Armageddon, or World War Three? Letters and notes on post-terrorized societies and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - By N.L. Belardes
I have been avoiding writing a socio-political blog/opinion column, because writing about politics on a national and global level just wasn’t necessarily going to put me in touch with a grassroots campaign to get to know people in my own town. I wanted to get in touch with people who might support me as an artist (nlbelardes.com was launched as an artistic endeavor to get in touch with people without focusing on politics).
Yet today I find it necessary to give my readers a glimpse of my political side, the side but a few close friends ever see. And I should throw out a caveat: in a heartbeat, this blog could go the way of the political. It just depends on what’s going on in the world. And I don’t like what I see happening in the Middle East. I believe it’s worth taking a breath from local arts and discussing, don’t you think?
Or don’t you read the news?
Because I do. I’m a news junky. And I want to know: Are we on the brink of Armageddon, or is it just World War Three per the words of Newt Gingrich?
****
In fall of 2000, the Second Intifada began and I found myself taking a sympathetic approach toward the Palestinians. After all, here was a people without a country, living under an occupation that often viewed them as second class citizens. I even subscribed to the electronicintifada.net and became an avid reader, wondering about a possible Jewish conspiracy under the totem of the Israeli media war machine… after all, Adam Sandler is a leading actor, right? OK, that’s far fetched…
Now before you get all weird, I wasn’t supporting a Palestinian takeover of Israel. I never support such violence, and I still don’t. Yet I was under the firm belief that Palestinians included not just Muslim, but Christians and Jews—people of multiple religions who are self-determined, yet without a country, and yet promised in the Oslo Peace Accords, a better, stable way of life.
My views would have been similar to this definition of The Second Intifada as written on Aljazeera.net:
On 28 September 2000, the then opposition leader (Ariel Sharon), heavily guarded by Israeli soldiers and policemen, walked in to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
It was a move certain to provoke an angry reaction from the Muslim population, who hold the mosque to be the third holiest site in Islam.
Fighting broke out between the Palestinians defending al-Aqsa and security forces guarding Sharon. Seven Palestinians were killed in the fighting and thus the second Intifada - Intifadat al-Aqsa - was started.
But the unarmed struggle came amid a backdrop of discontent. Palestinians in the self-rule territories had become increasingly resentful over their lack of economic development as promised by the Oslo peace accords. They found that the superpowers, which hosted the peace process, did little to back them.
The Intifada was – and still is - an expression of a deep disappointment and frustration over the ongoing disrespect and denial of basic rights for Palestinians caused by the occupation - including the right to free access to Jerusalem, security and development, and the refugees' right to return. (more...)
Prior to the Second Intifada I had written an unpublished work regarding letters written to people surviving in the Hot Zone when America attacked the Serbs for beginning a so-called cleansing of ethnic-Albanians. I began writing to an English professor (and others) in Novi Sad. She hid in her basement and came out to write on her computer to send a handful of people emails regarding what she was experiencing: the horrors of an American air campaign (Not that the Serbs were doing nice things to ethnic Albanians. After all, who wanted another inhumane Bosnia?)
I found, like a lot of online folks, the gift for getting into the Hot Zones during world crises. I did the same in Fiji during a coup. I could do the same now in any Hot Zone.
Bloggers in any war zone are less than a blink away.
Gaining trust is the hard part, especially when you’re an American wanting information. Don’t tell me that many in Arab countries don’t think America isn’t the head of the snake that they think is out to get them.
During the Second Intifada I discovered that a friend of mine—a Navy veteran with more than 38 years of service—had a Palestinian student. That student was my direct link into the Hot Zone—right into the heart of places like Nablus.
Soon enough I began hearing from Palestinians whose letters, I believed, represented the common accounts of men and women who lived in occupied territories. I wrote:
They are not scholars, nor affiliated with political groups. They are not necessarily on the streets themselves throwing rocks or pulling triggers. They are but citizens of an ideological country—that of Palestine, and through letters, they have expressed not only their voices, but the voices of their countrymen, and together—though they do not know each other—tell a small portion of the current tale of Palestine rising.
And so the letters began to pour in, letters from a young girl who saw tanks driving down her street, or a young man in a car being shot at, or a man visiting a wounded friend, or a man who viewed a funeral from a shop window and was compelled to march, or kids who snuck out after curfew just to see where they could go.
