Understanding the nature of the Conflict.

[DingBat]

When I was in my early teens, I spent 8 months in Kuwait (my father was sent by his company). As completely naive Canadians, we didn't avail ourselves of the opportunity to live in the British or American compounds and simply found an apartment somewhere in the city. This was in '74, after the last war.

Kuwait is a strange country. There were soooo many wealthy people there. There were only about 500,000 citizens at the time and, iirc, about a million foreigners.

I mention all this because the interesting thing was that all of the infrastructure jobs seemed to be held by Palestinians. They weren't citizens and never could be, yet they ran the country. I remember a couple well and they were uniformly friendly, well spoken, well educated people. I remember my father commenting on how they could be kicked out of the country on a moments notice.

After the job in Kuwait was over, we spent some time touring the area. We visited Egypt, Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. It was impossible to visit Israel without first flying to Europe so we never got the opportunity, sadly.

I remember Beirut the most. I've always felt privileged because I got to see that city just before they blew it all to ****. It was a very beautiful, almost european city.

We hired a guide during our time there. I distinctly remember one day when we were visiting the local souk (market). We were walking around when there was a very loud boom. We noticed it, but most of the natives didn't even look up. We asked the guide about it. He just smiled and said the Israelis would fly over now and then and rattle the windows.

There's no real point to this rambling other than this: most of the people in the countries I visited were just like us. They don't want much more than to have a bit of success, see their kids grow up, make a life. I never got a chance to meet average Israelis, but I expect they're pretty much the same.

It's tough for most North Americans to even imagine what it must be like to grow up in an environment where, for the past 50 years, there's a constant threat of war, where you could be uprooted at a moments notice. Hate HAMAS, sure, if you must hate. But also think of the average Palestinian and ask yourself how well you might have fared in their shoes.

I don't know. Maybe I am naive. I just can't see the value in adding more emotion to this conflict.

[olivenstein]

This is one the best write-ups that I have read on this site. Good on you, man!

Laurent.

Originally Posted by DingBat

When I was in my early teens, I spent 8 months in Kuwait (my father was sent by his company). As completely naive Canadians, we didn't avail ourselves of the opportunity to live in the British or American compounds and simply found an apartment somewhere in the city. This was in '74, after the last war.

Kuwait is a strange country. There were soooo many wealthy people there. There were only about 500,000 citizens at the time and, iirc, about a million foreigners.

I mention all this because the interesting thing was that all of the infrastructure jobs seemed to be held by Palestinians. They weren't citizens and never could be, yet they ran the country. I remember a couple well and they were uniformly friendly, well spoken, well educated people. I remember my father commenting on how they could be kicked out of the country on a moments notice.

After the job in Kuwait was over, we spent some time touring the area. We visited Egypt, Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. It was impossible to visit Israel without first flying to Europe so we never got the opportunity, sadly.

I remember Beirut the most. I've always felt privileged because I got to see that city just before they blew it all to ****. It was a very beautiful, almost european city.

We hired a guide during our time there. I distinctly remember one day when we were visiting the local souk (market). We were walking around when there was a very loud boom. We noticed it, but most of the natives didn't even look up. We asked the guide about it. He just smiled and said the Israelis would fly over now and then and rattle the windows.

There's no real point to this rambling other than this: most of the people in the countries I visited were just like us. They don't want much more than to have a bit of success, see their kids grow up, make a life. I never got a chance to meet average Israelis, but I expect they're pretty much the same.

It's tough for most North Americans to even imagine what it must be like to grow up in an environment where, for the past 50 years, there's a constant threat of war, where you could be uprooted at a moments notice. Hate HAMAS, sure, if you must hate. But also think of the average Palestinian and ask yourself how well you might have fared in their shoes.

I don't know. Maybe I am naive. I just can't see the value in adding more emotion to this conflict.

[GeneralTsoGood]

Originally Posted by DingBat

When I was in my early teens, I spent 8 months in Kuwait (my father was sent by his company). As completely naive Canadians, we didn't avail ourselves of the opportunity to live in the British or American compounds and simply found an apartment somewhere in the city. This was in '74, after the last war.

Kuwait is a strange country. There were soooo many wealthy people there. There were only about 500,000 citizens at the time and, iirc, about a million foreigners.

I mention all this because the interesting thing was that all of the infrastructure jobs seemed to be held by Palestinians. They weren't citizens and never could be, yet they ran the country. I remember a couple well and they were uniformly friendly, well spoken, well educated people. I remember my father commenting on how they could be kicked out of the country on a moments notice.

After the job in Kuwait was over, we spent some time touring the area. We visited Egypt, Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. It was impossible to visit Israel without first flying to Europe so we never got the opportunity, sadly.

I remember Beirut the most. I've always felt privileged because I got to see that city just before they blew it all to ****. It was a very beautiful, almost european city.

We hired a guide during our time there. I distinctly remember one day when we were visiting the local souk (market). We were walking around when there was a very loud boom. We noticed it, but most of the natives didn't even look up. We asked the guide about it. He just smiled and said the Israelis would fly over now and then and rattle the windows.

There's no real point to this rambling other than this: most of the people in the countries I visited were just like us. They don't want much more than to have a bit of success, see their kids grow up, make a life. I never got a chance to meet average Israelis, but I expect they're pretty much the same.

It's tough for most North Americans to even imagine what it must be like to grow up in an environment where, for the past 50 years, there's a constant threat of war, where you could be uprooted at a moments notice. Hate HAMAS, sure, if you must hate. But also think of the average Palestinian and ask yourself how well you might have fared in their shoes.

I don't know. Maybe I am naive. I just can't see the value in adding more emotion to this conflict.

I like it, but remember this... All the countries you named besides Kuwait have launched military campaigns against Israel throughout the past 50 years, many of them more than once. The threat is most surely not one sided.