The "price tag" for the government "pressure" on "illegal outposts" is more attacks on the Palestinians and their way of life. Who do I get to be angry at for this? Zionism? Barack Obama? The lobby? Pls advise. Ynet:
Akram Amram of Burin told Ynet that at around 5:30 am he had discovered 97 uprooted olive trees on his land.
"I am not embarrassed to admit that when I discovered the massacre which took place on my land, I cried," he said. "These trees are more than 60 years old and I raised them just like I raised my kids."
Related posts:
- The sovereign in action: Israeli backhoes uproot Palestinian olive trees, yesterday
- Israeli occupation, not Islam, forcing Palestinian Christians out of the West Bank
- Evidence of malicious destruction is everywhere in Gaza– from olive trees to roads to a bullet fired sideways through a closet, piercing every article of clothing
- Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is routine, and unreported
- Jewish Soldiers Protecting Arab Olive Harvest Provide Glimpse of One-State Future
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If Yitzhar were an Arab village, the entire population would have been dragged off for torture in the middle of the night and the houses bulldozed to the ground.
Instead, Israel is a state supporter of terrorism for supporting such hotbeds of hate.
Palestinians need to reject pastoral extremists like Amram. His lease has been up since 1967, but he won’t leave. He could have gone to a nice refugee camp somewhere and even brought one or two of his trees with him, but he was too selfish to get with the program.
And this is who God chose for his elite troops? The settlers could’ve at least harvested the olives. Those trees live for hundreds (often thousands) of years. Just another example of Settler disrespect.
The video game company (Rockstar Ent?) should produce a new game: Grand Theft Auto 5, Palestine. Here, the protagonist can be an unruly settler, trying to destroy all of Palestine. You can carry out all the violence you wish in the game, make your settler gang, hurting anyone in your path and creating misery all around. The object is to occupy as much territory as possible, while completing the imperfect map of Israel. That would be a seamless transition from there previous four games.
Phil Weiss- I assume your question- Who can I be angry at, who am I allowed to hate at a moment like this? is an honest one. The honest answer is that there is no easy answer. Over the last thirty years (since Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem) I have bounced all over the place in policy and emotions, much depending on the latest headlines and blood spilt. Although I am on the Zionist side of the conflict divide, I don’t think it’s any easier on the Palestinian side of the divide. “Good will” will be necessary in any case unless you believe that a major war in which a major Israeli defeat stands between the present tense and the better future. So no matter what anger one experiences, eventually one’s wiser tendencies have to wait for time to overcome the initial reaction and to realize that empathy for the “enemy” will have to play a major role in the conflict resolution. There is a saying of Jewish wisdom in Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot), “Do not (attempt to) calm a man down in the moment of his anger” and this applies to oneself as well. Thus this piece of advice is not to be consumed at the moment of anger, but after a sufficient delay.
How much money have you contributed to Israel, WJ? How much of that has been used to transport, house, feed and arm settlers and soldiers on the West Bank? So, in short, what is your personal responsibility in this?
You know WJ… next time a Palestinian destroys a ton of Jewish property, I’ll ask you to wait for a “sufficient delay” before you express your opinion on the matter.
I assume Phil Weiss was asking a serious question.
And you apparently aren’t willing to give a serious answer.
I assume the “I don’t hate Israel” of the headline is the reaction to yesterday’s Ali Abnunimah’s assertion of the need to take Israeli Jews into consideration when proposing a one state (or a two state) solution. I assume that there are plenty people that can be obvious targets for anger when one is confronted by the crime of uprooting olive trees. (Zionism, Zionists, the actual culprit, the settler movement, the Israel lobby or Barak Obama) I assume that there is a real question regarding how one is to balance the “I don’t hate Israel” that is necessary to create a real solution and the anger at this crime.
Culprits, WJ. One person didn’t kill almost a hundred sexagenarian in a single night. Funny, those IDF patrols that are so vital to maintaining Israeli security (funny enough, mostly for those illegal settlers) always seem to miss out when Palestinians and Palestinian property is in danger. Funny, that.
