Hamas and Hezbollah both kidnapped Israelis with plans to trade for prisoners. It had worked before. It appears to not be working this time. For all we know, George Bush has encouraged the Israelis not to cooperate, with a trade. That would be consistent with PNAC's vision of the world and America's role in it.
Lebanon deserves peace. Palestinians deserve a homeland. Israel deserve peace. But a serious percentage of Middle East Arabs would be happy to see Israel swept into the sea, and pleny of anti-semites agree. Then there are those who talk about land rights, about country borders. I'm sorry, but most of the borders were either defined by British and other administrators after World War one, were defined by murderous Sheiks and Califs who killed wantonly to claim their power. At some point, compromises have to be made. The killing on all sides has to stop.
Now, the argument that Israelis are treating Palestinian and Lebanese lives as worth less than Israeli lives. This is a specious argument, but I can't help but observe that Israelis do not expend hundreds of their young, using them as suicide bombers. Life does seem to come cheaper for the cynical cowards who use these innocent, brainwashed young men and women for their questionable ends.
Things are complicated in the middle east. One simple fact is that peace happens when people get along. There have been stretches of time when there has been peace. During those times, there have been complaints, many justified, that some people were treated unfairly. There are many Jews and Muslims who teach that the Jews and Muslims will never be at peace. They are wrong. But it may be that peace in the middle east is one of the hardest things in the world. That means we must all work harder to make it happen.
As editor of a progressive website, I see a lot of anti-Israel articles. It is my utmost challenge to do a responsible job as an editor, separating honest discussion from hateful diatribes, walking the tightrope between productive dialogue and repetitive name-calling, walking the tightrope between questioning actions, decisions and behaviors on both sides and being accused of censorship, anti-semitism, being unstintingly Pro-Israeli, being a disloyal Jew.... tightropes, tightropes, everywhere I turn. All I can do is keep trying to be fair, to cover the issues, to refuse to give in to rabid anger and hate. I'll be asking submitters of articles to read my take on all this. Before the latest explosive conflagration began, I tried to deal with middle east issues by insisting on just covering good news-- ways peace and cooperation was manifesting. Now, with the newsstream satured with middle east conflict, I now find myself having to make decisions on articles and I am forced to come up with policies that make sense.
Here are some of them:
Don't bash countries. Bash behavior. Don't talk using global statements-- always, never, completely. Don't call names, like evil, Nazi, etc. Don't use comparisons to Nazi times. They're cheap, easy and a huge stretch.
If you're going to talk about Israeli transgressions, acknowledge what they are responding to. I've tried to describe a portion of the total millieu / context in which these horrendous times are occurring. If all you say is Israel is bad, take away the lands they hold and stop funding them, your article won't see light on this site.
Now is a time when we need to go beyond the old name-calling,when we need to use nuance and understand conflicts at depths beyond where we've gone in the past. It is sad that the leaders of so many of the involved countries have reasons not to do so. It is sad that Bush and his team of "diplomats" have been chosen because of loyalty to Bush, not because of competence. I fear they are unable to do the job that could have been done by almost any past presidential administration.
That is bad for the USA, That means that the responsibility and opportunity to intervene is being ceded by the USA to other powers, and to the chaos of violence. These are trying times. We need to come together in creative new ways, find truths where before we were satisfied finding slogans, find opportunities to build bridges where too many see opportunities to bomb.
There are spiritual leaders now who are adding fuel to the fire, but there are also spiritual leaders and spiritual individuals who have, as individuals, shown that they can make a difference. It starts with you. Do you want to continue the same old conflict and namecalling or find new insights, new solutions. If you can talk about these challenges in this new light, I want to see your articles, If you don't, if all you want to do is repeat what has been said for decades, send your articles elsewhere.
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