Here’s a sample:
Excerpt from email of 30-year-old cosmetic distributor, Feras Bakry. Received by N.L. Belardes on Sunday, November 12, 2000 (As translated by Samer Masri).
One can rarely have the freedom to go outside of the occupied areas to other Arab countries. This contributes to the cause of internal oppression. When I tried to go to Jerusalem for praying, I found that such a thing was not allowed. For there to be such a siege from Israel, in Jerusalem, I found myself not allowed to visit my Holy Land; and yet Sharon entered freely the mosque with the soldiers and other governmental protection. This was a challenge to mutual respect for religious feelings. I went in peaceful demonstration against Sharon, but Israel did not think we had the right to protest, so the occupation (Israel) responded severely in a letter discussing that we had no right to express ourselves. They then started violence against our society by shooting children in the head. This has caused pain and sorrow for many mamas and fathers. We have seen how the Israel army used the airplanes to oppress the people, shooting in all attitudes to houses, gardens, using Apachi helicopters which killed Tabnjeh Samer. Killing children by using weapons specialized for wars makes me feel that they are considered ‘objects of death’. I have seen Apachi helicopters shoot a man. I saw Adnan Edweekat when they shot him inside the city, having launched 500 mm artillery which impacted directly on his head, separating it to pieces. I saw Amjad Abu Isa who was killed while he was driving a car…
Once I received enough letters, I assembled a book and began to shop it around. I didn’t have much luck mainly because these were ‘common man’ views and not those of scholars. Maybe it was just because I was a non-Arab American…
I had also begun a novel about an American terrorist. I pondered the idea of the next breed of Timothy McVeigh. What if he wasn’t some militia ex-soldier, but an illegal immigrant from Tijuana who imagined reigning bombs on the rich shores of San Diego, and then decided that Las Vegas—the symbol of American materialism run rampant—to be the optimum target. And so I wrote and wrote and even strangely jotted down an Osama Bin Laden that wore a white tunic on which read, “the martyr who never died”.
Then before I knew it 9-11 descended on America.
(Read about my adventures in Thick White Crust as I had decided to move back to Bakersfield from Las Vegas on 9-11)
Quickly all my Palestinian relations unraveled into nothingness.
I re-thought my position. I didn’t want to get pegged as a sympathizer, and I was really feeling less sympathetic; I was pissed that America was attacked as I knew someone whose family member survived walking down 74 flights with a broken hip and saw unimaginable blood and gore. Not that I became hateful toward Palestinians. I began to see mistakes on both sides, mistakes in negotiations and dialogue that could not resolve the conflict with Palestinians and Israelis.
I got nervous. I destroyed all copies of my book of letters, except for what I had sent a political friend. Safe hands there, right? I mean who knew what was going to happen after 9-11? What would you have done with such a book of sympathetic letters?
Eventually I got caught up in the politics of 9-11, and pondered greatly the idea of pre-emptive strikes and what it meant to be a ‘post-terrorized’ society. I wrote a document on the idea that circulated in certain political circles.
Here is an excerpt:
Meta-historical views: Notes from a ‘Post-Terrorized’ Society:
3-07-2003
by
N.L. Belardes
A view on global war: It is no surprise to tell anyone that many societies of the world are exasperated, fearing a global resonance regarding the aspect of America further entrenching itself into Middle Eastern conflict with Iraq. A friend from Haarlem, Holland recently asked about the thought of an American-Iraqi war, replied: “Until the war starts, the troubles Americans face are something far away from here. But when it does begin, then people fear it will somehow come close to home. There could be a world war.” Another friend, this an Arabic medical worker in Dubai, U.A.E., fearing a global course for war simply claimed, “God help us, it will be the end of the world.” If there is a world war, when will it begin? Or, has a global war already begun?
‘Post-terrorized’ America is already in a state of not just global conflict, but global war. Such a war was declared by the Bush Administration as a ‘War on Terrorism’ shortly after the fall of the World Trade Center. The American government at that time proclaimed that Americans, protecting self-interest, property, and the pursuit of happiness—bent on destroying terror—would reach out globally, and root out from those places of the world where terrorism against America and her interests might originate and flourish.
