My Crazy Country
It just gets crazier and crazier.
The Prime Minister is going to be indicted any day for only some of the many crimes I am sure he's committed. It would be more respectful to the country if he would just resign, but he's got too much ego. And not that I know who'll replace him, but sheesh, please G-d, don't let him or her be any worse!
***
Meanwhile, Israel's talking to Syria? Why? Some say that it means Israel's willing to give up the Golan, and Syria's willing to break its ties with Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah.
Is this some sort of an alternate reality? Were there drugs passed around, and I wasn't part of the in-crowd?
'Cause that's the only way I can imagine either one of those things happening -- Less than two years ago, we were AT WAR in the north! Lebanon's being run by Hizbullah, which is getting its weapons and support from... Syria! Suddenly we're going to give up one of our most strategically-needed pieces of land, and Syria's going to make nice? There MUST be drugs involved.
***
And now, because of the Hamas terrorists who keep attacking the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel, Israel has decided to pull back non-combat troops from the Erez Crossing.
So let's think about this for a minute:
Do we want soldiers to die? NO!
Do we want civilians to die? NO!
Is turning tail and running away from the problem going to solve it? NO!
Because we are apparently not capable of doing what needs to be done in order to stop being attacked by rockets and bombs, we'll just run away from rocket range.
What happens as they develop longer-range rockets and missiles? I guess first, we'll evacuate Sderot and Ashkelon... then we'll evacuate Be'er Sheva and Tel Aviv... Eventually, we'll evacuate Jerusalem and Israel? G-d forbid!
I just don't, really, I don't understand this.
I am amazed that I was originally "pro-disengagement." I was one of the naive who thought that by giving them a piece of land, they might actually put some effort into becoming self-sufficient instead of relying on aid from the UN and EU. I was one of the naive who thought they might do better if they weren't constantly being reminded of their impotence by having armed Israeli soldiers around every corner.
I was one of the naive, period.
By the time the actual disengagement came around, I had already flipped to the other side. I knew it was being handled in the stupidest way possible, the most immoral manner conceivable. We ripped pioneers out of their homes, and gave a piece of Eretz Yisrael to the enemy. And we received nothing for it... not only did we not get piece, but the rocket attacks have never stopped -- and have only gotten worse.
***
A couple of weeks ago, I was involved in a debate with someone who is young, passionate, and naive. He reminded me quite a lot of what I was like seven years ago. I wasn't a citizen of the country. I didn't know anyone who'd died in a terrorist attack or a war. I came from a left-wing idealism in America, wherein I still believed that what people really, really want more than anything else is the ability to raise their families with food, housing, and peace.
I didn't understand people who said, "No, they don't want peace. The peace they want would only come about if we (Jews) were not here anymore."
How could that be? How could there really be people who care more about hating us than they do about raising their families in peace?
Yet it's true; there are people like that.
In this debate, I was trying to open this young man's mind -- even if only by a crack -- to the Truth. The Truth is that it isn't black and white. The Truth is that as much as we'd love to put our cultural beliefs onto others, the others have different ideas.
People have different cultures and different idealisms. They have different views of G-d and religion.
To the most extreme, there have been cultures in the past (and maybe the present -- I dunno) that believe in cannabilism. It's a fact.
There are also cultures that believe in peace -- even to the detriment of themselves.
So if there are those two extremes, what's to say there aren't a million other extremes? Including a group of people who believe that the only way to live is to be a particular religion, and if you're not part of that religion, you should die?
The young man is still idealistic and naive. Good for him. I gave him a bracha that he should have the same amount of passion in discovering the Truth, and I invited him to make aliyah and fight the system from within. At least for now, he declined.
***
It's easy being an armchair politician when you're not living on the front lines. I'm blessed with living in Jerusalem, and still we live on the front line of terrorist attacks. I cannot even begin to imagine what it's like to live in Sderot, where the rocket attacks are daily, sometimes tens of times a day.
And that's why I don't get it... if my stupid government keeps pulling back from strategic military bases, and negotiating with terrorists, the front lines are going to multiply exponentially.
