Reply #7: OK - about The Barrier - and "The Great Game"

[Colorado Blue]

OK - I'll talk about the barrier.

I think it's a tragedy that the barrier is being built. It is a far greater tragedy that a group of people continue to think that violence in the form of suicide bombers is the way to try to effect reform.

And I reiterate what I said in my previous comment. Deliberate incitement is not the goal. The lives lost on the Israeli side are real. The goal is protection of her people. I shouldn't have to say this but apparently it needs to be said: Israelis grieve for their dead just as much as Palestinians grieve. The pre-1967 borders are indefensible so some land is probably going to be permanently annexed. I wish this wasn't so! But absent a clear indication that peace is about to break out it seems inevitable.

Tragically, when one side is violent and kills people the other side gets violent and kills people. Ugly and awful as the wall is, it seems to have reduced the bombings - for now. And note: the issue is being discussed, in a civilized manner, in court. Progress is being made. But is takes TIME and good will and decades of violence are not going to vanish overnight.

I will repeat: rather than simply condemning a nation for attempting to protect its people, perhaps you have a constructive idea for dealing with the hardcore terrorist elements within the Arab population? Do you believe that reason will work? Money? Love? Appeasement of ANY kind? Do you believe that if Israel were to simply lie down and die the Islamic Jihad would vanish?

I will repeat AGAIN: constructive ideas are most welcome.

Please realize that you are dealing with something far larger than the Israeli/Palestinian situation. It has been centuries, since the ascent of the Ottoman Empire, since the Arab world has truly been in control of its destiny. After WWI, with the collapse of the Ottomans, the British created modern nation-states based upon Western models, which had little to do with tribal affiliations, ethnic background or religion (there are, in addition to the Suni, Shiite, and Sufi Muslims, Zoastrians, Druse, Christians, and Jews living throughout the region for thousands of years and some Kurds practice their own ancient religion).

The oil companies and the Western industrial empires have had a lot to do with the modern Middle Eastern map and a great deal to do with its woes. A study of the history of modern Israel and the manipulation of Muslim state against Muslim state, the manipulation of Arab against Jew and sect against sect, will reveal classic power politics: the control of a vast region and a huge number of people by a relatively small but powerful group with superior leverage and technology.

If you look at it this way you will see that EVERYBODY in the region is a pawn. The British call it "The Great Game."

Blaming Israel for the woes of the Middle East is to miss the point - bigtime.

When I was younger I used to think, wow - if Israel and the surrounding Arab states could link up and combine their resources they could have an amazingly rich and diverse, strategically located and wealthy region. A "United States of the Middle East", would arise. Well, unfortunately that possibility has not eluded the attention of the Western powers OR of Russia/Soviet Union. The region is touchy at the best of times but with a little push here, a little shove there, the situation can (and has been) destabilized to the point of open war - the most devastating of which of course was the Iran/Iraq conflict in which over 1,000,000 people died. The several wars in which Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and others attacked Israel, along with the propoganda that drove Palestinians out of Israel in the first place, are others. Further examples of note include The Catastrophe of 1920-22, in which Greece was prompted by Britain to invade Turkey. The Turks resented this and chased ALL Greek speaking individuals out of the country, destroying the Greek army and the Greek cities in Asia Minor in the process. Later, rebellion was fomented on Cypress, exploiting the ethnic and religious differences between Greek and Turk; and a democratically elected (and left-leaning) government in Greece was overthrown by an American-sponsored junta. These are but a few examples. One of the ugliest, most painful of course was the war on Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, in which the pastoral nomads and their flocks were damn near destroyed, millions driven out of their homes and their country, their animals slaughtered in countless numbers. They're living now in refugee camps and the land has been given over to the poppy.

The people of the industrial world have been the beneficiaries. Oil flows. THAT is the root cause - not some wall. The wall is an EFFECT.

As for constructive ideas: if you own a car, sell it and take the bus. I gave mine up in 1978. I have settled for what most Americans would consider a smaller life. But I figure it's the direct approach and the principled one.

If you have money, help companies that are developing new sources of energy. Lobby Congress; try to make a CONSTRUCTIVE, real difference.

More ideas, anybody? Besides just accusing Israel of inciting a war it does not want? Or maybe you think Israel WANTS more dead Israelis?