I know this might offend you, and I want to make clear
that I feel sorry for the people who die and that
suicide bombers are evil and wrong, it has to be said
that the 'fence' Israel is building is not good and what
is worse: palestinians, civilians, who live at the
'wrong' side of the fence, are forced to move out of
their houses. Now, I don't know but that remembers me of
a war in Bosnia several years ago...
Roy,
Our prayers are with you and your fellow Israelis. The
notion that the proper response to the building of a
defensive wall is to murder innocent men, women, and
children is simply inexcusable. I can only imagine what
it must be like to live under that threat every day, and
I hope that there will come a day when this is no longer
necessary.
As for Frans, perhaps he should consider that if it
weren't for the stream of Palestinians sneaking into
Israel to blow themselves up along with innocents, the
fence would be unnecessary. Perhaps those who are
displaced should do something about *that* instead of
complaining about how wronged they are. At the very
least, I'd like to see critics of the fence (including
my own government) offer some more constructive solution
than once again criticizing Israel for defending its
citizens (and in a non-violent fashion, no less).
AS IF:
A suicide bomber struct the port city of Baltimore this
morning, killing 931 people and leaving another 1,960
people injured. Among the dead; 147 children.
----
I am very sorry that the world and many in America do
not see this mornings events in Haifa in such a relative
light. The American psyche is callous to the thought of
19 people being killed simply because the death toll on
9/11 was so staggering. What Americans fail to equate in
their mind is the difference in population.
I have no doubt in my mind that if such events were
happening here in the states that the question would not
be whether or not to expel Arafat; but long we should
wait until we expel him from the planet.
I grow more and more weary of the administration in
America who aspouses a hard-line against terrorism but
ignores the most organized and deadly terror groups in
this world. I had great hopes that Mr. Bush would truly
take this fight to the doorsteps of people like Arafat
but it is quite obvious that there is a double standard.
I have wondered for a long time how you have this
seemingly "normal" life from what we
see in your blog when we read and hear about these
events weekly. Possibly you are not in the middle of it.
Of course, one never gets used to that - how is it
humanly possible? I cannot even imagine. We lived for a
short while with that fear of suddenly having daily
attacks after 9/11 on u.s. soil but it just never
happened. We are so incredibly fortunate not to have to
live like that.
I think of this frequently when I read your blog.
Julie. My life seems normal because most people here do
live a normal life. As normal as possible, I mean. I
usually don't write about these things because:
- It makes makes me too sad to write about it
- It's is not what I opened this weblog
- If I let it change my way of life, they have won.
We keep hearing on the news that in that explosion about
5 kids were killed. Entire Families were killed together
today! It's awuful. The feeling is so sad it cannot be
expressed with words. I simply couldn't not write about
it.
The reality of the situation in your country never
really touched me until I met a girl from Isreal last
year. She went home a month after we met and suddenly
every mention of a bombing struck a nerve with me. And
those mentions seem to come every day.
I have no way of forming an opinion of right and wrong
in the situation, I can only believe that every side has
to be wrong in things like this or they would otherwise
end sooner. I know better than to assume that there is
an easy answer for something this large and horrible,
but I pray that the answer comes soon.
The tragedy of these things is that those who suffer and
those who cause the suffering are so rarely the same
people.
Roy- All points understood and as I would have expected.
I appreciate your thought that "This is Israel
and were tough." Kind of reminds me of the
stories I heard about the British during WWII. And no, I
wasn't there. I am only 36.
Wally
Roy, hope you & family stay safe ...
IE: That page does not show an accurate portrait of
things. It is intentionally taking things out of
context, and is not meant to bring
"peace". Peace occurs when both sides
understand their actions. Example:
"1 Israeli home has been destroyed by
Palestinians and 2,202 Palestinian homes have been
completely destroyed (14,436 partially destroyed) since
September 29, 2000."
Gee, I wonder. Could it be that those were homes of
suicide bombers? Is there a graph that shows the number
of Israelis that got on a Palestinian school bus and
blew them selves up vs. the other side? and then on of
restaurants .. or discos..
"The Israeli unemployment rate is 10.4%, while
the Palestinian unemployment is estimated at
37-67%."
Is there a graph that shows unemployment there before
and after the intifada started?
the Palestinian unemployment was much better before the
last intifada started. Is it any wonder that Israelis
don't want to hire Arabs to work for them? Is there a
graph that shows the number of Arab employees that
murdered their employer? After more than 4-5 years of
close work and "friendship" with them?
"The U.S. gives $15,139,178 per day to the
Israeli government and military and $205,479 to
Palestinian NGO's."
Is there a graph that shows how much money the authority
got before the intifada, and while the kamp david peace
process was occuring?
I wonder why there is less now? Maybe it's because its a
proven fact that most of this money is handed to suicide
bombers families, and half goes into the governments
pockets? Don't you know that Arafat has over 10,000,000$
in a bank account somewhere?
Did you know that while Arafat preaches to the masses to
"go kill themselves and their children be
Martyrs" his own children go to a private
school (in France I think) and his wife lives in Paris,
wearing designer dresses while the Palestinian people
don't have money to buy food?
Is there a graph that shows the number of times Israel
opened the closures on the territories ,and a day after
that had several bombers?
for some reason, I think we won't see any graphs of that
sort anytime soon.
[See, Israelis don't go into arab villages,
raping,pillaging and burning everything in sight,
killing whatever happens to be infront of them. ]
I guess you've never heard of Irgun or the Stern gang
who's members did exactly that to dozens of Arab
villages.
Today Israeli forces fired rockets into a group of
unarmed protesters. Most were children. 48% of the
Palestinians killed since the intifada began have been
under 13 years old.
I guess Israel thinks that
"terrorists" start young.
[Gee, I wonder. Could it be that those were homes of
suicide bombers?]
The answer would be no. There have been 960 or so
Israelis killed since the intifada began. Suicide
bombers are by definition: dead. You would have to
assume that each Israeli killed was killed by his own
suicide bomber to justify even 900 homes being
destroyed. There have been over twice as many homes
destroyed compared to the number of Israelis killed.
Furthermore, being related to a murderer is not a
justification for the confiscation and destruction of
your home.
[the Palestinian unemployment was much better before the
last intifada started. ]
Perhaps, but Israel basically outlawed its citizens from
hiring Palestinians. And since they keep blowing up
Palestinian owned businesses, it's hard for them to
employ their own countrymen.