he perpetual chaos we see in the Middle East, mostly in terms of Israel vs. Palestine, has gone on for decades, and shows no signs of ending any time soon.  It's almost folly to write about it, since anything you say is just going to be more meaningless drops of water thrown at the raging fire.  Or semi-meaningless gasoline, if you are of the very pro-Israel or pro-Palestine PoV.  I tend to be more neutral about things, and even when I'm not feeling neutral I feel that there's a need to try and remain that way, or you just exacerbate the perpetual Hatfields vs. McCoys warfare.

It's like Northern Ireland; each side had very long lists of legitimate grievances against the other side, each side had plenty of reason to want to keep fighting and seeking revenge for past attacks. However at some point you have to realize that you're not going to win or resolve anything going by the past. Yes, you can kill some of them to get back at them for killing some of you a month ago.  But then in a month what are they going to do in return?

People have to rise above the history of bad blood and try to go from here, looking over the horrible crimes of the past, or else there will never be an end to the killing and instability.

Anyway, I've written about the situation a few times, usually prompted by some news article.  My longer sections of comments are archived here, when appropriate. Many of the links to news stories are broken by now, unfortunately.  But since the stories are always the same, with just the numbers changing, it's not like you really need to know exactly what type of Israeli military strike, or how many were blown to scraps in the last suicide bombing.

Originally posted April 30th, 2002.  Archived here October 20, 2002.

Interesting photo from the Isralis blowing up Yasser Arafat.  Again.  This is the shot, and very pretty sparks and all that.  The thing I find interesting are the various cars just parked there.

So you work at the mayor's office, and one day the larger government around you decides to destroy most of the compound you work in, and they are driving tanks right past and over cars in the parking lot.

Shit, I'm parked right out there! you think, peering past your desk, as you cover behind your chair and the bookshelf that fell over when the first bombs went off 20 minutes ago.  And yep, there's your Taurus.  You can almost see the scratch on the door.  The new scratch, from some asshole's keys.  You know that goat's spleen Ahmed in 14B did it.  He's been pissed since you had to tell him to turn down the Eminem last month, and his girlfriend got all bitchy about it and you had to have the manager call them on it.

But knowing he did it and proving it are different things, and you don't know him, he might be nuts, and you saw those two turban'ed guys going into his house a month ago.  Maybe his brother is a terrorist or something?  You can't kick his ass or someone with an AK-47 might pay you a visit, or your Taurus might blow up one morning.

And yes, that's the same Taurus with the key scratch, and there it is on CNN, with goddamn missiles blowing up 20 meters away!  It's not even paid off yet, and you know your deductible won't kick in for anything less than it being blown up.  Goddamn insurance companies.  You'd like to say they're all run by Jews, but in this case you know it's not true, being as you're in Palestine.  You won't get a dime from insurance short of the car being completely blown up, and ironically enough, that looks like a strong possibility at this point.

Ten minutes later the entire wall to your left blows out, showering you with rubble and shrapnel and plaster, and just as you are clawing your way out of it, half the Israeli army runs in.

In more pleasant news and images from the Middle East (not the one near Kansas City).

Five executed Palestinian Police officers. That has to be the worst job on earth.  Trying to keep your own terrorist people's tendencies in check, out gunned by your own people and vastly outgunned by your enemies in Israel, and the target for fricking F16 missile attacks every time some suicide bomber goes out in a blaze of Allah in some Israeli cafe.  If I were a Palestinian cop, I'd have the radio on all day and as soon as news of some shooting or suicide bombing came in, I'd be so out of the police station.  And on top of that someone might well just take you hostage in your own station and blow you away.

I guess when you are invading enemy territory, you don't ask to use the bathroom.

I don't really have a position on the whole Middle East issue.  It's too complicated, and there's no point in saying you wish everyone would just be nice and live in peace, since that's obviously not going to happen.

