A unit of IDF infantry is ensuring that Palestinian farmers can pick olives. You can even see them in action, here, along with the farmers.
No, it's not really a positive story. Had the Palestinians not responded to Barak's offers in 2000 by launching the 2nd Intifada, this area would be part of independent and sovereign Palestine, and there would be neither Israeli settlers nor troops anywhere nearby. Had Olmert then not been so reckless in the summer of 2006 when running that stupid little war in Lebanon, he would by now have done what he was democratically elected to do, namely pull Israel unilaterally out of most of the West Bank: again, no story. Likewise if only Israel's law enforcing agencies were effective at protecting the law in those hills south of Nablus.
However, given the reality we have, this is certainly better than nothing - and demonstrates how complex things are.
FROM CAROL HERMAN
ReplyDeleteSorry to have to tell you this, but your "settlers" are on par with the KKK. Where some "white men feel so special" they terrorize Blacks.
The IDF isn't strong enough to fight the internals.
Nor should they have to.
I do suspect, however, that for a lot of people born, today, and up ahead in Israel, there will be delight in LEAVING. "Kisch mere in tuchis."
That's what the ultra-orthodox crazies have ushered in.
As to the arabs, they're still mired in their old habits. Still willing to live argricultural lives. Made easier when it doesn't require planting. Just give them trees. Full of dates. Or nuts. Or olives.
And, then stick a bunch of mishiganah lunatics near them. For mayhem to follow.
You can't fix this. Because taxpayer money supports the lunacy. And, the religious community "finds books" and then teaches through them. So a man can be born who never has to do hard work.
This is the scum.
And, it's way too sad for words.
Of course, this never happened in Europe! In Europe, where it wasn't safe for men to go out and work, the women grew strong!
I doubt that the religous women in Israel are even willing to venture out the door!
While the European women ... who had the strength to immigate to America ... "because it was the best place to raise children." Did so! And, it was the children who learned English!
My dad used to say that he found it sad to see friends of his "sending their sons to Harvard, and then these sons being ashamed of their parents' accents." But, in life, we do indeed see parents who sacrifice for their children.
So, my father added a story. About a poppa bird. Who was going to take his young chicks, one by one, across the ocean. To find food (and lodging) on the "other side."
Flying the first baby bird across the dad asks, "what will you do for me?" And, the bird promises to give the father a wonderful old age. So the father drops the bird. Where it drowns.
Finally, bird by bird, with the same answers coming from each, has the last bird to be flown out.
"So, asks the father, what will you do for me."
"Nothing" responds the son. Instead, when I'm grown and have chicks of my own, I will do for them all that you're doing for me."
Civilization thrives when children gain the concept that when they are adults, they become responsible, in turn, for their own young.
I see your logic. The Palestinians did not make peace in 2001; Olmert did not evacuate the settlements. Therefore, both the Palestinians and the Israelis are equally to blame for the settler attacks on olive harvesters.
ReplyDeleteOf course this is a totally preposterous line of reasoning, and the settler attacks are exclusively Israel's fault. You see, one of the foremost duties of a State is to exercise the monopoly of violence. The Israeli State does not. The settlers carry out violent attacks not only against the occupied population, but also against the Israeli security forces themselves.
How Israel ended up taken hostage by a bunch of lunatics is beyond rational understanding. But denial of the problem and blaming the victim are certainly not part of the solution to this appalling reality.