I once visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The most striking thing about it, I thought, was the exhibit documenting the steady stream of anti-Semitic propaganda throughout the German media years before the first death camp was ever built. They prepared the German people psychologically for the Final Solution.
Similarly, Hamas is preparing its children for a Final Solution to the Jewish problem. The propaganda is as crude as it is evil. I've posted before here, mockingly, about the laughably bad Farfour and Assud, the Hamas plushies who advocate Jew-killing. But you know, to poison the minds of children like this is not funny at all.
Here's the latest from Hamas's children's propaganda office: a puppet show in which a Palestinian child stabs President Bush to death with a sword of Allah, and turns the White House into a mosque. "I place my trust in Allah," the tot says. "I need to kill you."
There is no negotiating with Hamas, no making peace with them. Only fighting. and killing. This is a fight they have chosen -- and one they've condemned their children to wage.
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Well, I hesitate to throw my 2 cents in here. Might as well pee into the cyclone again, can't help myself.
It seems to me that Hamas' extremism aside, very few Americans (let alone American Jews or Evangelical Christians) have actually tried to inhabit the existential space of the average Palestinian. Imagine living in Gaza or the West Bank, putting up with IDF indignities (like Israeli Tanks plowing down your streets at will, Israeli F-16s and Apaches assassinating Hamas operatives while taking dozens of bystanders with them, all while remembering the ancestral village, or hearing your parents and grandparents talk of the ancestral village, now an empty field or subdivision outside Tel Aviv or Jerusalem..)
I have no love for Hamas, and would take up arms against them in a second if they ever directly attacked the United States. But I understand why they are in power. The wonder is that there are any Palestinian moderates left.
It is just this lack of compassion and imagination that undermines our Middle East policy. If we can't sympathize with the average Arab (and this thread, like most American discussions of the situation reveals that we really rarely do) then the violence will continue, and become worse. Israeli policy, supported by US policy, is self defeating.
Five million Israelis and a desultory American public (who can't seem to pay attention or read enough history to discern the differance a Kurd, Turk, Persian and Arab, or between a Sunni and a Shiite - quick, is Hamas Shiite, is Hezb' Allah Sunni, or is the other way around? Right.. Sure.) will not defeat 190 million Arabs and a Billion an Quarter Muslims. Not if we continue our current tack, not if we continue demonizing them, and ignoring their rights, flying in the face of all empathy, justice and mercy.
But whatever. Carry on. Iraq was behind 9/11. The Pakistanis and Saudis really are our friends. That's right.. Here's your nighty night story & bedtime snack, America. Keep on keepin' it real.
>>>Posted by: Charles Curtis | April 2, 2008 1:32 AM
Take your anti-Semitic rants elsewhere. The Jews are God's Chosen people and He gave them that land to hold forever. They've shown admirable restraint in dealing with their enemies.
No, I don't really believe that, but way too many people do.
These children will grow up to be like the fanatics who are suicide-bombing innocents right now. Can someone grow out of such brainwashing? Do the current crop of fanatics grow out of such thinking when they get into their late-thirties, say (assuming they've survived that long, of course)? Do they ever trade in their AK's and rage for a letter to the editor? In other words, does age mellow them at all?
Charles Curtis said:
"The wonder is that there are any Palestinian moderates left."
Charles, I applaud your post. You raise many excellent points. However, I just need to point out that many Palestinian moderates have been silenced (some permanently) by Palestinian extremists, including Hamas, in much the same way that Yitzak Rabin was murdered by an Israeli extremist.
Irshad Manji has a good section in her book, "The Trouble with Islam Today" about her visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Although she is a Muslin (and yes, also, a gay woman) she has been called a Zionist agent for pointing out positive aspects of Israeli society.
To: Israelis & Palestinians
From: USA
Date: XX/XX/XXXX
Re: Your territorial dispute
Synopsis: Give war a chance. Both sides take the gloves off, and have at it. Last man standing takes all. No more subsidies, but weapons are available to each of you on a cash-and-carry basis. Ditto sympathy (at least from some parts of our populace). Have a nice war.
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