This was sent to me in an email... take the time to read it if you'd like. I'm not trying to start anything by any means, just found the email rather interesting.

Same Old Song And Dance
This an article that I read years back but I've always enjoyed reading it when the things spark in the mid-east... I hope you enjoy!

Had I not had to travel to Israel for work, I would most likely not know any more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict then I did this time two years ago, which is pretty much saying I only know they really like fucking killing each other. But when your boss says you're going to Israel for a week, you sure can turn your attention to world affairs in a fucking hurry. Keep in mind all this violence started on the very day my first trip there ended back in September 2000. I mean we took off and things were great, and when we landed back in New Jersey all the headlines featured the riots breaking out. It was that fast.
Anyway I digress, the purpose of me writing this jazzy little article is to explain to those of you who don't know (or really give a fuck) what all this Middle East shit is about and where it's most likely going. And I’m going to do so without wasting too much time on the trivial details or political backspins.
To understand current events, let’s take a fast look into the past to see if we can’t see a cycle of events here.
So let us first turn back the hands of time, to when life first formed here on Earth. Deep in the muck and protoplasmic slime, we see two groups of single celled organisms. Those from Group-A begin throwing microscopic flecks of stardust at Group-B, who in return fire back with microscopic rubber bullets. Then a cell from Group-A absorbs a bit of methane gas, migrates over to Group-B and promptly explodes, killing not only himself but mortally wounding several Group-B cells in the process. The remaining Group-A cells rejoice, as Group-B cells plan a counterattack after some of their cells learn they can become airborne.
These puddles of muck and slime will, after continental shift, become the lands we know as Israel and the West Bank, and yes I suspect the violence has been going on that long.
Okay now let’s spin our clocks ahead to like the 0 A.D. timeframe. In thirty words or less, Jews were enslaved by various civilizations most of which were settled in the Middle East and whose roots can be traced as the ancestors of the many Arabic countries we know today.
(You read as: Arabs enslaved the Jews since the word "go").
This you-enslave-me-but-you’ll-never-win-our-hearts-and-minds relationship went on for a bazillion fucking generations until eventually the Jews fled their "Promised Land" and found new places to live where they weren't persecuted, and the Arabs absorbed the vacated areas.
Now spin the time dial forward to the late 1930's. The Jews have settled more or less all over Eastern Europe. Enter a short little man with a mustache and a big gas bill, and with the conclusion of WWII we also see the conclusion of some 6,000,000 more Jews. Well, at the end of WWII, the powers that be (the US along with Britain, the Soviet Union, and France -- hahaha just kidding about France) held the Jews up and said, "Holy shit you poor people, you've had the living shit kicked out of you for some few thousand years or so. Tell us where would like to live in complete sanctuary for the rest of your days?"
As I recall, they narrowed it down to some place in Africa (where is inconsequential now so if you know don't tell me I don't give a fuck) and some land in the Middle East, which we now know as Israel. Well it doesn't take Colombo to figure out where they chose, and the US more or less said to the Palestinians, "Hey nice place now get the fuck out." The Palestinians were pushed out, and the Jews returned to the land they held way back when people wrote on walls with rocks.
Presto-whiz-bango, the State of Israel was officially born. Queue bands, music, banners, food, etc, etc, etc.
Now the Israelis -- as they were now officially called -- said to themselves, "Okay we've been the party bitches for everyone pretty much since the beginning of recorded time, especially with this Holocaust thing, so we have to make sure this will never happen again." And so it was decreed that every Israeli citizen, both male and female, would spend time in the military so everyone knew how to defend their civilization. So they trained and trained and prepared and prepared, all to insure the persecution of their kind would never happen on such a monumental scale again.
Now spin the clock forward to 1967, and we find Israeli surrounded like they are today - pretty much by angry Arabs -- Syria to the North, Jordan to the East, and Egypt to the South. Israel is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the West for those of you geographically challenged. Well the president of Egypt at the time decided that he didn't want Israel to exist any more, so he picked up his Bat-phone and dialed all those Arab states surrounding Israel, and called upon them to wage one of their Holy Wars to, "rid the world of the Zionists pigs." ("Zionist" being a cool catch phrase for a Jew).
