Life’s a Playground
Jun 5th, 2008 by pedestrian
For an interesting conversation from two very different, thoughtful worldviews, go to neo-resistance.
I commented there, but I had more to add, and I don’t think naj would like me to use her comment space as my personal opinions pages!
When discussing the current situation in Israel and Palestine, Divajood asks:
Do you condone suicide bombings? Do you condone young people strapping bombs to their bodies and walking into crowded cafes, detonating those bombs and killing civilians?
Personally: of course not!
But I think one element which has blown our minds away in the past decades (as Middle Easterners) is how brutally biased the rest of the world has been in their naming convention.
During the 30s and 40s, Jewish militia groups carried out gargantuan terrorist acts to realize a Jewish state.
Organizations like Irgun, Lehi, etc were involved in murder, kidnapping, bombing and assassination plots.
Today, those Irgun members responsible for the bombings of the British military headquarters in Jerusalem in 1946 in which 100 people were killed can sit on prime time TV and mock the world for calling them “terrorists” because they were simply fighting for “their” land.
And the world nods in agreement.
So what are the Palestinians doing?
As Divajood correctly points out, the 1946 bombing was against a military target – it was not in a restaurant where dozens of children and families were enjoying brunch.
However, I still believe that Israeli terrorism is not viewed as badly as Palestinian terrorism – no matter who the target. Does Israel not target civilians? Could Palestinian militants who have waged attacks on Israeli militants show up on prime time?
America devastated & destroyed hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners after 9/11 on the basis that the men who carried out those attacks against her land on September 11th were from the Middle East and belonged to a greater Middle Eastern organization.
Through out history, men have fought brutally for their lands. Historically, what has been the main reason for war?
The Motherland.
Often times provoked by the greed and hunger of few.
Have any of these acts been less brutal than the other?
Was Jewish terrorism, kidnapping and murder to realize a Jewish state any more “right”?
So why do we only constantly pound the Palestinians?
When fighting for their land today, (albeit via means which many of us find deplorable) nobody ever says: hey! We were doing that 50 years ago!
Iran has been mocked and devoured for “originating the culture of suicide bombing” in the eight year war she fought with Iraq. As says former CIA agent Robert Baer: “The origins of suicide bombing lie among the Shi’ite in Iran”.
But nowhere does Baer acknowledge how this war was thrown on Iran, and how this was the only way Iranians found to defend themselves against an ever increasing international presence in Iraq.
Why was America’s use of a nuclear weapon to end the second world war “patriotic”? Why were 15 year old British boys in the trenches during the first world war “heroic”?
And why is our fight now despotic and evil?
The most fundamental problem in the Middle East today, is not, as many point out, terrorism, or fundamentalist Islam, or dictators. But rather, double standards towards violently similar conduct. Such standards disarm us of any possibility for progress, or any rationale for peace.
To many of us, no matter what we personally feel, a man like Ahmadinejad fares leagues better than a man like the American president; simply because no matter what he may utter, he has very little sphere of influence in comparison. That is while Bush’s time in power has yielded more chaos and bloodshed in the Middle East than recent history can recall – and history in the Middle East has much bloodshed to recall.
And yet, even to many Iranians who deplore both men, somehow it’s as if Monsieurs Bush & Blair are more “acceptable”; more human or humane.
But why?
What is their difference but the color of their skin?
Despite all our claims that the current U.S. primary elections prove that she has overcome her great racial divide, and despite our claims that modernity has indeed erased many of our racist practices through out the world, in the day of iPods and MacBook Air, our racism and bigotry has only taken on a much more complex, vicious form.
That is why Bush will play rich cowboy for the rest of his life and Ahmadinjead is exempt from a UN + Italy summit on food crisis.
Many of us Iranians will never forget the four years of Ahmadinejad (here’s hoping it really is only four). We will remember him for the destruction his minister Harandi brought to once semi-vibrant cultural ministry, for his chaotic domestic policies and his ability to bleed dry any last sign of hope that were once out there on the street.
But no other time have I been filled with so much rage than when I read that he had been kept from this summit.
Why?
Why is death and destruction, ruin and bloodshed o.k. if you wear a tie?
What other more brutal form of racism is there? To accept (even if only with a pinch of salt) such bloody catastrophes and those who were responsible?
And to shun those whose mere words we don’t like?
Why did the world ruin the Palestinians for electing Hamas? And applaud the Israelis when Yitzhak Shamir, a prominent member of Lehi, became P.M?
What is this?!
Why is one movement called “resistance” and the other “terrorist”? Why is one region simply called “disputed” when it is in all reality “occupied”? Why is one man “controversial” and the other a “warmonger”?
How much more racist and bigoted can we become?
Obama, during his victory speech declared that the U.S. would have to innovate new ways for producing fuel as to no longer be in need of “petty dictators and their oil”.
I winced.
Not because I disagree: the oil rich rulers are all petty dictators; every last one of them. But because while he calls them by their rightful name, he would never go far enough to call his likely predecessor, Bush, a petty manipulator, a murderer, a savage beast.
