i read this in a letters section of www.salon.com....its really nice...wanted to save it..if the author / copyright owner has an objection, please leave a comment and i will take it off..
Harrybbb18 - 07:13 am Pacific Time - Jul 24, 2006 - #4782 of 5044
Hi all, I'm in Tel Aviv now. Left Jerusalem because along with the war the stones, which I once so loved, seemed too harsh. And the people in Jerusalem have really changed since I left in '98. There used to be a cliché that the occupation would or was taking its toll on Israeli souls, and no doubt that was true in the hopeful, almost, on-the-verge '90s. BUT now there is no question. For you who are either Jewish or scholarly, all I could think about was Maimonides, the Rambam's "Guide to the Perplexed," which I first found at my grandfather's house. I can't tell you just how perplexed we are, that is when we aren't barking and rude. True, the younger Israelis, even those doing Millueeem (yearly 2-4 weeks in the army from age 22-45) are still, the boys I mean, sweethearts but very apolitical.
The older Israelis are increasingly sure of their paranoid notions. And this Nasrullah has surely arrived in the guise of Hitler, is what Israel always finds in its enemies. This guy is something else, is determined.
My small take, this was coming. All because and All BECAUSE we never gave the Palestinians a chance, we were going to get it, in some form soon, and sorry all you other friends for sounding harsh but my take is that Israel will not exist, whether in 10 or 20 or 50 years. Everyone I know of all sorts is thinking this. From here it is obvious. We never made a single friend in the neighborhood, minus the wonderful Rabin at the end of his life. We never cared to. We are founded on the Holocaust and we as a people lived by that, and the lesson as I wrote somewhere wasn't, "Hey, people can be really cruel so let's make friends." No, the most terrrible legacy for Jews here was, "They all hate us; they always will," and so power is all we need. And that is beyond tragic. Beyond sad. This is not a country that is manic or fun anymore. There are many who are the living dead here. And it is not fear. No one south of the border, where all my journalist friends are, is afraid. Even if Nasrullah can reach Tel Aviv, there is not only no fear but no guards anywhere. "Live and Let Live" lives on here with regard to other Israelis. You never meet a Palestinian except in the oldest restaurants and hotels in Jerusalem and rarely in Tel Aviv. It's the sea. It's the cafe night life. It's not the Israel I loved in Jerusalem. And though the peaceniks have growing crowds, up to 5,000 last Saturday p.m., where is their power?
So, sorry to say, I think the time when we could have made a reasonable peace is over. Now we have bombs going both ways, a fence that is literally bone chilling if offering Jewish Israelis' safety of a sort, that is pure delusion because we are never going to be safe. And I'm not taking sides, I hope, when I say we co-created this mess. And so ontologically and soon psychically many will leave or die, and I write this, which I may have written already, with great heavy heart. I loved this country. I liked the Palestinians. I did so much time thinking that we two would be great allies. Now we are not allowed to see each other, and this Israeli hysteria is not attractive. Nor are Olmert's pronouncements indicating we are pure innocents. We never looked at ourselves -- Israelis used to be fun but always were apsychological, and the great majority seem like they want to re-create the trauma of the last Holocaust. I am so sorry to say all this, rushing as I do, because it's beautiful here, everywhere, oh so beautiful. How sad is that. I say, let Jerusalem be left to the donkeys. Everyone I know is sad, or torn up, or agrees with the above, whether they say it or not. No more peace activities feed hope. There is little hope in the land, the "light unto Nations"... or we f--ked up ? Anyone? ...
I am tired, as it is late. But I feel that Israel's actions in Gaza are loosely related to Hizbollah. Nasrullah is the man the crazed, for reasons or no, Arabs want. He is being incredibly stupid and careless and cruel FROM OUR POINT OF VIEW. I personally am not against fighting him. BUT, it's a lose-lose and diplomacy has become a joke. No one in the 'neighborhood' trusts Israel to be fair. They haven't been. To Palestinians. So, war will kill this economy unless there's a cease-fire within a month or two.