Israel, being prepared this time and determined not to be beaten like a rented mule, deciding they would be having none of this and popped the top on the "Extra Strength Can of Whoop Ass". Thus commenced the "Six Day War".
Why’d they call it the Six Day War, you ask? Because that's how long it took Israel to beat the fucking snot out of all three of their attackers. Six fucking days. You think we whipped Iraq or Afghanistan's ass quick? Hell no. June 5th, 1967 Israel beat the fuck out of Egypt, the Jordanians on the 7th, and finally the Syrians on the 9th.
So by the time the 11th rolled around, the Israeli soldiers were back in streets of Tel Aviv doing the, "We Kicked Your Fucking Arab Ass Dance", having captured lands known as the West Bank (where the Palestinians are living), the Gaza Strip (from the Egyptians), and the Golan Heights (from the Syrians). Thus the establishment of the Israelis as people not to be fucked with and their, "If you ain't Jewish, you ain't shit," attitude.
It's important to note here that in the West Bank are Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and a snot load of other very religious places that hold high regard in both Judaism and Islam. And there’s no separation between them either, both Jewish and Islamic holy places all mixed in together to a "Berlin Wall" type solution just wouldn’t work.
These spankings kept things quiet save for a few skirmishes in the 1970's, until 1982 when Israel decided to lay the pimp-smack down on Lebanon. The key thing to remember here is one of the commanders in the Israeli forces at the time was a General Ariel Sharon (name ring a bell?), who not only orchestrated many of the attacks on the Lebanese army, but also is accused by many Arab nations of ordering the slaughter of a shit load of Lebanese civilians.
Now, whether or not this slaughter actually happened -- both sides claim opposite stories and I don't fucking know who to believe to be honest -- doesn't really make a fucking difference. The point is the Arabs believe he did and nobody, but nobody, is going to change their minds. In their eyes he's a butcher who kills women and children, period, end of discussion.
Again there were a few little skirmishes in the 1990’s, but again nothing too major and all is quiet for a while until the year 2000 (see a twenty’ish year cycle here?). The existing cease fire between the Arabs and the Israelis was threadbare after all this time, and it's now that the retired Ariel Sharon makes the dumbass decision to visit one of the Jew’s most religious places (good) but does so on one of the most holy days in the Islamic faith (bad). The Arabs go fucking nuts withthe return of "the butcher", riots start, bullets fly, and the rest we can get off CNN.
So for eighteen months now, it's been Arabs throw rocks, Israelis shoot bullets. Arabs shoot bullets, Israelis use tanks. Arabs make suicide bombs, Israelis launch planes. Then things cool down for a few days, maybe a week, and we start all over again with Arabs throwing rocks, Israelis shooting, and we're fucking back to square one.
In the past few weeks we've seen a few dashes of hope that this whole Middle East violence thing might be wrapping up. The Saudi peace plan looked most promising in my opinion, but even that's doomed to fail. Why? Well, the deal is Israel gives back the land they occupied back from the Six Day War and in return Israel will "officially be recognized" by those same Arab nations.
Riiiiiight. So that "recognition" will last about three to four weeks, and then one of the Arabic nations will snub their nose at either Israel or Ariel Sharon or both, and the rest will inevitably follow suit. Israel will then cry foul, the US will agree, and thus we’ll be secured for another twenty years in the eyes of Arab nations everywhere as, "the American capitalist dog, masters of the puppet Sharon and his Zionist regime <http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/wl/080601mideast&a=&tmpl=sl&ns=&l=1&e=2&a=0>."
Then one of the militant Palestinian groups <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1446000/1446003.stm> - not happy with getting their land back but will instead want to push the issue to a boiling point, will throw a rock at Israeli border guards. This will of course lead to the Israelis shooting back with rubber bullets (sound familiar?), which will lead to more rocks being thrown until an Israeli soldier gets seriously wounded, then the real bullets come in and, well, I guess I don’t have to tell you the rest. You already know it, now don’t you?
Look I’d love to hold your hand and sing "Kum’bi’yah" with the rest of your friends -- I’d like to see peace in the Middle East as much as anyone else, I’d get to travel again, gas prices would go down, and these people would be off my fucking news -- but the simple fact is it’s never, ever, ever, ever going to happen. Never. Ever. Period. The best anyone is ever going to do is orchestrate a ceasefire which will be doomed to fail before it even begins. The fires of hatred glow brighter here <javascript:showimage('israeliclashes.jpg')> than in any other place on earth, and there’s no politician or peacemaker with gloves thick enough to handle it for more than a few seconds at a time.
Sad but true.