Of course he wouldn’t. Because he’d be ousted from his party, his position, his supporters. The madness against him would never end. He can criticize Bush’s policies, but he can not go that far.
Why?
The people living in America today can simply not imagine what it is like to go to sleep one night and die under bombing. They can not imagine how it must be to die in a battered hospital after being attacked on the fields with nerve gas. They can not imagine what it is like to have your entire life go up in flames and shadows and death.
John Lennon may have been the one to sing “Imagine”, but here in the Western world, “imaging” such realities is not to be.
I find myself more and more angered at criticism thrown at the Middle East. Not because I disagree, but because I am tired of seeing that it goes only to Iran – and not Jordan. That it goes only to Palestine and not to Israel. That it goes to Iraq and not the U.S.
And I know my mode of thought is philosophically and morally not valid.
It is Ahmadinejad.
When asked about Iran’s human rights record, he points to Israel. When asked about Iran’s women’s activists, he points to Palestine.
During a speech Ahamd Zeinabadi – one of my favorite Iranian journalists – gave in my school a few years ago, he rightly acknowledged that Iranian politics is neither that stupid nor caring to support Palestine the way it does. Rather, the Iranians are using her as life support. Without Palestine and Israeli’s atrocities to point to, they would be in deep waters about their own conduct: both with their own people and those outside. There would be nothing else to talk about but their own deeds and their own actions. For now, she is their life jacket, or airbag – something to fall on and leave those harder conversations aside.
So I see the problem in my logic. And yet, for many of us, it is inevitable sometimes.
Our life as Middle Easterners amongst the rest of the world is more and more like two naughty children in a playground making trouble … but constantly, day after day, one is pampered and the other savagely beaten … and beaten … and beaten …
The only difference in our story?
It’s not in a playground, it’s our daily life. And there’s no end to the game.
Only silence and shadows and waiting.
Of course I don’t mind you commenting or posting anything you want on my blog! Feel free to have a conversation as long as you wish; and if bring it here, give me a buzz so I follow
Lovely … now this will be my new post!
I didn’t think you’d mind
… I just thought your comment page should be saved from 5 pages of psycho babble!
Great post, and we really shouldn’t accept a world where one nation can pretend to be the authority handing out beatings or praise, as if its national interets were higher moral values as opposed to the greedy thefts they really are.
ps.Baer is well known for his antagonism towards Iran, suicide bombing was pioneered before that (eg. Tamil Tigers) and given his CIA past it would be unlikely he has not engaged in terrorist acts paid for by US taxpayers.
That’s the thing: “we” shouldn’t accept it.
If ordinary people did not accept this as their everyday reality … it wouldn’t be!
So how does one acknowledge that?
I am so glad you got involved in the conversation between Naj and me – because the ONLY way for the world to achieve peace is through conversation.
However, I still believe that Israeli terrorism is not viewed as badly as Palestinian terrorism
Respectfully, I disagree. Israel is vilified by most of the world, with exceptions in the USA and Britain. In the USA, there is the Christian Religious Right who wants all the Jews to move back to Israel in order to speed up the “Rapture;” and there are those Jews who, like my ex-husband, support Israel no matter what. However, the growing majority of Jews does NOT support the Olmert regime and its despicable actions. The growing majority of US Jews and Israelis wants to find a peaceful solution with the Palestinians, be it the “One State/Two People” solution or the more realistic “Two State” solution. But I frequently hear calls for the destruction, or dissolution, of the State of Israel – and have yet to hear anyone say that the Palestinians have no right to exist.
But to carry the line of reasoning about a nation being founded by “theft of land”, then the USA has no right to exist; Australia has no right to exist; Mexico was stolen by the Spanish, decimating the Mayans; Peru was stolen by the Spanish from the Incas – so I take umbrage with the statement that Israel was founded by stealing land from others. It is an emotional, rather than a rational, argument.
Still, this is open dialogue, and I am thrilled that it is happening. It has to happen. Conversation is essential to peace.
I think it begins with a greater awareness of American empire and the damaging effects of imperialism both on the client countries and the democracy of the ‘homeland’. (It’s also no accident that people who live on top of a lot of oil get demonised so when that oil is stolen, usually a violent armed robbery, it doesn’t appear as such a crime)
Perceptions are hard to change but as you write, just thinking who gets called a terrorist and who doesn’t begins to reveal the biases of the presentation. And as in any nation the ruling elites will use any distraction to hide their own misdeeds.
divajood:
I see your point. If you live in Iran, and go by the teachings of the system (which nobody does but the teachings are there), … you get a drastically different story than the one I was trying to depict. The one in which Israel is vilified to a point of insanity.
I guess the view I am criticizing is the one promoted through U.S. and British media – the one to which I am most exposed.
And I also agree totally: no matter what side we are on, we need to talk! And first and foremost, we need to learn how to talk.
RickB:
I know I am going to sound cliche, but what gets to me is that I don’t think many people want or seek awareness.
Do they?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explains it beautifully.
