The First Step towards Solving a Problem Is Realizing It Exists

Posted on October 18, 2006
Filed Under General Thoughts |

I’m speechless. I’m happy. I’m hopeful.

Hamas official: is violence a Palestinian “disease”?

A senior figure in Hamas, the Islamist group that heads the Palestinian government, published an article on Tuesday condemning internal violence and questioning whether it had become a “Palestinian disease.”

…”Has violence become a culture implanted in our bodies and our flesh?” he asked in the sharply worded article, published in the widely read Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam.

“We have surrendered to it until it has become the master and is obeyed everywhere — in the house, the neighborhood, the family, the clan, the faction and the university.”

…In August, he criticized Palestinian militant groups fighting Israel, saying they were not doing the cause of Palestinian independence any good by launching attacks at moments when it appeared progress was being made.

This is very significant. As much as I hated Israel’s brutal war against Lebanon and continue to hate its policies of collective punishment against innocent Palestinians, I must definitely say that I hate the stupidity of Hamas and Fatah. Almost all people in the region have a tendency to blame Israel for everything that goes bad. Darfur gets screwed up, blame those damn Zionists. Palestinians start fighting amongst themselves; blame those damn “dividing & controlling” piggy apes Jews. Someone you know gets diagnosed with cancer, blame those damn filthy Jews. You step on a banana peel and slip, blame those damn Israelis. Your friend gets severe gastric and starts farting 24/7, blame those damn Israeli Jews. The truth however is that Palestinians are not blameless.

(Hat tip: Big Pharaoh)

Comments

15 Responses to “The First Step towards Solving a Problem Is Realizing It Exists”

  1. schoenerleben on October 18th, 2006 2:52 pm

    I think that is somehow due to the self-perception of some parts of Arab populations as “permanent victims”. I know that Arab people have suffered a lot throughout history, but other cultures have also.
    But IMHO this lamenting is not very constructive as it reduces the will to find a compromise, which is definetly needed to solve conflicts. Mixing (a wrong conception of ?) religion and the “permanent victim” seems to leave only the “all or nothing” option open, without even considering pragmatic solutions.

  2. The Raccoon on October 18th, 2006 2:53 pm

    Drima -

    I have commented on this enough on BP - the man is bulshitting to save his terrorist organization from Fatah.

    The point I would like to address is “Israel’s brutal war against Lebanon”. You ever seen a non-brutal war?
    Israel was attacked by Hizballah, and it is against Hizballah that Israel fought. Moreover, Israel has gone to great lengths to be as gentle as possible - to the point of suicide! - in this war, going beyond anything ever done in war to avoid civilian casualties. I lost friends in this war who died so that Hizballah-supporting South Lebanon residents would not have to.

    Next time Hizballah attacks, Israel will probably use “rolling firewall” tactic… or face a revolution if they don’t. It’s the only sane way to fight a war - to value the lives of your soldiers more than the lives of the enemy. What’ll you call it then?

    And about “collective punishment of Palestinians”… havn’t we been there before? :)

  3. Drima on October 18th, 2006 3:32 pm

    Awww come on bro. Raccoon, we’ve discussed this before. There was a lof of heavy damage inflicted on civilian infrastructure not just in the south but in the north too. People die in wars, I know and all wars are brutal I know… However the “brutality” of this war wouldn’t seem so brutal to me if it had actually brought about a >>positive result

  4. Drima on October 18th, 2006 3:45 pm

    Crap, I wrote a long reply and it disappeared. Damn it…

    Okay I’ll try to summarize. I can comprehend the difference in numbers with my mind but emotionaly I can’t dude. 100 dead or 1000 dead is almost the same. BUT like I said previously though… At least the IDF drops flyers and warnings before it bombs an area. I’m sure that if Hezbollah had the military capabilities you guys had, there would be no warnings or flyers coming down before the bombs do. I don’t say this to please you. I say it because it’s true.

  5. schoenerleben on October 18th, 2006 3:54 pm

    Yes, but you have to acknoledge that Israel was in a lose-lose situaton. By showing no reaction at all, they would have encouraged Hizballah to continue. A small offensive would have costed far fewer lifes, but it would not have changed anything. By starting the war, Israel tried to keep the detterence effect up (no predictable reaction to any attackers). Although Israel did quite some efforts in avoiding the killing any civilians, the PR-effect throughout the world was rather negative, if not devastating.
    As for the war’s “results: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DBE9528E-9F0C-4641-923C-80966237504A.htm

  6. Drima on October 18th, 2006 4:16 pm

    Schoenerleben, that was a really good article. What you say is true and I won’t argue. I blame Hezbollah for this war and from a tactical point of view I understand that Israel was sending a message to any country planning any thing small or big against it ie. Iran or Syria. I still feel that it hasn’t achieved much. Even Halevy acknowledges that Israel didn’t achieve all its objectives. Whatever objectives were achieved, they aren’t significant enough. Maybe they’ll be amplified as time passes by.

  7. Nominally Challenged on October 18th, 2006 11:32 pm

    oops, sorry, that banana peel - um, that was me. Didn’t mean to. Really.

    :D

    And in answer to the (rhetorical?) question about endemic violence asked by the unnamed Hamas guy you quote above, I have but one word: duhhhhhhhh!

  8. Drima on October 19th, 2006 12:22 am

    Hey NC, what about my friend’s farting?? Huh what about it??! Whatchu gonna do about it you damn Jew?!!! ANSWER ME!

    =p

  9. The Raccoon on October 19th, 2006 2:03 am

    Uhm, I am responsible for the farting… I am employed in Zionist Conspiracy Center, Gastrointernal department (in addition to controlling two major banks AND the robot gullible fools call Rupert Mordoch) :)

    And I agree, the war was horribly mismanaged by Olmert, Peretz, Halutz and their mates. To make it into a success, it should have been much, much more brutal - a war without mercy to annihilate Hizballah in Lebanon, using rolling firewall tactics that would have emptied South Lebanon and Becaa completely, destroyed every single Hizballah-affiliated business or organization (including the Lebanese government structures if the government would not have renounced HA), swearing to do the same to Syria and Iran if Israel would have been attacked again by their agents.

    But the cost in lives would have been horrendous.

  10. Nominally Challenged on October 19th, 2006 2:31 am

    Raccoon, were you at the meeting where they explained how by losing the war by incompetence we were nevertheless still on schedule with the whole ruling the world thing? I think I was too busy walking my Zionist occupying poodle past a group of Zionist occupying drunks who were clearly plotting to take over the world by drinking themselves into oblivion at the time, so I missed that meeting …

  11. tommy on October 19th, 2006 5:48 am

    Mmmmmmmmm….I smell taqiyya.

  12. Drima on October 19th, 2006 6:22 am

    Tommy & Raccoon let’s try to give the guy a break… just a little break… a really really tiny one… No? It might be taqiyya I don’t really know guys but I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

  13. The Raccoon on October 19th, 2006 3:03 pm

    Drima - I will, when actions match words. Him and other members of his gang have lied so much before with similar statements, I find it hard to take at face value.

  14. Leilouta on October 19th, 2006 6:25 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_x__G_kSTA&eurl=

  15. Qatar Cat on October 19th, 2006 6:49 pm

    Oh I haven’t heard of that… thanks for posting. I’m hopeful in a kind of uncertain and undecisive way. Peace in Palestine sounds like something out of “not in my lifetime” book.

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