Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Israeli Settlements

A treacherous and delicate subject, but one that can not be denied. Pardon if I do not use politically correct terminology in this post... I do try. There seems to be an information block in America about this subject. The treatment of the Jews during World War II has left many of them scarred and terribly hurt and possibly unable to feel compassion for others. It is common for the abused to grow up to be abusers, and this cycle always needs to be broken. The world also has the propensity for looking the other way when Jews do wrong, as we are all so horrified by what they experienced while we looked the other way in denial. Therefore, is it not the world that should take a great share of the responsibility for not keeping the Israeli Government in check? Certainly world opinion has a lot to do with how all governments behave. Just look at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Prison, how the world community stands up against these atrocities.

No matter what the Palestinians have done in the past as they responded to partition, the End of Their World as they knew it, it does not justify the treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied settlements today. One can expect terrorism and extremists mentality to develop in war torn, poverty inflicted areas of the world. The only way to fight terrorism effectively is to offer genuine support and loving concern to the people that might fall prey to same, which is not happening nearly enough in the Israeli settlements. Building walls and creating barriers never works, not on American borders nor in the West bank and Gaza. Time will prove that. There is a good sized human rights movement in Israel composed of Palestinians, Jews, Christians, and peoples of all races and religions working to stop this horrid situation, but it in no way is as big as it could be if the whole world would step in to work with them. Few Americans know anything about the homes and fields being confiscated and destroyed daily, the harassment and brutality being inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and other territories by the settlers with the support of the Israeli armed forces. Just as governments all over the world, in America as well, sometimes perpetrate atrocities upon certain strata of society, it is most emphatically happening in Israel today, a developed and well educated nation, on an astonishingly alarming scale. The world has the responsibility to speak out and work against the Israeli Government in their support for the settlements, to insure that these atrocities will end. This would be the greatest way to inspire trust and respect in the Arab and Muslim Worlds for the Western World, and maybe, just maybe stop, or at least curtail terrorism and extremism. Could it not also inspire Iran and all nations to feel less need to develop nuclear technology to insure their own security?

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