American history, looking backward from future years will likely ‘periodize’ this warring period that includes historical events between the mid-1990s possibly up through the 20-teens with some kind of fused historical catch-phrase like, the Dreadaissance. For many people and historians today who try and grasp all of these loose historical threads, this era might seem only an often chaotic time where flowering technological progress in vast biological and computerized know-how is coupled with events related to national technological and economic failures; as well as a time of various destructive episodes in American society and American involvement catapulted from recent years: the Oklahoma bombing, Columbine slaughter, sniper attacks, Kenyan Embassy bombing, Kosovo War, Cole attack, Columbia disaster, the failure of dotcoms, further economic woes in the NASDAQ and stock market, mega-terrorism of September 11th, anthrax scares, etc.
Such nation-making events are difficult for historians to manage in defining a period in American and world history today; unless we forget, there is a difficulty to reel together, to digest and form a vision of the historical significance of “what it all means” regarding so many terrible events which soon enough will cause scholars to ask: how does it all link together to form American history?
This makes for a difficult reflection on the cultural and economic developmental periods of the American society of the early New Millennium. Americans one day will have a clearer historical vision of these times, one which will be told by history and historians who will write theories and historiographies regarding ‘post-terrorized’ societies; and yet, it is important to remember that even hindsight is not 20-20 vision in categorically stringing together events to explain today’s present and immediate past.
Meta-history transcends current events and looks as to how the discipline of history in the future may look at the past, periodize history, etc. Little more than an educated guess really, meta-historical explanations are still thought-provoking in their own right. Even without hindsight, society consistently looks for explanations. Just like the need to explain the past, society has a need to explain the present, or at least to visualize one or more explanations for how societal events unfold today. When thinking in terms of: ‘if’ this War on Terror really is a world war, then, in meta-historical terms, the current global war of that previously mentioned historical period ‘the Dreadaissance’ likely began on September 11th, 2001. It is a matter of perspective in viewing how the world will unravel in the next few years as to whether such a notion holds true or otherwise.
That devastating day, those “echoes heard ‘round the world” of expanded McVeighian proportions, an attempt at a global revolution against capitalist-democracy, by terrorizing America toward an economic ruin through destroying the World Trade Center, put into effect retaliatory measures inherent to what may be known as: reactionary measures taken by a ‘post-terrorized’ society, in order to pre-emptively, and in the name of sovereign security, prevent further terrorist acts…
*****
And so on goes the piece. I won’t bore you with the entire document. Yet there is a resonance from it, a flavor catapulted from those early days of the Second Intifada, and Al Qaeda, whose morals are so tied to the Palestinian cause; and to today, where all I can wonder is what some of you may be wondering still: Are we on the brink of Armageddon, or is it just World War Three?
A note appeared on the drudgereport.com today, indicating that, “news becomes old on Internet in 36 hours.”
With the looming deadline Israel has given to Syria and the comment by Newt Gingrich—not to mention my own personal political-historical views—that just might be the case…
Yet, there is always the possibility of a permanent cease-fire, right? Let's hope.
Stay tuned… and give your comments…
Yet today I find it necessary to give my readers a glimpse of my political side, the side but a few close friends ever see. And I should throw out a caveat: in a heartbeat, this blog could go the way of the political. It just depends on what’s going on in the world. And I don’t like what I see happening in the Middle East. I believe it’s worth taking a breath from local arts and discussing, don’t you think?
Or don’t you read the news?
Because I do. I’m a news junky. And I want to know: Are we on the brink of Armageddon, or is it just World War Three per the words of Newt Gingrich?
****
In fall of 2000, the Second Intifada began and I found myself taking a sympathetic approach toward the Palestinians. After all, here was a people without a country, living under an occupation that often viewed them as second class citizens. I even subscribed to the electronicintifada.net and became an avid reader, wondering about a possible Jewish conspiracy under the totem of the Israeli media war machine… after all, Adam Sandler is a leading actor, right? OK, that’s far fetched…
Now before you get all weird, I wasn’t supporting a Palestinian takeover of Israel. I never support such violence, and I still don’t. Yet I was under the firm belief that Palestinians included not just Muslim, but Christians and Jews—people of multiple religions who are self-determined, yet without a country, and yet promised in the Oslo Peace Accords, a better, stable way of life.
My views would have been similar to this definition of The Second Intifada as written on Aljazeera.net:
On 28 September 2000, the then opposition leader (Ariel Sharon), heavily guarded by Israeli soldiers and policemen, walked in to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
It was a move certain to provoke an angry reaction from the Muslim population, who hold the mosque to be the third holiest site in Islam.
Fighting broke out between the Palestinians defending al-Aqsa and security forces guarding Sharon. Seven Palestinians were killed in the fighting and thus the second Intifada - Intifadat al-Aqsa - was started.
