Saturday, January 3, 2009

Who Knows?

Unless you've been in a cave or on the moon, you know that the state of Israel and the Palestinian people are at each other again.

Like most Americans, I've bought in to the spin we hear through our Media on who's right and who is wrong. Or who started it, or who the terrorists are and so forth.

Recently I've asked myself: why are the Palestinians shooting rockets in to Israel.

My wife thinks that both peoples are doomed to eternal strife. She may be right.

I came across this video on an open thread at Crooks and Liars. It is long, so bring some popcorn and a drink, then sit back and just listen. You will come away with a better understanding of what's going on. In addition you'll begin to understand why the fanatical Muslims hate us. We give billions to Israel each year for their military. This video shows what that military spends its time doing. It ain't pretty.

View this if you want to make a start at understanding what is driving the craziness we see coming from this region each day.

There's always two sides to every struggle. We need to see both sides if we're ever going to help bring peace or even just stop the killing.

This seems to me a conflict with no good guys and lots of blame to go around. What do you think?

RT

7 comments:

Dianne said...

I have been wanting to post something about this for days but I can't get it out right.

I am horrified by this latest development and by the reaction of most Americans - most of whom pay little mind or cheer on Isreal

A friend told me yesterday that Isreal has the right to do what they're doing because Hamas is backed by Iran and they are supporting terror

my response was - and Isreal is backed by us and we are as well

the people in Gaza have been mistreated and to be blunt - fucked with for years - Isreal outrages me that they think an all out war, an endless seige, and now ground assaults are in any way a correct response to a few hand made missles.

Richard said...

Dianne: The older I get the more I know that I don't know much about anything. This situation is a good example. It's so easy to believe what we see on TV and overlook the facts and underlying causes.

I hope we will open our eyes as Americans and force our leaders to take more proactive approaches to solving a problem we are so intimately with.

On a completely different note. Happy New Year Girl. Are you out of your cast and up and walking?

Rich

Akelamalu said...

War, no matter who's fighting who, has never made any sense to me. :(

Raven said...

I think they are all crazy but I have long felt that the Palestinians get overreactions against them for everything they do and the Israeli's - no matter how outrageous their behavior - get little or no scolding and are allowed to justify themselves. On the one hand, I don't blame them for not wanting people to launch rockets at them, but I think I would be pretty pissed off too if I were the Palestinians. Which doesn't justify their behavior either. It's such a bloody (literally) mess and both sides sit around saying they'll negotiate as long as they get exactly what they want and demonizing the other guy. I'll have to go watch the video and then I'll probably be even more pissed off and share it with some of my very pro-Israel friends who will explain to me that it's just PR propoganda. Aggggghhhh!

Happy New Year, by the way.

Richard said...

akelamalu: Agreed.

Raven: Today I read that Israel started a ground offensive last night. It's going to get much worse before it gets any better.

Rich

Dr.John said...

I think the hate is deep and may bring the world to war.

Richard said...

There is no doubt the hate is very deep indeed. Yet I still believe we can stop a major conflict if we're quick and agile once Obama takes office. It ain't gonna be easy. That's for sure.

Rich