HOME

 

Reader Comments: Mideast Conflict, Palestinian Profiles

For each location Kevin Sites covers, the Hot Zone team selects some of the more interesting, thoughtful or provocative reader comments to feature here. The comments are presented as originally posted and have not been edited to correct grammatical or spelling errors.

By Hot Zone Team, Wed Feb 22, 7:02 PM ET

Email Story IM Story

For each location Kevin Sites covers, the Hot Zone team selects some of the more interesting, thoughtful or provocative reader comments to feature here. The comments are presented as originally posted and have not been edited to correct grammatical or spelling errors.

Blood on His Cuffs, Feb. 28

Kudos to you for putting a human face on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This type of effort could be a major in making progress in such a longstanding thorny issue, hetting to know the people involved and thus promoting understanding. Just slightly behind the political facade are real people -- very much like you and me.
Posted by grantmont on Wed, Feb 8, 2006 9:27 PM ET

Yeah, it is good to put a human face on the conflict, because western media portrays Arabs as savages or terrorists; but, as for Isrealis they're always the innocent sexy "western looking" victims. Oh people please we are tired. It is about time to show true Palestinians!
Posted by runas21 on Fri, Feb 10, 2006 3:09 PM ET

Would you be happy if teh US government came and made you move out of your house for emenint domain? Wouldn't you fight it? Now let's say your family had that land your on for 75 years. Do you still react the same? We ahve plenty of land here in the US, but when somone forces you off your land, do you fight?
Posted by andrewg40204 on Fri, Feb 10, 2006 3:59 PM ET

Andrew, the US has the right to remove you from your domain if it deems that such a move will be beneficial to the municipality in which you reside (i.e. more taxes collected, build a highway, etc.) This was upheld by the US Supreme Court recently Would you go and blow up a bus if the government took away your home?
Posted by dvalbe on Fri, Feb 10, 2006 4:03 PM ET

Disconcerting and rather sad is the exchange between proIsrael and proPalestine views posted on this website. Many positive opportunities for peace between Palestinians and Israelis have opened up in the last few months and so many forces are lining up to bring peace and an end to the conflict in the region. People in

Israel and people in Palestine are all thirsty for peace and the leaders on both sides recognize this. But in the end, it is ordinary Palestinians and Israelis like those filling these pages who must learn to cooexist peacefully. That is why I would hope for a much more positive discourse from both sides of the conflict here. It is much better to discuss about what both sides can do to bring about changes for the better in future: The elections in Israel, the transformations in Hamas that everyone is hoping and looking for and for which there are promising signs, etc. Turning these pages to an extension of the conflict really serves no purpose.
Posted by britelite40 on Sun, Feb 12, 2006 8:29 PM ET


Bigger Than the Sea, Feb. 10

I would like to hear from Jewish people living in Israel how they see themselves today and in the future.They belong to the Middle East Biblically and now geographically. But they are not Middle Eastern nor do they want to be.The rest of the Middle East is culturally different, poorer, less educated, less westernized and most Israelis look down at its people. The Israeli Jews think and behave like Europeans which culturally they are so what is their identity now? Do they feel misplaced again and how do they see their future in the Middle East without wanting to be a part of it as it is? The Arab countries will not disappear nor go away.The fact that Arabs don't want Israel around and Israel doesn't want Arabs around is wishful thinking fom both sides. What will happen?
Posted by v_pevec on Tue, Feb 14, 2006 3:26 PM ET

There is no doubt that the human issue is painful to all. Nonetheless, it has to be connected to the political decisions made along the way. Violence and the choice to use it as a political instrument is a reflection of the leadership. And face it, the Palestinian leadership screwed up along the twisted road to a sovereign state. From 1948 the Arab / Palestinian leadership always chose to fight instead of accept the concessions given to them. They were always campaigning for the total destruction of Israel and chose to back this campaign by fighting. In all wars fought they simply lost, and now they suffer the consequences. All Palestinians could live comfortably today if not for the choices made by their leaders.
Posted by protometrix on Tue, Feb 14, 2006 5:21 PM ET

Caught in the Middle, Feb. 14

The Palestinians should win an award for this movie, they are born actors playing on the worlds stage. You don't think they are smart enough to play the role of the lost helpless people anytime a camera or reporter come around. We call it Pallywood (Palestines Hollywood) and the whole nation are the actors!
Posted by sivanconstruction on Tue, Feb 14, 2006 11:43 PM ET