But the unarmed struggle came amid a backdrop of discontent. Palestinians in the self-rule territories had become increasingly resentful over their lack of economic development as promised by the Oslo peace accords. They found that the superpowers, which hosted the peace process, did little to back them.
The Intifada was – and still is - an expression of a deep disappointment and frustration over the ongoing disrespect and denial of basic rights for Palestinians caused by the occupation - including the right to free access to Jerusalem, security and development, and the refugees' right to return. (more...)
Prior to the Second Intifada I had written an unpublished work regarding letters written to people surviving in the Hot Zone when America attacked the Serbs for beginning a so-called cleansing of ethnic-Albanians. I began writing to an English professor (and others) in Novi Sad. She hid in her basement and came out to write on her computer to send a handful of people emails regarding what she was experiencing: the horrors of an American air campaign (Not that the Serbs were doing nice things to ethnic Albanians. After all, who wanted another inhumane Bosnia?)
I found, like a lot of online folks, the gift for getting into the Hot Zones during world crises. I did the same in Fiji during a coup. I could do the same now in any Hot Zone.
Bloggers in any war zone are less than a blink away.
Gaining trust is the hard part, especially when you’re an American wanting information. Don’t tell me that many in Arab countries don’t think America isn’t the head of the snake that they think is out to get them.
During the Second Intifada I discovered that a friend of mine—a Navy veteran with more than 38 years of service—had a Palestinian student. That student was my direct link into the Hot Zone—right into the heart of places like Nablus.
Soon enough I began hearing from Palestinians whose letters, I believed, represented the common accounts of men and women who lived in occupied territories. I wrote:
They are not scholars, nor affiliated with political groups. They are not necessarily on the streets themselves throwing rocks or pulling triggers. They are but citizens of an ideological country—that of Palestine, and through letters, they have expressed not only their voices, but the voices of their countrymen, and together—though they do not know each other—tell a small portion of the current tale of Palestine rising.
And so the letters began to pour in, letters from a young girl who saw tanks driving down her street, or a young man in a car being shot at, or a man visiting a wounded friend, or a man who viewed a funeral from a shop window and was compelled to march, or kids who snuck out after curfew just to see where they could go.
Here’s a sample:
Excerpt from email of 30-year-old cosmetic distributor, Feras Bakry. Received by N.L. Belardes on Sunday, November 12, 2000 (As translated by Samer Masri).
One can rarely have the freedom to go outside of the occupied areas to other Arab countries. This contributes to the cause of internal oppression. When I tried to go to Jerusalem for praying, I found that such a thing was not allowed. For there to be such a siege from Israel, in Jerusalem, I found myself not allowed to visit my Holy Land; and yet Sharon entered freely the mosque with the soldiers and other governmental protection. This was a challenge to mutual respect for religious feelings. I went in peaceful demonstration against Sharon, but Israel did not think we had the right to protest, so the occupation (Israel) responded severely in a letter discussing that we had no right to express ourselves. They then started violence against our society by shooting children in the head. This has caused pain and sorrow for many mamas and fathers. We have seen how the Israel army used the airplanes to oppress the people, shooting in all attitudes to houses, gardens, using Apachi helicopters which killed Tabnjeh Samer. Killing children by using weapons specialized for wars makes me feel that they are considered ‘objects of death’. I have seen Apachi helicopters shoot a man. I saw Adnan Edweekat when they shot him inside the city, having launched 500 mm artillery which impacted directly on his head, separating it to pieces. I saw Amjad Abu Isa who was killed while he was driving a car…
Once I received enough letters, I assembled a book and began to shop it around. I didn’t have much luck mainly because these were ‘common man’ views and not those of scholars. Maybe it was just because I was a non-Arab American…
I had also begun a novel about an American terrorist. I pondered the idea of the next breed of Timothy McVeigh. What if he wasn’t some militia ex-soldier, but an illegal immigrant from Tijuana who imagined reigning bombs on the rich shores of San Diego, and then decided that Las Vegas—the symbol of American materialism run rampant—to be the optimum target. And so I wrote and wrote and even strangely jotted down an Osama Bin Laden that wore a white tunic on which read, “the martyr who never died”.
Then before I knew it 9-11 descended on America.
(Read about my adventures in Thick White Crust as I had decided to move back to Bakersfield from Las Vegas on 9-11)
Quickly all my Palestinian relations unraveled into nothingness.