Well i do not profess to be totaly understanding about religions or faiths, but here is my take on the situation. The Jewish people acording to the Bible were brought out of Egypt and were led to the promised land of Isriel. The land of Milk and Honey, since this that time there has always been opression against the Jewish people by the Romans, and all the surrounding Muslim countries.
I believe it is a fear of the Jewish prosperity even in their lowest times that has all other religions running scared. I do not mean the normal peace loving, hardworking people but those terrorists who belive that they are doing the work of god allah. This man did not preach about killing others but those who would kill the muslims. This over the years has been taken out of context by some idiotic leaders in the muslim religion. I have no time for these people who preach death to the infadel (the west) because we are not believers.
Those who cause the trouble should be round up and shot without question. they would not be missed....

allan

Not true at all....

I saw an Israeli interviewed on Fox News yesterday who said "for each Jew that they kill, we should kill at least one thousand or maybe even ten thousand of them".

Also, have you heard of the JDL?? A few years ago one of their leaders said "One million Arab lives are not worth a Jewish fingernail" during a radio interview. These are the same ones who attempted to bomb the office of a Muslim congressman. Do you claim that they were acting in self defense?

The major difference here is that the majority of Jews do not support these extremists, while the majorty of Muslims do. Now why do you think that is the case?

If you look at history, you find that extremist groups only become popular when living conditions are bad for the majority of the population. When people become desperate, they support extremism.

You can look at every example of extremism in history from the Nazis in Germany to the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to the Taliban in Afghanstin, to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and what you find is deplorable living conditions and mass povery in all cases is what lead to these groups rising to power.

You will never get rid of the extremists. They will always exist in some form. But if living conditions in the Middle East for all people were good, groups like Hezbollah and Hamas would have the popularity of American groups like the KKK and the Arian Army -- they would become insignificant.

Instead, the current war is going to push people more into poverty and living conditions will become worse, and what will result is even stronger support for the extremists among the population. The best thing you can do to help an extremist group is to attack them and kill civilians in the process.

muslim religion by nature is not violent. What you are seeing here is people who misuse the religion/allah and use that as an excuse to commit Jihad or holy war. There is nothing in the Koran (sp?) that even points to that. It's just fcuked up individuals who want to make up excuses to commit such acts. Don't lump them all into the same category.

I got this email (in blue) from friend of mine (yes he's Jewish) honestly I was offended. To all fairness, why we should raise hands for Israel? Obviously there's a neighbor dispute going on there, or an eviction process if you want to call it. If they have to settle their differences with arms, they should do what they have to do, without our government putting her nose in it.

Everyone with a drop of blood Jewish blood in’em is so vocal about supporting Israel which I am really sick and tired of hearing. (Most of them are my close friends; one of them is my in-law.) They have an option of moving back there join their army without involving us. Nothing good ever came out when we get involved.