And when the Israeli economy goes, not to mean tragedy in Lebanon, which yes Nusrallah brought on, but not out of the blue, out of the feeling that we are, we in Israel, always using violence and never deigning to dialogue, it all connects ... But I said before and say again, it's too many decades, too many genius' and the reason this conflict was and imo will NEVER be resolved is that Israel has a hold on Israelis, of course, duh, and on Americans, Jews and non-Jews.
We have had this state for 59 or so years. We blew it. Like Humpdy Dumpkin, never to be repaired. No Tikkun Olam. No psychology. Not worse that Bush, not. But worse than our best leaders and all the best people wanted. Too late. Imo. Read Ury Avery who writes, as I've said, for Gush Shalom. I was at the rally here on Sat. PM and I was at the Film Festival and no one has any hope left no matter what they write. Everyone thinks we should have created the Jewish State not in Uganda as once Hertzl thought, but in Australia. This is not going to work, and that is a thought I never, ever allowed myself to fully entertain. I meet tomorrow with two other peace leaders. They work around the clock on this. I do not see the point. Do you? Really? If you do then, as ABYehusha always says, it's your duty to come here and live. I mean that. It's a wonderful people in a place that has the worst leaders and the Arabs have the worse leaders and the PEOPLE CANNOT EVEN MEET. dat's it. I really believe you have to be here to get some piece of truth. I got the worst news and I trust my intuitions. I'm no genius. I never have been what we could call a "hard thinker" but I did give almost 15 years to fighting and loving for peace. It ain't gonna happen. We kill the Palestinians all the time and we will sooner or later get killed and we'll probably take the Mideast out with us. That is the Israeli way. So, it's a place I love, it's my home and it's f--ked. Said this before. But that's all. Love to all, extreme exhaustion due to heat, worry and more worry. xxoo Wendy
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Friday, July 28, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
interesting statistic about israel
Thus, as it becomes self evident that Israeli military power is no longer as effective as it once was, this will surely accelerate the flow of Jewish settlers out of Israel. Information regarding emigration of Jews out of Israel is a closely guarded secret, but using Israeli government statistics, we can infer that immigration to Israel has rapidly declined over the last several years, and that Israel may even be experiencing a net outflow of Jewish migrants. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of Jewish immigrants to Israel declined to 21,000 in 2004, which is a 15-year low. In 2005, the number of immigrants rose slightly to 23,000, which is still dramatically lower than the 60,000 that immigrated in 2000. Furthermore, Israel became a net exporter of its citizens in 2003, when9,000 more Israelis left the country than entered, and in the first two months of 2004, this figure rose to 13,000
Read full article here
Read full article here
Monday, July 24, 2006
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
how it started
For some it inevitably brought to mind a bleak winter day in 1968 when, out of the blue, helicopter-borne Israeli commandos landed on the old airport and blew up 13 passenger jets, almost the entire fleet of the national carrier. The pretext: of two Palestinians who killed an Israeli at Athens airport, one came from a refugee camp in Lebanon, then an entirely peaceable country. The significance of this most spectacularly disproportionate reprisal was something the Lebanese could hardly even have guessed at then. But it was a very early portent of the long nightmare to come: military conflict with Israel, eventually to be compounded with an atrocious civil war that it did much to engender
and chomsky weighs in
No doubt Chomsky is correct when he states that Hizbollah’s daring assault exposes Lebanese people to the violence of the Zionist army. Chomsky offered no alternative. The Israeli state still occupies a section of Lebanon; it still infringes on Lebanese airspace; it still humiliates Arabs and occupies their land. What should Hizbollah do?
whats up in bay root ? (beirut)
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Lebanon/200843
this is a good place to start reading on this topic.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__060717_lebanon_is_an_outrag.htm
the zionist conspiracy point of view -
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m24725&l=i&size=1&hd=0
this is a good place to start reading on this topic.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__060717_lebanon_is_an_outrag.htm
the zionist conspiracy point of view -
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m24725&l=i&size=1&hd=0
guns on your shoulder
"The Israelis were yesterday trumpeting the fact that the missile was made in Iran as proof of Iran's involvement in the Lebanon war. This was odd reasoning. Since almost all the missiles used to kill the civilians of Lebanon over the past four days were made in Seattle, Duluth and Miami in the United States, their use already suggests to millions of Lebanese that America is behind the bombardment of their country. "
So the iranians and the american missiles are fighting each other. Why cant they fight each other directly as they seem to be itching to do...and why do they have to involve the jews ( who were persecuted by the europeans for so long that they have a permanent victim complex ) and the lebanese who are struggling to rebuild a country torn apart by war.
