Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

Why not go the whole way and call it "The Zionist Entity" ?

Just deny that it exists for long enough and it will go away.

[el_gringo_que_viaja]

Scott, Just deny that it exists, and it'll go away.... it kinda seems like the same thing many Israeli settlers said to me who refused to refer to the West Bank as Palestine, insisting that it was Judea and Samaria and Palestine didn't exist.

John, I would have made the same comments about not feeling sympathetic towards the suicide bombers before I stayed there. Then, it suddenly made sense. If you lived with no rights, under military control, and see your friends, family, or neighbors shot at for fun by Israeli military, especially at a young age, you might feel enough hatred to strap a bomb on yourself and go after those who are oppressing you. (One of the interviews I did was with the mother of a 14 yr old boy who was killed by a rubber bullet to the eye from a distance of 10 meters. Her daughters expressed a hatred for the soldiers like I could never relate to after having the good life that I have had.) Mix that with the Muslim belief that it is better to fight back than suffer when you are being oppressed and we have an explosive situation over there.

The truth is that I came back from spending a month in the West Bank, and I was more confused than before I went. Some of the most zealous fighters against the occupation were American Jews and Israeli refuseniks, and I read articles in the Jewish media that would be considered incidiary if they were published in the states, but none of that changes the fact that there is some serious suffering going on there.

Oh, John, and about the Zionist occupied wording... I totally agree. It doesnt help. Meeting with a group called the International Solidarity Movement, I learned the wording they try to include in all of their press reports (i.e. don't say "Security Fence", say "Apartheid Wall," instead of violence, say "state supported terrorism," etc. etc.) Anyhow, I went with them to a protest in Mas'ha where Israelis, Palestinians, and Internationals protested the wall. The IDF opened fire immediately and shot one american and one israeli. It got its 15 seconds on BBC and CNN. Afterwards, the Solidarity Movement released their version of it. When I looked at the different versions, I was amazed at how biased the protestors version sounded, even though it was the one that most accurately represented what happened. I was curious if others would have the same reaction, so I had my freshman comp class do a mini discourse analysis on it and the majority of the kids told me that the wording of the press release made them loose any sympathy. Lesson being... we don't need to say Zionist, Apartheid Wall, state sponsored terrorism, etc., because the facts of what is going on are bad enough to speak for themselves without creative wording that only gets peoples emotions fired up.

[Bindair Dundat]

[johnslat]

Dear el_gringo_que_viaja,
Sorry - but I'm never going to think that suicide bombing, by anyone for any reason, is sensible.

[Bindair Dundat]

[Mark100]

The whole Israel Palestine issue is a thorny one.

I have a lot of sympathy for the Palestinian cause and feel the Israelis who suffered so greatly during WW11 should know better.
They have refined the art of state terrorism and as a consequence many of their tactics and operations are not that dissimilar to those employed by the Germans during WW11.
I can't say that i fully understand the tactics of the Palestinians and i don't think that their leaders have served them very well over the years. They let a very good deal slip away that Clinton brokered just before he left office. To me that was criminal. The best interests of the average Palestinian would have been well served by taking that deal.Instead we have a leadership that encourages hatred and indeed institutionalises it and a leadership that is happy to see its citizens matyred.