Jew to Israel: Cut the crap
I am an American Jew who lives in New York, which means I am required by some unofficial bullshit law to support Israel, visit Israel, praise Israel, even think about moving to Israel.
Today, I offer this official message: Screw Israel.
As a Jew, I am furious. Joe Biden travels to the Holy Land to talk Israel-Palestine peace settlement, and what does Israel do? It announces a decision to build 1,600 housing units … in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, a disputed territory in East Jerusalem. I know … I know—the Jews are always under attack, they’re surrounded; they’re bullet bait; etc. I get it. But at some point, Israel needs to make a genuinely serious offer to the opposition to stop lurching into disputed territories. It needs to extend a hand and say, “Enough bloodshed over land—let’s find a way to coexist.” Am I being simplistic? Yes, I am. But I can’t take this anymore. Killing and more killing and more killing. Both sides praising the sanctity of the Holy Land while spilling an increased amount of blood on the Holy Land.
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March 12th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
As an American, you should be furious. What a slap in the face to Biden. Netanyahu will do nothing to stop this.
March 12th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
And you picked a good picture. He looks like he just got slapped in the face.
March 12th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Israel doesn’t care about America. Or anyone else. They are going to do their own thing.
Good Biden picture.
March 12th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
wow… we all found something we can agree on.
March 12th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Another one blaming Israel. It’s not their fault these people try to kill and defame them daily no matter what they give them. They won’t stop with acres of land. They want to kill them all. Stop appeasing bullies
March 12th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Kab,
Let’s remember that what they’re asking for was taken from them in 1967. It’s your type of mindset that leads to, “F this, I’ll just walk into a Tel Aviv cafe and blow myself up, what differnece does it make”. Speaking of appeasing bullies, the US is giving $2.7 billion to Israel in aid in 2010.
March 13th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Have to say Jeff, in my opinion, you come across as naive and out of touch with your roots. I have to believe your grandparents would be ashamed of you for what you wrote above. You say above you get it, but you dont. A large population of Palestine and that region wants Israel to cease to exist. They want the jews dead. If israel loses a war, its over for them..I have to believe that paranoia and some passive aggressive behavior is acceptable. Have you visited Israel? Do you realize that Israel offers you citizenship cause you are jewish. Do you think if israel gives some land, the middle-east community will recognize israel? come on man…
March 13th, 2010 at 8:55 am
I believe I wouldn’t evoke someone’s deceased grandparents unless you knew them.
March 13th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
“Hey, anytime a bunch of holy people want to kill each other, I’m a happy guy!” –George Carlin
March 13th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Jeff, I’m a devoted reader of this blog for over a year now, but could not disagree with you more on the tone of this post and its content.
Read this article from yesterdays NY Times, nonetheless, and then let me know if you still feel the same way. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/world/middleeast/12westbank.html?ref=middleeast
These are the people that they are up against. Could you see this kind of thing EVER EVER EVER happening is Israel?
March 13th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Murray, for me the real issue is the timing of it.
There was no need for Israel to make their announcement when we are there to try and mend the two sides.
Their action essentially eliminated any possibility of getting the Palestinians to quit doing the very things your link is talking about.
March 14th, 2010 at 6:50 am
If the Palestinians stop fighting,
there will be peace.
If the Israelis stop fighting,
there will be no more Israelis.
March 14th, 2010 at 9:05 am
JMW I agree with you on that point.
But for Jeff to use that as an excuse to say that Israel is the one that needs to extend their hand to say they want coexist is ludicrous.
If the Palestinians ever made a single positive step toward coexistence, then their might actually be progress.
March 14th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
El, Murray..where exactly do you get your information about Israel & Palestine from? Please examine the facts. I suggest you read something by Uri Avnery at http://gush-shalom.org/
This is a man who fought to CREATE the state of Israel, but honestly and openly speaks about the crimes of the Israeli state against the Palestinian people..or are you the types who claim anyone who is anti-Israel is also an anti-semite??
You would do well to remember this quote by David Ben-Gurion: “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti – Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?â€
March 17th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Agreed that the timing was bad but Israel building homes for Israeli citizens in their capital city. How dare they! They do receive a ton of American foreign aid but they are still a sovereign nation.
So Israel should have times things differently, but what leads to more killing is Washington’s reaction (over-reaction) which has seemingly created a pretext for Palestinian violence.