Freedom in Israel
I was compelled to write this post because of the complete lack of coverage on a remarkable event that occurred today in Israel. There was a conference held in Haifa, Israel by an organization called "Asawat". This is an organization representing and supporting Lesbian Palestinians.
For all of the bad press Israel gets around the world for their treatment of Palestinians, I rarely find any news organization citing the freedom Arabs (and everyone else for that matter) enjoy within Israel. It's also difficult to find coverage of incidents where good things happen between Israelis and Arabs. In fact, it was only in Israeli and Jewish Press that I found coverage of the conference.
One must note (as the Jewish Post did) that Israel is the only country in the Arab world where Lesbians can be out of the closet, and not be killed for being honest. Apparently Israeli police were heavily securing the conference as Israeli Arabs threatened the conference's organizers (which means Israel, as a State, was supporting Asawat's right to exist). This is a significant event on so many levels. Consider the fact that Israel is a Jewish state - and in general, Judaism doesn't condone homosexuality; but in this case the State defended democratic principles before supporting religious principles - regardless of who's rights need to be defended (Arab or Israeli). Furthermore, consider that Arabs in and out of Israel were threatening Asawat with violence, and Israel was still willing to put it's own civil servants in danger... and for what? To protect the rights of a small, and persecuted minority. Thankfully, we have the Internet, where events like this can be recorded and reviewed in the future - where the full record of Israel's role in the world can be reviewed, and looked at objectively for what it is.
I'll leave the rhetoric about how insane it is to hate someone because of their sexual orientation to others. I'm sure you can guess my position on this.
Labels: Human, Israel, Lesbian, Palestinian, Rights
This entry was posted
on Mar 28, 2007 at 3/28/2007 06:01:00 PM.
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Israel Defending itself
I have one question maybe someone can answer. After 9/11, America went (with the full support of the world - both ideologically and militarily) to Afghanistan, and blew the shit out of that country. Note the US traveled half way around the world to do this - it was that high of a threat.
The logic was that Afghanistan had been hijacked by the Taliban, and that since the country couldn't do anything about the Taliban, the US and several other countries had to go in and take care of the problem.
Would civilians die? Yes. Would infrastructure be torn apart? Yes. Did anyone seem to care? Not really.
So, as for my question. With noting the facts above... How is the situation Israel is confronting now ANY DIFFERENT? Other than Hezbollah is still lobing bombs 9 days in a row, and is sitting on Israel's border, a few hundred feet away, not half a world away?
I've certainly developed more "left-leaning" ideas in the past few years... but in this case, where Israel was attacked for no reason other than what every "Arab Expert" is saying on TV "for their crimes committed since 1948"... what's going on now is outrageous.
It really makes me sick to see the news media give so much air time trying to dissect the questions of "is Israel responding too hard?" and "when will Israel stop?" and "will there be a ceasefire?"
These are totally inappropriate questions to be asking as long as Hezbollah continues to lob bombs, retain Israeli hostages, and be the instigator. Just as in Afghanistan, if Lebanon is unable to contain and control Hezbollah, they have no right to ask Israel to stop defending itself. Lebanon may not be directly responsible for Hezbolla's actions - mainly because they're not strong enough to combat Hezbollah - but they will suffer the consequences of harboring a terrorist entity.
Maybe if the UN, the EU, and the news media at large would focus on sending in their own forces to help Israel dismantle Hezbollah (as they did in the wake of 9/11), the fighting would stop, and Iran would get the same message the Saudis did - support terrorists and you'll feel the wrath of the world.
Labels: Human_Rights, Israel, ridiculous, war
This entry was posted
on Jul 20, 2006 at 7/20/2006 01:28:00 AM.
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