http://semitism.net/2006/08/15/food-court-generals/ Pro-Jewish, Pro-Arab, Pro-Peace Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:32:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.3 http://semitism.net/2006/08/15/food-court-generals/#comment-13179 Steffi Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:38:43 +0000 http://semitism.net/2006/08/15/food-court-generals/#comment-13179 I hope readers are rediscovering semitism.net and reading your fine blogs. I'll do my best to promote it! Meanwhile...this entry reminded me of a talk I heard about a year and a half ago, at our synagogue, by a rabbi from the Israel-based group, Rabbis for Human Rights. (It was not Arik Ascherman -- it was a different rabbi and I forget his name). In any case, he kept stressing the hardships the Israelis suffered because of the suicide bombings. To give him the benefit of the doubt, I think he assumed he was facing an audience that would be hostile, or at least very resistant, to his message, unless he came across as clearly identified with, and sympathetic to, Israel. If he had talked about those Israelis who had lost parents, children, siblings and friends in the bombings, I would not have taken umbrage. Unfortunately, the "terrible" hardships he described involved his teenage daughter and her friends, who could no longer go to cafes in Tel Aviv whenever they wished, or friends and family who had to curtail their mall shopping, or were afraid to go to the movies. I had just returned from a visit to the West Bank where I'd seen elderly people, mothers with young children, and tired people returning from work standing at checkpoints and waiting in the heat and dust for sometimes up to an hour. I'd heard stories from a doctor in Nablus about having his home entered forcibly by IDF soldiers, while his young children cowered in a corner. Etc. etc. etc. -- the point being, that it was awfully hard to work up much sympathy for people whose hardships consisted of not being able to go to a cafe or the mall whenever they felt like it. Unfortunately, even those whose suffering is "legitimate" learn all too often from their experiences to call even more loudly for revenge. What a world we live in! I hope readers are rediscovering semitism.net and reading your fine blogs. I’ll do my best to promote it!
Meanwhile…this entry reminded me of a talk I heard about a year and a half ago, at our synagogue, by a rabbi from the Israel-based group, Rabbis for Human Rights. (It was not Arik Ascherman — it was a different rabbi and I forget his name). In any case, he kept stressing the hardships the Israelis suffered because of the suicide bombings. To give him the benefit of the doubt, I think he assumed he was facing an audience that would be hostile, or at least very resistant, to his message, unless he came across as clearly identified with, and sympathetic to, Israel. If he had talked about those Israelis who had lost parents, children, siblings and friends in the bombings, I would not have taken umbrage. Unfortunately, the “terrible” hardships he described involved his teenage daughter and her friends, who could no longer go to cafes in Tel Aviv whenever they wished, or friends and family who had to curtail their mall shopping, or were afraid to go to the movies. I had just returned from a visit to the West Bank where I’d seen elderly people, mothers with young children, and tired people returning from work standing at checkpoints and waiting in the heat and dust for sometimes up to an hour. I’d heard stories from a doctor in Nablus about having his home entered forcibly by IDF soldiers, while his young children cowered in a corner. Etc. etc. etc. — the point being, that it was awfully hard to work up much sympathy for people whose hardships consisted of not being able to go to a cafe or the mall whenever they felt like it.
Unfortunately, even those whose suffering is “legitimate” learn all too often from their experiences to call even more loudly for revenge. What a world we live in!

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