The territory in question has been inhabited by Arabs for centuries before Zionist invasion, that is the issue. The land has been called Palestine for well over a millenium. But regardless of whether or not it was a 'country called Palestine', it was inhabited for centuries by ethnic Arabs, be it Muslim Christian or even Jewish, and as a whole their land was taken from them. The Arab countries we see today are still rather new, as before most of the Arab world was united as a whole and subdivided into regions, one of these regions being Palestine. And yes these people are Palestinians, they come from the land of Palestine which has held this name long before modern Israel.
Posted by tkherraji on Wed, Feb 15, 2006 10:47 AM ET

I agree terrorism is not the solution, dialogue is best. I hope most humans would be in accordance with that. But unfortunately the fate of the Palestinians is in the hand of extremists, both Islamic extremists and Jewish extremists.
Posted by tkherraji on Wed, Feb 15, 2006 10:55 AM ET

"But a fight for freedom is perfectly legitimate as long as it has an agenda that isn't based on random killing" That fight for freedom is best done at the negotiating table. The Palestinians should be fighting like hell for an open dialogue with the Israelis, because that is their best chance at peace. But they seem to prefer murdering Israeli civilians instead.
Posted by whip_it_good on Wed, Feb 15, 2006 10:58 AM ET


Human Touch, Feb. 17

I am a Cherokee indian. My people once covered eight different states in America. We will never have all of our land back. Nor will other native Americans. I don't believe we should start a war to get our land back just because it use to be ours in the past. So while the land may be an ancient land of Israel I don't feel that's a just reason for this war. I also don't believe Palestinians are murderous swines. I do believe that if the attacks stopped and Israel felt safe to withdraw, then eventually they would. But overcomming fear and lack of trust is very hard to do. This is the issue that both sides need to work on before anything else can be resolved. Neither side deserves the misery this war has caused.
Posted by judyrg57 on Sat, Feb 18, 2006 1:55 AM ET

As a disinvolved observer, it seems quite clear that neither side wants peace, at least not both at the same time. What did anybody think would happen after Israel withdrew from disputed lands, only to have the Palestinians vote Hamas into power.
Posted by mahjongmama on Sat, Feb 18, 2006 8:58 AM ET

This little article has produced some mind numbing comments that represent what is truly wrong in the world. We each perceive ourselves to be rightous and perceive the others as demons, infidals, terrorist or any other demeaning word. The problem is that each of the so-called main religions all profess to worship a single god. Each one has a prophet and each one says to worship a higher power because obvisouly were are evil creatures that lack a moral character innate in ourselves, but that is the problem. We do have it in ourselves and religion is just a social construction of society that man has created. Read your history and see what was in the "holy land" before two thousand years ago and realize religion is a moral compass not an all seeing guide to save you or me.
Posted by eloy4richland on Sat, Feb 18, 2006 6:13 PM ET


Next: Reader Comments: Mideast Conflict, Israeli Profiles
Previous: Human Touch
Permalink:
http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs2685
Email Story IM Story

RECOMMEND THIS STORY

Recommend It:

Average (Not Rated)

0.0 stars
Hot Zone Watch List
  • Algeria
  • Angola
  • Burundi
  • Chad
  • Ivory Coast
  • Korean Peninsula
  • Liberia
  • Nigeria
  • Peru
  • The Philippines
  • Thailand
  • Uzbekistan
  • Zimbabwe

Comments

Join the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.

