Hi Tova, In response to Artur, you wrote:
>> As a way of bringing this letter to a close I would like to share two thing from last few days in my personal, private life : 1/ Yesterday, two streets away from were I live there was a suicide bombing in a snooker club. 15 civilians, unarmed, unprotected, half of them 55 years old and above, were murdered. 50 wounded,12 of them sevirly. It could have been me, or you. Is that a "massacre or not"? 2/ Sometimes I envy people who live in situations in which there is right and wrong in a clear cut way. I don't believe I do. My 14 year old daughter, Shira, had spoken to me few days ago with deep reflection in her voice ( after arguing with kids her age who hold extreme opinions) :"you know, Imma (Mommy' in Hebrew), I do not understand how people can be extreemly leftist or exrteemly rightist in this situation" when I questioned 'why' she answered: " because the only sane position in this mass, were every one is right and does wrong, in not to be sure that you know, and to look for what is right". that made my heart move. << To me, your example of the suicide bombing is a massacre. The pain and horror of that reaches all the way here to me in Alaska. Your daughter's words also strike me with feeling, wonder, and sense of wisdom. And I still wonder also if the Israeli military (members of it) perpetuated massacres themselves. I am currently fairly sure they perpetuated horror. It concerns me less whether any perpetuators of horror Palestinian or Israeli were by some justification "right" to do so or not, compared to whether perpetuating horrors on others will help anyone achieve their higher aims. It seems to me your neighbors and you and the different Palestinians have closely-felt experiences to help shape your understandings in a way that I do not. I imagine for some that has been a mixed benefit. It looks from here to me like living so close to the edge of survival has resulted in many of both Israeli and Palestinian people not being able acknowledge and understand other peoples' perspectives very well. I find our US mainstream press gives a fairly homogenous picture of middle east conflict -- and Bush fairly well reflects that picture, I think, unfortunately. It is, among other things, a mainstream picture that draws vividly and often the horrors felt by Israelis and weakly and infrequently the horrors felt by Palestinians. For some time I have sought also to understand the horrors felt by Palestinians. There is, for example, a mailing list by Ali Abunimah that provides alternative (to US mainstream news) selections of news and analysis about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that can be joined by sending a blank email to [email protected]. It seems to me it is these kinds of perspective WITH what we learn from various Israeli and other perspectives that will help us understand more profoundly each others' pain -- by way of beginning to better understand the complexity of the whole and to shift from vicious to virtuous cycles of interaction. I see you as a heroine in your efforts to cultivate such openness. Love and best wishes, Dan Chay * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
