What would you do?
June 27, 2005
What do you do when your land has been taken, your family has been killed, you know you will live in a “prison” for the rest of your life, you have no real future, you will never be able to travel, never be able to attain a visa, never be able to leave your surrounding area, never be able to experience the life that you were created to be able to experience…?
What do you do?
I am in no way supporting suicide bombers, but when I hear stories, and when I sit and think about it, part of me wants to say, “Well, what would you do?”
Tags: Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Terrorism, Travel
Posted in Politics
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Adam Walker Cleaveland: 
June 27th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
Look at the other side, Adam. What would you do if all the countries that surround you funnel money to terrorist organizations that want to annihilate your nation & people? What would you do if those same nations refuse to recognize your country’s existence, much less its sovereign status? What would you do if your son/daughter/wife/husband/father/mother/sister/brother was blown up on a bus? Or shot? Or hit with a mortar round? What would you do if you were too scared to go outside for fear of the same thing happening to you? Look at both sides.
June 27th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
Hmmm…Bro Nathan makes a good point. Adam? Your serve….
June 27th, 2005 at 4:35 pm
I’d honestly want to fight if I were on either side. Maybe that’s part of the problem?
June 27th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
Nathan, it’s an unfortunate fact, but Adam WAS looking at it from the other side in his post. Americans are pretty familiar with the Israeli position, but few have really been able to look at it from a Palestinian viewpoint. Keith is right, both sides have legitimate ground.
And for the record: If I were in the situation, I would be strapping myself with explosives right now.
June 27th, 2005 at 5:51 pm
So, Z., not exactly what the philosophers call a “pacifist”? ;)
Miss you buddy, send Evan my love!
June 27th, 2005 at 9:08 pm
Adam,
Good question. Like you, I have to answer, I have absolutely no idea. Thanks for putting this honest thought out there.
June 27th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
i would be behaving very, very badly with little to no remorse.
June 28th, 2005 at 10:20 am
Andrew,
Adam has never looked at it from the otherside. We don’t hear the Israeli side because were ignorant of the history. We get the CNN version of history.
in 1948 the UN established . . . 2 countries. Israel AND Palestine.
The Arabs rejected the the offer because they rejected life along side Jews. They instead chose to invade the nacent nation.
There is a reason for that wall . . . Adam,you’ve done a shoddy job of getting the facts.
how about some pics and interviews of families lost and maimed by bombers? How about pics of the tens of thousands of people protesting the Gaza PULLOUT! like this past week.
June 28th, 2005 at 10:24 am
What would I do. Well, in 1948, when the United Nations established BOTH Israel AND Palestine . . . I wouldn’t have let hatred blind me and accepted the offer of my own nation.
I wouldn’t have backed 4 arab invasions of Israel –including a sneak attack during Yom Kippur (I’ve noticed alot of Israeli sneak attacks during Ramadan . . .)
I would teach my children that blowing myself up isn’t as productive as education. That my so called leader, Yassar Arafat, is really a terrorist responsible for the murder of a US Diplomat in Egypt. That all the Israelis want is Peace just like me . . .
hows that Adam?
June 28th, 2005 at 10:45 am
Hi Adam -
You don’t know me but I am a friend of a friend…Rachel Norton who is a good friend of your girlfriend Sarah is a friend of mine. She referred me to your post since I have spent quite a bit of time in the middle east. I have been with CPT in Hebron two summers ago and was living at Tantur as a scholar in residence when the second intifada began. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate your honest questions and have asked many of them myself - my first exposure to the middle east was as a student at Tel Aviv university where I only got the Israeli “side” of the story. My time in the region has usually been filled with good friends questioning my motives and telling me that I don’t listen enough to the Israelis. I think it is important to remember that there are lots of Israelis who agree that the occupation of Palestine is wrong and that the poverty, humiliation and degradation that happens to Palestinians every day is a crime against all of our humanity. Keep your eyes open and your heart open and keep on doing what you are doing there….
June 28th, 2005 at 11:16 am
I’m a bit unsure as to how to address some of these comments (Reno, I’ve already emailed you)…
The Israeli position is the one, as Andrew Z. said, that everyone is most familiar with. And I know that I am trying to get the Palestinian story out this summer. Myself, and our group - we have asked to meet with Israelis, with settlers, with Muslims (so it’s not solely a Palestinian “Christian” position we’re hearing about), and others.
I think that most of us are trying to realize that is more than just one side to every story. I know that there are IDF soldiers against the wall, I know there are Israeli groups who are fighting for peace, I know there are many who disagree with what is going on in Palestine and Israel…
I am not saying that I don’t have compassion for the Israelis either - as a Christian, I would hope that I have compassion for all. But, as I mentioned before, because I am a Christian, I believe that it is Christ-like to continually side with the oppressed…
June 28th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
unfortunately, this is where liberation theology slips up, in putting Christ always on the “side of the oppressed.” i say this to in no way detract from the violence that happens daily where you are. but i do say to caution that the language of “oppression” is a slippery one when it begins to justify violence. i reference the fact that even the zealots turned on Jesus.
June 30th, 2005 at 4:25 pm
Adam,
Great pictures. I don’t support suicide bombers either but that’s what you do when you don’t have a State department.
Ant
August 13th, 2005 at 6:33 pm
I think you should the JEws what is like to have their lands taken from them and then placed in prisons to be tortured? Or ask them wheat it is like to allow workers into you country who then want to blow you up because they decided to call you country theirs?
August 13th, 2005 at 6:38 pm
Ooops sorry for the bad grammar. I think you should ask the Jews what is like to have their lands taken from them and then placed in prisons to be tortured? Or ask them what it is like to allow workers into their country who then want to blow you up because they have decided to call Israel their country?