(no subject)
Okay.. warning: this is a frustrated post. First, before i start ranting... I still adore Au Sable. And I do not want to leave (the MI campus that is, even though I will still be at an Au Sable campus). I love these people!! I love this environment (not just physical). I love nature... I love creation. Look at a cherry (the darker ones)... really look at it. It's a dark maroon color - but its speckled with lighter maroon. It's gorgeous. Look at the flesh of a watermelon, an fruit really. It will never cease to amaze me. And I could go on and on about the beauty and majesty on this earth.
My fist session here is going to end next saturday.. :( We've got finals on friday and saturday... but it should go alright. Lindsay came and visited today.. :D I love that girl!!! We went canoeing on Big Twin lake.. good fun. It was really nice to see and talk with a friend from school.
Alright... time to greatly switch topics. This whole Israel/Palestine thing makes me so livid. Upon recent events it just makes things worse. Last week, I almost made an entry about how i felt about it, but for some reason I didn't. Tonight, I shall. I understand that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and we should not support terrorism. No one should support violence. (side note: forgive me if this is random, but thats how my brain works). Hamas' last terrorist attack was in August 2004. Islamic Jihad's was in April of this year i believe. Now... as it seems Hamas is laying off the terrorist attacks as of recently. Israel for the past few (plus ten... or 50) years, has continued to fight the terrorists and bomb the "militant-harboring" homes. Okay sure, maybe their efforts have played a role in the decreased amounts of terrorist attack... or maybe, JUST MAYBE - they are helping to breed more terrorism and hatred.
Hamas, or some Palestinians, have taken an Israel soldier hostage in Gaza. I think it was last year (mid-2005) that Gaza became "independent" from Israel. Meaning that the Israeli soldiers were supposed to pull of of the region and Israel was supposed to stop building settlements. Back to recent events, Israeli soldier taken hostage... Israel in response is taking out (literally) every "militant" target they can.
"Israel has targeted Palestinian government buildings, bridges, a school, a university and a power plant... On Sunday night, three Palestinian gunmen were shot dead by Israeli troops stationed near Dahaniya airport in south-east Gaza... Earlier, a Hamas militant was killed in an Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza." - taken from the BBC
Now... I do understand that it may have been 'gunmen' and 'hamas terrorists' (a.k.a to the Israeli government: any Palestinian who may (may) be somehow "linked" to terrorists). But really... think about the fact that people are being killed. We in the US have this lovely thing called the death penalty. And what's great (or sick) about it is that the family or friends of the person(s) killed can watch the person be killed. Why? Some sort of satisfaction that justice is being carried out. Apparently we here in the US have this notion of revenge - wheter you call it revenge or not, its some type of appeasement. So now lets just transfer this idea to another country... you and others have had family and friends killed. And you need to remember that every single Palestinian probably knows at least one person who has been killed by the Israeli army. Soo... this might generate some upset people.
Now for another quote from the BBC: "'I have given instructions to intensify the strength of action by the army and security services, to hunt down these terrorists, those who send them... and those who harbour them,' Mr Olmert was quoted by Reuters news agency as telling his cabinet." Different article from the BBC: "Israel Radio reported that a senior official in Shin Bet, the internal Israel security service, warned the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the day of the Corporal Shalit's capture: 'If the soldier is not returned in 24 hours, Israel will not allow the Palestinian government to survive.'"
And another paraphrased quote by Elias Chacour: "You can't fight violence with violence. Violence only begets more violence." VIOLENCE ONLY BEGETS MORE VIOLENCE. You cannot end a war through massive attacks on people. These are people. If we are all for the death penalty, then why do we get so upset when others agree with us? I am completely against all people being for that.. but at least realize the hypocrisy.
War will not solve terrorism. Killing people will not solve terrorism. It breeds it. How about we fight that kind of support for terrorism for a change?
My fist session here is going to end next saturday.. :( We've got finals on friday and saturday... but it should go alright. Lindsay came and visited today.. :D I love that girl!!! We went canoeing on Big Twin lake.. good fun. It was really nice to see and talk with a friend from school.
Alright... time to greatly switch topics. This whole Israel/Palestine thing makes me so livid. Upon recent events it just makes things worse. Last week, I almost made an entry about how i felt about it, but for some reason I didn't. Tonight, I shall. I understand that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and we should not support terrorism. No one should support violence. (side note: forgive me if this is random, but thats how my brain works). Hamas' last terrorist attack was in August 2004. Islamic Jihad's was in April of this year i believe. Now... as it seems Hamas is laying off the terrorist attacks as of recently. Israel for the past few (plus ten... or 50) years, has continued to fight the terrorists and bomb the "militant-harboring" homes. Okay sure, maybe their efforts have played a role in the decreased amounts of terrorist attack... or maybe, JUST MAYBE - they are helping to breed more terrorism and hatred.
Hamas, or some Palestinians, have taken an Israel soldier hostage in Gaza. I think it was last year (mid-2005) that Gaza became "independent" from Israel. Meaning that the Israeli soldiers were supposed to pull of of the region and Israel was supposed to stop building settlements. Back to recent events, Israeli soldier taken hostage... Israel in response is taking out (literally) every "militant" target they can.
"Israel has targeted Palestinian government buildings, bridges, a school, a university and a power plant... On Sunday night, three Palestinian gunmen were shot dead by Israeli troops stationed near Dahaniya airport in south-east Gaza... Earlier, a Hamas militant was killed in an Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza." - taken from the BBC
Now... I do understand that it may have been 'gunmen' and 'hamas terrorists' (a.k.a to the Israeli government: any Palestinian who may (may) be somehow "linked" to terrorists). But really... think about the fact that people are being killed. We in the US have this lovely thing called the death penalty. And what's great (or sick) about it is that the family or friends of the person(s) killed can watch the person be killed. Why? Some sort of satisfaction that justice is being carried out. Apparently we here in the US have this notion of revenge - wheter you call it revenge or not, its some type of appeasement. So now lets just transfer this idea to another country... you and others have had family and friends killed. And you need to remember that every single Palestinian probably knows at least one person who has been killed by the Israeli army. Soo... this might generate some upset people.
Now for another quote from the BBC: "'I have given instructions to intensify the strength of action by the army and security services, to hunt down these terrorists, those who send them... and those who harbour them,' Mr Olmert was quoted by Reuters news agency as telling his cabinet." Different article from the BBC: "Israel Radio reported that a senior official in Shin Bet, the internal Israel security service, warned the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the day of the Corporal Shalit's capture: 'If the soldier is not returned in 24 hours, Israel will not allow the Palestinian government to survive.'"
And another paraphrased quote by Elias Chacour: "You can't fight violence with violence. Violence only begets more violence." VIOLENCE ONLY BEGETS MORE VIOLENCE. You cannot end a war through massive attacks on people. These are people. If we are all for the death penalty, then why do we get so upset when others agree with us? I am completely against all people being for that.. but at least realize the hypocrisy.
War will not solve terrorism. Killing people will not solve terrorism. It breeds it. How about we fight that kind of support for terrorism for a change?