So the iranians and the american missiles are fighting each other. Why cant they fight each other directly as they seem to be itching to do...and why do they have to involve the jews ( who were persecuted by the europeans for so long that they have a permanent victim complex ) and the lebanese who are struggling to rebuild a country torn apart by war.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Rachel Corrie
And few other American activists have been willing to expose themselves to the kind of risks that Rachel Corrie took when she sat between a Palestinian home and a Caterpillar bulldozer in Gaza three years ago.
The bulldozer, driven by an Israeli army soldier on assignment to demolish the home, rolled over Corrie, who was 23 years old. She had taken a nonviolent position for human rights; she lost her life as a result. But she was rarely praised in the same U.S. media outlets that had gone into raptures over the image of a solitary unarmed man standing in front of Chinese tanks at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
In sharp contrast to the high-tech killers who run the Israeli military apparatus and the low-tech killers who engage in suicide bombings, Rachel Corrie put her beliefs into practice with militant nonviolence instead of carnage. She exemplified the best of the human spirit in action; she was killed with an American-brand bulldozer in the service of a U.S.-backed government.
As her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, said in a statement on her birthday a few weeks after she died: "Rachel wanted to bring attention to the plight of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories, a people she felt were largely invisible to most Americans."
In the United States, the nonstop pro-Israel media siege aims to keep them scarcely visible.
The bulldozer, driven by an Israeli army soldier on assignment to demolish the home, rolled over Corrie, who was 23 years old. She had taken a nonviolent position for human rights; she lost her life as a result. But she was rarely praised in the same U.S. media outlets that had gone into raptures over the image of a solitary unarmed man standing in front of Chinese tanks at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
In sharp contrast to the high-tech killers who run the Israeli military apparatus and the low-tech killers who engage in suicide bombings, Rachel Corrie put her beliefs into practice with militant nonviolence instead of carnage. She exemplified the best of the human spirit in action; she was killed with an American-brand bulldozer in the service of a U.S.-backed government.
As her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, said in a statement on her birthday a few weeks after she died: "Rachel wanted to bring attention to the plight of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories, a people she felt were largely invisible to most Americans."
In the United States, the nonstop pro-Israel media siege aims to keep them scarcely visible.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Whats it like in eye raan
The greatest opportunity came after September 11, of course, when Iran sought to help the US break al Qaeda, a common enemy that threatened both nations. But Bush and his circle, as we now know, were not interested in breaking al Qaeda or fighting terrorism; they were interested in "establishing a military footprint" in Iraq, as part of a wide-ranging plan to "project dominance" over the energy resources of the Middle East and Central Asia, while fomenting "creative destruction" throughout the region, in the belief that when the resultant rivers of blood had at last subsided, there would be a series of obedient client regimes installed in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere--including, in the dreams of some of the crankiest cronies, new, even more obedient American satraps in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Therefore, there could be no accommodation with moderate elements in Iran; on the contrary, the existence of a moderate faction within the Iranian power structure could only be a hindrance to the Bushists' avowed goals. How could you maintain the profitable, fear-fomenting image of a dastardly nation--a member of the "axis of evil," no less--bent on the destruction of "the American way of life," if its leaders are trying reach an accommodation with you, if they speak of moderation, of a "dialogue among civilizations"? Khatami--already hemmed in by the hardline mullahs, unable to deliver all of his promised domestic reforms--was also left with nothing to show for his moderate foreign policy. Instead, Bush confirmed the mullah's criticism of Khatami: "You reach out to the infidels, and what do you get? They spit in your face, they try to destroy us." read original article
Khatami served as Iran's president from 1997 to 2005. Now that he is out, and a hardliner is in place, it kinda helps Bush paint the situation in black and white.
14 days to go and counting.... 20th March is Irans National day, and they are planning to open their Oil Bourse ( oil trading exchange ) on that date, where they will also, I repeat also, accept payment in Euros for sale of barrels full of oil.
