Over the course of the past 2 weeks we have witnessed more than a crisis unfolding in the Middle East. We have seen the beginning of a Revolution. Not a Revolution as in a popular uprising against leaders who claim to be related to a holy man written about in a gospel 1500 years ago. Not a Revolution where the corporate system that controls these nations is overthrown and the natural resources are put to generate wealth, technological, agricultural and medical advancements for a people that live in squalor. This is a different type of Revolution. Not a Revolution where the people question the legitimacy of their kings and princes who are educated in the West and only know their own country through the manufactured blind eyes of a young Siddhartha. Truthfully though the innocence characterized in Buddha's early view of the world cannot be attributed to those that turn a blind eye, those design war and those that hide its true nature to the public. The type of people that will stall for peace and a ceasefire to give the Israeli Army time to bomb more of Lebanons infrastructure creating more civilian death that includes children which are considered collateral damage. Collateral damage, thats an interesting way of putting it, I wonder if people would ever refer to the individuals killed in the Pentagon on 9/11 as collateral damage since there were non military personal also. What about those who died horribly as their world crumbled around them in the melting and exploding towers? Should they be in anyway held responsible for the actions of their government, whether or not the cause of the terrorist act was a reprisal or a preemptive strike upon our sovereign land?
Discussing Middle Eastern policy is never easy. Everyone has a bias of their own. While we always hear about the bias and hatred of Arabs towards Jews I have very rarely in my life seen anything that would allude to the hate that some Israelis have for Arabs. I have never heard of Racism in Israel on FOX news or on MSNBC. I guess its just the magical holy land where people dont think like that. As if no one has ever died there for having a difference race or religion. Even when we discuss Israel and bring up things like the Balfour declaration and the fact that Jews almost had their homeland in many places including Argentina instead of Palestine it creates a division. I find people that firmly believe in Democracy, in Revolution against the system, that believe in the sad reality that this government lies to us and proliferates war for profit are torn. I see journalists who are fed up with the Bush regime rally behind Israel under pressure from their bosses or their own personal heritage. I see Democrats in the Congress and Senate as the biggest supporters of Israel in a war that was started by an incursion into what is now their territory. While Hezbollah has built hospitals and schools, fed a starving population, and have done some good in the community to gain political support their military wing has continued often at odds with the government to fight without the support of the Lebanese Army against what it and many other people see as an illegitimate Israeli government in Palestine. Their incursion and attack in defense of Palestine can be condemned by the international community but not used as the rationale behind the destruction of an entire nation.
The other day I turned on the TV and saw Hillary Clinton looking desperate as ever to claw worms of unlikely political support out of the deep earth. She made the statement in front of the UN that Israels values were the values of America. I thought about that for a moment, and being a student of history I turned the pages back to how they both were the bastard children of the British Empire, conceived by white people in Europe while the land was still populated with the indigenous people. How they had conquered the land and the natural resources that they reign over now by using The Word of God. How they displaced people and uprooted homes to make room for more people that looked like them from far away. I though about how they both imported Blacks to work for them and then to fight for them, (Ethiopian Jews.) Didn't they both supported Apartheid firmly? And even when it became unpopular to do so overtly they did with their corporations. Haven't they both always portrayed themselves as tortured fighters, survivors in a land where people did not want them? As if they somehow belonged there even though there was civilization there since before they came into existence as a people or a religion. And sadly enough there has never been anything but arrogance instead of atonement for the Palestinians and Native Americans who once lived on that land, instead we just hear lies about their lack of existence and stories past through generations about their savagery.
Please do not mistake my questions and contemplation for some radical hatred. I know many people suffering on both sides of this conflict. It is sad when a person cannot question Israel's domestic and foreign policy without being called Anti Semitic. After all I think that a white American can have issues with illegal immigration, with gang violence and job placement without hating Latinos, Africans and Asian people. And if that is possible, then why is it impossible for me to question a government that has a history of violence whether its on the receiving end or if it is the bringer of such. I have no superficial or condescending sympathy for the genocide and discrimination that Jewish have been forced to endure. But rather I have true empathy and understanding for their struggle to survive in a world of persecution, genetically recessive traits, and where people are more than ever turning away from conventional forms of Judeo-Christian religion. You see my people, through out Latin America and Africa had a Holocaust and our people date back to before Biblical times as well. We see the evidence of the African holocaust in the history of America and every time we pass a black man in the street who doesnt know where his last name came from. And since Black and White people werent married when they were slaves but rather women were raped, when a Black person has a generational history of being light skinned we see the failed attempt at ethnic cleansing. But I humbly beg that you all remember that we were not beaten by the military might of the white race, we were beaten an enslaved through deceit, disease and trickery. I always say it with conviction because it is conveniently never spoken of, the greatest lie told of our people is that we came quietly, that we accepted slavery that we did not fight it until the bitter end with all of our heart and soul.