I re-thought my position. I didn’t want to get pegged as a sympathizer, and I was really feeling less sympathetic; I was pissed that America was attacked as I knew someone whose family member survived walking down 74 flights with a broken hip and saw unimaginable blood and gore. Not that I became hateful toward Palestinians. I began to see mistakes on both sides, mistakes in negotiations and dialogue that could not resolve the conflict with Palestinians and Israelis.
I got nervous. I destroyed all copies of my book of letters, except for what I had sent a political friend. Safe hands there, right? I mean who knew what was going to happen after 9-11? What would you have done with such a book of sympathetic letters?
Eventually I got caught up in the politics of 9-11, and pondered greatly the idea of pre-emptive strikes and what it meant to be a ‘post-terrorized’ society. I wrote a document on the idea that circulated in certain political circles.
Here is an excerpt:
Meta-historical views: Notes from a ‘Post-Terrorized’ Society:
3-07-2003
by
N.L. Belardes
A view on global war: It is no surprise to tell anyone that many societies of the world are exasperated, fearing a global resonance regarding the aspect of America further entrenching itself into Middle Eastern conflict with Iraq. A friend from Haarlem, Holland recently asked about the thought of an American-Iraqi war, replied: “Until the war starts, the troubles Americans face are something far away from here. But when it does begin, then people fear it will somehow come close to home. There could be a world war.” Another friend, this an Arabic medical worker in Dubai, U.A.E., fearing a global course for war simply claimed, “God help us, it will be the end of the world.” If there is a world war, when will it begin? Or, has a global war already begun?
‘Post-terrorized’ America is already in a state of not just global conflict, but global war. Such a war was declared by the Bush Administration as a ‘War on Terrorism’ shortly after the fall of the World Trade Center. The American government at that time proclaimed that Americans, protecting self-interest, property, and the pursuit of happiness—bent on destroying terror—would reach out globally, and root out from those places of the world where terrorism against America and her interests might originate and flourish.
American history, looking backward from future years will likely ‘periodize’ this warring period that includes historical events between the mid-1990s possibly up through the 20-teens with some kind of fused historical catch-phrase like, the Dreadaissance. For many people and historians today who try and grasp all of these loose historical threads, this era might seem only an often chaotic time where flowering technological progress in vast biological and computerized know-how is coupled with events related to national technological and economic failures; as well as a time of various destructive episodes in American society and American involvement catapulted from recent years: the Oklahoma bombing, Columbine slaughter, sniper attacks, Kenyan Embassy bombing, Kosovo War, Cole attack, Columbia disaster, the failure of dotcoms, further economic woes in the NASDAQ and stock market, mega-terrorism of September 11th, anthrax scares, etc.
Such nation-making events are difficult for historians to manage in defining a period in American and world history today; unless we forget, there is a difficulty to reel together, to digest and form a vision of the historical significance of “what it all means” regarding so many terrible events which soon enough will cause scholars to ask: how does it all link together to form American history?
This makes for a difficult reflection on the cultural and economic developmental periods of the American society of the early New Millennium. Americans one day will have a clearer historical vision of these times, one which will be told by history and historians who will write theories and historiographies regarding ‘post-terrorized’ societies; and yet, it is important to remember that even hindsight is not 20-20 vision in categorically stringing together events to explain today’s present and immediate past.
Meta-history transcends current events and looks as to how the discipline of history in the future may look at the past, periodize history, etc. Little more than an educated guess really, meta-historical explanations are still thought-provoking in their own right. Even without hindsight, society consistently looks for explanations. Just like the need to explain the past, society has a need to explain the present, or at least to visualize one or more explanations for how societal events unfold today. When thinking in terms of: ‘if’ this War on Terror really is a world war, then, in meta-historical terms, the current global war of that previously mentioned historical period ‘the Dreadaissance’ likely began on September 11th, 2001. It is a matter of perspective in viewing how the world will unravel in the next few years as to whether such a notion holds true or otherwise.
That devastating day, those “echoes heard ‘round the world” of expanded McVeighian proportions, an attempt at a global revolution against capitalist-democracy, by terrorizing America toward an economic ruin through destroying the World Trade Center, put into effect retaliatory measures inherent to what may be known as: reactionary measures taken by a ‘post-terrorized’ society, in order to pre-emptively, and in the name of sovereign security, prevent further terrorist acts…
*****
And so on goes the piece. I won’t bore you with the entire document. Yet there is a resonance from it, a flavor catapulted from those early days of the Second Intifada, and Al Qaeda, whose morals are so tied to the Palestinian cause; and to today, where all I can wonder is what some of you may be wondering still: Are we on the brink of Armageddon, or is it just World War Three?