Therefore, there could be no accommodation with moderate elements in Iran; on the contrary, the existence of a moderate faction within the Iranian power structure could only be a hindrance to the Bushists' avowed goals. How could you maintain the profitable, fear-fomenting image of a dastardly nation--a member of the "axis of evil," no less--bent on the destruction of "the American way of life," if its leaders are trying reach an accommodation with you, if they speak of moderation, of a "dialogue among civilizations"? Khatami--already hemmed in by the hardline mullahs, unable to deliver all of his promised domestic reforms--was also left with nothing to show for his moderate foreign policy. Instead, Bush confirmed the mullah's criticism of Khatami: "You reach out to the infidels, and what do you get? They spit in your face, they try to destroy us." read original article
Khatami served as Iran's president from 1997 to 2005. Now that he is out, and a hardliner is in place, it kinda helps Bush paint the situation in black and white.
14 days to go and counting.... 20th March is Irans National day, and they are planning to open their Oil Bourse ( oil trading exchange ) on that date, where they will also, I repeat also, accept payment in Euros for sale of barrels full of oil.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Iran is going to get bombed because the US doesnt trust it.
Washington: The White House has said that the difference between the nuclear programmes of Iran and Brazil was the "trust" they elicited from the international community. "I think a difference here that I would point out -- if you're talking about Brazil versus Iran -- is one of trust," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Monday.
"Iran has shown that they can't be trusted with nuclear technology because they have hidden their activities for some two decades," he added. Both Brazil and Iran have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and aspire to produce their own enriched uranium -- Brazil for its two existing reactors and a third one on the way, Iran, for its future reactors.
Both countries purport peaceful uses for weapons-grade uranium, but Washington suspects Iran is concealing a nuclear-weapons programme, which Tehran strongly denies.
"We do not believe the regime in Iran should have the ability or the technology to produce nuclear weapons," McClellan said. Iran, McClellan said, should abandon its uranium enrichment plans.
Iran recently restarted uranium enrichment work in open defiance of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is close to deciding whether to refer the matter to the UN Security Council.
"Iran has shown that they can't be trusted with nuclear technology because they have hidden their activities for some two decades," he added. Both Brazil and Iran have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and aspire to produce their own enriched uranium -- Brazil for its two existing reactors and a third one on the way, Iran, for its future reactors.
Both countries purport peaceful uses for weapons-grade uranium, but Washington suspects Iran is concealing a nuclear-weapons programme, which Tehran strongly denies.
"We do not believe the regime in Iran should have the ability or the technology to produce nuclear weapons," McClellan said. Iran, McClellan said, should abandon its uranium enrichment plans.
Iran recently restarted uranium enrichment work in open defiance of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is close to deciding whether to refer the matter to the UN Security Council.
Monday, February 13, 2006
the kinder nicer british
British Troops Beat Up Barefoot Iraqi Teens A video shown on BBC TV on February 11, 2006 shows British soldiers savagely beating and kicking unarmed Iraqi teenagers in an army compound. Officials at the Ministry of Defense are said to have investigated and established beyond doubt the authenticity of the video.
Shot secretly “for fun” as a home movie from a rooftop in Basra in southern Iraq by a corporal and shown to friends at a home base in Europe, it was given to the News of the World later by an anonymous whistle blower. The footage shows soldiers pulling four Iraqi boys in their early teens into their army base after a riot and beating them with batons, then punching and kicking them repeatedly on the body and head and between the legs. Within the space of one minute, some 42 blows are rained on the four teens whom the whistle blower said “were just kids” who did not even have on shoes.
One soldier can also be seen kicking a dead Iraqi in the face. The unidentified cameraman can be heard laughing and urging his colleagues on with vulgarities... read more
Shot secretly “for fun” as a home movie from a rooftop in Basra in southern Iraq by a corporal and shown to friends at a home base in Europe, it was given to the News of the World later by an anonymous whistle blower. The footage shows soldiers pulling four Iraqi boys in their early teens into their army base after a riot and beating them with batons, then punching and kicking them repeatedly on the body and head and between the legs. Within the space of one minute, some 42 blows are rained on the four teens whom the whistle blower said “were just kids” who did not even have on shoes.