And what about the Mayan people of Central America (El Salvador, Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize) lived through what they described as 4 Apocalypses. They had the recorded the history of their people on Codexs (similar to Egyptian Papyrus), for well over a thousand years. Until the Spaniards, deeming it blasphemy burned it in the 1500s. They burned their detailed history that supposedly included stories of great earthquakes, floods, meteor showers, creatures that are now extinct and man like visitors from the stars. Not that I necessarily subscribe to any of these things mentioned but it would have been an interesting read at least and at best a window into a world before our culture was destroyed and replaced with Catholicism. The history of a people is important and without it the people find themselves confused and searching for an identity with such longing that they will beg for acceptance. They are willing to suffer humiliating indignities just to gain the right to pledge allegiance and die for a country that has with only a handful of debatable exceptions never fought for a cause that directly benefited them. (For every instance you can bring up where America has taken on the white mans burden to help free Black and Latino people I can have an ace of real reasons for their involvement that trump that familiar soap opera good guy character they play on TV.) That said, I can point to the fact that during the first 100 years of the colonization of in South America an estimated 120 million people died of war, disease, famine and a variety of unnatural causes directly related to the invasion. European scholars and apologists make this number, much lower, somewhere around 60 or 80 million But even so, take the average 100 million people over the course of 100 years. 1 million people a year for a hundred years. We know what a holocaust is, and anyone who denies that claim is either not a student of history or a convenient liar. For the next 500 years our nations would live under European and American rule a nation of Native and African peoples ruled by White Latinos who spoke our language but have always looked down upon us. We were experiencing what Black people in the South did in the 50s and 60s in South and Central America in the 70s and 80s with the CIA sponsored coups and the disappearing of thousands of Revolutionary students.
You know I talk a lot about history and bring up White peoples role in it and some white people get offended. If you think Im preaching hate its because you hate what Im preaching, this is historical fact, and I will not change history to make someone feel better about the legacy of their people. At the same time I dont speak these words with hatred, because I have met many white people in my travels that are more Revolutionary than the majority of Black and Brown people, men and women who are willing to fight and die for this cause of exposing a society that hides its classism by altering history and creating more racism.
I see it as a clear indication of how primitive our society is that we are in the year 2006 arguing over someones right to exist. Thats like arguing over a womans right to not be raped. White people are never going to leave America, even though they are not indigenous to the land they stole, they are not all going to pack up and go back to where they came from. And by the same token, the majority of Israelis who are Eastern European and Russian Jews and maybe not the original Hebrews, are not going to take their belongings and return to the misery of the places they left. No matter what we say now and forever thats just not going to happen. Once people who question Israels existence accept that and move on, they will find a reality on the other side that will liberate the method in which they may empower their own people economically and spiritually and create a homeland for themselves that does not monetarily support the people who oppress them. I do believe in Israels right to exist peacefully and if that can be true for them then all the more reason for the Palestinian State to exist, being in full control over its land in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. I believe that a people who have been written out of history by several conquerors and who have been the victims of an occupation are due to receive the recognition and empowerment so that they can organize their own lives. People look at Palestine as some small terrorist state, as if they are not fighting for their own very survival as well. Keep in mind this is a government that whether the US likes it or not elected its own leadership. Which should be incredibly embarrassing for the US media as well as the State Department, this Administration and its puppet Emperor who talks about building democracy in The Middle East. And who are its allies besides Israel? The King of Jordan, The King of Saudi Arabia, The Kings and Princes of Kuwait, UAE, and the cheerful military dictatorship of Pakistan. These are a collective coalition of totalitarian regimes who have a pass for their actions in the Western media because of their strategic US Military bases and ties to our corporate economy. Even though they themselves have horrible human rights records that include election fraud, summary execution, torture and in many instances treating their women worse than the portrayal of the Taliban.
Some might ask ourselves how we got here, but let us not forget that the Arab people are a conquered people as well who have had their contributions to the world seemingly written out of history. For example when we open books about Science and Math we just see white faces and European names and but some of the very foundation of Mathematics, Algorithms and Algebra (Al-habra: The Solving of Problems by Reduction.) belong to the proud people of that region. If you read the history of Arabic influence over the creation of the Math which is the building block of all of our technology it shows that they opened a dimension of equations that had was beyond the understanding of the glorified Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. It is sad to see that many are spoon fed versions of Islam by a group of ruling elite who see the ignorance of the poor as a political tool to use for their own personal discretion. (More Classism people) The Sunni, Shiite conflict for example originates in the early struggle of who was deemed fit to take control of Islam and be the successor, the decedents of the Prophet Mohammed or simply his devoted followers. From the moment that the Prophet died, (peace be unto him) this argument was never about the purity of Islam or sanctity of religion, this was about a struggle for power. Proof of this is seen in the fact that the Caliphs fought and killed each other the way the Kings of Judea did and the Popes of the post Roman era did all done to slaughter their competition. Because belief is power, and religion is the window through which people see the world without ever looking outside for themselves
RememberTruth is subjective, but honesty is not.