WagnerX5, I understand your anger and frustration but I am in the same camp with Barry. Even with as little I understand I think If you take some time educating yourself you might get to different conclusion other than (Any Muslim Group) ->(Terrorists) I don't think what is going on is exactly about Muslim vs. Non-Muslim. It is more dangerous when people are persuaded to believe that way.

If the terrorists et al, lay down their weapons, Israel will live in peace in her little country.
If Israel lays down her weapons ... Guess What?
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE WHO CARES AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO NEEDS TO and PRAY!
Thanx

My sister sent me this email today. I thought it was pretty funny, but somewhat related to this discussion:

http://www.xoutpost.com/lounge/18758-funny-joke.html

Ask yourself this, though. If another country came to you and told you, "Hey, we're going to bomb your town - get out of your homes now." - are you going to feel any better about them blowing your home to pieces?

You can understand why many Lebanese (especially the older ones) might be more hesitant to leave their properties. They remember what happened to the property of Palestinians who left during the 1948 war - it was seized and declared as abandoned by the Israeli government. I'm sure you know how incredibly important land is in that part of the world - and then you could see why people might not want to leave?

Also at issue are the exact targets Israel is hitting. Why go after the UN outpost? Why go after Christian towns in Lebanon? Hizbollah is not hiding there. This is one thing I truly do not understand.

Your original argument seemed to be that it was okay to classify all Muslims as terrorists. I was just pointing out that that's a crude stereotype. A small segment of the Muslim population engages in terrorist activities - you can't classify the entire community by those actions.

Now, I know your response was - well, where's the Muslim outcry? First of all, keep in mind that their has been significant Muslim support - some of it behind the scenes. For example, after September 11th, one of the biggest groups to offer free help to US law authorities with translation and other services were Arab-Americans.

But I think you want public outcry, right? On this point I'm not sure, but I'd be pretty confident in saying that the reason there hasn't been as much as you want has to do with Arabic culture. Let me offer an analogy, and hopefully that'll help me explain what I'm trying to explain.

Let's say you have a family member that commits a horrific crime - rape, or child molestation, or anything else (hypothetical here - I don't mean to offend). Now, would you report them to the authorities if you knew of their activities?

I think most of us in the Western world would, despite any reservations we have about familial ties. This is where our culture differs from Arabic culture. In an Arabic society, that family member would probably not get reported - and its not because the family supports what that individual member did. Rather, its just the emphasis Arabic culture places on family - its the core self-identifier for much of the Arabic world. There, the problem would be dealt with in-house, possibly with much more severe consequences than if the authorities were involved. The mindset is just different - the saying about airing dirty laundry would apply here.

I think some of the Muslim umma (community) feels the same about involving "outsiders" such as the US and other Western powers in the affairs of Muslims and Islamic states. Certainly, there are "Muslims" that are terrorists (ignoring the fact that much of what they do violates the Quran). But I think there's a greater percentage of Muslims that disagree but want the problem taken care of in-house. And of those Muslims who do support the terrorism (but aren't terrorists themselves), much of it goes back to education and the economics that Eric talks about below. I don't think bombing these communities is the best way to communicate a message of mutual peaceful coexistence. If we can address the economics needs, and work to educate those that do support terrorism, we'll have a harder solution, but a more lasting one.

I disagree with the bolded part, but your point about economics is a really good one. I don't think it can never be fixed though - if relative depravation can be acheived, and the poverty of the Palestinian people can be ameliorated, we'll have a hope for peace.

Guinness - interesting post. It does try to simplify the issues - in some places, I think its historically accurate, but in others it is not. I think the best way to simplify most of the current problems in the Middle East is to look at it as a 50-year-old land/property dispute between two parties.

:iagree:

I probably wasn't clear on what I meant. I mean the majority in the specific countries where those groups exist. The majority of Palestineans support Hamas, as was seen in the democratic elections they had last year, and in the latest polls taken in Lebennon, 80+% said they support Hezbollah. Likewise, polls in Afghanistan and Pakistan still show upwards of 70% support for Osama bin Laden.