A note appeared on the drudgereport.com today, indicating that, “news becomes old on Internet in 36 hours.”
With the looming deadline Israel has given to Syria and the comment by Newt Gingrich—not to mention my own personal political-historical views—that just might be the case…
Yet, there is always the possibility of a permanent cease-fire, right? Let's hope.
Stay tuned… and give your comments…
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Sunday, July 16, 2006.
You can leave your response.
I'm trying to see the connection between the Palestine/Israeli conflict and 9/11 (Saudi Arabians), and the war in Iraq? Were you just saying that by being pegged a sympathizer w/ the Palestinians, the whole Ashcroft 'big brother' might seek you out due to poor timing? Fear of being a product of the Patriot Act? I getcha there if thats the case.
I'd like to read more of your Palestine letters, though. Are you pretty neutral on the Zionism issue?
Holy Crap,This is a great piece N.L.! Keep it comin' bro!
.....so, this may be a good time to understand why and how ROME fell.
i don't know what to think... it's all so much and sooo scary! armageddon? i don't know... i don't understand politics very well but from that newt gingrich statement and what i read here... sounds like WWIII has already started and that's a chilling thought.
i feel the "crawlies" going up and down my arms and back...
Al Quaeda sympathizes with the Palestinians not having a country called Palestine. That's part of why they attacked America... and there's a ton of information online. Just type "palestinian and Al Qaeda" into google...
Of course I was afraid of being pegged. I'm sure there's a thick FBI file somewhere...
Oh boy, Zionism--there's a can of worms. I'm going to hold off on answering that. It was hard enough to reveal what little I shared in this blog.
We are in the midst of dangerous times whether its Armegeddon or WWIII only God knows the answer. Either way its scary!
I'm not sure that being interested in a 'people' and what they are going through and writing about it pegs you as a sympathizer. You've also written a chicano lit novel and are currently working on an Asian-Philippino book... being a HISTORIAN naturally makes you interested in historical peoples and cultures. Perhaps the term sympathizer comes only because the Palestinians live in the Middle East and crisis of war.
Just a thought... I'm definitely not an expert on these matters.
However, I do think you've portrayed both sides of the question very well here, expressing the crisis at hand and the immenient future leaving us all asking the question Armageddon or WWIII.
Thanks for sharing with us (your readers) a glimpse into your historical, political, mind...
Al Quaeda and other terrorist groups seem to just support everything the American government doesn't...It becomes quite touchy to say you aren't in favor of Zionism when a terrorist network feels the same way. The idiotards throw the line 'you're on the side of the terrorists...you aren't supporting america'. When will politicians and newspeople learn there's more than 2 options to support? To throw the masses for a loop, check out the Eastern Orthodox Christian position on Zionism...you'd think conservative (many republican) Christians would be in favor of Israel/Zionism, ya? This group of early christians feel otherwise. If only born-again finger pointing tent revivalists would get in touch with the origin of their own religion, they too might gain some insight.
this site stands against the Israeli Media War Machine... Take a look at the spin vs. the spin on say... the Jerusalem Post...
Zionism is what it is... often an excuse for a fanatic to enter a mosque and gun down people who are trying to pray... but then Zionism breaks down into many categories of Radical, Conservative and Moderates... not all support the radical settler with a gun.
Look at the recent pull out from Gaza... The radicals fought their own soldiers.
Yet soldiers have bulldozed people when destroying homes and crops, for what? Vengeance...
And so Palestinians stupidly lob bombs... why? Because of frustration... and so both sides act in ignorance and violence.
Unfortunately one side is able to have a military filled w/ American supplied artillary, while the recent natives have to sit and not only watch their farmland taken over (forced to use israeli work permits to tend their own field), but also the abuse of any big military operation. Give a bunch of guys automatic weapons, tanks, and choppers when the occupied side is able to have nothing, and there's bound to be abuse. I don't support suicide bombing, or anti aircraft missiles, etc, but when idiots say things like "Why can't they fight in uniform like real soldiers, instead of blowing themselves up in civilian clothing" it makes me shiver. 1) They can't keep an army. 2)With no military, and no military based weapons they're forced to become a covert operation. You tell this to the person w/ the comment, and then they back down and talk about how this issue is biblical, and goes well before the military support/control. It seems that the debate on the matter is just as complex if not more so than the issue itself. The ratio of voices on the subject to knowledge on the subject is about 10000:1.
