Dan Carlin had a great "Common Sense" show about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here, and Scott Adams, while writing about something else, manages to neatly describe it here.
It's deeply depressing, but interesting to think about-you're forced to conclude, about the Israeli commando raid, that 1) Israel has a right to be very suspicious about anything being shipped to Gaza, and 2) Gazeans, for whatever else you may think about them, probably want to eat a meal now and then, and perhaps even drink some water. Both sides think they are right, and both sides, to some degree, are right.
It's like two fans arguing about sports-I say my team is better because of x, and you say yours is better because of y. We can both be right, and we're never going to solve anything.
It's a thorny dilemma.
So many other problems in modern life-the budget, the war, health care, financial regulation-have become so complex, with so many factors cancelling out other factors, and effects leading to causes leading to other effects, that, on their face, they seem insoluble.
I'm so glad I have voices like Dan Carlin to remind me that life, pretty much, is impossible.
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I failed to note the passing of UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. While I don't have any deep personal feelings about Mr. Wooden, he influenced quite a few very intelligent men, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton, which leads me to believe he is probably just as important as everyone says.
Imagine if the Palestinian government called off its war, and removed the part of its charter that called for wiping out the Jews. The problems there would end rather quickly.
ReplyDeleteLook at what happened with Egypt. Egypt, like the current Palestinian government, once had a goal of exterminating the Israelis. The aggression from Egypt forced Israel to occupy a large part of Egypt.
Then Sadat came along. He obviously thought that there were more important things for Egypt to do than lead another holocaust. So he called off the war. Israel stoppued occupying Egypt, since the conditions which forced it to were no longer present.
That's what Carlin argues. Imagine a Palestinian Gandhi, leading people in a peaceful protest against Israeli police and army forces. What could they do?
ReplyDeleteThe other thing Carlin posits is building-somehow getting US and European companies to be able to build hospitals, and schools, and shopping malls and apartments in the West Bank. Once Palestinians have something to lose, something worth protecting, it will only be sensible to quit antagonizing Israel.