If he has never heard this question being asked, perhaps no one is interested in the concept.
Sometimes the inarticulateness of a concept reveals its deepest meanings. They are individual for everyone and the response if purposely left open. I got a lot out of this piece. It is sad and funny and reveals an intense frustration, stoicism but in the end, resolve.
I think it is a new style of writing about the issue and I welcome such contributions to the discourse. They take it out of an academic or political ghetto and bring it to what is most intimate about humans, the feelings that we have and the hopes and fears we live with. It is exquisitely human.
It is not an issue in which anyone of any note has any concern. Once israel gives the palestinians the land they need for a viable state, all of the arabic states will ensure they can defend it. Won't they?
Oh dear, this is all such flim flam. As long as the question is posed in the European 'Enlightenment'-derived terms of nationalism, naturally, it is unanswerable. Neither the 'Palestinian nation' nor the 'Arab nation' is equipped to combat the 'Jewish nation', which is precisely why these terms are irrelevant to what is really going on, which is a conflict of religious philosophies.
Religious philosophies? No, it is a conflict about the possession of a physical place. The Zionists have convinced the world that there is a land-based Jewish nationality, and that it needed to settle in the land that other people already lived in. These people had to go because they weren't Jewish. Zionists made a nationalist movement into a religious one, so that they could justify the crimes they committed against other human beings who were guilty of living on the land they themselves coveted.
The Palestinians have a right to that land because they are a geographic nation. They are not "gathered from the corners of the earth" or even from the Arab Nation. They are the inhabitants of that land, and it has nothing to do with what they believe philosophically or religiously.
For the record, the more I read Zaki's piece, the more it is becoming like a worm entering into my soul. There are so many metaphores there that are pertinent and important. I believe it is far from "flim flam", but rather is addressing the moral and human centre of the entire issue: someone coveting that which belongs to another, and the usurped party wanting justice and retribution. Wanting "fairness", for as faulty a concept as Zaki claims it to be, it is something that eats at the soul when it is lacking.
well, it's written in a very louche way, but if that turns you on, fair enough.
However, I do disagree with your analysis, which holds that the nation is some sort of primal analytical given, and everything else, like religion, is superstructural. If that were true, we would be left with a mere social darwinist struggle between nations, since no nation is intrinsically better or worse than any other, and all have usurped the space of previous ones at some point in time (the exact length of time is too trivial to base a political morality upon, as zionists constantly point out, when they accuse other nations of hypocrisy)
Rowan,
"(the exact length of time is too trivial to base a political morality upon, as zionists constantly point out, when they accuse other nations of hypocrisy)"
Rubbish.
This is the zionist in you speaking.
You know no one will swallow that,
except for Israelis.
Circular arguments eminating from your camp as always.
Keep your banal efforts to deconstruct a fine essay.
Cutter:
Thanks again for another illustration in Palestinian diversity and creativity.
Kudos Boulos.
Well, going back in time, we have a series of problems. First and foremost, the confusion between natural migration and population changes vs invasion. In modern times, we must recognise the "nationality" of a person to be where he or she was born. Creating an ethnic State is taking the concept of nation being, "those with the right religion" is something which modernity hasn't really permitted except in the case of Israel.
A lot of people will try to say that Saudi Arabia is the State of the Arabs, and this is a lie. It is not a State for all of the Arabs to come and claim citizenship. There is no such Arab State, nor should there be. If Israel wants to be a theocracy, it still has to take into account the original inhabitants and those who live under its regime. It operates like an apartheid State, and it seems to be oblivious to the pain it has caused to the Palestinians. I find that especially insulting after the tragedy that European Jewish people endured in the Holocaust and under Nazism. How they can turn around and dehumanise and destroy the lives of other people on an ethnic basis is amazing to me. The matter that the rest of the world turns a blind eye, abets and permits it all is unfathomable.
Religion transcends nationality. One can change one's religion, irrespective of one's nationality. One can posit any regional descent group as a 'nation' (e.g. some would call the Welsh a nation, some would not) but given some such definition people are stuck with either being members of it or not being members - whereas they can leave one religion and enter another.
I have no idea what the person who so modestly signs himself or herself 'jesus' is actually trying to say, so I shan't respond to it.
Rowan,
"Religion transcends nationality."
???
You must be a nutter mate.
"I have no idea"
The only sensible string of characters you have typed thus far.
"himself or herself"
Nice touch of the old PC.
You are highly amusing Rowan, go on, say something else.
You seem like a decent chap, orderly, considerate, but when it comes to Palestinians, you are a clown.
How so?
How did an intelligent fellow like you fall folly to such contempt for another culture?
Why do you fear Palestine?
Truth seems to be a taboo subject with you. I know this because enshroud yourself meaningless words.
Don't know there is only love on this plant?
Haven't you been informed?
Let me be the first.
I love you.
jesus, wot a troll
Rowan,
Oh so much love oozing out of your pores.
Yes, I feel it baby.
May be you should stay away from the bridge, or may be you should remove yourself from the realm of fiction.
My feelings for you haven't changed.
I still love you.
Oooh, cut it out jesus!
Your good vibrations are overwhelming me!
They are obviously not uni-directional but broadcast indiscriminately and promisciously!
You wanton Man of Peace!
