(no subject)
Dec. 30th, 2008 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stinglikeabeeThere are times when I'm surprised at how disgusted I am with people, wondering how the hell the world got to be so shitty. This almost always accompanies the news of yet another spasm of violence rocking the Palestinian territories.
And though the spark in this episode may have been different -- Hamas continuing to send rockets into Israel in a ceasefire -- it's all due to the same components. At its simplest, it's a fight for land. At its worst, it's a struggle for geopolitical survival deeply enmeshed in further generations without any hope of ending.
It's absolutely mind-blowing that the supporters and detractors on both sides can be so blindly loyal to their cause of moral superiority that justifications are made, no matter how high the death toll or how awful the suffering. On the radio, a speaker for one of the Southland protests completely brushed away the legitimate security concerns of the Israelis by claiming the US media has been fed lies by the Israel propaganda machine. Elsewhere on ONTD_political, pro-Israeli commenters have no sympathy for the Palestinian victims caught in the middle because Hamas was elected as their representatives. It's as if Gandhi never said 'an eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind'.
It makes me sick. All of it. There is no rational dialogue, no lasting commitment to ending the violence, and worse, the cowardice of the international community to step in and do something. When Darfur and Burma happened, how many countries actually bothered to step in? When Zimbabwe is literally rotting from the inside, how can it be that no state has the guts to protect those that the Mugabe government has failed to? The condemnations and warnings of statesmen and governments ring hollow when no action has been made and people continue to die.
Instead there is talk. It is easy to give labels to the sides: 'oppressors', 'terrorists'. And just as easy to condemn criticism as racism or anti-semitism. But the truth is no one is interested in making any realistic progress to change. If they were, we wouldn't have had the situation where the only viable option to the corrupt Palestinian Authority was Hamas. We wouldn't have Israel making good on its threats today, taking along with terrorists the children and the families who have known no other way to live than in fear and hate.
And though the spark in this episode may have been different -- Hamas continuing to send rockets into Israel in a ceasefire -- it's all due to the same components. At its simplest, it's a fight for land. At its worst, it's a struggle for geopolitical survival deeply enmeshed in further generations without any hope of ending.
It's absolutely mind-blowing that the supporters and detractors on both sides can be so blindly loyal to their cause of moral superiority that justifications are made, no matter how high the death toll or how awful the suffering. On the radio, a speaker for one of the Southland protests completely brushed away the legitimate security concerns of the Israelis by claiming the US media has been fed lies by the Israel propaganda machine. Elsewhere on ONTD_political, pro-Israeli commenters have no sympathy for the Palestinian victims caught in the middle because Hamas was elected as their representatives. It's as if Gandhi never said 'an eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind'.
It makes me sick. All of it. There is no rational dialogue, no lasting commitment to ending the violence, and worse, the cowardice of the international community to step in and do something. When Darfur and Burma happened, how many countries actually bothered to step in? When Zimbabwe is literally rotting from the inside, how can it be that no state has the guts to protect those that the Mugabe government has failed to? The condemnations and warnings of statesmen and governments ring hollow when no action has been made and people continue to die.
Instead there is talk. It is easy to give labels to the sides: 'oppressors', 'terrorists'. And just as easy to condemn criticism as racism or anti-semitism. But the truth is no one is interested in making any realistic progress to change. If they were, we wouldn't have had the situation where the only viable option to the corrupt Palestinian Authority was Hamas. We wouldn't have Israel making good on its threats today, taking along with terrorists the children and the families who have known no other way to live than in fear and hate.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-31 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-31 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-31 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-31 05:28 pm (UTC)After all, what's in for us? Nothing - in the short term at least. There was nothing to be gained from helping out in Darfur, Burma, and Zimbabwe. So why bother? Just register your disgust, maybe slap on a few sanctions, and forget about it. Because at the end of the day, the public will too. Not on our doorstep, not our problem.
It makes me sick but having watched the Israel/Palestine situation for many years, and hearing for commentators who treat it like it's a football match with each side just a another team to support, I have to say, I've become rather jaded with the whole mess. I shouldn't, but I'm just not expecting a miracle soon.
Anyway thanks for posting this, hope you have a good new year.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-31 06:54 pm (UTC)Thank for your comment, as I do agree that in many ways we're all becoming jaded with the reality. When not even the heinous crime of genocide can hold the public's attention for long, there is not much hope their governments to do the right thing. And no, I'm not expecting a miracle either.
I hope you have a good new year, too. Enjoy the parties!