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Entry: Rethinking 1948 Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/rethinking_1948#27981 Post contents: Good stuff. A few years ago I tried to figure out who was right in the Israeli Palestinian struggle. I gave up. Trying to unearth the moral complexities of this issue is truly hopeless. How does one weigh on one side Deir Yessin, ethnic cleansing, settlements, and perceived mandate from God to the land and, on the other side, suicide bombings, Third World corruption, anti-Christian extremism, and long ties to the land? This is not to say individual acts have no moral dimension, wheter it's aerial bombing Lebanon, kidnapping and murdering soldiers, or suicide bombing civilians. The moral complexity does matter for this reason: it undermines America's uncritical support for Israel, which depends upon widespread American acceptance of the Israeli propaganda line completely. Most of Israeli's American supporters literally don't know about Deir Yassin, Kibya, Sabra and Shatilla. They even accept the ridiculous idea that millions of people left their homes in 1948 because of radio broadcasts by Arab armies. Even if I alternately identify with the pioneering Israelis and the Palestinians who want to restore their self-rule over the land where they and their parents were born, I conclude from this moral and practical complexity that it is foolish to take sides when no real American interest is at stake, and some are positively harmed by being as one-sidedly involved as we are. Sent at: 2008 11 20