From Israel with Love

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

"From Israel, with love" Racism isn't something you're born with, it's taught. #FreePalestine #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/ZO7ZZChiHF

— Sara Khadra (@sskhadra) July 14, 2014

Comments

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

But I'm afraid the decades of heated animosity and mini-wars has corrupted some of the Israeli spirit. In the beginning, I think they would have readily lived on friendly terms with their Muslim neighbors. But on day one major war was brought down on them, and from then on it has not been a good story. At this point, I'm afraid there is an unhealthy amount of racism that has come to infest the Israeli soul. I don't think there is a lot of good will anywhere in the region to work with and sow true and lasting peace.

I cannot see a happy ending anywhere.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Israel is a progressive, socially liberal nation in many ways. But you see how the government is composed - a coalition that includes far-right loonies.

I don't envy their problems in the least. People in that part of the world are stubborn in ways we can't even fathom over here. Maybe it's because we only have a few hundred years of history, where that region dates back to the beginning of civilization.

[kittymink.livejournal.com]

I think this is all true.

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

*sigh* it's not racism, it's bigotry. Both Judaism and Islam are religions, NOT races. If anything, in the Middle East they are both Semitic peoples, so they have more in common than not. That's what makes this whole mess so tragic.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Heh, sorry, in America racism and bigotry go so well together that one can lost the distinction. However, although I am familiar with the proposition that we are talking about Semitic peoples, it has seemed to me that there is a racial element, that the leading Israelis are more white and European, whereas the Palestinians and Muslims are not. It seems to me to fit the white/non-white schism that troubles much of the world.

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

While you're on track about the Palestinians, you're off-base about the Muslims. They come from all over the world, just like the Jews. There are blonde-blue-eyed Muslims in Europe, just as there are blonde-blue-eyed Jews. Nowadays it's easy to be led into believing that all Muslims are jihaadist fundamentalists, just as it was easy to believe that all Jews were beady-eyed money-changers throughout Europe during the thirties.