ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog

I know this might offend you, and I want to make clear that I feel sorry for the people who die and that suicide bombers are evil and wrong, it has to be said that the 'fence' Israel is building is not good and what is worse: palestinians, civilians, who live at the 'wrong' side of the fence, are forced to move out of their houses. Now, I don't know but that remembers me of a war in Bosnia several years ago...

Frans, I'm not going to get into a political argument here. Suffice to say that from a far, it's easy to see everything as black and white. Oh, and the war in bosnia is *nothing* like this one. See, Israelis don't go into arab villages, raping,pillaging and burning everything in sight, killing whatever happens to be infront of them. We don't bomb busses with school children, nor do we go into restaurants and bomb ourselves inside. We *do* make a point of sniping off those who send people to do this to us. Can you guess who *is* doing this?

Roy,

Our prayers are with you and your fellow Israelis. The notion that the proper response to the building of a defensive wall is to murder innocent men, women, and children is simply inexcusable. I can only imagine what it must be like to live under that threat every day, and I hope that there will come a day when this is no longer necessary.

As for Frans, perhaps he should consider that if it weren't for the stream of Palestinians sneaking into Israel to blow themselves up along with innocents, the fence would be unnecessary. Perhaps those who are displaced should do something about *that* instead of complaining about how wronged they are. At the very least, I'd like to see critics of the fence (including my own government) offer some more constructive solution than once again criticizing Israel for defending its citizens (and in a non-violent fashion, no less).

AS IF:

A suicide bomber struct the port city of Baltimore this morning, killing 931 people and leaving another 1,960 people injured. Among the dead; 147 children.

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I am very sorry that the world and many in America do not see this mornings events in Haifa in such a relative light. The American psyche is callous to the thought of 19 people being killed simply because the death toll on 9/11 was so staggering. What Americans fail to equate in their mind is the difference in population.

I have no doubt in my mind that if such events were happening here in the states that the question would not be whether or not to expel Arafat; but long we should wait until we expel him from the planet.

I grow more and more weary of the administration in America who aspouses a hard-line against terrorism but ignores the most organized and deadly terror groups in this world. I had great hopes that Mr. Bush would truly take this fight to the doorsteps of people like Arafat but it is quite obvious that there is a double standard.

I have wondered for a long time how you have this seemingly "normal" life from what we see in your blog when we read and hear about these events weekly. Possibly you are not in the middle of it. Of course, one never gets used to that - how is it humanly possible? I cannot even imagine. We lived for a short while with that fear of suddenly having daily attacks after 9/11 on u.s. soil but it just never happened. We are so incredibly fortunate not to have to live like that.

I think of this frequently when I read your blog.

Julie. My life seems normal because most people here do live a normal life. As normal as possible, I mean. I usually don't write about these things because:
- It makes makes me too sad to write about it
- It's is not what I opened this weblog
- If I let it change my way of life, they have won.

We keep hearing on the news that in that explosion about 5 kids were killed. Entire Families were killed together today! It's awuful. The feeling is so sad it cannot be expressed with words. I simply couldn't not write about it.

The reality of the situation in your country never really touched me until I met a girl from Isreal last year. She went home a month after we met and suddenly every mention of a bombing struck a nerve with me. And those mentions seem to come every day.
I have no way of forming an opinion of right and wrong in the situation, I can only believe that every side has to be wrong in things like this or they would otherwise end sooner. I know better than to assume that there is an easy answer for something this large and horrible, but I pray that the answer comes soon.
The tragedy of these things is that those who suffer and those who cause the suffering are so rarely the same people.

Roy- All points understood and as I would have expected.

I appreciate your thought that "This is Israel and were tough." Kind of reminds me of the stories I heard about the British during WWII. And no, I wasn't there. I am only 36.

Wally

Roy, hope you & family stay safe ...

Such events are tragic when they happen anywhere, any time. Just to remind everyone that there is another side to all this:
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/index.html

IE: That page does not show an accurate portrait of things. It is intentionally taking things out of context, and is not meant to bring "peace". Peace occurs when both sides understand their actions. Example:

"1 Israeli home has been destroyed by Palestinians and 2,202 Palestinian homes have been completely destroyed (14,436 partially destroyed) since September 29, 2000."

Gee, I wonder. Could it be that those were homes of suicide bombers? Is there a graph that shows the number of Israelis that got on a Palestinian school bus and blew them selves up vs. the other side? and then on of restaurants .. or discos..

"The Israeli unemployment rate is 10.4%, while the Palestinian unemployment is estimated at 37-67%."

Is there a graph that shows unemployment there before and after the intifada started?
the Palestinian unemployment was much better before the last intifada started. Is it any wonder that Israelis don't want to hire Arabs to work for them? Is there a graph that shows the number of Arab employees that murdered their employer? After more than 4-5 years of close work and "friendship" with them?

"The U.S. gives $15,139,178 per day to the Israeli government and military and $205,479 to Palestinian NGO's."

Is there a graph that shows how much money the authority got before the intifada, and while the kamp david peace process was occuring?
I wonder why there is less now? Maybe it's because its a proven fact that most of this money is handed to suicide bombers families, and half goes into the governments pockets? Don't you know that Arafat has over 10,000,000$ in a bank account somewhere?

Did you know that while Arafat preaches to the masses to "go kill themselves and their children be Martyrs" his own children go to a private school (in France I think) and his wife lives in Paris, wearing designer dresses while the Palestinian people don't have money to buy food?

Is there a graph that shows the number of times Israel opened the closures on the territories ,and a day after that had several bombers?

for some reason, I think we won't see any graphs of that sort anytime soon.

[See, Israelis don't go into arab villages, raping,pillaging and burning everything in sight, killing whatever happens to be infront of them. ]

I guess you've never heard of Irgun or the Stern gang who's members did exactly that to dozens of Arab villages.

Today Israeli forces fired rockets into a group of unarmed protesters. Most were children. 48% of the Palestinians killed since the intifada began have been under 13 years old.

I guess Israel thinks that "terrorists" start young.

[Gee, I wonder. Could it be that those were homes of suicide bombers?]

The answer would be no. There have been 960 or so Israelis killed since the intifada began. Suicide bombers are by definition: dead. You would have to assume that each Israeli killed was killed by his own suicide bomber to justify even 900 homes being destroyed. There have been over twice as many homes destroyed compared to the number of Israelis killed.

Furthermore, being related to a murderer is not a justification for the confiscation and destruction of your home.

[the Palestinian unemployment was much better before the last intifada started. ]

Perhaps, but Israel basically outlawed its citizens from hiring Palestinians. And since they keep blowing up Palestinian owned businesses, it's hard for them to employ their own countrymen.

By the way, I want to make sure and mention to you, since I failed to do so earlier, that I hope you stay safe. I mean that. I can't imagine living in a place where you have to constantly watch over your shoulder.

I have one friend who left Israel to come to the states because he had finally had enough.

His comment to me regarding the constant conflict was: "We've tried war for 50 years and more. Perhaps its time to try something different."

Stay safe.