Truth is very complicated.
I have, in the past, reblogged things on Tumblr like "Israel versus Palestine is genocide" and "If Israel laid down their weapons, there would be peace." I naively believed this. But after talking with a very knowledgeable friend of mine, I have found that the truth is far more complex. It started when I shared those two points of view with my friend, who is in her 50s, and she told me anyone who thinks either of those things is a damn fool. She then gave me reasons why.*
When Israel was declared a country, nobody was evicted. It wasn't like the Native Americans being forced from their homes and slaughtered. It was just "this area here is now Israel" and a lot of Jewish immigrants. Perhaps it was a stupid idea, done for stupid reasons, but whatever.
Sure, there were a lot of Palestinians who left, but my friend (who is in her 50s) informed me that most of those were people leaving because they were certain that armies of their fellow Arabs were going to swoop in and drive out the Jews. So they left because of racism. And they were very surprised when that didn't happen. And among those who stayed were a lot of people who were trying to make the new situation work. Yes, there were (and may still be) Palestinians as well as Israelis trying to make it so both groups can coexist peacefully.
Yes, the Israelis have a whole army at their disposal, but the Palestinians fighting Israel are aligned with terrorists. These terrorists have lots of money and their weapons are deadly. If there's a genocide going on in Israel, it's not just Israelis dumping on Palestinians, it's both sides trying to wipe out the other, while innocent people on both sides, who just want peace, are getting caught in the middle.
So I'm going to stop reblogging either Israeli OR Palestinian propaganda from now on.
* = I even told her about the pictures that suggested that Hamas missiles are all puny and basically duds, and she said it smelled like bullshit. Hamas, like Al Quaida, are well-financed terrorist groups.
This was cross-posted from http://alex-antonin.dreamwidth.org/204076.html
You can comment either here or there.
When Israel was declared a country, nobody was evicted. It wasn't like the Native Americans being forced from their homes and slaughtered. It was just "this area here is now Israel" and a lot of Jewish immigrants. Perhaps it was a stupid idea, done for stupid reasons, but whatever.
Sure, there were a lot of Palestinians who left, but my friend (who is in her 50s) informed me that most of those were people leaving because they were certain that armies of their fellow Arabs were going to swoop in and drive out the Jews. So they left because of racism. And they were very surprised when that didn't happen. And among those who stayed were a lot of people who were trying to make the new situation work. Yes, there were (and may still be) Palestinians as well as Israelis trying to make it so both groups can coexist peacefully.
Yes, the Israelis have a whole army at their disposal, but the Palestinians fighting Israel are aligned with terrorists. These terrorists have lots of money and their weapons are deadly. If there's a genocide going on in Israel, it's not just Israelis dumping on Palestinians, it's both sides trying to wipe out the other, while innocent people on both sides, who just want peace, are getting caught in the middle.
So I'm going to stop reblogging either Israeli OR Palestinian propaganda from now on.
* = I even told her about the pictures that suggested that Hamas missiles are all puny and basically duds, and she said it smelled like bullshit. Hamas, like Al Quaida, are well-financed terrorist groups.
This was cross-posted from http://alex-antonin.dreamwidth.org/204076.html
You can comment either here or there.