Thursday, December 08, 2005

Co-existing today

The women in my office were gathered together in the reception area yesterday afternoon.

"What's going on"? I wanted to know. I catch bits of their conversations in Hebrew but knew they were "oohing and aahing" over some guy.

"Who are you all looking at?"

"Him." She pointed to a news article. "He's the handsomest man in Jewish education"

We are now holding male beauty contests according to professions?

I turned to the papers and the situation was even more bleak, which is why Dr. Weil recommends news fasts. I should have fasted today.

The Jerusalem Post's front page read - "Palestinian soccer players who played side-by-side with Israelis in a highly publicized peace match last week may face punishment by their soccer association for playing with Israelis during occupation". The idiot who said that was Jamal Zaqout, a senior Palestinian Football Association official from Gaza. And then he had the gall to continue "We are against the normlization of ties (with Israel) and therefore we oppose playing any game with any Israeli team until there will be peace."

While we give "office awards" to handsome men in Jewish education, this guy wins the "shmuck" award in Palestinian education.

Well how do you suppose there will be peace if you don't let Palestinian players interact with Israeli players. Interaction - and I know this from experience - that breaks down barriers and then eventually the walls with it. Don't you all think?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right.

It just proves he does not want peace.

Ze'ev said...

Allan is right, but I will take it one step further. It's not just that the person who said the quote doesn't want peace, the "Palestinians" on the whole are not prepared / willing to live in peace with the Jewish State of Israel, and the sooner we recognize that, the sooner we will be able to take the actions needed to bring true peace to the Jewish State and the region on the whole.

http://israelperspectives.blogspot.com/2005/12/with-friends-like-these-who-needs.html

Unknown said...

You can't glump all "Palestinians" together to say they don't want peace. Most do. Given the opportunity to meet and get to know the other - it works. It really does. But the opportunity is not there for most of us to meet the other. It makes for respect and understanding and takes away the fear that is there now.

Anonymous said...

No, don't believe you...

tzedekah all of you

Ze'ev said...

Jerusalem,

Can you define / describe what exactly the "peace" that you believe most "Palestinians" want would look like?

Anonymous said...

again...

what men DO you admire??

Unknown said...

Ze'ev, Most people just want to travel freely, have jobs, be treated as equals, availablity of good education - that goes for both Jews and Arabs. If we had the responsibility from 1967 of seeing to it that Palestinians received decent education and not inferior infrastructures than Israelis get in everything ranging from education, to housing, to village/town planning, etc., they would not welcome Hamas taking over in their villages and educating their children for free (in "their" way), giving these kids free lunches (because their parents can't afford to feed their kids). But we didn't. We didn't offer to learn about their culture and learn their language. Our mistake. Now we're paying for our mistakes. It's too long a discussion for blog comments....

Ze'ev said...

Jerusalem, if I understand you correctly, you are saying that if only we had offered the "Palestinians" (or if we were to offer today) better services and infrastructure, they would love us and forget all about their national aspirations and belief that this land belongs to them?

Personally, I believe that that is a bit of a condescending way to view the "Palestinians", or the Arabs in general - that they are people whose ideology and belief system are so weak that hey could be bought off with some plumbing, electricity, maybe a house and a car...

granted, that seems to be the case for too many of our Jewish brothers and sisters in America - but I have more respect for the Arabs than that.

I beleive that they want what they feel is rightfully theirs. they wll gladly take whatever it is that you want ot offer them, but at the end ofthe day, they will still view us as thieves, occupiers, infidels...

Unknown said...

Ze'ev - You're right that it is condescending if I thought that "buying them off" would do it. You saw it that way and I see it as "taking care of the people in your land." That wouldn't be all we would need to do but that would have certainly helped way back then.

The Palestinians believe the land is theirs.
The Jews believe the land is theirs. But to quote a friend of mine "if everyone knew that this was only God's land, no one would be fighting over it- we'd have no choice but to share it.

And to quote you -"but I have more respect for the Arabs than that." Great! That's a start. And they, of course, respect Jews that feel the same way you do, strong in their religion, ideology. I am seeing so much in common here - really!

What a shame that we both can't enjoy freely our holy places because of the conflict - visiting Jewish holy cities of Schechem and Hevron is not that simple. And a young Palestinian who lives in the West Bank perhaps 15 minutes away from Al Aqsa cannot get a permit to visit there and has never seen the place in his life. What a pity for both of us.

Ze'ev said...

Jerusalem, it's ironic, that prior to Oslo, Jews were able to go to Shchem, and shop in the Arab Shuk, and Arabs could trave l relatively freely as well.

So much for the Peace Process.

I am all for allowing religious Freedon, but as you say, if we both believe that this Land belongs to us, and they arent willing to compromise o nthis point (and I don't believe that we should be either), then there will never be peace, until one side is able to subdue / subjugate / defeat (or any other word you prefer) the other.

Now, dont get me wrong, in that reality, I am all in favor of preserving the rights of non-Jews throughout the Land of Israel, the only difference would be their complete accpetance of the Right to a jewish State in the Land of Israel, and their inability ot change that reality, whether through bombs or babies.

Unknown said...

Amen