This will probably be my last posting, for a while, on the conflict in the Middle East. Here are quite a few different people's thoughts with many links.
Kerri Peterson-Davis at Dressed for Dancing left a comment on my blog posting A speech on the floor of the Senate by Senator Jon Kyl about Israel and Gaza . She gave me the link address to a blog which has postings from two friends, one from Gaza and one from Israel in one of the towns that has experienced the rocket attacks from Hamas. It is an extremely interesting blog; one that is now, of course, experiencing a lot of traffic. The blog is Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot
One thing that struck me about this blog, which has more then one opinion on the subject, is that it is somewhat of a contrast to the Israel/Palestine Mission Network (Presbyterian USA). On their site they have an article that is totally pro-Palestinian. You can find it here Israel/Palestine Mission Network Statement on Gaza. The statement begins:
"The Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) condemns in the harshest terms possible the Israeli massacre of Palestinians now underway in Gaza. This long-planned and all too indiscriminate slaughter of hundreds of civilians, the wounding of thousands, and the destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, mosques and economic infrastructure cannot be justified in the name of Israeli national security."
As is usually true with this particular organization there is never any empathy at all for Israel. And in fact several years ago they put up a link and recommendation to a movie that pushes the old lie that all of the Media belong to the Jewish people. The movie, "Peace Propaganda and the Promised Land" listed under first Resources and then Children and Teachers is still there. You can read about it here under Returning to Lies.
On the other hand, Michael Kruse on his blog, Kruse Kronicle has linked to one of the more informative, sensitive and even articles I have read on the situation. The article, "The Arabs and Israel: A Hundred Years War," at the Economist, has history, present situation and analysis.
Under the subtitle "Why they Fight" is this:
"And Gaza, remember, is only one item in a mighty catalogue of misery, whose entries are inscribed in tears. The Jews and Arabs of Palestine have been fighting off and on for 100 years. In 1909 the mostly Russian socialist idealists of the Zionist movement set up an armed group, Hashomer, to protect their new farms and villages in Palestine from Arab marauders. Since then has come the dismal march of wars—1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006 and now 2009—each seared by blood and fire into the conflicting myths and memories of the two sides. The intervals between the wars have not been filled by peace but by bombs, raids, uprisings and atrocities. Israeli settlers in Hebron today still cite, as if it were yesterday, the massacre of Hebron’s Jews in 1929. The Arabs of Palestine still remember their desperate revolt in the 1930s against the British mandate and Jewish immigration from Europe, and the massacres of 1948.
The slaughter this week in Gaza, in which on one day alone some 40 civilians, many children, were killed in a single salvo of Israeli shells, will pour fresh poison into the brimming well of hate (see article). But a conflict that has lasted 100 years is not susceptible to easy solutions or glib judgments. Those who choose to reduce it to the “terrorism” of one side or the “colonialism” of the other are just stroking their own prejudices."
I would encourage all to read the article.
And just to point out where blogs can sometimes lead and how opinions can be formed outside of any context there is this. One commenter at the Gaza and Sderot blog, Israeli Blogger, who has his own good blog, Thoughts from Israel, welcomed a Muslim commenter on his blog who is from Chicago and a teenager. Here is The Muslim Kid's latest posting, I'll stand with you. In this posting he writes,
Hamas to kill Jewish children 'anywhere': "Hamas has threatened to kill Jewish children anywhere as Israel continues its counteroffensive in the Gaza strip.'They have legitimized the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine,' Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said in a televised broadcast recorded at a secret location.'They have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people,' he said in the report, according to the London Times."SOURCE: http://themunz.blogspot.com/2009/01/hamas-to-kill-jewish-children-anywhere.html.
So sometimes at the end of legitimate goodwill on one blog is a ready desire to kill by a teenager on another blog. The Muslim kid calls the Israeli Blogger an honest Jewish blogger, he tells the world he is ready to kill Jewish children. This is where I should once again place Malcolm & Alwyn with their old album “The World Needs Jesus.” I don't know anything else to say!
No comments:
Post a Comment