Quote:
Originally posted by TheJimmy
Yes, it is this pretty much that simple...
The next time you spend months inside these "fanatics" homes speaking with them about life, politics, religion, etc....till all hours of the night, eating with them, drinking, etc.... Then we can sit down and talk about how they REALLY don't care about the Israeli issue....
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Well, I have had a some similar experience as you have had. Palestine as symbol is an incredibly powerful and unifying issue. Why do you think Osama Bin Laden started using it as a gripe after 9/11? He hardly mentioned Israel before that, though.
Arabs use Israel as a symbol to unify, fuel and justify hatred against America.
Let me provide an analogy. Let's take a racist white person who lives in abject poverty, is poorly educated and who faults all black people for their problems. They would say if it weren't for black people, then their lives would be so much better. They'd make more money. They'd be happier. blah...blah...blah... So if we got rid of black people would their lives be any better? Fuck no. They just look for a scapegoat. They need something/someone to blame for their shortcomings.
Same goes for the Middle East. Jews, Israel, the West, America are all easy targets for deflecting criticism from their own shortcomings. It's much easier to blame someone else than to take ownership of your own shortcomings.