Friday, August 18, 2006

I Say Hizbollah, You Say Hezbollah

No matter how you parse it, the Lebanese are into Hizbollah.

Or is it Hezbollah?

There is a faction of Arabs that want Israel to disappear. And the leader of Iran does have a point, “If the Holocaust problem was in Europe, why don’t the Jews have a place there?”

And then there is the understandable Zionist thing going on about the homeland. Stubborn, hard working Jews are modern, happening people and they laid claim with the help of Merry Old England. Fine.

But all histories and grudges aside, Israel is a nation recognized by the world. And truly, this really is quite a tiny bit of sand we're talking about.
Why not just let it be?

It seems like that would be too easy. Furthermore, it appears to the average eye that there is an Arab culture of discontent and war, even if it’s just a subculture. And Arabs all get it. And so they embrace, in their two-faced way, Hizbollah (Hezbollah?). And no matter what the leaders say, we all just have to admit that they are lying. They will not chase Hezbollah (Hizbollah?) away. Because no matter how funkyfucked they are, they are “one-of-us”. Oh, and they have a lot of cash.

I hate clans. Ethnicity. All of it.

My opinion? Why can’t both teams drop their precious traditions and resentments and just live together? And why do they all have to identify so strongly with their cultures and their religions? Or am I just a naïve American fool for thinking this way?

Give me atheist mutts any day.

2 comments:

Simon said...

It comes down to religion. How can you expect people to behave reasonably when their belief undermines reason. When people are taught their god created everything a few thousand years ago and that evolution is the work of devils trying to destroy your belief, what can you say?

This Arab-Israel war grabs all the media attention whilst it is relatively minor. Few casualties, in comparison to most wars. Why is it such a big deal to everyone? Millions die in Africa and no-one blinks an eye.

Rebecca Waring said...

Religion is bad, no doubt about it. But what really struck me about the interview with Ahmadinejad is that I sort of liked him. Which scares me. Or at least I didn't distrust him any more than I do Bush. He is right about one thing - the Bush Administration does talk down to him and his country. He was elected after all. And what he said was no different than what we say - just the other side of the coin. We are scared of them. They are scared of us. I don't trust him not to use terrible weapons against us or Israel. On the other hand, I don't trust us not to use terrible weapons against Iran. And we have more of them. So his feelings are justified.