Reply #29: But Shakti

[ProgressiveMuslim]

"For decades, Israelis have been hearing one basic message from the Arab world, that they will press any advantage, use any ruse, violate any agreement, basically do whatever is necessary to rid the middle east of Israel..."

Do those people not see that it is *Israel* who does this things, including massacreeing a village with women and kids to drive home its point?

Shakti, what I hear your writing is that Israel wants to BELONG. Can those people not see that if it wants to BELONG it must behave like a neighbor??

I'm not saying that attitudes would change overnight, but surely, you can see that the longer this goes on, the worse the atrocities, the less likely it is that Israel will ever "belong" among its arab neighbors?

I do not dismiss the long history of persecution against Jews. Not one iota. But Israel isn't the a defenseless weakling, awaiting the next pogrom. It can't behave that way when it's the worlds __th largest nuclear power. That's just insane.

I'm sure there is a psychological term for the kind of "projection" about which you write--when someone attributes their own characteristics to the other. Your descriptions DRIPS with dysfunction. Is that not evident to you?

In any case, the sum zero thinking that you describe is very sad indeed, because Israel will never break the Palestinians. I've shared the quote from Al=Jazeera: Israel has taken their food, water, livlihood, eduction, movement -- everything but their breath. They won't bow.

It will be interesting to see how far Israel goes, and how long before it stops thinking of itself as a moral nation.