Wherein Cam rants at Hamas, Hezbollah, Israel and war in general

[misscam]

I am going to Copenhagen on Friday with brother for sibling bonding. I'll be back on Sunday so you won't have time to miss me. Unless you really, really want to.

Meanwhile, 'war' stirs in the Middle-east, death toll mounts in Gaza and Israel goes into Lebanon

Army Chief of Staff Lt-Gen Dan Halutz said the Israeli military would "turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years" if the soldiers were not returned

It's always the civilians who get fucked, isn't it? I wish I could plonk the heads of Hamas, Hezbollah and the government of Israel together until some kind of sanity returned. War is a kind of insanity you get swept up in - playing king-of-the-hill, only the hill is a pile of corpses. And Israel can't stop until Hamas stops, as that would be seen as chickening out, and Hamas can't stop until Irsael does for much the same reason and people keep dying.

Who the fuck made that a thing of pride? There should be no greater shame than allowing your people to die so you can "save face". I realise the whole region is a complicated mess partly due to European interferance and drawing of arbritrary borders and partly because of other historical reasons and matters of resources and water, and just thinking of a solution that seems fair in some kind of way gives me a headache, but what is slowly and surely happening is genocide. You can argue whether or not it is by will and if so who is to blame, but the Palestinians are currently a people without any future or hope at all. They are dying.

And if the power balance was flipped, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there still was a people dying, just the Israelis this time. War is a kind of insaity. It doesn't end just because you get the upper hand.

There are Israelis who suffer and die as well now and I worry about what state of mind a country as isolated internationally fall into. It cannot be healthy, and of course anti-semitism does get mixed into it. A lot of very legitimate critisism gets brushed off with that as an excuse, and a lot gets abused for just plain nasty goals. If I was Israeli, would I truly know what was fair critisism of my country, and what was motivated by ill will?

I don't know. But I do know all of it is not ill will, that you cannot keep ignoring international law time and time again and think they apply to everyone but you. And you cannot deliberately target civilians in acts of terrorism and expect international respect, Hamas.

The thing about war is - there is no good guy. One side might have better intensions than others, but in the end, all sides do Bad Things. Take WWII - Hitler's Nazi regime was just plain old nasty and in the end, I don't think there was much choice but trying to defeat him military. But still - the Allies did their fair share of shitty things. Children died in air raids targetting civilian cities, German women were raped in their millions, whole villages were pillaged and burned. People starved. People died. It's always the civilians who get fucked over.

See, I started angry, and now I'm just sad. I wish - I wish the US would not give Israel a free pass. I wish certain regimes in the region (hello Iran and Syria) wouldn't fucking encourage terrorism for their own goals. I wish anti-semitism wouldn't get mixed up in legitimate critisism of a state's action. (Fuck, I wish anti-semitisism and all its hating brothers would just stop possessing people's minds.) I wish terrorism wasn't seen as the only way. I wish civilians didn't have to pay the price of war.

I wish more had the courage for peace.

The state of the world so drives me to want a Pangalatic Gargleblaster at times. Or possibly a genie for a lot of impossible wishes.

In other news:
Zidane apologises
'Killer kangaroo' evidence found
Mumbai recovers from blast
US army to end Halliburton deal
Seagull raised by Norwegian family
Lighthouses in Norway open to public (pictures)

Comments

[binglexjells.livejournal.com]

I know I should be all for Israel because supposedly it is 'my land', blah blah, but I don't give a... fig, to be honest. It's gone way too far; where is the pride in killing people?

Who cares if it's seen as chickening out, just do the right thing and stop killing people. Jeez. (and people ask me why I've never visited to pay my respects!

[misscam.livejournal.com]

People who have no idea how nasty war is do seem to care. Figures. And it seems the longer it goes on, the harder it is to back off, too. Pride and all. Little human insanities, big human consequences.

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

war is in many ways like a corporation. it's always the people with the least physical involvement who are the most vocal about what ought to be done, and who consider it beneath them (when they consider it at all) to concern themselves with the little cogs they wish to carry out their arbitrary orders that looked awfully good on paper.

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

*sings*

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen
Salty old queen of the sea...

And I forget the rest of the words, but I always liked that song.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Which one is that? Don't think I've heard.

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

It's an old one, cos I used to sing it in primary school choir.

