Contra Christiansen & Aldajani, Part I | National Catholic Reporter

Contra Christiansen & Aldajani, Part I | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Two things on the 1993 deals and the Palestinian desire for their land - one that the do not even realize.  First, they did not trust the IDF and its leaders and it seems in the last 21 that they had good reason not two.  Second, its their land - and I don't mean from the days before the Balfour Declaration and the end of the Ottoman Empire - or even from the days when Islam came sweeping in on a white horse to attack weak Byzantium.  I am talking from the Roman Empire and the time of Jesus - as well as the time after Solomon and the first exile, the one of the Assyrian.  (and probably to the Caananites).  Romany historians are finding, based on the similar of ancient writings and religion, that the people know as the Romany and derisively as Gypsy, are the people now called the Samaritans, who were the first nation to accept Christ - both in Samaria and in India.  There is nothing to contravert either scenario.  I won't allow the history of my family's Christianity to be contraverted (we beat the Irish by 1000 years) and have never heard of an alternate Palestinian migration scenario - other than the story Moses (where we eat Lamb, as written, not brisket).



I suspect that if non-violence became the fashion among my Palestinian cousins, we would be massacred and the world press would say nothing, including MSW. There is a whole narrative, surviving from the Cold War and lingering Holocaust guilt (and we Romany lost all of ours to Hitler in the Parajmos - something it took forever to get Eli Wissel to accept, but he did, but I now know why) that drives the nation's Neoconservative handling of this issue.  Its what makes me laugh when MSW talks about Neo-con Catholics when he is their voice on Palestine. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.



The Lanza comparison is interesting.  No, there were no public celebrations about an autistic teenager blowing away his mother and a bunch of kids and teachers.  Indeed, there was great determination to use this as a way to move reasonable gun control.  Nothing happened, due almost entirely to the evil offices of the NRA and its gun industry major donors.  I am sure that the following December, at Christmas parties throughout the NRA network, there were indeed celebrations that nothing was done to curtail either gun rights or sales and bonuses were provided to all concerned.



Now for an alternative scenario.  Let's say the government falls due to the national debt and the world decides that the United Kingdom shall again take control of the colonies (plus gains from Manifest Destiny).  Thing is, this sticks in the craw of most Irish Americans (as someone whose Grandfather, while of Pilgrim stock, has several links to the Crown, most of us part-Brits would go along - I also have Jewish and Romany roots).  Instead of going after everyone, the Viceroy, under the direction of Parliament, goes after Irish Americans who dissent (no more First Amendment) and start blowing up people's houses.  Since MSW would likely dissent, how long until his house is rubble?   Consider the scenario if you want to understand what empathy means.



As to the video from Palestine, that was an example of radicalization.  The goal of any revolution is not to overthrow the oppressor as much as to change the minds and hearts of your own people.  You often do that by goading the government into action against you - i.e. find out why they blow up houses and do that.  The Palestinians are ancient - they are now Muslim, were among the first Christian, were Samaritan, Israelite, Caananite and whatever came first.  It too the Babylonian exile to get them to stop worshiping Baal (actually, all of the Jews too).  Like most people, they want to have a job, have a home, eat, maybe go to Mosque (if someone is watching), raising their kids.  Quite boring.  It takes a lot to get them out of their complacency and I am not sure they have to.



If the IDF did nothing for months or even years, Palestine would be a great group to become Israeli Arabs - or even Samaritans or a new and true arrangement called Samaritan Muslims (Romany are the even odder Samaritan Christians).  The hard thing is to get the Palestinian leadership and the   Zionists to agree on not just peace, but inclusion (that means the territories are not outside Israel and Palestinians can live anywhere and vote as if Jewish).  Problem is, the government is entirely against such a proposition - so their radicalization is the occasional Intefada, the video shown in the article and rockets of Gaza which only hit something by blind luck.  Don't blame this thing entirely on my people.  We don't have a demographic problem.