After watching the show from post 69, I feel I have a much better understanding of the area. I was right behind Another View up to that point.
I think a lot of the problem with people not knowing these things are two things, one: the Jews I’ve known assume everyone knows this stuff, so it’s hard to get the information there. Plus they get pissed when I don’t know, but I can’t blame them for that. And two: Most of the religious fundamental Christians I’ve known, and/or heard of, are extremely antisemitic. Most who spoke up during the creation of Israel seemed to do so in order to keep the Jews out of their respective countries. Considering a lot of Nazis came to the Americas after WW2, the last thing they would want would be for the Jews to come here too.
Now why is this information so hard to come by? Most supporters of the state of Israel I’ve heard from rarely bring up any facts (they tend to be the crazy religious types, not saying religious types are crazy, just the crazy ones who also happen to be religious), while they might be correct in their feelings, they rarely know why. It is the same with those who believe Israel should not exist, although there seems to be even less truth behind their feelings, as they tend to just repeat the propaganda that tends to only bring up biblical reasons for Israel being recreated (before today I was one of them). If biblical reasons are the justification, then when the Romans tore Israel apart one would think that God wanted that to happen, since everything that happens is gods will in this line of logic.
It is almost like 2 groups of people, both historically despised by the traditional western world for one reason or another (and historically way ahead of the west until relatively recently in history, pre-crusades), are being pitted against each other to get them out of the way of the rest of the world’s dominance. I hope I’m just stretching my imagination, but then again, so did the Nazis AND the Romans, the things they pulled off still blow my mind. Romans are notorious for pitting cultures that were in their way (as in the way of their international/intercultural dominance) against each other, and eventually that led to their downfall when those different cultures stopped working for the Romans. Britain has also done the same thing in their history as well, and the US did the same with the natives here in America. We can’t turn back the clock and make the bad things that happened right, but we don’t have to repeat these mistakes by forgetting the past and becoming the next generation of people who fight amongst each other over lies that lead to hate and murder, and at the same time feeling like we don’t need to know the truth, or even understand why we do it. My faith is just in God and luck, not the power hungry who try to tell me what I should believe is true.
But then again, what do I know, I’m as much of a peasant as the rest. All I can say for certain is that I can’t say much with any certainty, especially when the mechanisms of propaganda as a tool to mess up other cultures and start wars is an art thousands of years old.
If I had known before what I know now about the middle east, I would have been more supportive of the ousting of Saddam, unfortunately it was orchestrated by a group of people who have no respect for a peasant’s intelligence. Or they just don’t like it when too many people support Israel, I don’t know. Times are crazy, too crazy. Feels like there’s a madman at the helm of the good ship Earth.
Oh, and the article sounds kind of nuts and oversimplifies the situation in a way that appears very counter productive. But I’m glad for the comments and what I was able to learn from everyone. Truth is truth, it’s not conservative or liberal or religious, it just is. These labels are being used to divide us when we should easily be able to agree, and we usually do if we take the time to give the other the same respect we want in return.
The person who keeps bringing up scripture and Mohammad telling his people to read the Bible should find out how much of the current Bible actually existed back then, especially before the Romans got their hands on it. You’ll find a few extra books, and a lot of missing ones, when compared to the current version. The older version was pretty good and popular, and it was able to “convert” people without the need for war. It’s one of the reasons the Romans made Christianity their official religion, while the rulers at the time tended to not adopt it themselves.
History is complicated to say the least.
