Wow, thanks for sharing man. I have a ton I haven't posted yet (didn't want to overwhelm the board, but also give people time to think about things).
Mine were from a couple of weeks ago so they're still "fresh". I never made it to Ramallah, but I will tell you that security is way tighter now I think. Bethlehem wasn;t too bad though, but the atmosphere was still dark.
I disagree that the Palestinians are necessarily portrayed as terrorists. I think that that the extremists and groups like Hamas are portrayed as terrorists. But I do agree, the security in Israel does cast a pall over "Arab-looking" people. At the same time, I interacted with many Arabs and Palestinians (in Israel) that were fine and friendly etc. I had both good and bad interactions in the West bank.
Your point about changing things on the ground is interesting: I see it as a chicken:egg thing. Sort of like a "you go first, no you go first" type of deal. In the previous scenario, I proposed that if Israel were to just pull out, would there be a vaccuum? Would there be any security guarantees? What happens if someone decides to commit a terrorist act? Should Israel just be restrained? That's part of the problem is the lack of a security guarantee and the fact that it only takes one incident to take down the house of cards.
What if Hamas were to recognize Israel and denounce violence? Would that effectively put the ball back in Israel's court? It would be a PR coup on Hamas' part.
What do I think?
I agree with you that the small minority of far right wingers on both sides are a big impedement. BUt I do think that the majority are fed up (on both sides). Heads will roll in Israel, Olmert is on shaky ground and the Defense Ministry will have a shake up. Hamas is losing populariy as well. The people are fed up and losing impatience with Hamas. I think the people (on both sides) want peace already so that they can just get on with their lives.
Something like that.
Oh yeah, please post more: pics, thoughts, opinions. It's great to hear new voices. Thanks for your participation.
Last edited by jorgelito; 09-04-2006 at 08:26 PM..
|