Love will conquer all Bro!
Walter Raleigh poem -
'As you come from the Holy Land'
(final verse)
'But love is a durable fire
In the mind ever burning
Never sick, never old, never dead
From itself never turning'
joe90,
Your comments (past posts) have been a joy to read.
I love you too!
"Why Should the Palestinians Keep What They Cannot Defend?"
I have read this story several times and am very impressed by it. The question is bottom line essential.
Physically, it is a given that Palestinian defense is ineffective or maybe not. A man from Lebanon who goes by Shibel has documented the strains on the Israeli economy that the intifada has brought about (but at what price, one might add?).
But, what about politically? Educationally? Culturally? Steven Spielberg is directing a movie about Munich. This will be for
this generation what Exodus was to an earlier generation. (There's a post about this at http://www.angryarab.blogspot.com) I also blogged on it earlier.
I've asked this before; there's a lot of money in the Arab world; why no tear jerker for western audiences presenting the Palestinian story?
Why aren't young Arab-Americans volunteering in Congressmens' offices during the summer? Why are the letters that get printed in newspapers usually from just a handful of activists?
Our mobilization efforts are pretty dismal, and there's not much unity among the various Arab groups in the US. I read a story yesterday that Zionist activists were successful in delegitimizing anti-Zionist discourse at Oberlin College. Of course, what is to be expected when Abu Mazen and Jamal Talabani are seen grab assing together trying to maintain decent posture (Abu Mazen was more successful) while sitting on the floor at Fahd's funeral?
The only mileu in which we surpass the Zionists is morally. That's fine if we're prepared to go the way of the Red Indian. Then we need to opt for the words of Chief Joseph: "I will fight no more forever."
The Spielberg film is apparently written by Tony Kushner, whose tastes run to the anti-Zionist side of the spectrum, and the intent--as far as leaks reveal so far--is to portray the moral and psychological cost of blood vengeance as practiced by Mossad. The right-wing of the blogosphere is already up in arms.
Umkhalil,
Glad you liked it.
Your comment is the first that seems directly related to the article.
Dear all,
The words contained therein are equivalent to a conveyer belt. We are not interested in the belt, but rather what the belt is delivering...what?
I should get a grip; I'll leave it in because it amuses me, it'll also provide a neat little base for those of you who have nothing to say about the essay.
Meditating on this question has helped me understand my situation.
I was hoping it would help others. Peoples of all backgrounds, for you see you can substitute Palestinians for X and broaden the scope of the question:
"Why should X keep what X cannot defend?"
Now anyone can relate to the question.
As a Palestinian my natural enemy is zionism.
I don't like having enemies, I wish this were not the case, but, whether I like it or not, I am hated, feared.
Bush and Sharon are colluding to uphold their zionist ambitions.
This means that zionism is now everybodies problem. Palestinians are the first culture in modern history to fall to zionism, and an example to the rest of the world of what will happen to you if you have something that these bullies want, namely, natural resources: water, land, oil, self-esteem, imagination, courage...
Don't you find it strange that all of a sudden countries around the world are preaching democracy. There is a department in the US administration that is "installing" democracies globally. I wonder if there is any connection.
And guess who're the most responsive peoples to the democratisation industry?
Yes, the Palestinians; the most oppressed lot in the region. http://www.lmei.soas.ac.uk/docs/
...sion27April.doc
It's not all doom and gloom, if it's not democracy then its something else. What bothers me is that we have to practice the US model of democracy.
What does that tell us?
My real worry is the growing current of racial unrest that seems to be propagating around the world.
It's wierd I thought, with the internet, people would be closer. I am more foolish than I imagined.
Thank you for taking the time to read and post.
Peace.
As a palestinian, your natural enemy is the Islamic nationalism that demands the death of your children.
Zionism is your best friend. It brought you hospitals, schools, an economy, and long life.
Islamic nationalism brought you death.
"The Conflict" for dummies:
Palestinians never identified themselves selves as such until Jews did so.
Zionists want a land as every people wants ther homeland.
Palestinian Arabs are no weaker or stronger than Palestinian Jews.
Zionists are not stronger but are weaker than Islamic nationalists.
Zionists have had to fight Palestinians and both sides have used terror as a weapon.
Zionists take land, formerly part of the palestinian mandate, most owned by what passes as a government at the time, from which attacks have occurred.
Zionists now have a land, it is known as Israel. The Arabs in the region are denied their nationalistic movement by the Egyptians and jordanians. The Jordanians take their land and no arab complains.
Palestinians want their land back, but first they figure they should attack the Israelis, not the Jordanians and egyptians who have stolen their land. No one can figuire out why.
Palestinians try to take their land back, but fail because they are fighting the wrong people. Rather than fight those that enslave them, the jordanians and egyptians, they fight the ones who give them jobs, hospitals, and schools. Again, no reasonable person can understand this.
Israelis defeat Palestinians. They have no choice, their backs are to the sea. They have nowhere else to go. They clearly can not trust the Germans nor the French nor the United nations.
(last 2 lines: repeat ad nauseum) Makes you sad.
Ibraham,
Why are you so full of contept brother?
I say what I say because it is what I feel.
If you have something to say,
then come right out and say it.
What you just did is cheap.
Be a mench!
x
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