<The point, of course, is that this is a complex political conflict, not something motivated,
as Emile seems to feel, in a fundamentally malevolent religion.>
Steve, this is a complex political conflict, but certainly the Arabs were already inhabiting Palestine, and were driven out by the Jews in a savage manner recently, in a historical context. You have pointed out many times before the fact that people are often brutal to other groups, and that the Jews have no monopoly on brutality. This is undoubtedly true. However, the conflict with the Jews and the Palestinians is the only one I can think of which is happening right now without a lot of foreign influence except that of the United States, and would have a totally different outcome without America propping Israel up politically and militarily. I know that we play a role in other international ugliness, but in the other cases which occur to me, there are many more players, and the issues are not quite so clear. Therefore, since there is some small hope that informed citizens can exert influence on public policy by speaking out, I am simply doing what I see as my civic duty.
For the record, I do not think that Jews are fundamentally malevolent. I do think that fervid Zionists are, however. I also think that any group which is discriminated against and butchered, and then turns around fifteen years later and acts in the same horrendous way against an innocent group, has lost an opportunity to make the world a better, more peaceful, place. Certainly at that point I do not feel their acts are any more defensible than the ones committed against them. |