One soldier can also be seen kicking a dead Iraqi in the face. The unidentified cameraman can be heard laughing and urging his colleagues on with vulgarities... read more
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Thursday, February 02, 2006
having image problems are we?
"In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother. They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison -- where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv."
-- from AP story on Valley of the Wolves
-- from AP story on Valley of the Wolves
Monday, January 30, 2006
March 20th - the day of the armageddon?
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes...known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
- James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
March 20th is the national day of Iran. On that day they will start a bourse. An exchange where oil will be bought and sold. And it will be the first place where you can trade in oil, without having to use dollars. You can use euros.
Saddam tried something like this...and now he is paying for his impertinence. Now its the turn of Ahmedinejad and Iran. The US military machine is gearing up for the final challenge...the condi rices and rumsfelds of the world are trotting all over the globe telling scary stories about how iran is going to make a nuclear bomb and blow up the planet and the chinese and russians are pondering hard, whether they will be forced to take sides..... this is going to be interesting.
- James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
March 20th is the national day of Iran. On that day they will start a bourse. An exchange where oil will be bought and sold. And it will be the first place where you can trade in oil, without having to use dollars. You can use euros.
Saddam tried something like this...and now he is paying for his impertinence. Now its the turn of Ahmedinejad and Iran. The US military machine is gearing up for the final challenge...the condi rices and rumsfelds of the world are trotting all over the globe telling scary stories about how iran is going to make a nuclear bomb and blow up the planet and the chinese and russians are pondering hard, whether they will be forced to take sides..... this is going to be interesting.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
my friend from syria
today i was suddenly reminded of an old friend who was in college with me. I was watching CNN and schwarzenegger was on screen soon after a story on israel. That reminded me of a cold night in a friends hostel room. " I dont like Schwarzenegger, I dont watch any of his movies." my friend had stated emphatically. This was rather curious, because Mohammed Yaqub Agha,usually was never moved to such emotion. He was a quiet man, devoted to preserving his peace of mind and body. He rarely bothered to rouse himself to be passionate about anything. Teachers tried in vain to evoke some response, his friends could never drag him to the playing fields and his parents no doubt tried in vain to get him to hurry up and finish his studies and come home.
He was from Syria, and looked like a syrian. A slightly overweight one, but unmistakably from west asia. "Why dont you like Schwarzenegger?", I asked mystified. "Because he is a jew" replied Agha. And then in vain did I try all lines of arguement. That Schwarzenegger wasnt a jew. That even if he was, how did it matter. And even if it mattered, why couldnt u watch his movies. At the end of it all, Agha was unmoved. He just didnt like Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger was jewish, the jews were israelis and he hated israelis. That was his position and that was what it stayed.
But now, thinking about it, I remember Agha and somehow feel he knew a great deal more than I did about this whole matter. After all he had grown up in Syria. Some of the issues were familiar to him. And now, when the voices will clamor for Syria to be bombed, I think, Schwarzenegger's voice will be there too. I guess, if that happens, Agha will be glad that he never watched a Schwarzenegger movie.
Agha was someone who was too clever for his own good. His scholarship enabled him to live a life of luxury in India. If he finished his studies fast, this comfortable period would end, and so Agha resolved to prolong his studies. The funny part about studies is, that you can prolong them by not doing them. Agha became very good at not studying. Generations of scholars graduated from our college having eaten dates in Agha's room. Agha stayed on and gradually the inertia took over. Having become such and expert in not studying, it was tough to shake off the habit. However, with curses and moan, squeals for help, manic scrambles for examination aids, he did manage and last heard is a big shot manager somewhere in Syria.
He had told me his versions of the stories I knew from my westernized education. He had told me about Palestine, Mecca, Jerusalem, Damascus, Riyadh, Dubai and Egypt. His versions were mostly like pamphlet literature. Very sure of themselves, very little scope for discussion, very definite in their opinions and facts. A take-it-or-leave-it version of history.
