Thursday, July 16, 2009

A couple necessary reads

First recommended reading with a tinge of irony from David, called "A Quick and Snarky Guide to Food Security in Palestine." David put a few miles on his sneakers working in Jerusalem and the West Bank. In addition to some humor, his piece is also full of realism, links and references.
Have a look - click on this link. (And see blog links for other pieces from David's.)



Second must-read: testimonies from Israeli soldiers involved in the war in Gaza keep coming and confirming what first hand witnesses have told us from Day 1. The fact that these soldiers are speaking out is an indicator that all of us--even when pushed to the worst extremities and horrors--yearn at heart to be moral people. The fact that these soldiers did what they did, shows that you can turn people who want to me moral into pegs and tools of an immoral destruction machine.

And in case you are tempted to ask me: "what about the Qassam rockets and the suicide bombers?"
I will say,
"you are absolutely right to raise the question, and thus acknowledge that, between Hamas and Djihad sending teenagers to blow themselves up (to fight an occupation, but still) and the Israeli government sending teenagers in uniform to kill an occupied civilian population, we are dealing with immoral endeavors.* Indeed. Thanks for bringing this up. Now, how do we make progress and change this?"
Read here.


Elrig

* What "moral equivalency" means, I'm not sure and it's a pointless question. It's like asking if you'd prefer being shot twice in one leg or once in each leg. Stupid pointless and sophistic arguments. I'd rather we deal with the morality of each action and try to fix the world we have to live in.

No comments: