflict has long since become a self-perpetuating mass multi-generational exercise in victims becoming perpetrators, on all sides. The blame can be spread so wide, that I can't really point the finger at any one contemporary group. My position on the perpetual conflict over there is based upon Thomas Aquinas's assertion that effects all emerge from a "first cause."
The "First cause" behind the current troubles, in a modern historical context, was the bright idea by a number of turn-of-the-century european jewish socialists who thought that they could move the jewish people, en masse, into slice of land in an area already populated by folks who were, at best, hostile to them. For some inane reason, these geniuses thought that there would be no problems, and they'd get along just fine.
Now, before I proceed, I must, finally, shatter the myth that any criticism of Israel is inherently anti-semitic. One must understand that there was a substantial percentage of the Jewish community, worldwide, that was steadfastly against the creation of Israel, as such a state was (according to scripture) not to come into existence until the return of the messiah. The creation of Israel had nothing to do with religion or ethnicity- it was about politics, and questionable pipedreaming on the part of folks who just didn't know what they were getting themselves into (my, how things have changed...)
I'm not alone in this view. I live in an area containing the largest jewish population in the country, and the most vociferous critics of Israel that I know personally are (surprise!) Jewish. The "anti-semitic" label just doesn't apply, in this particular context.
That having been said, Israel now exists, and as any nation does (especially Nauru), it has the right to exist and prosper. There's little that I can say about the current insanity over there. It's just more of the same, and I don't see things getting much better- and here's why...
One of my freelance clients is the owner of an advertising agency over in Hackensack- he's jewish, and married to a lovely Israeli woman, with two kids. On numerous occasions, he's held forth on his positions concerning the middle east:
"Wipe the muslims out. Nuke Iran, Nuke Iraq- kill them all."
Whenever I hear this guy say this sorta crap, I can hear Simon Wiesenthal spinning in his grave, Ahmadinejad giggling in glee, and the spirit of Hitler cheering. Just a mere sixty years after the jewish people were targeted for extinction, they've generated a few lunatics that have decided that they're entitled to do the same thing.
I've met this guy's kids- they're absolute darlings (which is rare for me to say- I usually don't get along with children), but are going to be brought up in a household in which this sorta hatred is taken for granted. I get flashes of seeing Palestinian kids their age, with the green headscarves, hoisting an AK-47 almost as large as they are, and I see no hope for that part of the world.