There was one question which I felt was at the heart of all this. Tell me, he asked once, how come the jews who were persecuted by the christians, and the christians who were persecuted by the jews, now get together to fight the muslims? Thinking of an answer to that one always made my head ache, and i would take the conversation off into different paths. Its a funny question, but I can understand the bewilderment the arabs must feel. The only answer that kind of fits the situation is that its all for the oil. Its so banal at the end of it all. Better to change the topic.
Agha would then tell me of the holy Quran. He would tell me stories from it. He told of the day of Armageddon and how its described in the holy book. The imagery is vivid. There is a great war..and after it, the fastest strongest eagle in the world would fly for seven days and seven nights and yet wouldnt be able to come to the end of the smouldering, decaying battlefield. He spoke of it as matter of fact. When I suggested it was just a story, he didnt agree. He said the Christians believed this too, and so did the Jews. The battle of Armageddon, he pronounced it Harmajdoon, was part of the beliefs of all these religions.
It is fascinating somehow. Three religions, all originating in that small piece of land. All with jerusalem as their holy city. All locked into a terrible struggle with each other. All believing in Harmajdoon. Whew.... that explains a lot. So much blood has flown in this terrible struggle. And my lazy friend's only protest against all this was that he wouldnt watch Schwarzenegger movies. May his tribe increase.
He was from Syria, and looked like a syrian. A slightly overweight one, but unmistakably from west asia. "Why dont you like Schwarzenegger?", I asked mystified. "Because he is a jew" replied Agha. And then in vain did I try all lines of arguement. That Schwarzenegger wasnt a jew. That even if he was, how did it matter. And even if it mattered, why couldnt u watch his movies. At the end of it all, Agha was unmoved. He just didnt like Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger was jewish, the jews were israelis and he hated israelis. That was his position and that was what it stayed.
But now, thinking about it, I remember Agha and somehow feel he knew a great deal more than I did about this whole matter. After all he had grown up in Syria. Some of the issues were familiar to him. And now, when the voices will clamor for Syria to be bombed, I think, Schwarzenegger's voice will be there too. I guess, if that happens, Agha will be glad that he never watched a Schwarzenegger movie.
Agha was someone who was too clever for his own good. His scholarship enabled him to live a life of luxury in India. If he finished his studies fast, this comfortable period would end, and so Agha resolved to prolong his studies. The funny part about studies is, that you can prolong them by not doing them. Agha became very good at not studying. Generations of scholars graduated from our college having eaten dates in Agha's room. Agha stayed on and gradually the inertia took over. Having become such and expert in not studying, it was tough to shake off the habit. However, with curses and moan, squeals for help, manic scrambles for examination aids, he did manage and last heard is a big shot manager somewhere in Syria.
He had told me his versions of the stories I knew from my westernized education. He had told me about Palestine, Mecca, Jerusalem, Damascus, Riyadh, Dubai and Egypt. His versions were mostly like pamphlet literature. Very sure of themselves, very little scope for discussion, very definite in their opinions and facts. A take-it-or-leave-it version of history.
There was one question which I felt was at the heart of all this. Tell me, he asked once, how come the jews who were persecuted by the christians, and the christians who were persecuted by the jews, now get together to fight the muslims? Thinking of an answer to that one always made my head ache, and i would take the conversation off into different paths. Its a funny question, but I can understand the bewilderment the arabs must feel. The only answer that kind of fits the situation is that its all for the oil. Its so banal at the end of it all. Better to change the topic.
Agha would then tell me of the holy Quran. He would tell me stories from it. He told of the day of Armageddon and how its described in the holy book. The imagery is vivid. There is a great war..and after it, the fastest strongest eagle in the world would fly for seven days and seven nights and yet wouldnt be able to come to the end of the smouldering, decaying battlefield. He spoke of it as matter of fact. When I suggested it was just a story, he didnt agree. He said the Christians believed this too, and so did the Jews. The battle of Armageddon, he pronounced it Harmajdoon, was part of the beliefs of all these religions.
It is fascinating somehow. Three religions, all originating in that small piece of land. All with jerusalem as their holy city. All locked into a terrible struggle with each other. All believing in Harmajdoon. Whew.... that explains a lot. So much blood has flown in this terrible struggle. And my lazy friend's only protest against all this was that he wouldnt watch Schwarzenegger movies. May his tribe increase.
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