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[web fishing]

[redafiya]

Well, I would say it's wise for people of a Jewish faith to be very wary when moving to the Middle East. Check this library of Middle East TV footage and make up your own mind.



http://www.memri.org/video/index.html

[guangho]

That was a fascinating matzah recipe.

[redafiya]

I fully understand the Middle East's dislike of Israelis ( I am not saying I AGREE with them PLEASE NOTE -- simply saying given the political context -- its HISTORICALLY understandable ), but I feel the wider disinformation about Jews as a whole, entire culture/ethnicity/religion as shown on these video clips from the Arab World -- is very disturbing in its sheer disinformative ignorance.

I'd think very carefully about a move to the ME if I were Jewish.

Sometimes I think some EFL teachers are ( choose the one you want! ) politically naive, want to exist in some kind of impenetrable bubble in their chosen environments, poorly educated in a broader sense, greedy rather than sensible. -- I knew a Jewish teacher with a very Jewish name who was intending to head for Saudi for the long haul.... i was concerned for him, and questioned him closer on his motivations etc... it turns out he knew very little at all about the wider arab world's suspicion of Jews post Israel conflict.... i was amazed...he wasn't a young lad either, but a 35 year old British Council teacher....


On a final note, I think a lot can be overcome by people just living/working together : I dont wish to sound like a naive fool here please note, but i remember working in a business college in Oxford UK. One term, I had a strict wahahabi Pakistani student, a couple of strict wahabi saudis/yemeni's, and also -- a secular jew from eastern europe, and a more religiously conscious shepardic Jew from the borders of Iran -- the class atmosphere was HORRIBLE at first -- but when they got to know each other as PEOPLE first, then secondly as followers of a group/ethnicity, their conflicts fell away...some of them are very close friends now, and can discuss in some depth the scars casued by Israel, the scars cased by the holocaust, the painful suspicions etc, but they discuss them as close friends, not at each others throats.....they also now laugh and joke about the religious disinformation spread by both sides they once believed...



( Sorry to sound naive and like an idealstic tree hugger ...but as a teacher, the above was pleasant to see ! By the way, the strict Wahabi Pakistani guy didnt stay the course, but with a sour, rancorous face at having to sit with people of diverse faith and views, and at least consider taking them seriously -- quit the class....)

But , reality check -- I somehow imagine the above scenario just isn't even vaguely feasible in the ME....These things happen in leafy, scholastic , dreamy Oxford...not in the heat and dust and speed of Cairo or somewhere in Saudi !


Please note, this IS NOT intended as a dull politically agitatory, stir up,flaming post -- simply a common sense response about care when travelling overseas to live/work.And it is NOT intended to contrubute to any "Well, if Israel hadnt done this or that", or "If the Arabs hadnt done bla bla...."............surely there are other boards for POLITICAL debate....