israel's barrier

Mar 23, 2006 04:07

The Two Sides Of Israel's BarrierThe Israeli wall is like stitches on a wound -- a painful, foreign and disfiguring presence that is nevertheless necessary to make the wound heal ( Read more... )

replies, israel, nytimes

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aregjan July 28 2006, 16:44:12 UTC
Nice comparison. In med. practice any treatment not agreed upon with
the patient is illegal. So who is the patient here -- Israel, or Palestine?

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notestaff July 29 2006, 19:28:52 UTC
Maybe involuntary commitment to an insane asylum would be a better analogy here :) But I wasn't necessarily calling for forced treatment; just trying to give people a way to think about the current setup. You may not like a treatment but it can be good for you in the long-term. There may be a prohibition against forced treatment but there is no prohibition against nudging people to accept a treatment that's >good for them in the long term.

The letter was addressed more toward third-party observers: you may see a patient in pain from a treatment but you don't necessarily rush to "save" the patient from his doctor. Same here. The doctor here is -- reasonable people trying to find practical solutions that'll stick; the patient is -- people who don't look beyond their current emotions.

Clinton put it well: "To seek peace without compromise in this situation is not to seek peace at all."

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aregjan July 31 2006, 05:34:11 UTC
Maybe involuntary commitment to an insane asylum would be a better analogy here :) Ok, but it really reminds me of the psychiatric institutions from >60 years ago ( ... )

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notestaff July 31 2006, 06:07:19 UTC
>terrorism is really fed by poverty and ignorance

The vast majority of poor people do not see terror as a valid outlet for their frustration with poverty. What feeds terrorism is warped notions of dignity and honor: when people don't have the brains or the will to achieve self-realization the hard way (build something, invent something that'll make others respect you!) and instead grab for the cheap cop-out of the form "i'll beat up my neighbor and then everyone will respect me for my big fists". Get a gun, and in one day there you are -- a freedom fighter, a _person_! How much faster and easier than to spend years studying and thinking so that you can build something useful ( ... )

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