Jihad

I'm clear on the Palestinians' desire to be free from an oppressive "first world" military state, but I am not quite convinced that this is freedom outside the realm of religious beliefs.

Israel is barely a democratic state that can keep coalition governments in power for full term. They are mostly one religion, though have tolerated other religions during the past 50 years.

The Palestinian Authority and the PLO have constantly displeased the Palestinain people due to corruption. I wouldn't regard the PA and the PLO as a democratic model of government for the occupied territories of Palestine.

Most governments in the Middle East are either monarchies, dictatorships, or theocracies based on Muslim principals.

These observations do not make me want to get involved on either side of the Palestinian issue, eventhough Israeli violence is not acceptable. I do not see the Palestinian fight for freedom as a fight for democratic, or anarchistic, freedom. After their sacking of the Tomb of Joseph (and subsequent creation of a mosque on the site), Palestinians simply want to create another Muslim state without the basic freedoms I fought for in Seattle against the WTO.

Who lived in Palestine is irrelevant. Jews were there centuries before Muslims. The temple mount in Jerusalem was holy to the Jews centuries before it became holy to the Muslims. Jews and Muslims alike were conquered countless times by various empires.

If we are all agreed that corporate control of the planet should cease, then Middle Eastern countries should quit providing the crude oil for all of our SUVs. They should learn what democracy looks like by creating equality for all and not "pushing Jews to the sea". Just like the colonial slave trade: where there's demand, there's someone there to give it to you.

Palestinians are definitely underdogs in terms of weapons, but neither side is right in this argument.

What would happen if the Iraqi government let Iraqi Jews move back to their ancestrial homes?

How about if Spain offered to give all the gold back to the Jews they pushed out in the late 1490s?

What if the Catholic church compensated Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Palestine for all of their atrocities during the Crusades?

I just hope the outcome of this continued struggle will be one where the poeple win a chance to have a voice, not to just control a piece of land.

In reply to "nahvon", you say you fought for basic freedoms in Seattle. You say Jews were in palestine for hundreds of years before Muslims. It is also the case that native americans inhabited the United States thousands of years before Europeans arrived. You put them in reservations and stole their land and you Americans have the nerve to tell us that the Arabs do not own of Palestine. We did not drive the Jews out of Palestine, the diaspora of the Jews was caused by the Romans. As such they forfeited control of their land, after World War II, after a major abscence for over 1900 years they came back armed and invaded and drove out the Palestinian people who then had to live a hand to mouth existence in refugee camps for five decades! You have made it clear whose side you are on. Have the guts at least to admit it.