Meanwhile on the International front....

Bibi thought the leopard wouldn't eat his face?

NO WAY!

 

When Netanyahu speaks in non-English (and give him credit, even in English he has a commanding presence), what language is he speaking, Hebrew or Yiddish? I've always wondered.

 

Do I need to?

I'll assume you're really asking about the characterization of "special," more than anything else.

I consider Israel special for all the religious world-center reasons that have ever been discussed, debated, and celebrated or fought over. Its historical and religious significance can't be denied. Can it? And, politically speaking, the middle east, as a multi-country region, has always been similarly significant and complex. That's especially true for Israel, which has always had its borders (pseudo-borders??) disputed. They're being disputed still -- today.

 

I guess I should’ve expected it, but the immediate and viscous nature of U.S. politicians and their rabid followers jumping in so fast to score points on this horrific attack makes me angry and sad.

I not going to talk about that any more because I don’t want to be a part of it. I love to talk politics, but I can’t on this. It’s wrong, but inevitable I suppose.

I’m not Jewish and I’m not religious. Golden Rule, work hard, be honest, do charity and be nice. That works for me. I’ll never be able to wrap my head around the idea more people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason. It’s just the opposite of my idea of faith and spirituality.

Comparing the attack on Israel as 9/11 really hit home with me. Just remembering that feeling of anger and shock that I’d personally never felt before. And the absolute thirst for revenge. I didn’t immediately know or care who did what. Someone had to pay. And pay dearly.

I’d never felt that way before. And once it passed after a while, I’ve never felt that way again. I know many people are understandably and rightly feeling that way right now.

I just feel a combination of angry and sad since Saturday. With a bit of hopelessness that mass, bloody human conflict will never end. It certainly won’t in my lifetime, on one side of the world or the other.

Everyone responsible for the heinous attack should pay dearly, harshly and swiftly. And hopefully the number of innocent people killed will be as low as possible. I fear that number will be heartbreakingly large.

Also wanted to say thanks to the many thoughtful and educational posts here, like Oop, Guy, Az and a bunch I’ll feel bad about not mentioning. I’ve found so many of them educational and helpful.

Here’s to better days.

 

Thanks for this post. We're in the same boat.

Religion? ... Sure, OK. Follow your god(s). Live your peaceful, inspired life.
Organized religion? ... Sorry, folks. Ain't that where all them wars come from?

 

I have nothing to add, as this is way over my pay grade and a conflict thousands of years is beyond my grasp.

I’ll just say we in this country should look on and pledge to be kinder and more understanding of those we do not agree with. What we’re seeing here is actual hatred, actual war, actual unbridgeable differences. And the evil that follows.

We still have time here. Let’s not let it get to this.

Now that we're through with formalities
What is it you wanna ask of me?
I'll answer open and honestly
Whatever that means
Findin' out that we occupy
Somebody else's opposin' side
On the banks of some great divide
Two versions of a dream

Countless revisions of history
Tryin' to tell us the future
Between each commercial break
I wanna call off the cavalry
Declare no winners or losers
And forgive our shared mistakes
You can pick the time and place
Maybe that will crack the case

 

Organized religion? Devout followers of a very small handful- dare I say, one?-seek to slaughter followers of all the others on the regular.
Instead of criticizing them all, I suggest we’d be better off focusing our criticism on the one.

 

Thank you for the historically ignorant Islamophobia.

 

One man’s opinion.

 

It's not only religion. It's politics and history and prejudice and money. We oversimplify at our peril.

Again, extremely complex because all those things are impossibly tangled in the Middle East. Thanks, in no small part, to decisions made by British, French and US politicians and diplomats a hundred years dead.

Our default settings regarding these conflicts are too often one-dimensional, which is why we've been stuck in the same fucking feedback loop of violence and terror for over a century.

 

Thanks, my friend.

Seconded.