I can understand a people wish to defend themselves and launching a retaliatory strike at someone who incurred into their border is something that you MUST forget your bias on either side and accept as a reality any of us would undertake. But something you have to look beyond your race, religion and political allegiance, is the difference in between a retaliatory strike and destroying the infrastructure of an entire nation. There are some despicable people that live in America whom we give a voice to with Freedom of Speech, they have strong ties to the Republican Party and the Right Wing of this government. They are violent and blatantly racist, they are religious fundamentalists who believe that a woman doesnt have the right to have an abortion even if shes raped or is the victim of incest. If they were to go to another country, (which they do in a way with the sponsoring of Eugenics programs in Africa and Asia promoting sterilization) and launch a military strike. We would understand having to have to address that in our own society. We would have to deal with the consequences of their misguided nature and although we can try to explain their actions in our wish to bring light to all the injustices of other people it doesnt do anything but cloud the argument. There would be no justification though seen by America for that foreign nation to attack our sovereign land, to bomb our nations capital, to bomb our hydro electric plants and emergency channels of communication. To continuously massacre our people with weapons that we have no defense for in response to the actions of those few would be deemed inhumane by us. To bomb power stations, banks (while some have ties to Hezbollah, some have never been proved to have any links), bomb television and radio networks that call for the evacuation of the people and to not allow the UN to administer aid to a part of the region that has been the most affected. I can recall too many times when I have seen the Israeli government not allow UN inspectors in once they have bulldozed or bombed installations. There is logic in defending oneself but the massively disproportionate civilian death indicates a flaw in that logic. Because if the response is an over extended counter measure that shows the force of an able bodied and well armed IDF an obvious means of intimidation being deterrent to future attacks. Then what will be of the future after such a statement is made? When the next generation whose seeds of hatred are being planted and watered as we speak come to grow, how will you speak to them of adopting peace?
As you read this now American made Israeli jets bomb from 20,000 ft in the sky down upon their selected areas and while they claim to only target military structures there is a collective punishment of the people that are being attacked. When you destroy someones home, their schools, bridges, and kill families, you are not fighting terrorism anymore, but you have become the very force of human nature that you condemn. When you mark numbers and letters on refugees arms (as has been done in the past) in the prison camps they are kept in, you are repeating a cycle of hatred that was once imposed upon you. A Revolution I told you before is not always a positive thing, it is sometimes a blood war, a cycle with no purpose but to enrich people and distract the masses from a larger power struggle. In this instance we find a Revolution, by that definition, the coming full circle of and the continuation of a corrupted movement. Meaning that in 10 or 15 years from now some child from Palestine or Lebanon will board some bus in Israel and it will explode, or there will be a bomb somewhere in a civilian area such as there was one dropped this evening in Beirut. America and its allies will look at that as an act of terror. A completely unexplainable violent outburst that is in no way of course related to the occupation or what happened those years earlier when his or her family was killed and whatever future they had was simply destroyed and their justifiable anger with no outlet quickly soured. Only this time all the parties will be forced to drink from the poisoned well of hatred that has festered. I will pray for peace tonight, for the Children of Palestine, of Lebanon and the innocent Israelis that are searching for peace. These children that are the innocent victims of politicians and the statements they so often make with other peoples lives rather than their own. The United States claims to be holding out for a lasting peace, continuing to hurl more accusations at Iran and Syria, while neglecting the political ground they are losing. They are fully aware of this though, for this war is not being fought to be won but to be exploited and prolonged to the benefit of the beast. There are dead children burning in the streets of Lebanon, you need no further proof of a new world order other than this is allowed to happen, and that some of you are so oversaturated with propaganda that you try to find excuses for it.
I wrote this quickly and in the hopes that someone else out there will look into the history of the region that I didnt go into as much detail as I would have liked to. Please go and educated yourself about the past, and look at both sides of the conflict instead of just listening to biased relatives or a news media controlled by a vested interest.
The Middle Passage continues to be structured.
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I created this blog for open discussion about all things related to the middle east please feel free to leave personal experience and respect other peoples opinions even if they differ from your own. All hateful and racist messages will be deleted.