I googled the lyrics, so here's the rest

[pennhothwen.livejournal.com]

*random icon-love comment*

[misscam.livejournal.com]

My new argh icon? Yeah, I quite like it. Found it in a batch of silvernatasha's. Given how much I use the word, I realised I had to have an icon with it too.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

It's kind of scary to see them lose control so much. I thought they would work it out sooner or later, but now everything is falling to pieces

*sighs*

The worst part is that the usual violence didn't really make the headlines anymore. Looking around in my family, it's always the little people getting it, isn't it?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yeah - still, it did fall to pieces quite a lot in Northern Ireland too, and the at least there now, the military struggle is over. Perhaps that is hope.

The little people don't have the loud voices, so yeah, they're usually the ones who end up hurt.

[miss-andromache.livejournal.com]

Demon duck of doom?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Quack?

[slm4gsr.livejournal.com]

Heh. You and my parents are going to be in Copenhagen at the same time.

*sigh* Israel. I'm convinced that peace in that region of the world is not something I will see in my lifetime. Like binglexjells, Israel is supposed to be my "homeland". However, I can't help feeling extremely disconnected. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that I practice Reform Judaism, which means that I'm not even considered to be Jewish by Israeli religious leaders. As I said before, that entire region is just a mess. An absolute mess. Each side loses. How sad.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yeah, Israel does seem to be run by some of the more extremes at times. Just like in Palestine, I guess. What a nice little mirror /sarcasm

There was a time I had hope for peace there, but now it just seems to get out of hand on both sides. My greatest fear is that peace will come with the death of one of them, and that is way too high a price.

[slm4gsr.livejournal.com]

That is exactly where the problem lies...both sides are run by extremes, and the hatred they have for each other has been festering for generations. The true spirit of peace can't be found in the political leaders, but it does run strong among Palistinian and Israeli youth.

I read an article the other day that you might find interesting. Here's a snippit:

"It would be logical, perhaps, to conclude that after so many years of hatred and war, so many senseless killings on both sides, there is no solution possible and Israelis and Palestinians should both resign themselves to continue on in this mode of violence. Indeed, there
are many in positions of power that would have us believe that war is the answer.

But a new feature-length documentary tells another story; one of courage, hope and real possibilities; one of people from opposite sides of the conflict who, against all odds, come together to foster understanding among themselves and combine their efforts for a non-violent solution. Encounter Point (www.encounterpoint.com), created by Just Vision (www.justvision.org), a team of women filmmakers ---- Israeli, Palestinian, North and South American ---- dares to defy the status quo finger pointing that so often seeks only to justify continued violence.

The documentary goes deep beneath the surface of the corporate media's
standard positioning, to tell the truth of grassroots peacebuilders who, each day, put their lives on the line to work together to create a foundation for lasting peace among Israelis and Palestinians.

Encounter Point premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April to excellent reviews, and was an Official Selection of the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it was voted Best Documentary Feature. Since a visit by Director Ronit Avni in December, Leo Baeck Temple has been a supporter of Just Vision and will be a part of bringing the film to Los Angeles."

[huinesoron.livejournal.com]

Syria, Lebanon... all we need is for Jordan to get in on the act and Operation 'Why Is Israel Suddenly Ten Times Larger Than It Used To Be?' can go right ahead...

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Jordan seems to be one of the more saner countries around there from what I've gathered. But of course, that can quickly change.

Operation 'Why Is Israel Suddenly Ten Times Larger Than It Used To Be?' can go right ahead...

I shouldn't snort at that, but I did.

[siraj.livejournal.com]

"I wish the US would not give Israel a free pass."

Being American, I do agree with you. The only reason my stupid arse government is backing up Israel is because we're "allies" and we have "good trading policies" with them, etc., etc., more bullshit excuses than you can shake a lutefisk at, you get the idea.


It's strange. When I was younger, I had pride and respect and admiration for my country... 10 years later, I hate it. We use the right of free speech to allow racial slurs, and a good bit of slander (like the mudslinging every damned election year). We use eminent domain laws to kick people off of their land for supposed development, don't do so, and end up selling it to the highest bidder, instead of giving the land back... ... I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow, because now I want to get so drunk I'm numb.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Certain forces within the Religious Right in the US has rather strangely adopted Israel's cause as their own - I don't think they would if Israel hadn't been situated where it it, really. And of course, part of it is also guilt from WW2, which is understandable enough.

But it has come to the point where it does more harm than good, me thinks.

I'm sorry to hear you feel that way about your country, though. Everyone should have a home they can feel proud of. But every country has its troubled phases, and sometimes, things have to get really bad so they can be corrected and get good again.

