I was at the local shopping centre yesterday, everything was ‘business as usual’…. Folks were rushing around doing last minute shopping for the oncoming Sabbath meals..
There was talk of the football game two days ago between Jerusalem’s Betar ( the team whose mantra is ‘Death to Arabs’) and Israel’s only Arab team B’nei Sachnin. The game ended without any ugly incidents as is not always the case.
It was your typical Friday… the sun was shining, outdoor tables were full of clients at the local eateries… it looked like a happy day.
About an hour and a half from us things were not like this… people were getting killed, mothers were burying their murdered children, fathers were being rushed to hospitals, Israel was conducting a holocaust right under our noses.
Qassams were landing on the other side of the wall in retaliation …. the Israelis say their bombings were in retaliation to the Qassams…. It’s WAR no matter how you look at it…. but no one was looking…. that’s the problem. No one seemed to care… it’s not affecting them.
BUT IT IS!!! They are paying for it with their money and their sons. Sons that are being killed for what? Olmert’s ego trip? Bush’s roadmap to ‘Peace’? FOR WHAT???
It has to end… this madness cannot continue.
Back to the shopping centre…. I forgot to mention that there were both Israelis and Palestinians there… all going on with their business peacefully. Perhaps my neighbourhood, which I call a ‘pocket of peace’, can lead the way. It can happen, the madness can end. And the madness will end when all of Israel, both the Jews and Palestinians within tell the zionist regime to STOP NOW.
The Americans must tell their government to WITHDRAW SUPPORT NOW!!
Peace can happen if we let it…
Just my random thoughts for the day….
vera said,
March 1, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Tell you what – I already got rid of my priest and religion. THose are the critters that incite discord, hate and separation or humanity.
I started the ball rolling already. How about you? Will you islamics do the same?
I followed the example of my little Latin American country – where immigrants from all over the world – INCLUDING the Middle East, have come and settled – since the early 1900s, and got along VERY well – in peace, in – interacting in business and society.
Will you do that?
Let us know. Write an article about it, would you?
I doubt whether this little message will be published ever.
John Stoker said,
March 1, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I wish it were possible to do more to help the Palestinians… the one thing I do is refuse to buy any product made in Israel. I live in Australia, if a food item or anything has a made in Israel tag it goes back on the shelf. Any Israeli cause or milking of the “we are surrounded by enemies” cry by Israel carries no weight with me any longer.
peacepipe said,
March 1, 2008 at 11:22 pm
vera, who do you mean when you say “will you islamists”?? i am not sure the writer is an islamist. most islamists are peaceful as are most jews and christians. most people get along. it is our leaders who disagree and at our expense! i was born a jew but by no measure agree with israels policies, i am an american and i don’t agree with US government policies. as long as we have government away from the local level we will have empire and war. in this day and age we have iraqis and afghanis living and contributing to america in america living in peace. it is on the global level that cause thsee conflicts.
end war NOW
Marlene Newesri said,
March 1, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Let me tell you what my random thoughts are usually every day.
The citizens of Israel have been enjoying all their Fridays, shopping, and usually what one does on Fridays in Israel while atrocities have long been taking place in their own backyard for years. It has slowly escalated into what it is today, but many of us knew it was coming because this is Israel’s modus operandi. It reminds me of the way German citizens were going about their everyday business while more sinister things were going on in concentration camps, only in those times, we did not have the technology to know things as we do today or as fast. The only time Israel’s Jewish citizens have awareness is when it affects them. And I do not point to all Jewish citizens, but the majority, yes. Peace will only come when justice is pesent and there has never been justice on behalf of the Palestinians nor has there ever been any protection for them.
Yes, Israel is conducting a Holocaust while the entire world looks on or looks away. It’s motto is “we shall do to to the Palestinians what others did to us but we shall be smarter about it and do it subtly with justifications for our actions while we dupe the world into thinking we are pure of heart.”
malalatete said,
March 2, 2008 at 12:51 am
The holocaust continues all over the world. More holocausts are being planned. The Palistene people have been more than unfortunate that Israel has had to continue its holocaust against them to keep hold of its existence & cement the resourses for themselves. While Israel exists there can be no peace in the area.
The families that control the west have made themselves so untouchable that the only way this will end is when the west destroys itself from within.
This has been anticipated by these people and they are already making plans for massive population culling where they get rich in the process.
‘Vera’ is right that the first thing we can all do is ditch religion in all its forms, the whole idea of religion especially the abrahamic three, is totally abhorrant and against all decent human values.
Marlene Newesri said,
March 2, 2008 at 2:12 am
I would address this to Vera. What makes you think that such harsh criticisms are made by “Islamics.” Did it ever occur to you that perhaps some of the people posting are not Muslims. It is evident to me that you have for some reason made this a Muslim issue which it is not, and for your information, not all Palestinians are Muslims.
Israel is not like your country. Your country is obviously a state of all its citizens and not a state of one particular identity wheras in Israel, it works as a state of the Jews and not a state of all its citizens. In your country, immigrants can come from all over the world, whereas in Israel, only people who meet the racist criteria of who is Jewish have the right of return to Israel although most Jews never came from there, while the indigenous people of the land, the Palestinians, who were ethnicallhy cleansed from their homes, cannot return because they are not Jews. Israel will not permit it even though UN resolutions and international law support this right. I would hope that your country was not created atop the homes and villages of people who once lived there and were disppossed.
If you Vera were a religious person and converted to Judiaism, then you would have the right to become a citizen of Israel and be treated far better than any Palestinian citizen who has lived there all his or her life.
