I think a number of people misinterpreted what I was trying to say yesterday.
Based on some of the commentary, many people are mostly concerned with the pictures and how horrible it is that children are signing bombs, and the impression i get is that they feel i'm arguing that this is ok.
What i was trying to say in my blog yesterday, was not so much about the pictures, but more about some of the commentaries I was seeing about the pictures.
I agree - it's horrible. Children should not hate that much. Whether they are justified, taught, or creative enough to come up with it on their own (which knowing children would not surprise me in the slightest - although that doesn't excuse the adults that condoned it) was not what I was trying to address.
Please, go back and read a number of the comments made on the other blogs about those pictures. What was MOST upsetting to me were the generalizations about "religious hatred" being taught, and the concept of things being a religious war. That is truly what bothered me the most.
The truth is the middle east is so screwed up I don't think anyone really understands everything that is happening. (that includes all of the governments involved as well.) I disagree that Israel is a bully. Yes they have one of the biggest and most efficient armies in the world, and yet are such a small country. However, I can't blame them for being prepared for what they see as the inevitable conflicts and attacks. But that is my opinion. nothing more.
Opinions are just that, opinions, and people need to be able to discuss them calmly and rationally and in an ideal world, be open to the other person's ideas. Take them in, think about them, and if there's disagreement calmly explain the points.
I think we all get a little too worked up over things, and if we feel attacked (even if that isn't the intention of our counterparts) we will fight back.
(and yes i'm segueing here.)
I urge everyone, to please try and be aware of what you are saying and how you are saying it and realize that if the other person starts yelling to you or at least responding in an agitated manner, to stop and think about how you've made your comments to determine if maybe, JUST maybe the other person could have construed it as attacking and aggressive. The other person may just be a nut job, or nervy, or an aggressive personality, but just maybe they felt they had reason, and your tone was misinterpreted. I think if we all just relax for a minute, and stop talking over one another and think about what we are all saying, things could possibly be improved...
Think - don't react. (we're not chemical experiments after all ;) )
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4 comments:
To be honest Ilanna, I saw comments on other blogs ripping into Jews, Israel etc. for those pictures and in my mind, using those pictures (and I'll still say propaganda photos -- maybe not meant to be such but have now a life of their own) to spit out some hidden hate and simmering anti-semitism.
IMO
I have to agree with some of what Marybishop has said, and with the sentiments about letting temper get the upper hand. After all, isn't the latter a good part of the reason the world is having these kinds of issues? Misinterpretation is rampant, and a lot of it is purposeful "I don't like what you said/did... even though I didn't hear what you said/did... experience (opinion, others, etc.) tells me that whatever you/do say is wrong in my eyes."
To a large extent that is the definition of hating someone/thing - being unable to see that everything has positive along with negative.
I too have to wonder if the opinions of the bloggers would have been the same if those had been Palestinian children or Lebanese children signing the ordinances. And I have to further wonder if anyone who looked at those pictures researched them a bit further to discover those little girls are from Kiryat Shmona - a settlement in the Golan on the Lebanese border that sees regular shelling, invasions over the border, etc. even in so-called "peace-time". Do I condone it? No. Can I understand it... on some levels yes.
Perhaps it is mixing cultural metaphors here, but how can you judge until you have walked a mile in their moccassins?
Excellent advice - think, don't react. I tend to hesitate to side with one or another, for all my personal ties to Israel, for I feel there is an awful lot of propaganda being spread about on both sides. Either way, it pains me that people can't live and let live. On either side. Militant radicalism is just bad in whatever form - judaism, islam, or christianity.
honestly Mary - i think they are afraid. And I can't entirely blame them. I remember after 9/11, the mosques near my mother being very quick to hang american flags all over their compound etc to show they supported the US and not the muslim extremists. But I think a lot of the peaceful muslims are either a) afraid to be lumped in with the bad or b) don't want to become what they are fighting in the first place...
but i agree - i wish the non extreme versions of the fanatics would comeout of the wood work and condemn those that are giving them a bad name.
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