Ramblings about the past and future days

[wicked_danu]

Yesterday I had my Biology Units 1, 2 and 3 A-level exams. Mercifully, they were morning papers, unlike the W2 paper I had back in May which was an afternoon paper and had dragged on till 17:30

Comments

[adidi]

i generally respect your understanding of politics, but in this case i think you're completely and totally off. what you call "israeli thuggery," i call "self defense."

[wicked_danu]

It's not just Israeli thuggery, it's Arab thuggery too. Israel has a right to defend herself when neighbors attack, but what do you call it when Israel allows fundamentalist Jews to populate land which is not their's, make roads for those Jews exclusively and trample the Palestinians down to nothing? I'm not blaming only Israel for the outcome of the Six Day War or for the current plight of the Palestinians, but I think if Israel would've acted a little more carefully in the late '60s and early '70s, there would have been no Hamas, no intifadha, no Qassams or Katyushot.
There are peaceful people on both sides, no doubt and only the thugs up in the government - to whom I was alluding - are perpetuating this drawn-out conflict.

[adidi]

fundamentalist Jews to populate land which is not their's but see, it is theirs. according to international rules of warfare there's a clear distinction between land "occupied" during a war of aggression and land taken as a result of a defensive war. Former State Department Legal Advisor Stephen Schwebel, who later headed the International Court of Justice in the Hague, wrote in 1970 regarding Israel's case: "Where the prior holder of territory had seized that territory unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of self-defense has, against that prior holder, better title

[adidi]

ps, good luck on chem tomorrow!

[wicked_danu]

Yes, Adi I read the HonestReporting newsletter too. I was well aware of what you just told me. And I told you, I'm not opposing Israel's right to defend herself.

What the "thugs" in the Knesset could have done was not to have converted Gaza and the West Bank into such hellholes. Tell me, if the Israeli government would have invested half its current defense budget in building UP the territories instead of destroying Palestinians homes and farms, do you think there would have been an intifadha? What if Israel would have spent money on educating Palestinian children, quietly slipping a chapter against anti-Semitism in their moral science textbooks, would have been so many suicide bombings, and so many victims of said bombings? It certainly wasn't the duty of Israel as the occupying power to do whatever I suggested above, but it could have. What's done is done, though. But there's still time for repairs.

There was an article in Haaretz today about the peace deal set up by a Mossad agent who spent his sweat and blood in doing this task

[adidi]

What the "thugs" in the Knesset could have done was not to have converted Gaza and the West Bank into such hellholes.

i wasn't aware that building 12 universities and investing in running water made the territories such hellholes. i think maybe it's the corruption and embezzling of humanitarian aid money by Fatah (and especially Arafat) that puts the Palestinians in such a plight. the palestinians have their own UN refugee aid system- out of all the refugees in the world- and they're the only ones still mired in shit. is this israel's fault? or is it their corrupt leaders and the (at best ineffectual, at worst deliberately hindering) UN?
also, pre-intifada, israeli borders were wide open to workers.

and the ONLY reason any farms were destroyed were because of the terrorists who hide in orchards and fields. (and it's horrible, i agree, but if uprooting an olive grove can save lives, it's what needs to be done.)

as for this:
instead of destroying Palestinians homes and farms, do you think there would have been an intifadha it's

[wicked_danu]

No, of course I don't take it as a personal attack or anything and I appreciate you discussing it with me. I like to get the picture on both sides and pro-Israel folks just take me to be pro-Pal and vice versa. It's just really a question of where you stand

[adidi]

agreed on everything. this conflict is so fucking stupid.