Re: 'prepare' njc

[sl . m]

Colin, if you think anti-Semitism is vague, I will use Jew-hating instead.

You said that the propaganda from all sides is sick and disgusting. Do you include your own views in that description? Or do the rest of us only THINK we are right, whereas you ARE right?

Yes, there is slander from Jews, Arabs and Christians against homosexuals, but no-one surpasses Muslims and Arabs for anti-homosexual opinions and laws. Try going to Damascus, Baghdad or Tripoli to exercise your right to be gay.

I don't accept that Jewish children are taught to hate Arabs in the same way that Arabs are taught to hate Jews. On the contrary, in my experience Jewish teachers go out of their way to teach their children NOT to hate, and Jewish society generally contains many people who support the Palestinians and who try to understand them. (Or it did until the suicide bombing started.) For example, it was because of demonstrations in Israel that an inquiry was set up to establish what happened in Sabra and Shatila. You would NEVER, NEVER find Arabs demonstrating in defence of their Jewish brothers and sisters. Please take that distinction seriously, Colin, because it has moral significance. Israel is a much fairer society than any of the Arab states - more liberal, democratic and governed by the rule of law, and Israelis are generally a fair-minded bunch, willing to discuss and argue (in fact, enjoying discussion and debate). Which is not to say they are always right, and I'm not saying that. But there's a fascism within Arab countries that is scary, and which you don't find in Israel, except perhaps among the extreme right religious groups.

You wrote an odd thing - that "[i]deas are NOT and NEVER will be truth".

What do you take "truth" to be, if not an idea? The proposition "two plus two equals four" is true. It is also an idea.

There is no truth in the world. Truth is a quality that attaches to ideas, or more accurately, to propositions. It is a quality that is given to certain propositions by human beings. Truth has no existence that is independent of propositions, and propositions are creations of the human mind.

Sarah