The Arabs hate the Jews, and the Jews hate the Arabs.  The Palestinians are occupied and oppressed, and feel that they are held in concentration camps, which makes them feel they have the right to fight back in any way possible, and since they have no army or any chance in an open conflict, that means terrorist activities.  You can't get suicide bombers into military bases, so you attack what you can, which are soft targets, such as markets or night clubs.  I hate terrorist actions, but there's no point in just saying, "Terrorism is bad, mkay?  Israel has to fight back, mkay?" since that does nothing to see why it's happening or what could be done to stop it.

There are a lot of right wing blogs on the net, and I see them all saying stuff like, "How can we say Israel doesn't have the right to battle terrorists the same way we (the US) feels we have the right to do that?" Obviously the US feels we can just invade Afghanistan or whatever, so why can't Israel go in and kill terrorists?  Which is one way to look at it, but it offers zero solution or objectivity, (which is more or less what one expects from war monger types).  So what, Israel should just keep killing Palestinians, and bombing them, and... what?  The fanatical Arab terrorists will just give up and happily live in terrible, grinding poverty, happily licking the boots of their Israeli oppressors?  Uh huh.

Per capita income for the Palestinians is about 1/5 what it is for the Israelis, they have enormous unemployment, they have terrorist-creating religious leaders, and they have a heavy youth population.  These things are all triggers for terrorism, and if you don't do something about them, then terrorism is going to continue.  Short of Israel just killing every single adult male in Palestine, I don't see military action alone having any real impact on the violence, other than fueling the fury of the Arabs involved.

The difference between Israel and the US is that Israel and Palestine are locked in an intimate embrace, sharing much of the same land, and both thinking they have more legal right to it than the other.  Plus you throw the intellectually-destabilizing effect of religion in, and it becomes impossible to get along. Unless Israel wants to build a Berlin wall type of barrier, which isn't economically feasible (They require the Arabs for much of their work, largely the low paying jobs, much as the US requires Illegal Mexican immigrants for the same reason.) they have to live with these people, and you have probably 99% peaceful citizens, and 1% terrorists, and it only takes a few suicide bombers to get everyone on the shit list.

As for now, it's hard to not look at it as the Israelis reaping what they sowed.  There was almost a peace, and then Sharon, who is now the PM, visited some holy wall or other (As a non-religious person, I have trouble imagining anything stupider than people going into a killing rage because someone did or did not visit a wall.) a year or so ago.  He (Sharon) is very hawkish, and him going there was guaranteed to drive the wild-eyed Palestinians into a fury.  It did, they started bombing, that ruined any chance for peace, the violence ruined the previous Israeli PM's popularity, he lost the election to Sharon, and Sharon has escalated things ever since.

It's hard to have any sympathy for terrorists who are blowing up civilians, even though you see that from their PoV and capabilities that's all they can really do in return for Israel shooting them with fighter jets and tanks.  But at the same time, you have to understand how they are.  Yes, the Palestinians are nuts and blood thirsty and terroristic, but you know that.  You know if you visit a wall they think is holy they'll go nuts.  You know that if you sweep their neighborhoods and arrest people, they'll send suicide bombers.  So why keep doing it?  There is a very clear lack of vision by all involved, and the Israelis, as the more advanced and controlled and sensible party, have to be the adults and take the difficult steps.  There are fanatical Israelis who slaughter and carry out terrorist acts on the Palestinians, but for the most part they are more under control than the Palestinians, who have dozens of factions with no real central control.  They also have fanatics who care nothing for peace, and want nothing but perpetual war and blood shed, and will not accept any peace process.  That's the real problem with wars and disputes that involve religion or nationalism (or both) as the source of the anger.  Illogical wars are hard to stop with logical settlements.

Anyway, I don't have any brilliant suggestion for the issue, other than to suggest that various blowhard commentators should shut up about it, if they don't have any constructive suggestions or ability to see the dispute from anything other than an "all Arabs are terrorists and must be killed" PoV.

All site content copyright "Flux" (Eric Bruce), 2002-2007.