So fingers crossed for the future, eh?

[siraj.livejournal.com]

"So fingers crossed for the future, eh?"

I suppose so. I'm so ashamed of my country at this point that I want to leave the country. Norway, or Australia, or Singapore... somewhere a fair bit more sane, and I can deal with the weather shift.

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

And you cannot deliberately target civilians in acts of terrorism and expect international respect, Hamas.

And yet somehow, they do? I don't understand it. Go back a few years, and you have all these people yelling about how poor misunderstood Hamas couldn't POSSIBLY be involved with the bus bombings, even though they claimed credit, and even if they were it was Israel's fault for not giving up the entire land to them anyway.

Not kidding-I was scheduled to go to Israel that year on Passport to Israel through my temple, and it got canceled.

I don't agree with everything Israel does. I hate the fighting. I hate the NECESSITY of fighting. But I do feel it's a necessity-a sad one, but until there's an outbreak of sanity, it's just going to go on.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Necessary? I don't know. What I do know is that the way Israel fights it feels me with equal amounts of disgust and despair. And Israel *is* hogging Palestinian land, land they have no right to under international laws. They are choking Palestine to death in many ways - might kill Hamas, but will take so many innocent with them. I give Hamas no respect at all, but good grief, they've become the only alternative to the corrupt Fatah down there. Any moderate forces have been crushed right along with houses by Israeli tanks. The way Israel "defends" itself increases Hamas's hand - that is the same. (I do wonder what people would've said if the British government had ever replied to IRA bombings by sending rockets into Northern Ireland, had tanks demolish Catholic houses, cut off the power and talked loudly about setting the clock back twenty years in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. Somehow, I don't think that would've gone down well...)

Come to think of it, I wish I could plonk Fatah's head too.

I do feel for what it must be like to be surrounded by so many hostile countries, some of which even tried failed invasions. But that does not give the right to Israel to whatever the fuck it wants in retaliation. It doesn't do Israel any favours in the hate-less category either.

And Hamas should STFU with some of the martyr act. If they really want to represent their people, they should recognise Israel, as a majority of Palestinians want.

[slm4gsr.livejournal.com]

And Israel *is* hogging Palestinian land, land they have no right to under international laws.

Something that often gets overlooked is the fact that Palestine was inhabited by both Jewish and Arab Palestinians. As I understood it, Palestine was originally comprised of what is now Israel and Jordan, and was controlled by the Ottoman Empire from the 1500's until Britain took control in 1917. In 1923 Britain divided Palestine into two states and Jewish Palestinians were only permitted to settle west of the Jordan River. The area east of the Jordan river (75% of the land originally known as Palestine)was renamed Trans-Jordan (later becoming Jordan). The rest (remaining 25%)continued to be called "Palestine" until 1948, when Israel declared its statehood.

[saturnianali8r.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder how much longer the world can last. Environment, killing senselessly, people hating other people. If you ever get a Pangalatic Gargleblaster, share. *Sigh* I love The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

It's survived so far. You ask me, the world is a bit of fighter. I have no doubt it will survive us, but we might not survive it.

Douglas Adams was a man that never failed to cheer me up. I was so sad when the world lost him - we needa bit of funny in our lives too.

[losseniaiel.livejournal.com]

My brother's solution is to build a BIG wall around the entire region. Mine is just to find the vodka and a big pile of books and hide in a small, dark place.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Israel seems keen on taking his solution, it seems.

Vodka's always good, though. Yay, drunkeness and forgetting woes.

[losseniaiel.livejournal.com]

Israel seems keen on taking his solution, it seems.

Alas. If only they'd put themselves inside the wall, and let me ignore them, it'd be good. ;)

[falena]

Have fun in Copenhagen and try not to think too much about the state of the world. It'll just make you sad.

[orla-fey.livejournal.com]

There should be no greater shame than allowing your people to die so you can "save face".

Exactly! Exactly to your whole post.

Governments will do whatever the hell they want with half-assed explanations to people and at the expense of the people. Add to that centuries of hate and resentment, meddling countries who just cause more harm, and a whole lot of self interest and we have...a devastating mess.

It is so infuriating and leaves me feeling hopeless. (And when I think I can’t get any more embarrassed by my country…)

Damn. *grabs a drink and immerses in fandom, where at least the batshit doesn’t kill*

Anyways, sorry for such a long reply, and I hope you're having a great time with your brother.

[aurelei.livejournal.com]

It's quite uncanny how well you express my opinions on suchlike events.