You have much to learn.
j.c. said,
March 2, 2008 at 3:56 am
BOYCOTT iSRAEL, iSRAELI goods and leisure travel to iSRAEL !!!
http://www.inminds.com
BOYCOTT Starbucks !!!
http://www.petitiononline.com/sb2002/petition.html
READ how our tax monies go to ONLY ONE group !!!
http://www.petitiononline.com/kashruth/petition.html
Here’s how they PARASITIZE Everyone …
http://www.coastalpost.com/04/06/22.htm
And SCREW everyone !
http://www.zionismexplained.org
Get the Truth about zIONISM !!!
http://www.ziopedia.org
DOWN with zIONISM !!!
http://www.rys2sense.com
LEARN the Truth about zIONISM
http://www.abbc.net
annemarie said,
March 2, 2008 at 4:34 am
The (Jewish) Holocaust is the best-selling genocide on the planet.
The Holocaust! The Holocaust! The Holocaust! Why you anti-semites! The Holocaust…Get your Holocaust books/movies here, there, and everywhere….
In other news:
Ghettos; The separation Wall (aka security fence, fence!); id-cards for Palestinians (in place of tattoos?); checkpoints; tractors bulldozing houses and people; collective (punishment) bombing of villages, civilians; property theft; forced emigration into refugee camps of the native population; and on and on… for over 60 years…
The parallels are too many to ignore, and thus…
Israelis have become the modern equivalent of the nazis. Palestinians, the modern holocaust victims.
Religious or secular, most Jews still regard themselves as a race, which they are not. And the majority of Israeli/Jews are not Semites either. Most Jews also regard themselves as chosen or superior. Delusional much?
I once believed the entire (exaggerated, embellished, propagandized) stories about the Jews, their holocaust, their innocence, their abject suffering, etc. And as a result had much sympathy and empathy for them; also felt that they were entitled to a home, a safe-haven in Israel (historic Palestine), etc. etc.
Not any more. After all that I have learned, all I can express is utter disgust with Israel and Israelis, and I have chronic holocaust fatigue.
Look at the news, and then tell me who are the real baby killers in Palestine, Lebanon, Sabra-Shatilla…and who were the real instigators of the 6 Day War…and who the actual terrorists were/are hint: Irgun et al…
Never again… will I accept without question as I once did. Never again!
Alan Hutchinson said,
March 2, 2008 at 5:18 am
Stoker:
Here in the U.S., my wife and I do the same thing. If an item is made in Israel, we avoid it like it was the original source of the Plague. We, too, would like to do more to help the Palestinians but to attempt to do so is fraught with potential unhealthy consequences.
It is unbelievable that Israel, with the aid of so many in our 2%-2.5% (probably a higher percentage if you could count the Mossad agents roaming freely around the countryside) minority population, terribly misinformed religious groups, corrupted elected representatives in Congress, a demented President surrounded by an imcompetent Administration, and etc., can continue to perpetuate the myth to the majority that the peaceful and loving country of Israel is under attack and threatened with extinction by all those nasty Muslims surrounding them.
I remember from the 1980’s that wonderful little Palestinian, Yousef Badr (my employer’s PR rep and liason with the Saudi community), whom I liased with during my first job in Saudi Arabia: a smaller, chain smoking, just as funny bald headed version of comedian Don Rickles, who softly talked without obvious anger or hatred (Inshallah, what can we do?) about his and his family’s physical expulsion from family land (land legally held for generations) by the Israelis in the late 1940’s and the murders of grandfather, uncle, and others who tried to prevent the confiscation of their lands. Sadly, I was too naive, since changed I assure you, at the time to comprehend the sorrow and tragedy of his message about the 500,000 or so Palestinians who were ejected from their lands in a murderous campaign as nasty as that of Hitler’s treatment of the Jews. Sad, sad, sad.
But to Yousef, if he is still alive, those ejections must appear to him a terribly tame when compared with what Israel is and has been doing to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Vierotchka said,
March 2, 2008 at 11:38 am
peacepipe, what does Afghanistan’s currency have to do with it all? Indeed, the people and all things from Afghanistan are termed Afghan, but the currency is called Afghani. Thus, an Afghan will spend his Afghanis whenever he goes shopping, as will all Afghans living in Afghanistan.
The Prophet said,
March 2, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Yes we can have peace but only if we address the issue of what is creating all this human conflict and wars. Follow the money and see who is making money off all this human devastation. The answer is the bankers. The ultimate power in the banking business is the “city of London” financial district which finances and promotes human conflict all over the world because financing human conflict and wars on both sides is the most profitable business activity any banker can engage in. We need to arrest the Rothschilds, Oppenheimers, Warburgs and every other banking family, confiscate their criminally obtained massive fortunes and change the world’s legal and banking systems so it is illegal and unprofitable to make money by making war.
annemarie said,
March 2, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I agree what the Prophet said. Get radical people. Radical means get to the root of a thing (including the root meanings of words). Don’t think this latter point is pointless. It certainly isn’t. Words and their meanings are important. Educate yourselves. And help each other. We ALL have been too divided for far too long, by people who are the most lost among us. Stop allowing them to divide us. We are ALL the same, all from the same source.
No one is better than me. And I am better than no one.
Though I don’t see tackling this generation-old money matrix head on, per se, as the Prophet described. Rather it can be done, over time, by individuals all over the world who live conscientiously all the time, e.g. stop buying (into) the system. Remove yourselves from the wastefulness, the profligate waste each and every day. Live as naturally as you can. Use the economic (purchasing) power that you all have. Use it wisely.
There are others who can do more and different things, and some already do while others don’t (yet). Support those who do, and spread the words and ideas. etc. etc.
Peace. For every one… A better world IS possible. If we want it, so BE the change you want to see…