Per Mike's question about the book of letters. I will post another entry right here. This is a disturbing story that illustrates the humanitarian crisis six years ago:
Email from Samer Masri. November 12, 2000 (As told by Samer Masri himself).
12th November, 18 am Monday
…in our land it is not easy for us to write any time. Everything works against you, even electricity. I wrote three pages and the electricity cut and disturbed the programs of the computer. So I will write again:
My name is Samer Masri.
Owner and manager of Nablus Textile Company
Nablus City, age: 40 years
Now it is night. The sound of shooting was very high yesterday. Last night we could not sleep. There were no confrontations, no clashes here. Two boys played with firecrackers, or they might have been children’s fire rockets. The soldiers who are located in the nearby mountains considered that as shooting at their military camp, so they rained us with more than 40 rockets. My sleeping room is countering the mountain where an Israel camp lies and I could see how nervous those troops were. I believe they were looking for an opportunity to make casualties between us.
That night my wife was sleeping and woke with fear. She asked me to sleep in an internal room because the day before, a girl was wounded from blind shooting. She begged me to change the room, and while she was doing so a very noisy bomb frightened my one-year-old son, Ahmad. He started to cry and my wife ran to make him feel safe. There were another three rocket explosions—they woke up my daughter Manar, who is 9 years old. She grabbed me strongly and asked while she was crying, “Are they shooting us?! Will we die today like the girl of yesterday?! Can the rockets pass through the three walls and enter the forth room and kill us??” She was very scared. Her face appeared yellow, without blood. A telephone call then came from my nephew wanting to be sure that we were alright. There was another telephone call, this from my father who said:
“Are you ok?”
My mother cried into the telephone as she spoke to father. He informed her to sleep in the internal room, and not to leave the house to escape because they saw rockets explode on the street. I gathered up all the blankets and put our mattresses and covers on the floor in the north room. I carried my son and all the children to that room. From time to time I tried to go to the window to watch what was happening. I wanted to observe outside but my wife begged,
“Please don’t go to the window. Don’t go to that room, please, for me, for your children. We need you. The children want their father.”
I shouted, “I am not fighting! I am just observing what is going on!”
She answered, “How many men are killed that are doing nothing, only observing, not fighting? So please, avoid looking from the window. It is not a joke. It is a life.”
My daughter, Manar continued to hold onto me strongly, so I listened to them, avoided the window and tried to help them rest. They began to drift off, but at the moment they went to sleep, more explosions woke them up. I held them and they surrounded me. And while I calmed and relaxed them, I told them tales, stories to help them forget the situation. At 4 o’clock that night Israel finally stopped shooting. We slept for 4 hours and then packed for work and schools. In the morning many people asked: “What happened? Are there any injured or killed from the citizens??” The result: five injured including two children and two women.
As usual I went to my work that morning. While reading the newspaper, I read about how the Jewish Settlers were going to cultivate a hill for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, but that it was not to happen. And now Israel was to enforce the siege against all the cities, villages, and camps, and were not allowing much communications. The situation was becoming very difficult, with the economic conditions in a very serious and critical state. I will wait for the coming days.
13th November, morning
I gave your email to many persons to send to you directly I hope they started to send. I will try this night to send you some photos of the ugly actions of the occupation which is incredible: A youth killed in very monster way was shot and his head divided in to pieces. I don’t want to talk I will let the photos talk… I feel I have suffered too much in my life from the occupation…
Years ago while Israel busied itself dominating the citizens and cities where I lived, I attempted to form a voluntary work force to clean up part of my city. As a result of my passion, I was considered aggressive by Israel; and my act of kindness—an ‘aggressive action’. This happened twenty-three years ago when I was seventeen. I had made a visit to a friend in a popular place that was full of rubbish. I formed an idea to clean it and discussed the subject with some friends who were my age. We agreed to clean the place together and began our project, being encouraged by local citizens who assisted us. In two hours the place brightened. We then helped the citizens of the area form a committee to follow up with their own voluntary work. Then we continued our voluntary work in another area. We expanded the project from cleaning the streets, to hospitals, and even assisted in growing and planting gardens and gathering olives for children. We expanded the membership of the committee by adding girls, and in this way we became the first association to ever bring the two sexes together.
