Metaphysx.com

I just read this article at Haaretz, calling for Gibson’s head.

According to the article, ‘Abraham H. Foxman, the group’s [ADL's] national director, said, "It appears that the combination of liquor and arrest has revealed his true character.’ I agree. Alcohol (especially with a BAC of .12) doesn’t turn one into a hallucinating mad-man spouting insane lies. Rather, a BAC of .12 leads to poor judgement and removes one’s inhibitions to say/do what you really want to say/do. Alcohol is nature’s truth-serum. I bet most of you can recall a time (or two), when under the influence, you said something stupid… stupid not because it was a lie… but because it was too true, yet inappropriate.

On the other hand, there’s this Breitbart report which states, ‘This is not the first time Gibson has faced accusations of anti-Semitism. Gibson produced, directed and financed "The Passion of the Christ," which some Jewish leaders said cast Jews as the killers of Jesus.’

I think people (Jews and Gentiles alike) need to come to grips with the fact that Gibson was doing his best to reproduce on film the literal text of the New Testament. The Bible ‘casts Jews as the killers of Jesus’. Gibson didn’t make that up. As quoted here (ABC News), "You know, critics who have a problem with me don’t really have a problem with me and this film, they have a problem with the four Gospels."

The role of Christians is to hate the Jews for who they are and what they stand for, but to also respect the Jews for their utility… their role in bringing about the end of the world.

First, reminscent of the "Mohammed cartoons", some people have an issue with this cartoon depiction of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The article insinuates that this cartoon is anti-Semitic. Is it? It sucks that you can’t be critical of Olmert or Israel without immediately being declared ‘anti-Jew’. I don’t immediately associate Israel and Judaism as one and the same. Despite people throwing around the word "democracy", governments are distinctly separate from the people they govern. Anyway…

Today I ran across this Kurt Anderson article, Truly Inconvenient Truths. "Israel is a good and miraculous nation that deserves the support of civilized people, but the great unfortunate fact about its creation–being carved by the U.N. out of Arab land in 1947–cannot be ignored or wished away." He then quotes Richard Cohen and says, "’Israel itself is a mistake… an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable [but which] has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now.’"

And I guess that’s been at the root of my thinking: Israel’s mere existence is primarily the reason for the instability of the Middle East today. Whether they ever provoked anyone intentionally or not, the fact that Israel is what it is where it is… well… you’re seeing the results.

That being the case, the answer to the situation (a few seemingly rhetorical questions) that first comes to mind is "Why don’t the Israelis just move? Why don’t they go somewhere else and get out of there? Why do they stay where they’re surrounded by nations of people who want to eliminate them?" I admit that up until today I’ve been focusing on the negatives. I’ve been focusing on the current skirmish and the disproportionate Israeli response to kidnappings leading to the murder of hundreds of innocents in Lebanon and Gaza. I still think it’s sad, but maybe Condi Rice is on to something. This ‘war’ that started two weeks ago is really the culmination of something bigger… something that’s been growing for years… and if something isn’t done to nip it and change its course, it won’t stop.

Since Israel’s inception, the region has been at war. If they’re not physically fighting and killing one another, they’re verbally threatening it. And from what I’ve read (and why I’ve not being very critical of Hizballah), these kidnappings/prisoner-swaps have been going on for some time, and successfully. Hizballah had every reason to believe it would work again as it had so well in the past, and why you read that they are so shocked at Israel’s response.

What needs to happen is a paradigm shift on all sides. Israel needs to realize and concede (perhaps even admit publically) that the nation is of illegitimate origins and that they as a People have no stronger (and probably weaker) claims/ties to the land they’re on than the Palestinians they displaced. In fact, if not for Hitler, would there be an Israel today?

On the other side, though, the Moslem nations need to realize that Israel is here to stay, whether they like it or not. At this point, there is no going back. No one is going to erase them off the map, and threatening to do so just a silly notion.

And on the outside, those of us NOT directly part of the conflict, we need to stop picking sides and hold all of the Middle Eastern nations equally accountable for changing their culture and sustaining durable peace. At this point, Israel isn’t to blame, nor are the Islamic nations, nor are the militant groups (who, by the way, are also humanitarian groups building hospitals and schools… groups like Hamas and Hizballah). I think it’s simply that all nations have become accustomed to a singular way of dealing with each other, one that involves constant violence or threats of violence. That’s where the Region needs leadership and guidance. They need to see there is another, better way.

So, as for my recommended solution/approach… as I said, stop picking sides. Treat the entire Region (Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, the UAE, Kuwait… and Iraq) as a whole. Don’t destroy anyone’s sovereignty, but unnoffically consider them part of the new "Middle Eastern Union". When the U.N. issues a resolution, even if it’s the result of actions of one country, hold the entire Region responsible and implement sanctions equally to them all. Make Israel responsible for Lebanon’s inability to control Hizballah. Israel should be helping… and NOT unilaterally. Make Iran responsible when Israel commits human rights violations. Make all in the Region responsible if Iran starts to use their peaceful nuclear power technologies to build WMD’s. Force them to work together, else they all suffer the same consequences.

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What is Politics?"

Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way:

I am the head of the family, so call me The President. Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government. We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People. The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we will call him the Future.

Now think about that and see if it makes sense."

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said. Later that night,! he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper with ….

So the little boy goes to his parent’s room and finds his mother asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and see s his father in bed with the nanny.

He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy say’s to his father, "Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now."

The father says, "Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about."

The little boy replies, "The President is screwing the Working Class while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit."