TrickyBuddha Studios

(today’s post: 415 words)

I do follow international news, a little, but I’ve never followed anything related to Israel. In fact, in my President Bob platform, you won’t find a single reference to Israel.

I’ve never once had a gut feeling that the Israeli’s were right or wrong (or that supporting them was right or wrong). And whenever anyone brings it up my eyes glaze over. Recently, thanks to Israel being more news-worthy (because of the war), my eyes are all sorts of glazed.

Coincidentally, a site I frequent posted a link to a Rachel Maddow piece on Israel – suggesting it as perfect starter material for [ignorant] people like me. So I gave it a watch and felt like I learned a little – though my eyes did glaze a little.

Then I read some comments on the post and spotted one that really simplified it. Whew!

The person, if effect, said that it would be as if:

a) persecuted peoples from the Middle East decided to form their own country; b) they invaded a chunk of the US and declared the land theirs; c) they were resisted by the US but held tight thanks to military and financial support from Russia and China; d) they slowly (but widely) grew out their territory to create buffer; e) all of which leads to the US hating Russia, China, and these new conquerors. f) Throughout this process, the conquerors have booted out the previous American residents, taken their homes, and occasionally squelched small bands of ill-equipped-but-occasionally-radical American patriots.

(Why can’t everyone talk like this?)

From what little I’ve read the only issue remaining, in this simplification, is the justification of whether the Middle East invaders have any claim to that chunk of invaded US territory.

And to that I ask if it really matters.

Isn’t conquest a real part of our world? We Americans have no “claim” to our territory other than that we took it. The entire world has been colonized and re-colonized. Maybe God wanted the Israeli’s to have that land. Maybe God wanted anyone but them to have that land. And maybe there’s no such thing as God at all. But Israel took that land and made it their own – and it strikes me as hypocritical for any other conquering nation to criticize them.

Now tell me how foolishly naive and simplistic this post is. But use small words and speak slowly and, if my eyes lose focus, throw in some fun examples to spice up your point. Thanks!

by: no one

irony
3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result

Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas has won a majority of seats in Palestinian elections. They have done this democratically.

This is not good for Bush. He is spreading delicious democracy over a bed of dead terrorist bodies, and yet somehow that democracy has elected terrorists to power. Will Bush back off on some of his talking point themes (Either that terrorists are pure evil with no legitimate support from reasonable people, or that democracy isn’t the be-all end-all solution to “fixing” the Middle East)?

Probably not. Bush: “I don’t see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform.”

irony
3 b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play — called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

Will Bush realize the irony in this situation? Probably not, and it’s not just because he’s stupid. He refuses to see things from the other side. Understanding your enemy is a bad thing, because then you might start to think of ways in which they are right, or even ways that they are human. It may weaken your resolve for their utter destruction, and that is not something a strong president can afford.

Bush: You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.

I’m not a big fan of Hamas, but then neither am I a big fan of democracy, nor of America and their particular implementation of it. I say, if democracy doesn’t work and its effect on Palestine should be undone and disassembled, then the same should be done in America. Either that, or accept that democracy doesn’t mean you get to have everything your way and that everyone supports you in that.