Then one night around midnight while I was slept, soldiers came and knocked very roughly on the doors. My father opened the door and asked, “What is the problem?”
The officer answered, “We have an order to arrest your son, Samer.”
“Why?” my father asked. “He is not a political activist.”
“You will know in the future what your son is doing,” the officer said. They then searched the house upside-down—in everything, in every book even and found nothing. I had some photos of voluntary work we had performed and they took them. For one month I was under interrogation:
“What is the voluntary work? Why?? Who forced you to do such a thing?”
I asked the interrogator, “Is this work the act of a criminal?? And to arrest me for this??”
They answered, “No. But there must be an organization behind this voluntary work.”
At that time I didn’t know anything about politics or organizations. I was angered at their sensitivity, that any Palestinian’s move towards organization could make them fear an uprising. Even from cleaning the road! They finally found nothing from the interrogation and I was released after one month of torture. From that I lost my opportunity to have good marks on the secondary exam. Afterwards I went to Jordan study in economics and came back after the first uprising to prepare for a life of industry.
I then opened a textile factory that produces upholstery cloth from imported Spanish yarns. In1990 we imported yarns wrapped in beams and they passed through the border to us without a problem. But after Israeli factories knew about us, the borders were informed not to pass our raw materials of yarn so easily the second time. After three months of waiting we discovered they had damaged our yarn. Upon receiving it we tried to mend it, but realized after six months that is was a total loss. Many times this action repeated, and even our talks with the general Israeli governor were hopeless as we were informed they could do nothing for security procedures. ‘Security procedures’ to us meant a secret game of destroying our life, our economy, and our joy.
We closed the factory after only one year. Later we were told they (Israel) wanted to give us material only through their factories. With their raw materials, we were told we could work, but it was expensive and not feasible. So we decided to close the factory and possibly re-open at another time. The ensuing peace process had us thinking that we would have success, and so in 1997 we re-opened for business. The same problem soon appeared—damaged yarns—so we close it again in 1998, and waited for the end of the occupation.
Ohhhhh Nickadoodle , We don't often agree on political issues .But being a survivor of the Fiji coup . I understand when Kings make war the poor little men must fight them, as well as the innocents ...Nick, your heart and soul are pure .Stick with it ..What a privlidge to have shared those letters with you years ago ..Be true to Nick !
We The Sheeple...
I don't even begin to understand everything that is going on. It's too depressing. But after reading this I felt like I had to share it and so I sent this link to a few friends and this is what one had to say.
"My point of view?? For the last 15 to 20 years, I have always believed that there will never be a WW III. My theory, formulated from that time frame is that global terrorism will replace what we used to know as militarial world conflicts. At that time, though, I never could imagine the scope of that terrrorism.....like 9/11. I still maintain there will be no WW III. If it is not played out by militant, fanatical tyranical terrorists, nukes in the wrong hands will be worse. I have had my eye on N Korea for years and that is coming to fruition right now, too.
The Shit going on in the Middle East is nothing new.....been happening since the beginning of the Cold War. Remember during the first war we had with Iraq in the early 90s? Israel was getting missles and retaliating at that time, too. Israel can only take so much pounding. Eventually they fire back with their big equipment, too. Our foreign policy theory is very complex. Hell, I am a historian and my head spins trying to keep up on everything sometimes.
I don't believe in the ideology of an Armageddon. But, I do believe that we, as a world power, the greatest imperialisic country power that history has ever witnessed, are getting in deeper and deeper. I have no anwers as how it will all turn out, but it is getting uglier by the year."
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Message -----------------
From: A. S. ASHLEY
Date: Jul 17, 2006 9:45 AM
your blog makes the point that current events in the world are no longer ignorable spats or fits.
THIS IS FUCKING FOR REAL!
I was telling lisa how activities in the world over the last month are scaring the shit out of me.
I dont scare that easily.
But things are just fucking out of control.
oh well,..........humans have WAY out-lived their welcome on this poor planet.
From: n.l.
Date: Jul 17, 2006 9:51 AM
Exactly. I'm calm, like those morons who stood on the beach watching the Tsunami coming.
But will I get to the mountains in time...?
:)
From: A. S. ASHLEY
Date: Jul 17, 2006 10:05 AM
.......what mountains!?!?!? :o
From: n.l.
Date: Jul 17, 2006 10:07 AM
crap...I'm going to be the first one dead, just like in the video games.
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