There are a million different political goings on. Kadimah (the new party headed by Sharon) continues to make headlines and politicians are doing their pre-election shuffle: blame is placed on others heads, political allegiances shift etc. Sometimes I know the names and a bit of background about the people, but I'm not only feeling a little bit lost in the politics - I am also beginning to find it extremely boring. So here is an article (from ha'aretz) that really made me think. I'm not going to comment on it - but if you want to get into more of a debate then go to the message board:
http://habouk.proboards18.com/index.cgi?board=debate
click on: the lie of Palestine article
and you can share your thoughts/feelings
The lie of Palestine
By Bradley Burston
Friday, 30 December (88 days to election day)
To my Palestinian friends who are prisoners of this election campaign, good wishes.
May you have candidates you can stomach. May their corruption not exceed tolerable levels. May your radicals take a break from betraying your interests and demolishing your future.
And while we're on the subject, may you someday recover from the disease you caught from us.
Not the one you think. Not the occupation. You may well ascribe your entire syndrome, all your torments, to the occupation - the entirety of your misery, your grief, your failures, your pariahdom.
But here's a troubling thought. Trust me, after the occupation ends, the disease will still be there.
It is the dreamer's disease, and it breeds on lies, the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves and the other side. The lies we tell to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. The lies we tell to make it easier on the conscience when we see the other side bleeding in the street.
How do you know if you have the disease? There are a number of telltale signs.
Do you find yourself denying my right to live here? Do you find yourself dismissing my history in this place as a pack of contrived myths?
Do you consider my crimes to be responsible for the civilian victims of your attacks? Do you assume and thus declare that I want to ethnically cleanse you? Do you suspect that I am really no better than the Nazis and perhaps no different?
Do you find that you cannot forgive me for your mistakes?
Do you believe in your heart of hearts that one day all of us will be gone from here and all of you will inherit all of this?
There are a number of people on my side who believe that the fundamental lie of Palestine is that there is such a thing as a Palestinian at all. They are a persistent lot - they hate my guts more than you do - but a decided minority.
But there is a lie of Palestine, and it has to everything to do with the idea that the way to treat the disease is to exact penance from us in the form of blood.
The lie of Palestine holds that the pre-1967 borders are somehow sacred, and that there cannot be peace unless the refugees are allowed to return to their homes.
The lie of Palestine holds that the Palestinians have sacrificed more than enough, conceded more than enough, suffered more than is humanly possible, and that now and forever it's the Jews' turn.
The irony is that every refusal to make any more concessions, every act that you may see as legitimate revenge or means justified by ends - every suicide bombing, every kidnapping of humanitarian workers in Gaza, every drive-by killing - actually renders the dream of an independent Palestine into a fiction, a lie.
Every Qassam from your liberated Gaza makes sure that a Palestinian state is that much farther off into the future. Every move of terror on your part alienates the Quartet just that much more, makes the world understand less why it is that you really should have a state of your own after all, or that you'll have any idea what to do with it when you get one.
At this point, the Europeans are sick of you, the Russians are tired of you, the Americans don't want to hear about you. Your radicals have done nothing other than to bolster the self-esteem of the Israeli right and finish off what was left of what they had annihilated in the Israeli left.
I must say, I envy your ability to believe in the absolute righteousness of your actions. I envy you your confidence that you have done nothing wrong that cannot be understood as an outgrowth of our occupation.
I envy you as I envy the extremists on my side who believe that the only real shortcoming of the Jews is the people - especially their fellow Jews - who bad-mouth them.
I hope your election goes forward, and goes well. I hope our election is not marred by a suicide terrorist who has decided to cast his 10 kilogram vote on my side of the Green Line.
May we free ourselves of the lies we use as crutches. Maybe then we can finally move forward under our own power, and with a soul that will stand up to a thorough searching.
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