1
If Norway (Norwegians are believed to be the first people to land on North America) now claimed, 700 years after first landing on the continent, that they were the original inhabitants of the land (coming from Europe) and that we Canadians and Americans had to get off their land. And then they claimed that they were going to confiscate Canadian and American land to make Norwegian settlements, and kicking people out of their homes and turning them into refugees, how do you think the public here would react??? Now take into account that the Europeans displaced and massacred the existing Native Indian population, built settlements, and turned them into refugees on their own land. Can anybody truthfully say that the action of the Europeans wasn’t atrocious, vile, and racist at best? And now consider the fact that Native Indian tribes have repeatedly won law suits aimed a reclaiming land and money and property stolen from them. The question now becomes, if the parallels between the two conflicts (Native Indian and Palestinian) are so similar, why hasn’t the world community corrected a gross and massive injustice and why is this injustice being allowed to grow and get bigger as more and more Palestinian land is being confiscated every year.
Posted by alvinashamalla on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 12:58 AM ET
2
You hypocrites, ever heard of “might makes right”, you should because that’s the basic argument used to justify the fact that we are still in possession of land that rightfully belongs to the aboriginal people of the Americas. Go ahead and side with Palestine, its preaty easy to chose sides from your couch, compromises’ have been offered but Palestine would have none of it, their” way or the highway”, If we let Israel off of the leash, this discussion would be a moot point because Palestine would be a brief mention in a history book, the hand of peace has been offered many times, how should we expect Israel to stand by as Palestine keeps slapping it away.
Posted by leithan_s on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 1:43 AM ET
3
wrong number 2 israel is the one that doesn't want peace so get your act toghter because if it wasn't for all mighty russia and the u.s. the peace offered by arabs would have been thrown to the wind.
Posted by ahwal@sbcglobal.net on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 2:33 AM ET
4
PEOPLE: READ YOUR HISTORY. Are we claiming now that Israel is always the agressor? Israel has offered peace to Arabs from the moment they became a state in 1948. A lot of the land that they had in 1948 was bought monetarily from then-arab land-holders before they became a state. There were Israelis and Palestinians living happily side-by-side under BRITISH CONTROL. I've met Israelis whose families have lived in the land for over 1,000 generations. Are you telling me that Palestinians have always been here? Isn't this the land of Moses, who is supposed to also be a revered prophet of Islam as well as the Jews? Isn't this the land of King David, where Jerusalem sits as the city he built, thus baring his name "City of David"? Wasn't David's kingdom called "Israel?" Where were all of the Arabs and Palestinians then since they've been living her for over a millenia? Israel has always been a divisive land. Call it Israel, Palestine, Judea, Samaria...call it what you want, but this land has been conquered and reconquered for generations. Historically speaking, no nation that has ever conquered land in war has ever given it back and said, "oops, sorry", after the war was over except Israel. Rome never did that, the English never did it, the French never did it, Germany certainly never did it. And what other sovereign nation has ever told another soverign nation that they must give the land that they bought with the blood of their soldiers back to the conquered because it has upset the worlds political arena? Think the Yom Kippur war, the capturing of the Sinai and then shortly afterward handing it back to Egypt for peace, when the Eqyptians didn't even recognize them as a state. In 1948 Jews were just happy to have a place to call home, and in such short a period after the war. Do you think they wanted a war with every Arab nation that surrounded them after just coming out of hell as they knew it? The Arabs attacked the fledging state before they even had one full day of governance, they figured they'd finish what Hitler started and get rid of 'em before there were too many and they were too well armed, thus the war of Independence. Do you think the Jews in '48 were sitting around thinking, "hey, wonder how we can get rid of all these Arabs?" And the Arabs who lived in "Palestine" chose war, not the Israelis. They attacked, and even killed their own, whomever they deemed to be "collaborators." So let's not everyone be fooled that there is a clean-cut edge on both sides. Palestinians are just as complicit in the problems faced by this land as Israelis are, if not more so, because it is they who continue to reject any offer of peace that Israel offers. I have read many speeches given by top Arab politicians, and one thing that is reiterated time and again is their total intent on ....how was it put recently..."wiping Israel off the map." As for Israelis wanting peace, they want peace so badly they have sacrificed their security and the blood of innocent civilians in signing the Oslo Peace Accords. I'm referring to the statistics that state there have been more Israeli deaths after the signing of the "Road map/Oslo" peace accord than in all the previous years of intifada with no "road map" as guidance. And with that said, now the Palestinians, who have never, ever followed any agreement to the letter, want Israel to be held to the Gold standard on that now too? I think Israel should tell Hamas, "it's hard to get money out of place that doesn't exist, and since we don't, neither does the imaginary money we're collecting either." And by the way, in school in Israel you learn the three R's, not prejudicial, racial hatred for their neighbors. Unfortunately, Palestinian schools can't claim that to be true.
Posted by smarielee on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 6:55 AM ET
5
