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Quote by: Nono He's liberal, decent, very well informed -- certainly no redneck. |
Dang, why are my ears burning like this...?
Oh!
Just for the record, Nono, I was was raised a Methodist - sorta - but converted to devout atheism around age 20. Different tribe altogether.
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Quote by: Nono But he just can't quite free himself of that tribal allegiance, and ends up being lopsidedly pro-Israel, meaning that he somehow always finds a way of justifying Israeli conduct, or at least throwing up his hands and blaming it all on the Arabs. |
As to this, I'm not all
that one sided. It's just that for all the claims and counter-claims of tit for tat, I've come to a firm conclusion that, all things considered, one side bears more blame for the endless brutality than the other.
I compare it somewhat to the Balkans conflict. Serbs constantly insisted that the Croatians, Bosnians and Kosovars were all guilty of their own share of atrocities during the conflict. Which is indisputably true. But in the end one had to concede that the vast majority of atrocities were initiated and committed by the Serbs, and make an overall judgment accordingly.
So it is with Israel/Palestine. Yes, the Israeli's have behaved inexcusably in many instances. But with all the factors added and subtracted, the bottom line remains that Israel, over the last 60 years, has been defending their existence against constant aggression and that whatever misery the Palestinians are suffering, in the overall span of history, they brought it upon themselves.
Were it possible for a discussion to take place here regarding whether or not the Israelis have -- regardless of anyone else -- behaved badly, I'd certainly agree that they have. But that conversation seems illusive. It always seems to come down to the evil Israelis versus the poor, poor Palestinians, and given everything I've just written, that's simply not a measure of the scales that I can agree with.
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