“the “I don’t hate Israel” that is necessary to create a real solution”
Holy shit, the awe-inspiring entitlement of Zionism. In-fricking-credible! Let me tell you something, in case you are wondering jew, people are allowed to hate Israel, and many, with very good reason, do. The thing we as decent people can’t hate is the Jewish religion, or the Jewish people. But Israel, you numbskull, is a state (isn’t that what you wanted, Zionist) and people are more than welcome to hate states, and people that hate states often have a big hand in “creating” solutions to the things those states do.
The incredible, all-consuming, murder-excusing, entitlement of Zionists, like babies for a tit!
No, wondering jew, in case you are wondering, a State, any State, is not entitled to the same respect that individuals, religions and cultures are entitled to.
Especially when they, as many do (No. 4) kill people.
I know it may shock you, and you’ll wonder why it isn’t prosecutable anti-Semitism, but nobody has to love Israel as a prerequisite for doing something about it.
The Zionist credo, I swear “Maybe I killed my parents, Judge, but have pity on me, I’m an orphan”
Mooser- If you feel that hatred is the best path to resolving the I P conflict, you are entitled to your opinion. Personally I disagree and think that hatred primarily is a tool towards bloodshed rather than conflict resolution.
Boy am I ever glad most Jews aren’t passive-aggressive wanks who put words in other people’s mouths all the time like, you do. Do us all a favor and stop promoting that ugly anti-Semitic stereotype, huh WJ?
this would explain why palestinians resort to bloodshed rather then conflict resolutuion then… how else do you explain the uprooting of the trees, as anything other then hatred expressed towards the palestinians?
Unlike chaos and mooser, Phil Weiss’s emphasis is not on hatred and he seems to emphasize a desire to see a resolution of the conflict.
WJ – the subject of the post is onlookers, people not directly involved in the conflict but concerned with it. People in the US, for example. And it seems to me that the problem is the “I love Israel” group, who look on and make excuses or refuse to look as Palestinians suffer at the hands of definitely unlovable Israelis, who cling to their “I love Israel” and refuse to admit the possibility that Israel may not be so much worth loving and supporting.
I tend to think that the solution to this situation is not precisely hate but outrage. To get in the face of the Israel-lovers with uncontrovertible evidence of the racism, the violence, the oppression at the heart of the Israeli state. To shift them away from loving Israel to questioning it, to opposing support for it.
What we are waging is an information war. The information is so strongly managed by the Zionists as to keep outrage from breaking out. I wonder how many Israel-lovers are aware of the terrorist Jack Teitel, or Yitzhak Shapiro’s fawta against gentiles. I’m sure that there are a certain percentage who know and applaud Israeli racism, but there are equally a significant number in whom outrage can take root, if they only had access to the truth.
potsherd- I agree that complacency and ignorance is not the path to change and change is necessary. Outrage at murder and murderous rhetoric and the uprooting of olive trees is appropriate.
But I do not reject all support for Israel as evil. Today it is difficult to combine the urge to support Israel and the urge towards peace. I don’t believe that this is all Netanyahu’s fault, but he certainly is not my choice to lead Israel at this time. I think ultimately there is a need to discern a way forward in order to avoid violence. Though outrage is key to the discovery of the need for change it is not key to the creation of a path forward.
I accept that you view the need for change and instilling that need in others as key. My primary focus is on the need for a path forward.
wj quote “My primary focus is on the need for a path forward.” perhaps equating actions such as these on the part of israel could be defined for what they are, rather then pussy footing around… lets call the folks who did this terrorists.. that is what they are… they just happen to be israelis which must make it a bit awkward for you and others who are unwilling or unable to put the shoe on the other foot…
WJ – to me, the important thing is the motivation. Now, it is lacking. Outrage is motivation. No one can take a path in any direction as long as inertia is preventing it.
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