What a crazy country...
The Prime Minister is going to be indicted any day for only some of the many crimes I am sure he's committed. It would be more respectful to the country if he would just resign, but he's got too much ego. And not that I know who'll replace him, but sheesh, please G-d, don't let him or her be any worse!
***
Meanwhile, Israel's talking to Syria? Why? Some say that it means Israel's willing to give up the Golan, and Syria's willing to break its ties with Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah.
Is this some sort of an alternate reality? Were there drugs passed around, and I wasn't part of the in-crowd?
'Cause that's the only way I can imagine either one of those things happening -- Less than two years ago, we were AT WAR in the north! Lebanon's being run by Hizbullah, which is getting its weapons and support from... Syria! Suddenly we're going to give up one of our most strategically-needed pieces of land, and Syria's going to make nice? There MUST be drugs involved.
***
And now, because of the Hamas terrorists who keep attacking the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel, Israel has decided to pull back non-combat troops from the Erez Crossing.
So let's think about this for a minute:
Do we want soldiers to die? NO!
Do we want civilians to die? NO!
Is turning tail and running away from the problem going to solve it? NO!
Because we are apparently not capable of doing what needs to be done in order to stop being attacked by rockets and bombs, we'll just run away from rocket range.
What happens as they develop longer-range rockets and missiles? I guess first, we'll evacuate Sderot and Ashkelon... then we'll evacuate Be'er Sheva and Tel Aviv... Eventually, we'll evacuate Jerusalem and Israel? G-d forbid!
I just don't, really, I don't understand this.
I am amazed that I was originally "pro-disengagement." I was one of the naive who thought that by giving them a piece of land, they might actually put some effort into becoming self-sufficient instead of relying on aid from the UN and EU. I was one of the naive who thought they might do better if they weren't constantly being reminded of their impotence by having armed Israeli soldiers around every corner.
I was one of the naive, period.
By the time the actual disengagement came around, I had already flipped to the other side. I knew it was being handled in the stupidest way possible, the most immoral manner conceivable. We ripped pioneers out of their homes, and gave a piece of Eretz Yisrael to the enemy. And we received nothing for it... not only did we not get piece, but the rocket attacks have never stopped -- and have only gotten worse.
***
A couple of weeks ago, I was involved in a debate with someone who is young, passionate, and naive. He reminded me quite a lot of what I was like seven years ago. I wasn't a citizen of the country. I didn't know anyone who'd died in a terrorist attack or a war. I came from a left-wing idealism in America, wherein I still believed that what people really, really want more than anything else is the ability to raise their families with food, housing, and peace.
I didn't understand people who said, "No, they don't want peace. The peace they want would only come about if we (Jews) were not here anymore."
How could that be? How could there really be people who care more about hating us than they do about raising their families in peace?
Yet it's true; there are people like that.
In this debate, I was trying to open this young man's mind -- even if only by a crack -- to the Truth. The Truth is that it isn't black and white. The Truth is that as much as we'd love to put our cultural beliefs onto others, the others have different ideas.
People have different cultures and different idealisms. They have different views of G-d and religion.
To the most extreme, there have been cultures in the past (and maybe the present -- I dunno) that believe in cannabilism. It's a fact.
There are also cultures that believe in peace -- even to the detriment of themselves.
So if there are those two extremes, what's to say there aren't a million other extremes? Including a group of people who believe that the only way to live is to be a particular religion, and if you're not part of that religion, you should die?
The young man is still idealistic and naive. Good for him. I gave him a bracha that he should have the same amount of passion in discovering the Truth, and I invited him to make aliyah and fight the system from within. At least for now, he declined.
***
It's easy being an armchair politician when you're not living on the front lines. I'm blessed with living in Jerusalem, and still we live on the front line of terrorist attacks. I cannot even begin to imagine what it's like to live in Sderot, where the rocket attacks are daily, sometimes tens of times a day.
And that's why I don't get it... if my stupid government keeps pulling back from strategic military bases, and negotiating with terrorists, the front lines are going to multiply exponentially.
What a crazy country...
posted by M at 09:13
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