"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Mexican Rocket Attacks

"We also frequently hear the claim – what would America do if it came under rocket fire from Canada or Mexico? Again, there can be no justification for rockets targeting Israel's south, and of course America would respond if it were under fire from Canada or Mexico. But let's at least complete the analogy and here is that bigger picture. Gaza constitutes under 6 percent of the '67 territory in which a Palestinian state is supposed to be created (Gaza, West Bank, Palestinian East Jerusalem), about 94 percent remains under occupation so under our scenario 94 percent of Canada or Mexico would have remained under a 40 plus year American occupation with settlements and roadblocks, and with the "liberated" 6 percent still under siege. Now I like the Mexicans and Canadians as much as the next person but is it totally inconceivable that under such circumstances some of them would have formed hardline armed groups that would even become very popular and use that 6 percent of territory to launch attacks against America? I will leave it to your imagination." -Daniel Levy, Prospects for Peace

I don't think I've mentioned the recently begun war in Gaza or even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general yet but for the record: besides the innocent human casualties and the fact that it's outcome will definitely affect where we stand in the Middle East on a broader scale, I'm really having a hard time mustering up any kind of outrage or even interest on either side of the argument at this point. I think both sides have done some horrible things over the decades and I feel sympathy for both sides over the tragedies they've both endured but I fail to see how one side can be considered so much more "right" or "moral" than the other. The only reason I posted the quote above is because I've been hearing this "Mexican rockets" argument all over the damn place and it just felt too simplistic to me.

Here's a short history of their conflict: God promised both the Israelis and the Palestinians the same piece of dry, shitty land and they've been fighting over it ever since. That's it. Or in other words, they've been fighting over what a couple of regular human beings with no discernible superpowers or special abilities said God promised them. And what do you know, what he promised each of them was exactly what they each wanted. Thanks, God! Hey, wait a minute...

And so now they've been doing this dance for decades: the Palestinians sting Israel with little jabs on a constant basis and then every once in a while Israel winds up and crushes them with a devastating haymaker. Then they both touch gloves and come out swinging all over again, and again, and again. As I said, I have sympathy for the innocent dead but the vast majority of them also believed this magical bullshit and that's what's kept them from ever being able to end their cycle of violence to this very day. And I'm getting pretty tired of hearing about it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just one more conflict I'd rather not be in the middle of.

Van Zan said...

Yeah it seems to have been going on forever with no end in sight, sucking the world in like a vortex.
And in spite of what you might think from reading... certain blogs... hundreds of non-combatant Palestinians have indeed been killed in this latest round. It's not all fake, or enough to just say "oh that's all the fault of Hamas, they're such a bunch of pricks (even if they are a bunch of pricks in the main)"

But what a country is Israel. What daring and courage it has just to survive. And they didn't always have America so firmly on their side.

a couple of defining moments:

In 1976 A plane-load of hostages get diverted to Uganda. They've got Kurt Waldheim on their case as secretary-general of the UN - who turns out to be a former nazi intelligence officer and pre-war bully-boy. He describes the stunning Israeli rescue operation (they're just trying to save their people) as "a serious violation of the national sovereignty of a United Nations member state (meaning Uganda)". Uganda at that time is under the thumb of Idi Amin, one of the worst dictators of the post war era. Four years earlier Idi Amin had sent an open letter to Waldheim applauding the murder of the Munich athletes and the holocaust itself. Waldheim doesn't say he has a problem with this sentiment.
And this is the fucking sec-gen of the UN saying this stuff !

Worth noting too... In 1981 the Israeli air force took out a nuclear reactor being built for Iraq by France. There is evidence the Israelis had three Iraqi scientists quietly murdered too. At the time the world was pretty chilly with Israel for doing this.
These days... it's all been retroactively made righteous.
Funny that. Can't tolerate WMD capability in Iraq, after all...