whatever with what god said nowadays... people are people and no matter who you are, everyone deserves a chance to live a happy life. who cares anymore where who lives? what is with all the conflict going on in the world over who's better than whom? god people! enough is enough! i attacked kevin for relaying articles that seem to be anti-israel, but perhaps he isn't anti-israel and he is simply the messenger... no one deserves to die over land or religion.. this whole muslim vs. jew vs. christian vs. catholic needs to stop now! history just seems to be repeating itself over and over. why not now, in the 21st century, we start making a change and start appreciating the fact that we were given life in the first place. each individual has the ability to make a choice. just leave it alone. you can't kill a group of people (a religion or way of life) like you can cause extinction to animals (which is disgusting, but a different subject on whole), so you should just s\give up. it ain't gonna happen! look at all the evidence throughout history, dating back thousands of years, that you just can't cause extinction in people. so for the sake of sanity and the world, GIVE IT UP!
Posted by kazdoc79 on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 2:35 PM ET
6
All those who write about Palestine having been the name of this country for about two thousand years, and how the Arabs are the original people, etc., forget several important points. 1) It was the U.N. that voted for a Jewish State in "Palestine." Obviously the world body did not buyt the argument that the jewish people do not belong there. 2) Everybody has forgotten that "Palestine" was four times larger when the Balfour Declaration was issued. The British cut off 3/4 of it and called it TransJordan. If the Jordanians would call there huge country, obligingly, "Palestine," all unhappy Arabs could live there and be in Palestine. 3) The Jews of Israel accepted the partition plan and if the ARABS HAD DONE SO, THEY WOULD HAVE HAD AN ARAB STATE FOR THE PAST OVER FIFTY YEARS! 4) I own some books published in the 30's (e.g., The Forgotten Ally by Pierre Van Passen, and he strongly supports the Palestinians - except when he refers to them, he is talking about the Jews there! This term was stolen by the Arabs to make their claims seem more legitimate! 5) Even today, ther spokesmen speak, especially in Arabic, about driving every Israeli into the sea. If they cannot accept that these people have returned to their ancestral home from which they were driven by the Romans (Who gave the name Palestine to Israel), and cannot allow them even a half of the quarter of Palestine that Britain broke in down to, how can peace ver come to that region?
Posted by ravizzy on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 4:01 PM ET
7
#4,?????????????? Offering PEACE to someone you have just battered almost to death and literally kicked out of his house while assaulting and humiliating his children, wife and elderly is the most unbelievable act of Barbaric CYNISM and Inhumane DESPOTISM! in other words "Let me exterminate you and your children, slowly and don't complain or i yell terrorist!" this is the root of the problem, a cynical and twisted perception of values.(not generalizing here, there are many good jews, especially those at JEWS-FOR-ALLA.ORG) by the way, Where did you get your history books from ? the comic books store? Anthropologically it's known that the land of Canaan was always invaded by other semitic groups including the Jews who came from other places, therefore not even they are original to the land except to the account of a kindgom of judea and israel that were established as conquering people. Most people living there were simply semitic pagans, jews and later muslims, nobody had a problem until the last european jewish influx, who have much less hebrew blood that palestinians themselves.As for the temple of Solomon, this has already been rebuilt by muslims as the temple to One God the Dome of the rock. Either way the fact is that: It is RACIST to believe in having priviledges over other people's land based on ethnicity and While some neo-jews claim to be pluralistic in israel, the truth is that there's much discrimination to dark or simply sephardic jews while at the same time driving out the arab israeli population by intimidation... no matter what it is an old south african mentality that won't work for too long. Remember, the world was hipocritical to the south african natives and only sympathized with them until nelson mandela was freed and change allowed.It is simply amazing how much supression and distortion of information has been done even in these modern days.
Posted by zzzumbao on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 7:55 PM ET
8
These are thoughtful comments? Talk about giving me a break.
Posted by marijuasher on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 8:29 PM ET
9
Who cares what the facts are? It is about the struggle between God and the Devil...both use the same side, it has everything to do with the end of time and the cockroaches inheriting everything. Sometimes its best to give everybody a gun and stand back while good and evil hoses everybody and everything down with hot lead. Then God sorts it all out.
Posted by tradersrealty on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 8:34 PM ET
10
to number 4 and 7 what dimwitted retards are you can't you look and comprehend histury or does someone have to shove it up your ***.
Posted by ahwal@sbcglobal.net on Thu, Feb 23, 2006 9:21 PM ET

ALSO ON YAHOO!

One Man. One Year. A World of Conflict.

Kevin's Flickr Photo Journal

Other Trip Posts

Add to My Yahoo!/RSS

  • Add Hot Zone headlines to My Yahoo!

    Add to My Yahoo! xml
» All News RSS Feeds
share this page
Save this page to del.icio.us
Alerts BellAdd an Alert - Receive the latest Hot Zone dispatches by email, instant message or mobile phone.

Learn More


» Web Search: Mideast Conflict

HOW TO HELP

MORE NEWS

» Yahoo! News Full Coverage: Mideast Conflict
» Yahoo! News Home - World - Middle East

in memoriam

The Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone team dedicates this site to Marla Ruzicka, a fearless voice of compassion, who was killed in Iraq on April 16, 2005, while trying to lessen the suffering of others. For more information, see Civic Worldwide.