I thought that "kids with guns" AND adults using them as "shields" was the topic
It started off something like this.
Message 18539169
Then I remember Nadine contributing to the conversation as well.
The real issue is why Palestinian security officials are not forbidding children from engaging IDF soldiers.
My understanding is that the situation has reached the sulfurous level where children and women as well as adult men are involved in the conflict, feeling they should fight as well.
The children are supposed to be the future of their people, not the martyrs.
That's the issue, isn't it? What future???
It is not unheard of that in prolonged conflicts women and children participate in the fighting to the extent that they can - carrying ammunition to the battle field on their backs, even throwing themselves on the enemy line so their men behind them can have a better chance of success.
I am not trying to glorify what is happening here. I feel a profound sadness about the sickness of the whole situation, the glorification of the martyrs, toddlers wishing to grow up and become suicide bombers, people losing lives on both sides. However, I believe it is essential to try to understand how a group of people get to this point in order to reverse it.
And I'm pretty sure that were you or I in such a situation, the last thing we'd do is permit our children to be out there in harm's way..
Definitely. But we have not lived under a generation of occupation, with no hope for the future, have we? And I am not so sure it is the parents pushing the children out "in harm's way".
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza might be harsh, with a people living in political, social, and economic limbo, but it was a fair sight better than they were being treated by the Egyptians and Jordanians...
Oh OK, then :-)
How would you like all Jews made to live in sort of similar conditions in "refugee camps" following WWII because "it is a fair sight better than they were treated by the Nazis"? Not sure they would appreciate that :-)
The Israelis at least attempted to integrate Palestinians workers into their economy (even if as cheap labor)..
I don't think you read Steven Rogers' posts on how most Jewish landowners would not permit Palestinians to work because that would subtract from the holiness of their land or something.
>>>We first need to come over the prevailing feeling I sense around here that Palestinians are irrational and pyromaniac lunatics whose actions cannot be understood anyway.<<<
And to understand this, we need to understand to whose advantage it is for the Palestinian people to think like this??
I am sorry my sentence was not clear enough. What I meant was that we need to get over OUR OWN feeling that "Palestinians are irrational and pyromaniac lunatics whose actions cannot be understood anyway". I believe that is the first step to understanding how the status quo came into being, so that we can talk about how to reverse the process. |
