Rubber bullets hurt more in LA than Palestine
May 4th, 2007I see they have collected 240 “rubber bullets” and “plastic bullets” from the ground near where police went “berserk” and started firing on peaceful immigration protestors in Los Angeles … everyone is all upset about that, but I don’t seem to see the same concern about firing off rubber bullets and plastic bullets at Palestinians involved in peaceful protests in Palestine.
I know I get hammered by both sides — people love me when they agree and hate me when they don’t (but that is the price to pay for truth and principle). Yet, I am amzed at the lack of principle ont he part of people who hammer me and say you’re a traitor for embracing compromise with Israel, or anti-Semitic when I criticize Israeli policies against the Palestinians. The hate comes from both sides and neither has the franchise on hatred.
You want to see some hate just look at the response to my columns at YnetNews.com (which is going through some structural and organizational changes).
But I can look myself in a mirror and say I am standing up for what is right. I don’t close my eyes to the crimes of one side and then exaggerate the crimes of the other. That is a big problem with the Arab-Israeli conflict. Each side points a finger away but never at themselves. I don’t point fingers in both directions, just point out the failings of both sides.
One-State is a rejection of Israel AND peace based on compromise. The Wall is an almost apartheid-like land grab intended to oppress people and force them to leave to steal their lands and homes. Suicide bombers are not martyers, they are homicidal maniacs, maybe driven to insanity by their suffering but probably more so by the extremists who convince young people to take their lives so that the loser leaders we have can continue to be presidents-for-life. And Israelis are just as hypocritical, applauding when I say things they like and never applying the principle to the other side.
What’s the solution? Well, Palestinians and Israelis need a tough father. Tough love. Someone to beat the crap out of both sides and force them to get in line and do the right thing because clearly leaving it up to the “children” of Abraham and Ismael only allows them to destroy both houses.
I’ve seen both rubber bullets and plastic bullets. My cousins in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Beit Jala, and even in Nazareth, have seen them to and almost every one of them has a scar from being hit by one.
Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com
PS … you can check out my comments on the Winograd report in my latest column at YnetNews.com
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Well, I’m an Israeli, and i agree with everything you say – not half or part or … You have to be strong, its much easier being indifferent or one-sided.
I think the easiest solution would just be for Egypt to take over the entire Israel/Palestine region and govern it indirectly, just as it did with Mohamed Ali Pasha in the 19th century, the Fatimids in the Middle Ages, and the ancient Egyptians in the Middle and New Kingdoms. Come to think of it…Egyptians have governed that territory for a far longer period of time (cumulatively) than either Jews or Arabs. So it would make sense.
I’m only half-joking.
Oh believe me, you are not alone in your way of thinking.