This is an account of happened at the King David Hotel, Mike:
wikipedia.org
Killing is killing, whether it's kids or adults. I do not like any violence.
There is an entire generation of children on both sides being taught to hate. Hate and revenge is what keeps this a never ending conflict.
As for that bulldozer that knocked over the American, that was smashing a house that was annexed to make room for the new wall. In the occupied territories, you can have a family home and land that your family has occupied for 1,000 years. If that land is annexed and you have no deed to the property, you have no legal right to oppose losing your home.
You could have 100 witnesses that testify that your family has been there for hundreds of years, but unless you can produce a piece of paper proving that's your place, you lose it. In many middle eastern cultures, deeds were not common.
Since the Turkish occupation, very few people had deeds to their homes and property. Subsequently, it is nearly impossible for anyone to keep their home from being smashed to make room for the wall, a settlement, or anything else the government wants to build. You could probably count on one hand missing fingers the number of people who have been successful in defending their homes without deeds.
A person who's lived all their life on a piece of land, grown olive trees and some orange trees and farmed some land can see it all bulldozed over because they don't have a legal deed that they couldn't get if they didn't posses it already.
That's just one of the things that's fueling hate in the lives of everyday folks there.
Furthermore, many folks folks fail to see the irony of the collective punishment that's being handed out. There are guilty parties, but the punishment is borne by all.
As for Saddam and OBL, they're no good. I didn't say we shouldn't go after OBL. However, I take offense when folks use this convenient excuse to explain away everything that's happened to the economy. It's not surprising that folks latch on to that, as it's a lot easier than trying to explain a once in 72-year bubble deflating.
Stock market down on war worries. Retail sales down on war worries, OBL worries. Right.
Retail sales are down because the consumer is completely tapped out. I deal with retail. War or no war, when J6P has two brand new cars in the garage that they bought to support the economy in 2001, 2002 for zero percent financing, a home equity loan, a boat payment, and maxed out credit cards AND is getting their overtime cut at work, it doesn't take a scientist to know that they're going to be cutting back on their discretionary spending to make their obligatory installment payments.
Carl Rove (Bush's brain) and Sharon are two of the most brilliant politicians of our generation. Sharon has had an agenda, and has been dutifully executing it ever since he was housing minister.
His march on the Temple Mount was a skilled political maneuver that catapulted him into the Prime Minister's office. He knows that when people are afraid, they run into the arms of Likud. He's left Labor scratching their heads, as they are always 2-steps behind him much like the Democrats are with Bush and Karl Rove.
I see the violence in the context of politics. On a larger scale, history has shown us that when a country is about to lose an occupied territory or colony, they do not exit quickly. There is a process of continuous engagement that plays out until the inevitable happens. Look at the English and French colonies and how they were exited. It doesn't happen overnight, but it eventually happens.
A fair solution would be for return of the occupied territories, make Jerusalem an international city like the Vatican and operate much like it has for some time, no army for the Palestinians, UN peacekeepers to oversee transition and maintain order and security, and about $20-billion from the Arabs and US to re-build the territories.
The money would need to be administered by an independent UN agency of some type, and no cronyism in a new Palestinian government. Anyone that squanders money ought to be imprisoned for life. That's the people's money.
Give the people a chance to build a life. These people lived together for thousands of years. They can do it again. The Palestinians are a source of cheap labor. The Israelis possess some of the most brilliant minds in the world. They should be working together. However, peace works against the political agendas of the sides in the dispute. |
