Re: Jesus fucking Christ - IDF massacres Turks on board humanitarian ship
Guys, guys... Stop fighting. I wish that I could bake a cake made out of rainbows and smiles, and we'd all eat it and be happy again...
Yes because the issue is so black and white
Seriously though,
THIS.
As someone whose grandfather was an imam and whose partner is Israeli, believe me when I say that this is the most sensible post in this entire thread.
On a slight tangent, I think this piece on the evolution of Israel's political centre may be useful for the discussion at hand:
It's a long article, but the gist of it is this: Political scientist Peter Beinart calls for young, liberal Jews from the West to engage more strongly with Zionism. Their disillusionment with Israeli nationalism, he says, is the very thing that allows Zionism to be increasingly defined by fundamentalist settlers and racist conservatives. He goes on to say that older liberal Zionists, too, must recognise that their reflexive defense of all things Israeli is "a moral abdication" of the cultural shift towards extremism.
Anyway, I do recommend going through it - it makes for a fascinating read. While some people would argue that any kind of Israeli nationalism is undesirable, given that there's that whole issue with Arab land and all, I think we can all agree that realistically, neither the Jews nor the Arabs are going anywhere. Pushing for an Israeli political and cultural shift back to the progressive left may be the best strategy for a just resolution that recognises both parties right to co-exist in the region.
Of course, this also requires political leadership from Arabs and Muslims - and not of the rabid, self-serving socialist alternative variety that calls for Israel's destruction or condones a militant arm of its political body. Every time good Muslim people remain silent when violence is carried out in Islam's name, we become every bit as culpable as fanatical Jewish settlers or politicians who rally for Arabs to be cleansed from the region.
