Careful what you wish for...
IOL: As Israel withdraws, Gaza burns:
Thousands of jubilant Palestinians poured in to abandoned Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip on Monday, setting fire to empty synagogues and shooting into the air. The chaos came as the last Israeli soldier left, completing Israel's exit from the territory after 38 years of occupation. Palestinian police in the settlements stood by helplessly as gunmen raised the flags of militant groups and crowds smashed what was left in the ruins or walked off with doors, window frames, toilets and scrap metal. Initial plans by police to bar crowds for the first few hours quickly disintegrated, illustrating the weakness of Palestinian security forces and fuelling concerns about chaos after Israel's exit.My first thought on reading this was Faramir's quote of the Two Towers movie: "A chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor, to show his quality!" The withdrawal from Gaza has been a chance for the Palestinian people to show their 'quality.' And they have. I believe firmly that this is a culteral, not a racial quality. If history teaches us anything, it should show us that all peoples are capable to stunning barbarism. The people in Gaza, now responsible for themselves, are probably in for a very tough time. They will have choices on the path they can take, and I believe that eventually they will come to deserve the responsiblilty that they have been given. Until that time though, they will suffer needlessly from being consumed by hatred.
posted by Dave Justus | 9/12/2005 11:03:00 AM
2 Comments:
Dave, I also posted a story concerning the palestinian takeover of Gaza. These people have no moral/ethical standards by which to judge their and others' actions. They have a prehistorical conception of power, in other words, the man with the gun is the one in charge and there's no way to change that.
The palestinians don't want a free state. They don't even want to live well and provide their kids a decent future. Israel's comlete destruction is on the top of their wish-list
I read the article and your comments.
I agree that Palestinian society is not currently capable of democratic government. Where we seem to differ, is you seem to regard this as an innate characteristic of Palestinians, while I regard it as learned behavior.
I view the former attitude to be racist.
Most Palestinians doubtless want happiness and to live well and provide their kids a decent future. They have been taught for years, with a lot of funding going into that teaching, the what is keeping them from peace and happiness is Israel, rather than their own choices.
This belief that they hold is wrong. The only way they can learn that though is for Israel with withdraw from the occupied territories and let the Palestinian people suffer for their own mistakes.
I believe that they will, in time, unlearn the hatred that they have been immersed in.
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