Vision One:
an israeli volunteer and a palestinian farmer working together during the olive harvest.
volunteers from rabbis for human rights (rhr) help farmers in the north plant trees on land that is now stranded between the wall and the green line.
Vision Two:
settler children abusing a Palestinian woman while an Israeli soldier looks on
masked Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmers with baseball bats
I was moved emotionally this morning after looking at Anna's web page.
Usually I am a cynical, cold hearted bastard, and my blog has always taken the view of realpolitik - what is best for the United States and us, its citizens.
But the human factor, the emotion, the feeling, cannot be denied.
After all, that is what makes us human.
So, which picture set is the true face of Israel?
Some background to the pictures.
The first two pictures are from Anna Balzer's site. Per Mr. Weiss blog article profiling her, "I first heard about "Anna in the Middle East" in July from my friend Andrea Whitmore, a Christian activist in Kansas City. "You have to meet Anna, she's glorious and beautiful," Whitmore said. I looked up her website: Anna Baltzer is a young Jewish Columbia graduate who has utterly thrown herself into The Issue. She's lived in Palestine, written a book bearing witness, and now travels the country giving talks on how Israel gobbles land and destroys Palestinian human rights."
Anna's webpage is here, annainthemiddleeast.com
People like her even get to me, a hardened cynic.
While I, a coward, blog - write some words on the internet - and call it a day, people like her, peaceful activists, show me that there is hope for the human race, that there are people out there who are... heroes.
There are more pictures on Anna's site - well worth a look.
The other two pictures are from google images, with keyword settlers.
The one in which a small Jewish kid and his older girl accomplice, kick and abuse that Palestinian woman - scenes like this are repeated over and over.
(I am happy as an American that my country made Israel number 1 recipient of my tax payer "aid" money - money well spent, America).
The picture of the masked thugs assaulting a Palestinian farmer has a bit of a backstory behind it.
Very short video, please watch it.
I did not know whether this video was a Palestinian propaganda scam, a public relations scam. You see, I was somewhat ignorant of the realities of life for the Palestinians in Israel.
I wanted proof - and here it is.
The shocking video is here, on Ha'aretz, alongside a short article giving background to the story.
Looks legitimate, wouldn't you agree? The bruises on the old woman sold it to me.
So, I repeat my question.
Which set of pictures, which vision will come true?
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Which one is the true face Israel?
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1 comment:
Dostoevsky once wrote that one should not judge a nation by how low it could fall, but by how high it could soar. I like this even if that does not answer your question.
I would say that "Isarel" is one thing, and the Israelis another. Israel is an abject racist country which, sooner or later, will have to give up its racist dream of an ethnically pure society maintained by the combined use of brute violence and lies. The Israelis are just like any other people caught in a moment in history which is particularly difficult and which requires tremendous feats of personal courage and integrity to "swim against the current". Such moments happen in the history of any nations and only a minority typically shows the humanity and courage to say "no!" to the horrors the majority commits. It is the Jew Yehuda Bauer who wrote Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator.
And above all, Thou shalt not be a bystander. I think that voices like Bauer's (or Finkelstein's, or Atzmon's and manh others) will be heard and I am *sure* that, with time, their humanist views will prevail. The beginning of the end for the racist ethnically pure Israel began in 2006 when the presumably "invincible" Tsahal got beaten up by about 1000 Hezbollah operators. This took out the "force" element of the Zionist equation. The Wall took out the "lies" element out. It is only a matter of time now before the entire edifice comes tumbling down.
Cheers,
VS
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