Reply #118: Allow me to explain... we are playing a game in DU, in case you haven't noticed

[IndianaGreen]

Post something outrageous, and it will get re-posted elsewhere with beaucoup comments. Each "side" in I/P issue, and by "side" I mean DU faction, regurgitates the same arguments made here in other fora and chatrooms where they feel safe and comfortable. Call them echo chambers if you will. Everyone has a jolly good time denigrating the other side in these fora.

Every argument made regarding the I/P conflict has already been made in DU by people far more articulate than all of us put together. The vast majority of those posters are long gone by now, which is really unfortunate.

It is hard for people raised to believe that Israel is the fulfillment of some historical promise to see that country for what it is: a country not unlike others, with virtues and flaws. It is harder for them to see Palestinians as anything but as terrorists hell-bent on the destruction of Israel and its people.

For people advocating justice for Palestinians, it is hard to take off their rose colored glasses and see how the Palestinian situation has been exploited by ruthless and undemocratic people whose only aim is the destruction of Israel and its people.

For both sides, it is hard to see that the United States is complicit in the current situation. The US should either abandon this charade that is called the "peace process," and either come out publicly in support of Israel's permanent expansion of its borders and settlements (which really is the only role US has been playing all along by deed or omission), or get out of the way and let someone else play the role of peacemaker.

The US is NOT an honest broker for peace in the Middle East!