Middle East Rhetoric; or, Those Crazy A-rabs
So I've been corresponding with the kid who wrote that article on summer in Haifa over facebook (yeah, we're cool) and it's been pretty interesting. It's kept me thinking about his article and the comments on it a lot, and there's something that perhaps I don't understand quite well enough to comment on, but I'm going to comment anyway.
I think it's sort of odd that the way you're allowed to talk about the Middle East is different depending on whose side you're supporting. It seems like, if you support Israel wholeheartedly, you're allowed to be a little more vocal about it. I'm not saying that this is what Daniel does, because it's not...I've just been thinking about it after having read his piece. I'm more talking about people who immediately go "Yeah...well...the Holocaust!" if you criticize anything Israel does. On the other side, people who go "Yeah...well...occupation of the West Bank!" are pretty much immediately labeled as militants. When talking about this stuff, I am constantly checking myself to make sure I don't sound too anti-Israel, to a point where I'm almost worried that I'm not doing my real opinions justice (that's not to say that I'm anti-Israel as a country, but that I am definitely anti-Israel's behavior in Lebanon this summer), partially so that I don't offend anyone and partially so that I don't get written off as just another one of those crazy A-rabs. Like I said, I don't know much, but of what I've seen it's a lot easier to be a die-hard, knee-jerk, staunch supporter of Israel with no give in your language than it is to be that kind of supporter of Palestine or Lebanon or Arabs-as-opposed-to-Israelis in general.
So then the problem is that the Arab-support side kind of DOES go nuts. Like this guy on the Michigan Daily comment board. I kind of yelled at him for yelling so much, but all that yelling isn't just because he's nuts or anything. It's just the product of a lot of frustration. It's just like what happened in Lebanon in July when all those people attacked the UN building in Beirut because no one was getting to that ceasefire fast enough. So much frustration builds up inside of you from being ignored all the time that you end up going nuts and burning down buildings and taking it out on people who might just have the potential to help. And then you end up looking like you're crazy in front of the world community, which only confirms what they thought about you in the first place.
That's my thesis of the day. I give it a B-.
I think it's sort of odd that the way you're allowed to talk about the Middle East is different depending on whose side you're supporting. It seems like, if you support Israel wholeheartedly, you're allowed to be a little more vocal about it. I'm not saying that this is what Daniel does, because it's not...I've just been thinking about it after having read his piece. I'm more talking about people who immediately go "Yeah...well...the Holocaust!" if you criticize anything Israel does. On the other side, people who go "Yeah...well...occupation of the West Bank!" are pretty much immediately labeled as militants. When talking about this stuff, I am constantly checking myself to make sure I don't sound too anti-Israel, to a point where I'm almost worried that I'm not doing my real opinions justice (that's not to say that I'm anti-Israel as a country, but that I am definitely anti-Israel's behavior in Lebanon this summer), partially so that I don't offend anyone and partially so that I don't get written off as just another one of those crazy A-rabs. Like I said, I don't know much, but of what I've seen it's a lot easier to be a die-hard, knee-jerk, staunch supporter of Israel with no give in your language than it is to be that kind of supporter of Palestine or Lebanon or Arabs-as-opposed-to-Israelis in general.
So then the problem is that the Arab-support side kind of DOES go nuts. Like this guy on the Michigan Daily comment board. I kind of yelled at him for yelling so much, but all that yelling isn't just because he's nuts or anything. It's just the product of a lot of frustration. It's just like what happened in Lebanon in July when all those people attacked the UN building in Beirut because no one was getting to that ceasefire fast enough. So much frustration builds up inside of you from being ignored all the time that you end up going nuts and burning down buildings and taking it out on people who might just have the potential to help. And then you end up looking like you're crazy in front of the world community, which only confirms what they thought about you in the first place.
That's my thesis of the day. I give it a B-.
posted by Dana at 9:41 PM
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