Palestine

This blog piece is not based on research nor is it analytical. It was basically written as I typed.

Palestine was part of my life for many years. It is still on my mind, though I don’t write about it much these days, and I don’t travel there (or anywhere) anymore.

Palestine I miss you. I miss your food, the warmth of your people, the smell of your shops, enjoying a cigarette on a rooftop at night listening to your sounds.

I feel like I have failed you. I still watch and stay informed as to what you’re subjected to: the humiliation, the destruction, the death, the imprisonment and torture.

I. F. Stone once said that the Palestinians are the Jews of the Middle East. Spot on.

Many Americans don’t even know where you are. They are taught to love Israel and despise Arabs/Muslims. Americans have a long, rich history of doing what they’re told.

Sadly, this ignorance allows the “conflict” to grind on. If Americans actually knew you and saw what is happening—and what has been happening for decades—they would not stand for it.

Those who do know but have said nothing are not dissimilar to those Germans who said nothing when their government was carrying out atrocities.

No, I’m not comparing the two. (I guess I have to say that.)

But what do we call using hungry children as target practice? Sexually assaulting and torturing prisoners? Calculating caloric minimums and creating—by design—food insecurity for millions?

I love you. I have such good memories of being there. I’m always more comfortable in Arab countries. I do not care if I ever see Europe again; I will always return to the Middle East—and specifically Palestine.

You will always live in my heart, regardless of what the future holds.


Photo 1: Me in a private home in Gaza after a long day.

Photo 2: Me and journalist/friend Vikram on the Gaza-Egypt border joining foreign nationals to form a human wall while locals in Rafah repair a sewage pump. The people of Rafah would get shot at if they tried to do so without the human wall. We eventually got shot at, too. Consulates and embassies were called, and the shooting stopped. The Israeli press (Haaretz) covered this story.

Episode 21: Human Nature, etc.

Michael and I talk about the Mandolorian, human nature, Nazis, War & Peace, and the Doors.

Sides?

 

An old friend of mine recently invoked the concept of “sides.” We were talking about international relations, and he wanted to make sure he was cautious in his consideration of news content, an understanding motivation. This gave me the thought for this blog post.

I have heard it I don’t know how many times. A person suggests there are sides and the truth must be somewhere in the middle. I know this to be common, and would like to speak to it here.

THERE ARE NO SIDES. Americans have divided everything political into the designations liberal and conservative. There’s CNN and Fox. There are Democrats and Republicans. And so, to be judicious, we should aim toward the center.

The center of what? The center between crap news and crap news is … you guessed it: crap news. CNN and Fox are both abysmal. I tell students to read their news instead and turn the television off. Read a top-tier newspaper instead. They might not be perfect—and they’re not—but they’re much better than televised news. The New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal. Pick one. Or two.

As I’ve written about before, liberal is the center. Americans agree to the tune of two-thirds on just about everything. The nation is not divided. There is no “left.” Both major parties are to the right of the center. Obama, the Clintons, Biden, Harris: they are all right-of-center 1970s Republicans. Bernie is right of center. Not by much, but he is. There are no leftist lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Zero. The center is quite likely you.

So, the center between wrong and wrong is wrong. The red team and the blue team do not represent the American people—not by a long shot.

Does the truth lie between the Israelis and the Palestinians? No. Israel occupies Palestine, illegally and brutally. They are in the wrong. Don’t like terrorism? Israeli intelligence has an answer for why Israel has security concerns: the occupation. It continues, therefore terrorism continues. And this is from Israel’s Shabak intelligence service. Are they imbeciles? Are they self-hating Jews? Probably not.

If you find yourself dividing reality into sides, you’re likely headed down a blind alley. And if you seek the center between those sides that do not exist, likewise.

Episode 20: Addendum

  

 I had more to say. Unlike me, right?

Events

Episode 20

Some meandering, unedited thoughts on religion.

Bourdain Biopic

I’m not sure how I feel about this trailer. It might be okay. The film, that is.

I enjoyed the Road Runner documentary, which I feel did a nice job of giving the viewer a sense of who he was—warts and all.

The end of that film is tough for a fan to watch. He tragically became romantically involved with actress Asia Argento. My sense is she manipulated him quite badly. She knew very well the feelings he had for her and was quite negligent—sadistic?—about how she behaved. I’ll keep my opinions and impressions of her to myself. They are not positive.

She also had an effect on his behavior. He began making decisions on his show that he would never have made. It was a mess.

And then the suicide. Many people responded how folks respond when a suicide occurs: one brainless, self-congratulatory, insulting thing after another. I have written about suicide on this blog a couple times. As a culture, we do not understand suicide. And future generations will absolutely be repulsed by how we discuss suicide. Because it’s repulsive.

I did not know Anthony Bourdain. But I did love his shows and his books. He was as flawed as they come, and I am confident he was not always pleasant. But in some weird way, I’m protective of him, and want any cinematic treatment of him to stand up. I feel his memory deserves that.