Damn you Ariel Sharon

[threeplusfire]

It truly does frighten me that Sharon is Isreal's new Prime Minister. The sickening sinking sense of terror that must be in the hearts of so many people.

It was Sharon's visit to the Noble Sanctuary, a site sacred to Muslims, that provoked the newest violence. It was quite deliberate. Today's newest act of violence, deep in an ultra-orthodox neighborhood.

It amazes and horrifies me how many Israelites and Jews harbor a deep hatred for the Arabs. What is this? The Jewish people have been persecuted for generations, you think they would understand. Why is okay to hate the Arabs but not the Israelites? For God's sake, Israel was carved out of Arab territory. One would think someone might use some logic in this situation. Professor L. talks about the time he spent in Israel, and how it shocked him to hear his academic colleagues speak of the Palestinians as "filthy dogs" and "monsters." Educated people, speaking like this! Educated people acting on racial and religious prejudice. There is something absolutely horrible happening here.

I know, not everyone is like this. There are people in Israel and Palestine who genuinely want peace, and want to heal the divisions. But Ariel Sharon is not one of them. He is a war criminal and a man determined to fan the hatred. In case you care, I am rather pro-Palestinian. I don't condone all acts of terrorism, but I understand why it happens. I know there is hatred on both sides. It's a terrible thing. For awhile, I had great hope that the peace process was actually working. I wish I had Reagan's great sense of idealism, the idea that if I just sat down with these people one on one and talked to them, I could make them see.

God help us.

Comments

[asilvahalo.livejournal.com]

I have this terribly time understanding why these folks just can't get along. But I think anyone who's not a Jew from Israel or a Palestinian would have a very difficult time fully understanding the emotions behind the whole thing. I think both sides are very wrong, but that's just me. (I think the Israelites had no business just marching in and taking another peoples' land, but the Arabs had no business performing acts of terrorism. Blah.)

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. Not belonging to either of those groups I only have an outsider perspective. And it was not the most brilliant thing the U.N. has done.

missing the terrorism gene?

[ansat.livejournal.com]

Personally, I don't object to terrorism as a rule. But I might point out that your comment is a bit of a double standard, since the State of Israel was founded on terrorism, and persists through terrorism. Remember Ben Gurion? It wasn't even Palestinians he mostly killed in that whole King David Hotel incident. And the unilateral nuclear threat? Hard to see how the threat of total nuclear annhilation while denying parity through overpowering force is anything other than state terrorism.

Re: missing the terrorism gene?

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Thanks for our mini-history lesson. Since we skipped that whole period in my last world history class. Do you know much about the massacre in 1982 in Lebanon that Sharon was involved in?

Re: missing the terrorism gene?

[ansat.livejournal.com]

The Shantilla and Sabra refugee camp massacres. I don't know a whole lot about them, other than the claim Gen. Sharon at the least permitted them, and at the most commanded them. I think there was an Israeli commision that found him indirectly responsible, but I don't know how the commision was convened. I would look on Mid-East Realities (http://www.middleeast.org/"). Their indexing is somewhat erratic, but I see, for instance, Sharon the "Killer" (http://www.middleeast.org/1998_11_04.htm) discusses it, but they try to keep up with more recent massacres. The CNN profile (http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/25/sharon.profile/) says he "failed to prevent" the deaths of 2000. Or, you can read more than you could ever want to about the massacre here (http://www.jerusalemites.org/sabra.html).