Alas, Pedestrian, I live in California. In California, I see people involved in a love affair with their automobiles – oversized vehicles that are driven for status but depend upon oil.
I’ve traveled extensively internationally (one of the side benefits of my job as a Travel Agent) – and believe me, the majority of the world does not support Israel’s current policies. In fact, the World View has always been quite harsh. I could go back to the 1950′s when Israel seized lands from Egypt, including the Suez Canal: World view, and the United Nations, forced Israel to return this land. Time after time, Israel was forced by World view to return to the borders as defined by the Green Line of the Balfour Declaration. After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel refused to return the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. The Sinai was returned. I lived in Israel in 1969 – a war zone, truly.
And you are right, we all do need to learn how to talk to each other.
Stop by my place any time. I rarely focus on Israel, as I am so concerned about my own Government – that Congress never had the spine to Impeach Bush for his rampant crimes against humanity, for lying to the American public and the rest of the World about Iraq, for invading Iraq without provocation, for torturing prisoners of war – the list is endless. I fear for my country.
I visit your place all the time! I just usually don’t have anything intelligent to say. I thought you were in my links, but I was wrong! … so I just added it there.
Neither do I! (write about Israel). This was my first time … sparked by your lively debate. After all, I am from Iran … and day & night I hear about the topic.
Wow … so you’ve lived history then.
But to carry the line of reasoning about a nation being founded by “theft of land”, then the USA has no right to exist; Australia has no right to exist; Mexico was stolen by the Spanish, decimating the Mayans; Peru was stolen by the Spanish from the Incas – so I take umbrage with the statement that Israel was founded by stealing land from others. It is an emotional, rather than a rational, argument.
I understand your rationale. And I also believe this “no right to exist” business is nonsense regurgitated by those who have no real solutions to offer.
At the same time, the Indian population in Mexico is living devastating lives. They are exploited and ruined to a point of utter horror. Even today. And their resistance movements (or terrorist movements, whatever they should be called!) are crushed.
On the other hand, in some of these countries, the native population have withered; they are not an problem.
But in a place like Palestine/Israel the natives compose a very large mass. And their suffering must be taken into account and must be addressed – not added to. We are responsible for addressing their needs.
You know, from an uneducated vantage point, I’ve always thought that an Iranian/Israeli alliance would be a point of stability in the Middle East.
Despite the show, we are still deeply at odds with our Arab neighbors to be able to reach a permanent settlement. On the other hand, from what I know, Iranians and Jews have always enjoyed a peaceful relationship and have much common ground and interest to build on.
I’m adding you to my blog roll as well – and frankly, I think that the posturing Bush’s administration makes toward Iran is terrifying – his exit from office cannot come soon enough, although many of us are afraid he will expand his dirty war before the end of summer.
You are missing the point about the war in Palestine. It is a war between Judaism and Islam which has been going on since before Mr. Bush and Dr. Ahmadinejad were born.
Consider:
Of the 45 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference only 3 – Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey – have diplomatic relations with State of Israel.
Consider: the name of the zionist entity: “State of Israel”. In Judaism, God bestowed that name to Jacob and Jacob’s descenants after his struggles with the Divinity. And there is a very well-known prayer in Judaism; “Shema Israel…” – “Listen O Israel”. So, the State of Israel, by virtue of its name, claims to be Judaism and Jews; a deeply religious conception in the Judaic tradition. [The Jews could have called their state the Jewish Republic of Palestine but then it would have been a state like many others - devoid of its religiou pretensions.]
The national anthem of Israel sings of the “Longing in the Soul of a Jew…”.
The stupid things is for Americans to take side in this religious war that has been going on for 60 years and probably will go on for another 60.
And in war, just in Love, all things are permitted!
pen Name
Thank you pen Name for the comment.
I don’t think though that I was missing the point you were referring to. Because that wasn’t my point at all.
The problem I was trying to dissect here was that given the current situation in the Middle East (no matter what forces lay behind this status quo, including those you mention) … The world (or at least, much of the Western world) is biased towards the way they condemn both parties.
From an uneducated vantage point, I think soon enough more and more Arab nations are going to start making peace with Israel. And together, they are going to turn against Iran.
On the other hand, I totally agree with you: this fight is not only over land or government. It is a fight as old as time itself. And given its complexity and rooted strength, is there any hopes for it to be resolved?
If and when people feel that their daily survival and quality of a better life depends on their neighbors, they will make peace. As did the Europeans.
But we Middle Easterners have yet to reach that conclusion.
And I doubt we will any time soon ….
You are wrong; Arabs will not make peace with Israel until and unless Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Jerusalem as well.
They will not turn against Iran; the Arab governments did that during the War of Sacred Defense.
And I do not care what the Western people think about us.
pen Name
I certainly hope I’m wrong!
That’s just one possible scenario to worry about …
You may not personally “care” about what Westerners or easterners, or … think about you as a people. But as one very powerful block, their opinions about us mark their actions and thus lead to fatal consequences!
Imam Ali said:
تذول الجبال و لا تذول