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On Isreal
I do not consider my self anti-Semitic but i am anti-Zionist. everyone is quick to highlight the possibly genocidal aspects of Muslim extremist but no one seems to focus on the equal guilt by the Zionist movement and ideology which at its base is racist. It calls for not only the expulsion of the Arabs/ Muslims but also the purification of the land. One can see the attitudes and impact of these views in the documentary "Checkpoint" by Yoav Shamir. In the documentary, the soldiers of the Border Patrol are allowed to express their racist views for themselves. The Israelis are maintaining an apartheid state or open prison. It daily violates the human rights of people who are supposed to be their responsibility. Everyone calls for an end to Palestinian attacks but Israel is allowed to steal more land than the '67 borders and rather than leaving a viable Palestinian state they are creating walled reservations. My main problem is the prevalence of the idea that the terror is one sided. when there are massacres and bombings committed by Zionist militia, the IDF, and Mossad all with the approval of the government of the democratically elected state of Israel. Some of these massacres are documented at http://www.palestinehistory.com/massacre.htm . Perhaps our reluctance to view these activities for what It seems that more often than we like to consider it is Democratic governments that commit atrocities in the name of security ,resources and/or conceit (once called Manifest Destiny). I point to Hawaii, Puerto Rico , Diego Garcia,Haiti, US -Latin American relations. Simultaneously we see that the most powerful nations in the world seem to be the ones operating out of the most fear with military response instead of intelligent analysis. Until nations can truly look inward, past the facade of national myths and be able to acknowledge guilt, responsibility in the light of objective right and wrong, we are condemned to follow the well worn tread of empires and their inevitable collapse. Until Americans can acknowledge and accept our part in creating the environment at least which produced the the extremists we now fight we will never solve the problem. This is because that realization would entail the recognition that our long-term survival is predicated on mutually equitable and sustainable models. a key point would seem to be that the empire model presupposes that there is an outside to that empire which can be consumed or used to dump the effluence of the empire. It is a greedy algorithm consuming future/excessive reserves for short-term myopic benefits. It is exemplified in the culture of "copious consumption" that persists from the 50s through to today. It is the belief held by Americans that they have a right to do or own something because they have the money for it regardless of the ethics. The further the ramifications and effects are temporally or physically or socially the more easily people can accept and participate in unethical behavior. This culpability by cynical silence and willful blindness makes us all guilty.. hence the lack of real innocents when we are attacked.